“Someday, I simply wakened and mentioned, ‘You’ve received to specific your self in no matter approach you need’,” JD Cliffe advised NME after we first met him in 2024. That sentiment has been his information for his uncompromising music since, together with the riotous ‘Buss Ur Head’ – one in all our Greatest Songs of 2024. With thrashing guitars and blaring drums, the north-west Londoner introduced rap and rock into the identical pit – and ‘Misfit’ is his mission to make that collision everlasting. After years on the perimeter of the underground, Cliffe kicks down the door along with his debut EP, melting collectively grime, punk, R&B and indie to create one thing that’s messy in one of the simplest ways.
‘Don’t Let Me Go’, the report’s centrepiece, is an excellent instance of Cliffe’s skill to straddle completely different worlds and concepts. His hazy and delicate vocals convey mild to what actually is a sonic crash-out stuffed with blasé quips and energetic instrumentals taking part in round this dreamy soundscape. There’s a tragic softness to it, too – he begs his lover to not “break my coronary heart” and “crush my ego,” grounding the observe in romantic vulnerability. However he doesn’t lose his chunk: he calls out the “fuck boys speaking on-line all day” who idolise Andrew Tate – a much-needed dig at fragile masculinity with out falling into it himself.
However Cliffe additionally flips the script on ‘Misfit’, proving he can captivate with out the commotion. ‘On My Thoughts’ is an ethereal, lofty addition the place he ditches his double-time movement whereas laying his coronary heart naked for 2 minutes and 22 seconds – a rarity in UK rap these days. ‘In Arms’, in the meantime, is rougher and extra ragged than a fully-formed observe, however his vocals floating over sparse, ghostly manufacturing nonetheless make for an attractive hear.
Elsewhere, there’s calculated chaos: distorted guitars clang round underneath jagged vocals, and Cliffe swerves between flows like a person possessed. ‘It’s Up’ is a Maths Time Pleasure-produced sizzler constructed to set your synapses on fireplace – with Cliffe speed-rapping in that skippy approach reserved for grime MCs. That is an indie-grime track: a re-emerging subgenre that Cliffe boasts he’s “the face of the motion” of. In the meantime, lead single ‘Mendacity To My Face’ is a uncooked and razor-edged pick-me-up for once you’re in a lull: “It’s OK / I’ll make it anyway” – a line that morphs right into a mantra by the point the observe fades out.
Out of all seven songs, there’s just one blunder: ‘Hills Have Eyes’ with DRAM, the one featured artist on the album. The Virginia singer and rapper’s hushed supply instantly dims the flame Cliffe lights, hindering the possibly anthemic tune for the outcasts. However Cliffe’s not off the hook. We’re up for a humorous line right here and there, however “Life is tough like BBL” and “Deal with it like contactless, I gotta faucet” really feel rudimentary in comparison with the lyrical ranges we all know he can attain.
Regardless, Cliffe forgets about becoming in on ‘Misfit’, refusing to be boxed into any scene, sound, or tendencies. This EP thrives in contradiction: slick and scrappy, delicate and aggressive, polished but defiantly unrefined. It’s not excellent – some tracks flicker out earlier than they catch fireplace – however that unpredictability is precisely what makes ‘Misfit’ such an electrical debut.
Particulars
- Launch Date: April 16, 2025
- Report label: APLCO
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