Artist Highlight: Jim Legxacy

Jim Legxacy has captured numerous moments of virality, but he consistently remains undeterred by external noise; no matter how loud or quiet it gets. The Lewisham, England native has been around the block in virtually every way imaginable in his short life so far. He was evicted and had to couch surf for a stretch of time, his music itself refuses to stick to one genre, and his collaborations, both in front of and behind the mic, see no bounds.

Most listeners who just discovered Jim surely had his latest breakout single "father" as their main entry point into his music. If you look at his discography though, that track doesn't even have half of the streams of Legxacy's biggest song to date, "eye tell (!)," that came out in early 2023. Notably both of those successes came in the past 2 years, but Jim has been putting out what he himself calls both 'vulnerable and experimental' music since 2019. 

When you're listening to the work he has put out so far, it is a roller coaster ride of sounds and inspirations. Rap remains the dominant genre, but songs like "stick" traverse through pop, soul, and even gospel, whereas "aggressive" resides more in the R&B realm — and that only scratches the surface. This should strike nobody as a surprise though when you hear that Legxacy's inspirations include Kanye West (RIP), Jon Bellion, SZA, Bon Iver, and JPEGMAFIA, as well as Afrobeats artist Teni, which is a sound we hear woven throughout nearly all of his music.

If I was to stop there, Jim Legxacy's impact on the UK scene would already be considered notable. But what strikes me as the most impressive part of Jim's artistry is his love for collaboration. My favorite story about this side of him can help to summarize what I mean near perfectly: one day he was hanging out with Fred Again, in a session where they worked on the song "ten" that has amassed over 100 million streams to date, and later in that same day, Jim contributed vocals and production to possibly the biggest song to come out of the UK this decade, "Sprinter" with Dave and Central Cee. 

I also particularly appreciated how when he was on a live stream with Plaqueboymax, that even though he was streaming his music in front of tens of thousands of people, that he urged his friend and fellow producer to help him make the beat he was working on even better. All of this goes to show that Jim Legxacy is cut from an increasingly rare cloth, and I strongly feel that the energy he exudes through his work, will leave an indelible mark on the UK, as well as the whole music industry at large.