FEATURE: Spotlight: Lex Amor

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Lex Amor

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THERE are a few interviews…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Tyrus Hill

that I want to bring together in order to illustrate the talent, promise and personality of Lex Amor. Here is an artist that I have switched onto recently and really got invested in her music. Her latest single, Rocks, was released a few days back. It is another wonderful and compelling song from the Londoner. Her incredible debut album, Government Tropicana, was released in October last year. I would encourage people to check it out. The Floor reviewed the album. This is what they had to say:

“The stream-of-consciousness approach to her writing is what marks Lex Amor apart from other rappers. Remarks such as ‘it’s quarter century, fuck is happening?’ on the project opener give the listener an insight into the racing thoughts of an artist who still draws on the attachments to her youth for inspiration, yet can’t shake the feeling of time moving too fast. When she spits ‘Pythagoras ain’t copping Pradas, what the fuck is this?’ against the eerie synths that form the backdrop of P.Y.F, Amor channels a common feeling of disillusionment that continues to define generations of young people aspiring for more than they are given. But her message is not one of hopelessness or lacking. As she continues through the journey her train of thought takes her on, Amor makes it clear that, despite everything, she is in control, brazenly questioning on Odogwu Freestyle, ‘How can I fear what I can scatter?’ The confidence in her ability to master her environment emboldens her to the point where she can bestow a title such as ‘Odogwu’ (a title alluding to ‘greatness’ in the Nigerian Igbo language) upon herself freely.

Amor’s floetic rhyming ability had been apparent long before this record. Freestyles on platforms like Boiler Room and Rap in Paper have allowed her to flex her penwomanship and established her as an esteemed lyricist. On ‘Government Tropicana,’ we begin to witness the artist's versatility, delicately translated through a varied palette of beats and  subtle changes in delivery. Amor pairs her faint, praise-like vocals with dreamy keys on 100 Angels to create an ethereal sounding piece. Despite it being one of her only fully-sung tracks, it’s a side of the artist that doesn’t feel out of place with the sound she came up on. The woozy R&B cut Moesh emerges as a stand-out. A stellar Lo-Wu production, which feels like it was lifted from an old Timbaland hard drive, with its skippy drum pattern and rising synths, provides the perfect template for Amor to deliver her sparsely sung vocals. The tightly delivered guest verse from Dips is a big change of vibe, yet exists in synergy with Amor’s offering. Her holistic approach on this record allows her to shine on any type of beat; the jazzy Seinna-produced cut Bones sees the artist sit comfortably in the pockets created by the steady percussion. If Amor’s beat selection on this project is anything to go by, we can expect even more experimentation with her sound in the future.

‘Government Tropicana’ is a tidy introduction to Lex Amor, providing the artist with a solid foundation for new listeners to get to grips with her sound. Existing fans will find comfort in the familiarity of her free-flowing bars, but it is the variety in production of this project that will make the new listener sit up and take it in for the well-balanced effort that it is.

It feels polished, yet doesn’t stray too far from the raw, heartfelt raps that built her a cult following. As she continues to ‘gather up believers,’ the North London rapper can proceed with the knowledge that she has delivered a more than solid debut”.

It is worth seeing where Lex Amor came from and where her creative path started. Apologies if there is any repetition regarding facts and biography. Key Lime Blog spoke with Lex Amor earlier in the year. It seems the spark – regarding music and poetry – was lit when she attended university:

“Lex Amor’s introduction to music started in 2012 at university, surrounded by a creative community of poets and graphic designers, where the former Young Peoples’ Poet Laureate, Caleb Femi, signed her up for a collaborative event with the Gospel Choir. Until that point, Lex had run a blog where she wrote bits of poetry and anecdotes, none of which had been intended to be performed live, until her unpaid commission for UNITE, where she read a joint poem with her friend Ebony. In the midst of creatives of all disciplines and genres, Lex developed her passion for music as a listener, always receiving encouragement from those around her to take the leap into making music herself.

‘There was something about that moment early doors that I thought was special and just felt natural to me and natural to my spirit and after that I was just going to little poetry gigs and stuff like that, doing a couple poems here and there.’

