Track By Track: JGrrey - you, me & jen
Some debut albums arrive with a bang. JGrrey’s has taken the long way round. After years of building a following through intimate live sessions, a COLORS performance that made vulnerability feel cinematic, and a debut mixtape that passed 60 million streams, the South London singer-songwriter has finally released her first full-length record, ‘you me & jen’.
It’s her most open work yet. Across 13 tracks, JGrrey moves between neo-soul, R&B and hip-hop, picking at identity, family, belonging and self-reliance, and making room for the contradictions that come with knowing yourself. Lead single 'deh pon’ reaches back to her Jamaican heritage, while M Huncho, Erick The Architect, Kofi Stone and Bel Cobain lend their voices along the way.
Underneath it all, the album is about connection: being seen at your messiest, spotting yourself in someone else’s story, and accepting that none of us exist in isolation.
To mark the release, JGrrey talks us through the record, one track at a time.
1. fun drrugs
"'fun drrugs' is essentially about lying to yourself. It opens with “Never been better in my life, that's not true how easy I lie, I miss my mum just like you do”. It’s dreamy sound belies a nonsensical rant about feeling quite manic, as contradictions between hopes and truths come through: “and I want to be proud of mine, the things I've done and howI live my life. I need peace just like you do, ain't too fun feeling blue”. It’s about feeling so many different things and not having to make sense of them, being on one of those days where you’re telling yourself you’ve “never been better!”, that you’re clean and winning, when the truth is you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself. The track is produced by Maths Time Joy."
2. pedigrree
"'pedigrree' is a rejection of the hierarchies that society creates based on lineage. In the UK especially, the class system is something that everyone internalises up and down the spectrum and it still runs things in every corner. When you don’t have a connection to your heritage or even know both of your parents then you make people uncomfortable because your pedigree is out for the count and they don’t know how to box you. “You can’t tame me, you can't train me what is this? Runt of the litter now and I am an alpha bitch.” pedigree speaks to being sick and tired of not being enough for people. Whether it’s feeling not white enough, not black enough or not Irish enough, or being guided out of a space because I’m not “respectable” enough, the track pushes back. The track is produced by Fred Cox."
3. take my hand
"'take my hand' plays with the ear. It has a nostalgic feel, with jazz and soul at its core but it gently experiments and distorts in a way that hopefully makes it addictive to listen to. It’s really about being jealous of other people, opening with “tell me about life on the upper class side did you go to a nice school with a nice car ride”. It’s about scrolling on Instagram as someone who has struggled with feeling secure in their life and seeing people who have been born with it all. Bel Cobain lends her voice to it and it’s still a bright song, about wanting to be humoured and told about what life is like on the other side, even if it hurts a bit. It’s about reaching out and connecting with other people. The track is produced by Harry Jowett and Harry Beach."
4. believe
"'believe' is a vulnerable one. After fighting for so long, creating different versions of Jen to fill different spaces and places, Believe is about wanting to surrender to something higher than me. It’s about the world burning and things being difficult and praying that there is something beyond me that I can throw everything up to. A divine power that sees good in people and to know that everything isn’t all in my hands. When I was younger I had Jack, an imaginary Jack Russell that would follow me around. I spoke to my dead grandad about how my dad was annoying me. These were interactions that I had in my mind. Believe is from the perspective of my fantastical imagination talking to any one of those, or the universe or the moon but wanting a real world change due to my belief. I struggle with the rules and restrictions of conventional religion but I’m a faithful person who agrees with most devout people’s views that we shouldn’t be cunts, we should do our best and think of others. It’s about faith in “other”. The track is produced by Humble The Great."
5. I am rrunt
"I am rrunt' is about feeling like I couldn’t be alone. “Father will I lead again?” has kind of got the religious thing going on. As a Muslim, the track feature artist M Huncho wasn’t sure about saying “Father”, but it’s not necessarily about God. It’s also a plea for some fatherly advice from a parent who isn’t there.“ Good litter I am runt” links back to the Pedigree themes, about feeling like a good person in your blood and DNA but still being by yourself without the normal strong ties of sibling relationships. “How will I leave him” echoes feelings of when I struggled with an ex who did a really good job at convincing me that I really needed him. “Will I be able to stand on my own two feet again?” - it all comes back to desperately wanting to be able to do things by myself and not thinking that I could and asking the universe, a higher power or anyone who is listening if that’s possible. The track is produced by long term collaborator Kadiata.
