Jorja Smith is coming off a big year. In roughly 12 months, the 21-year-old released her debut studio album Lost & Found, was featured on the Grammy-winning Black Panther soundtrack, and just last week Smith took home The BRIT Award for British Female Solo Artist. The London-native is keeping the energy going into March.
Loose Ends ft @JorjaSmith. Tomorrow 8pm. pic.twitter.com/bEPzpXTsDm
— Loyle (@LoyleCarner) February 27, 2019
On Friday, Smith joined fellow UK artist and 2018 Brit nominee Loyle Carner on his new single “Loose Ends.” Carner’s smooth, introspective, London brand of backpack rap has made him a darling of the UK hip hop scene. His 2017 full-length debut Yesterday’s Gone earned him a Mercury Prize Album of the Year nomination. Since then, the 24-year-old has toured the world, starred in a Yves Saint Laurent campaign, and started a cooking school for children with ADHD.
Last year’s “Ottolenghi” was Carner’s creep back into releasing music, but with Smith along for the ride, “Loose Ends” is an emphatic return. The three-minute track is about dealing with the feeling of searching for support, but not finding it.
“So what I’m supposed to say to ’em? / Uh, when all this love’s out of range / Everything around me changed, I’m supposed to stay the same,” he raps forlornly. On the chorus, he and Smith’s voices intertwine, ‘Uh, I got a lot of love, a lot of loose ends / A lot of people that I wish I knew then.” It’s a reminder to not let the past hang on you like a weight, but to use it as a step to climb higher.
You can check the song out below.