In the summer of 2014, Lex and some creatives started the SXWKS Collective. The purpose of the project was to meet up every day, to talk, inspire, write, create and dream and by the end of it, put on a showcase of the work that was made. This was Lex’s first venture into music, blending her growing poetic voice with a new musical impetus.

‘The thing about music and rap is that it is so complex and when you want to enter a particular role you have to have enough respect for it to learn it, to study it and the transition from poetry to rap wasn’t seamless. Rap is its own distinct creative means of output, it’s not something you can just jump into… If I think back to my earlier bars, they were so cryptic and wordy and lofty and I feel like around 2016/17 was when I started coming into myself and started finding ways to express things with a natural cadence, very basic wording, and still be able to get a message across. [I started] to find the balance between being understood and being felt.’

The legacy of Lex’s poetry can be heard all over her writing; everything from the density in her lines, the repeated emphases on ‘100 Angels’ to the specific phrasings on ‘341 Freestyle’ is all indicative of an ear for poetics. There will always be a musicality in poetry but ‘rap’ as a form and a discipline in of itself presented a different challenge for Lex. It wasn’t enough to put words to music, there had to be a change in the writing process to make sure that the words had respect for the musical accompaniment or beat. It was in these early years, 2014-16, when Lex was an avid consumer of music listening to Ghostpoet and Hawk House, that she was inspired by the bourgeoning London sound, incorporating elements of jazz, traditional Hip Hop, grime and electronic music. In these years, Lex patiently worked on her craft, stopping occasionally when she came upon something good enough to release.

‘I started ‘rapping’ in 2014 but I didn’t release my first song until October 2016. After that song, I released maybe three or four more and I dropped the project and now we’re here. So, the road hasn’t been full of loads of drops and loads of musical output, the reality is along the road I’ve really been learning how to make music, learning how to make a song and then maybe catching one in between that process.’

This process of learning demanded patience, something which Lex admits she struggled with when she started out and something which still to this day is developing. Learning to make music wasn’t simply about understanding how to write a verse, how to write a hook, how to take care of your voice, how to mix, how to source your equipment. It was about what she had to prove and how to get closer and closer to her creative vision whilst understanding that the struggle to get better is simply part of the growing pains. Lex is too modest to say that she is an engineer but the years she spent producing for other artists, learning how to mix and developing her own unique musical voice have made her the complete artist. It is something she has always imparted to younger generations of artists: ‘learn how to mix!’ Even now, with a solid foundation of skill and success, Lex still feels she has so much more to achieve in getting proximity to her creative vision.

 ‘It’s like stumbling forwards, every single time you drop to the floor, when you get up you are further than you were when you dropped.’

And those years of strength and conditioning have paid off with Lex releasing her debut mixtape, Government Tropicana, to wide critical acclaim even in the middle of a pandemic. In her own words, ‘this project is a celebration of collective cultural norms and an exploration of my life to this point.’ There’s a tendency to look back on Government Tropicana with the vivid warmth of nostalgia and something which mirrors in Lex’s life. Speaking about some of the lessons she’s learnt over the past couple of years, Lex explains the importance of gratitude and self-love in a society that pressures us to justify our existence with output,

‘Unfortunately, we forget that to wake up, to exist, to breathe, to take in the world, to go outside, to take in the air, to contribute to the ecosystem of the world is enough, is valuable…’

Although the pandemic has caused worldwide mortality, financial strain and exacerbated issues around mental health, 2020 proved to be a highly successful year for Lex Amor with the North-London born artist releasing a project, performing on the Colors platform, gaining an international audience and expanding her creative community to include some of her musical idols. Today, Lex is rubbing shoulders with the likes of Ego Ella May, Kojey Radical, Ghostpoet, artists from similar communities she grew up in, who she has long admired. It is no secret that Lex’s two biggest musical loves have been Ego and Ghostpoet and having them as collaborators and friends has impacted her both musically and in a business sense. Now, when Lex needs advice she has a community of experienced artists who are graceful with their time to help her make the best moves. The power of the collective, the confidence that it brings has been invaluable. In some ways, Lex felt that the unyielding flurry of great opportunities and milestones stole the appreciation she had for the hard work it took to get to this point.

