Jim Legxacy: The New David Bowie

Spring 2022: I was in the depths of lockdown only trying to find the most niche music I could listen to, consuming as much music as possible. At that point in time, the only way I did this was to go to a dark and scary place: X (RIP Twitter). Scrolling through, I see a title and corresponding album cover that catches my eye: homeless n**** pop music (HNPM). The project bursts at the seams with raw emotion, an underdog story of Jim making something out of nothing. Yet this only scratches the surface when it comes to the actual music. I was surprised to encounter Miley Cyrus samples, sonic inspirations from UK hip-hop, and a watermark for a Nigerian mp3 website to name a few. It was the ultimate blend of afrobeats, emo, pop, alternative rock, rap, and more and yet it never settled on a singular genre. With inspirations ranging from Paramore and Bon Iver to Daniel Bedingfield and Kanye West every song sounded different sonically, yet they were all clearly connected. From the catchy block hug to the especially vulnerable eye tell (!), the realities of struggle are evident; struggle to stay afloat, struggle with his past, and, mostly, his struggle for identity. At the same time, there’s this youthful explosiveness about it that stuck with me through the years. From then on, I knew Jim Legxacy was a name to watch. With his newest mixtape black british music (2025), he continues to prove me right.

Born in Lewisham, England in a Nigerian household, Jim grew up in one of the more crime-riddled areas in the country. This can be heard through his music with songs like “block hug” and “eye tell (!)” off of HNPM feeling like a memory from Jim’s childhood biking around his southeast London neighborhood, clearing his head as deals with the struggle between fragility and masculinity. Growing up, it’s clear that much of the music introduced to him by his family made its way into his own creations, with the likes of Michael Jackson and Bob Marley grabbing his emotions by the reins. His interest in creating music sparked when he was 17 or 18 where he began to drop singles. At this point, he was clearly wearing his inspirations on his sleeve, rapping with the storytelling and aggression similar to a J-Cole or Denzel Curry at the time. At the same time, though, his melodic tendencies were slowly peaking through the curtains, with hints of alt-pop and indie rock in his 2021 EP, Citadel. It wasn’t until that same year that he really started to gain traction when a teaser for his song “eye tell (!)” went viral on Tik Tok. The song’s unique use of guitar, high-pitched Iver-esque vocals, and knocking electronic beat, reminiscent of the UK Garage scene, made the song a groovy reflection about having to keep a tough facade while searching for true love.

This kind of vulnerability only continued and it reached new levels when he started incorporating midwest-emo-esque instrumentation on songs like “old place” and “call ur dad.” Even with his rise in popularity, there was only one obstacle: he was homeless. This made releasing music at opportune times almost impossible, causing him to slightly lose hype by the time the release of HNPM came. In his interview with Kids Take Over, he speaks on the effect that hard work has made on his journey from that point onwards. He talks about how music helped him gain traction, how he got music videos paid for, how he eventually found himself back in a home of his own. After the success of his 2022 mixtape, he continued to rise in the ranks of notable UK musicians and collaborators, getting noticed by rappers like Dave and Skepta as well as producers like Fred Again. This led to the biggest collaboration of his career to date: producing the 2023 cut “Sprinter” for Central Cee and Dave. With the song’s 10-week run at number 1 in the UK and the half a billion streams gained in the year it was released, Jim’s access to opportunities and reach only skyrocketed. It was soon after this, though, that disaster struck—and more than once at that.

Clicking on the first track of black british music (2025), you’ll find exactly what its name describes: context. He delves into intimate details about the past couple years of his life, ranging from his mom having 2 strokes, his brother having psychosis, his biggest song being taken down from streaming platforms, and the death of his sister. In the song, he continues to say “I don’t remember doin’ that much…But when it caught up to me, it caught up to me and I wanted to show what it felt like when it caught up to me.” These events provide the necessary knowledge required to understand the necessity for Jim creating this mixtape. This tape is an exploration of that grief, of the distractions, as well as the reflections during the healing process. Its amalgamation of emotion and healing reminds me how important the tape is to me and to the UK music scene as a whole.

Taking a step back on the production side of things, we can find gritty, moving ballads about processing, internal pressures, and survival in ‘“06 wayne rooney,” a Paramore-esque emo cut with bounding power chords and an anthemic chorus saying “How’d I get here?” Over soft guitars and possibly the most intimate vocals on the mixtape, “issues of trust” details his inability to speak about his sister’s death. This is then contrasted with the viral jerk banger that is “father,” where Jim raps about his father’s absence over a beat made by the UK underground’s own YT, one of Jim’s peers who made a name for himself through his OI! mixtape earlier this year. The contrast between acknowledgement of his struggles and his distractions continue on tracks like “new david bowie” sampling Jon Bellion where he raps about his haters just “making noise” with an impressive breakdown of the instrumental towards the end. On “sun,” fellow UK rapper Fimiguerrero and him unite to speak on indulgence and partying as attempts to fill emotional voids. sos sees Jim singing about a lost love, trying to reach out to her, but, at the same time wanting her to be happy. This track features some of his more impressive singing and a bouncy, jubilant, and danceable instrumental with a great melody and layered vocals during the chorus. As the mixtape comes to a close, Jim begins to mellow out and reflect on songs like “dexters phone call” featuring wonderful, soothing vocals from dexter in the newsagent, as well as “tiger driver ‘91” and “brief” to close out the tape. The sounds are a lot more acoustic, isolated, and intimate. These tracks show signs of realization and enlightenment, with mentions of being unable to hide from the scars and pain of the past, repentance, and the repetition of his dad’s mistakes. “brief” ends the mixtape on a melancholy note, as it reads like a letter to his late sister, singing about “My brother’s mistakes I’m repeatin’, repeatin’” and “The loss of your life I’ve been grievin’, I wish I could ask how you been keepin’.” This track is the ultimate release of grief, longing, and pressure to keep going while the world is crumbling before you. The moment the instrumental fully sets in towards the beginning of the song feels like a weight off your shoulders as it expands around Jim’s voice.

As the mixtape closes, it’s clear that Jim is still on his journey of grappling with grief, yet he’s done hiding from it completely. He is ready to accept all of himself and his feelings. After years and years of posting snippets on social media and slowly gaining traction while going through incredible hardships, the hard work paid off over the summer: black british music has become his most critically acclaimed and successful to date. Jim’s vulnerability, experimental production, and incredibly resounding vocals make him a serious name to look to in the future. It’s clear he is a man of many talents: he is the new David Bowie after all.