Jehst carves open 2024 and reiterates he’s nobody equal by announcing ‘Here I Am’. Boarding the measured piston pump of Apollo’s production dipped in a bleak greyscale, the UK hip-hop legend effortlessly exercises his superiority while fighting the drag of modern life and the downward-looking, post-glam construction of his fellow Champion of Nature.

Referencing Ace Rimmer, Biggie, Grand Puba and Shaquille O’Neal, and diced with raw cuts, Jehst flexes - “this is strictly top shelf, better raise the bracket” - confounds - “what ya doing down the deep end when you don’t swim?” - and provides slow-burning release and relief for the new year.

Championed far and wide throughout 2023, Jehst's ‘Mork Calling Orson’ LP received praise from Brooklyn Vegan, Okayplayer (“a seamless body of work”), Bandcamp, Clash (“Jehst’s voice feels three-dimensional”), PopMatters (“another jewel in the venerable MC’s crown”) and The Wire (“a series of hazy transmissions from a strange, alien world”). Radio coverage crossing from Radio X to Kiss FM, the album’s crowning glory, ‘One Horse Town’ featuring Eva Lazarus and Confucius MC, featured on the BBC 6 Music playlist for four weeks. Jehst also curated 6 Music’s post-midnight ‘Lose Yourself’ mix, and featured on Radio 2’s For The Love Of Hip-Hop show, whose host Romesh Ranganathan described Jehst as “a living legend - maybe the most influential name in UK hip-hop”.

Jehst heads back across the UK on tour with seven headline dates beginning at London’s Jazz Café.

Tour dates

28th Feb – Jazz Café, London

29th Feb – Patterns, Brighton

1st Mar – Quarterhouse, Folkestone

8th Mar – 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool

9th Mar – Headrow House, Leeds

10th Mar – Band on the Wall, Manchester

14th Mar – The Louisiana, Bristol