‘… it was a crazy year but what it did do is that it stole my gratitude because things were just happening and I was just floating through everything that was happening.’

The more Lex talks, the more she begins to disassociate, creating compartmentalised versions of her past and future self. This is how she maintains her gratitude, reminding herself of how far she has come as an artist,

Shedding the burden of aspiration is not short work and Lex Amor stands as an inspiration to up and coming artists trying to find their voice. She is herself a writer, producer, rapper, poet, she has hosted radio shows and has a platform where she brings together interdisciplinary artists. In the years she has patiently worked on her craft and built a supportive artistic community, Lex Amor has become one of the most exciting voices to emerge in recent times with a promising career on the horizon. In the many conversations over the past hour, Lex comments on the things that inspire her art. When the subject moves into philosophy she continues to press the importance of discovery, asking questions and never being satisfied with the answers before concluding ‘you can’t get everybody in the world to believe in one universal truth, I find that so fascinating.’ This tension drives her art, propelling her to find new solutions, new ideas but always remaining honest to herself. Looking ahead to the future, Lex is excited by the prospect of making new music about how much has changed in her life since she wrote the ‘foundational’ tracks for Government Tropicana. Lex Amor is ‘the truth’. Her music is part of a lineage of voice that crosses genre, widens the realm of experience and demands your undivided attention with every syllable. Lex Amor is resistance personified, free of bravado, finding strength in vulnerability. If her debut is anything to go by then I can’t wait to see the music ‘future Lex’ is making”.

Government Tropicana is an amazing debut! She has released (or appeared on) singles since. I wonder whether there will be another album next year - though that question sort of gets answered a bit later on. Right now, Lex Amor is turning heads and being talked about as a name to watch. I can agree with that! PAM sat down with Amor last year. She discusses her debut album, how it was recorded; what she especially loves about music, in addition to what the collaborative project Extra Soul Perception means to her:

“When Lex Amor performs, the rest stay quiet. The walls fall and suddenly, a certain vulnerability sets in. Somewhere between rap and poetry, the Londoner takes stock of her life by whispering introspective verses on the nine songs that make up her first album, Government Tropicana. “It’s a 100% DIY album,” she explains, surprisingly. “Most of the songs were recorded in my bedroom and produced by my friends. There was no kind of external help or assistance, it’s very homegrown, and I think it’s representative of this time.” Despite the rudimentary aspect of its genesis, Government Tropicana sounds like one of the best hip-hop albums of the year.

A member of the cast within the collaborative project Extra Soul Perception — which PAM got to know  here — Lex Amor considers this band of ephemeral artists as a “family, a community with collective reason and creativity.” ESP has left positive after-effects on the artist, freeing her from her chains: “ESP is an open plan,” she continues, “with these different voices and experiences, the music needed to be given space to be able to flourish, it was very impactful for me.”

Traveling from one home studio to another while writing lyrics on the road, Lex Amor is finally ready to deliver a slice of her musical journey and her current state of mind. Floating on the music thanks to her disarming  charisma, she has surrounded herself with talented friends and family on a few verses, and enhanced the flow with smooth production. “One thing I do love about music is the community, the family who supports me,” she says. “I mean, it was not even a case of choosing people, these are people I make music with, people I’m around. We were in the studio, we made songs and it happens that these songs are in this project, it was me and my friends, organic vibes and music. These are people I respect highly, friends first, but I am also a fan of their work, collectively and individually.”