6. black & white
"The middle between black and white is grey. My name is JGrrey. I am black and I am white, somewhere in the middle. These days it feels like the middle ground is squashed out and there’s no room for the nuance that comes with it. In politics or society generally everything is so extreme, people have to be so tribal and never cross lines or ask questions. But sometimes the grey area is enough, and we don’t have to fall into a camp. It sort of links to high highs, low lows and just finding somewhere in between that might be a bit uncomfortable, but discomfort is not a bad thing. Sometimes that’s what growth feels like, or how necessary conversations are going to be. Avoiding discomfort forever isn’t a good thing, it sounds like privilege to me. The track is produced by Harry Jowett and Owen Cutts."
7. septemberr daze pt.2
"In 2016, SoundCloud Jen released a song called 'September Days' which is pretty much exactly what you hear here. I decided to re-record and re-release this because there's some OG JGrrey fans who still fuck with me and I wanted to bring a piece of that through onto this album. It’s an easy breezy silly track. September is a nostalgic time of year itself, back to school, here we go again, so it feels good to have it alongside the newer iterations of Jen. The track is produced by Maths Time Joy."
8. rrun a muk
"'rrun a muk' was a freestyle initially that I worked on with my partner Harve, who produced that track. “And if your mother was here what would she do” is just about having awareness about having eyes on you. I wrote this when I felt very close to who I am and it’s got the freedom of a freestyle that wanders into asking people why they lie on the internet, thinking about my truth and just wanting people to in their own realness.I talk a lot about mothers and fathers in my music for obvious reasons, but also I like that they have different meanings in different spaces, like mother Earth, or in the queer community calling someone Mother is a sign of respect. I am my mother, I'm the person taking care of me and checking it on myself and stuff. “I would like I would quite like to run a muk in this ,cuss you out and shit just for hell of it” - just having a little fun on that track saying whatever came into my head, so I feel like it’s also open to interpretation. The track is produced by Harve and Math Times Joy.
9. deh pon
"'deh pon' is just a fucking greazy riddim about being sick of waiting for people and being okay on my own. I waited for my ex to understand me or to want to get clean with me or for people to see me as I am. It’s got a Jamaican flavour to it, the flow and language and energy is infused with island influence. Weh Deh Pon is just like what are you on? Wagwan, what's happening now? Where we going? What's the plan? It’s meant to uplift people into not waiting for external validation and approval. I've put a lot of energy or projected a lot of myself into people or situations when I could have just done it by myself. The track is produced by Aaron Baker."
10. bedbug
"I find in music I'm or in my day-to-day life I'm always trying to humble myself, check myself and not get too boastful. When I heard the beat for this it just made me want to chat shit. “You're not fly your bed bug so good night”, like all of that humble shit that I've been preaching… it’s now more like – “fuck that I'm the shit, you ain't shit, you never gonna be shit, I'm the best I rule the fucking world noone’s ever done it like this”. As much as I think about the Grrey, I feel like I can go from extremes. Sometimes I put on an outfit and be like “nobody has ever boots the house down the way mother’s bootsing the house down”. That’s definitely one of the Jens. In this one track I allow myself to be ballsy and confident but it’s all a bit tongue in cheek and I don’t take myself too serious. The juxtaposition of calling people bed bugs and then reigning it in “nah I’m just kidding” like that stunting energy can be fun but I’m not looking to get into too much trouble. I do think it’s important to have all those different sides, to not sacrifice, martyr or apologise for yourself too much, but also not get lost with a God-complex. The track is produced by Maths Time Joy."
11. vile style
"'vile style' was inspired off a message my friend sent me when we were all going to stay in cabin in the woods. She must have said “We'll get some good wine and cheese” and I was thinking “Me and my bitches live like young Kings nice things, good bread cheese wine and kissed rings”. It’s a shame but there is still a sense that men rule the world so this is a shout out to women and divine feminine beings in my life completely undoing that and rewriting things in their own way and being able to change the world for the better due to the fact that they are a woman or you know they are trans woman or non-binary feminine person. Femininity or softness can be looked down upon as a weakness when actually it can be uplifting. It’s basically about the gays and the girls being grreat. The track is produced by Aaron Baker.
12. stomach turns
"'stomach turrns' was about being adopted, and thinking at the time that the biggest worry I had was not having any parents and then now being at my big age and realizing that actually there’s much bigger issues. Having parents isn’t the be all and end all, I think having integrity and understanding of nuance is much more important to me, especially on a global level. The track is produced by Owen Cutts"
13. yes please
"'yes please' is a love song to cocaine really. It starts off in the way you’d speak to someone about introducing them to people in your life. “I know you could love all of me I'd wait through autumn for summer green and you’d like my friends and my family”. Then obviously when I’ve been seduced by the fantasy it starts to unravel to the point where my heart's being fast and I've been there three days, I'm saying I'll send some money when I get paid because obviously all of this coke has been on tick, but that’s what a relationship with narcotics looks like. The track is produced by Cole YoursTruely."
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