Behind the sensitive UK garage vibe of “Moesh,” the poignant “Plant Your Feet” or the shiver-inducing, magnificent “100 Angels,” lies her life story, which she relates through an early generation of black workers that came to work in London. “The first thing that comes to my mind is the multiplicity of communities I was surrounded by while I was growing up,” she says. “That kind of exposure determined how I speak, how I think, and how I navigate my own journey. I feel very blessed that I grew up around many different cultures and it formed a lot of what I’ve become and is now exploding in this project.” Lex Amor surveils her own evolution in a cosmopolitan capital, far from her roots, which she sometimes honors by singing in Igbo, the language and dialect of eastern Nigeria. An absolute revelation, Government Tropicana is a 30-minute masterpiece that resounds with confidence, disarming the listener while pulling them in …”

I am going to finish off with a recent interview with The Face. They spoke with Amor about her work last week. We get word that, although the new single, Rocks, is separate from her debut album, there is more work on its way:

“It’s been a big year for rapper, DJ and producer Lex Amor. Her 2020 debut album, Government Tropicana, helped establish the North Londoner as one of the city’s most introspective and intelligent lyricists. Filled with levity, mellow, sometimes somber beats and home truths about working class life, she describes working on the project as a purge of sorts.

“It was like I’d given context to my lived experience and could reflect on who I am and what I do now – my struggles, vulnerabilities, relationships, all that kind of stuff,” she says. ​“Government Tropicana was a bit of a concept for me. I was almost trying to justify my birth to the ages of 15 to 20-years-old, the nostalgia of that, all the things about the city and my experiences that make me, me.”

On Thursday, Amor released her low-key new single, Rocks. Written off the back of Tropicana, and following the deeply moving, poetic sound Amor has established so far, the track is a soulful meditation on how to dream big, even when you’re constrained by the monotonous routine of daily life.

 “After the shit that was 2020, I felt like there was a really urgent need for us, myself in particular and the people around me, to find values and freedom outside of our current circumstances, to navigate life in a different way,” Amor continues. ​“This song was an attempt at reconciling that – renegotiating our personal safeties in ways we haven’t been challenged to before, when human beings sometimes unwillingly submit to rules without thinking about our dreams.”

In the accompanying music video, directed by Tyrus Hill, Amor sits in a confessional as she delivers sharp lyrics over an emotive instrumental: ​“Don’t put me in your list, it’s cool/​I was never the littest in school, I just/​I just knew I had a thing for them 110’s/I had them crep before a ting to prove, she raps in her characteristically soothing tone”.

While Rocks is a separate release from Amor’s upcoming album, rest assured that a fresh body of work is on its way. With hopes for an early 2022 release, she explains it’ll be a continuation of the musical and emotional themes explored so far: ​“The basic premise of it is for me to articulate the human experience that binds us all together, and to create some meaning in the music.”

In the meantime, hit replay on Rocks and get your 100% fill on Lex Amor below, from her knack for making pancakes to that one time a fan tried to gift her their cat – true story.

10% Where were you born, where were you raised and where are you now based?

I was born, raised and I’m currently based in North East London. That’s me, that’s my story. I’m a North London babe through and through.

20% What kind of emotions and experiences influence your work?

I feel like there are particular emotions that are at the core of every reaction, every behavioural change: love, rage, confusion. I try to explore all of these basic presets and find context as to why they come up when they do. My experience of being from London, first generation [British-Nigerian], working class, navigating the city with dreams and ideas, exploring what makes you want things. All this stuff I’m taking in both consciously and subconsciously, the people around me and the various paths we’ve all taken and why. I’m always trying to understand why I do what I do and unpick how I move now, as an adult, how I have conversations. I want to read into humanity. The more you live, the more perspective you have.

70% You rule the world for a day. What went down?

I would cancel all student loan debt, bring down house prices and make them cost about £5,000, every single house, maybe for a couple days. I’d make all food in the shops free, bring back the Night Tube and outlaw all forms of politics. Anarchy gets a bad rap – it’s not just lawlessness, it’s about devolving power and ensuring that communities have a way of determining how money is spent. It would be great to create micro-structures where community leaders are able to distribute funds more effectively, like a decentralised power structure”.

One of the capital’s most impressive young artists, I am looking forward to seeing what we get next from the incredible Lex Amor. Rocks is a song that is still in my head. I love her debut album and everything she has put out so far! Throw your support behind her music. As we end a rather tense and bleak year, we are lucky to have the likes of Lex Amor…

PRODUCING such great music.

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Sam Liddicott