Joji: Heaven, London — Review
Of all the YouTubers that have made the transition into the music industry, Joji could easily be considered one of the most successful, pulling off the rebranding triumphantly. Now, after joining the primarily-Asian ranks of the record label 88rising, Joji has embarked upon his first solo European tour. Rachel caught him at one of his London dates, and here’s her review.
I knew that this gig wasn’t worth missing, despite having to catch two trains just to get to the venue. After all, Joji’s recent album, BALLADS 1, went straight to #1 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop chart in early October. I was perplexed at the lack of coverage this achievement received, especially compared to the hype surrounding Joji’s contemporaries — including artists such as Trippie Redd. OK, I take that back slightly. Soundcloud has been a solid promoting platform for multiple artists from different lo-fi sub-genres, not just the trap category and Joji’s own sub-genre — within which he is almost revered. However, he has collaborated multiple times with those such as Trippie, and is heavily influenced by the looped trap samples that litter a lot of Soundcloud artists’ music. Yet, his music has still failed to garner quite the same coverage; coverage that it deserves.
Linking his music to Soundcloud shouldn’t serve to say that Joji’s musical concept is generic, though, despite centring on the theme of — what else?— relationships. On the contrary, it’s more soulful, more introspective than the music of other contemporary hip hop artists. As hip hop is a genre that has been criticised for placing the blame for turbulent romance solely on women’s shoulders, it’s also refreshing to have an artist who at least takes responsibility for his own emotions (see Can’t Get Over You), and who also views women as independent, rather than mere objects of desire.
Of course, relationships and romance are not the only issues that Joji’s music addresses. Although the former themes are prevalent throughout both his EPs and album, he also creates tracks that are much less saturated by themes of love and heartbreak. One such example is ‘No Fun’, a track that revolves around lost friendships and boredom, and his releases have also showcased more depressive songs which focus on isolation and existential crises. In one of his lyric-breakdown videos with Genius — for the track ‘Yeah Right’ — he stated:
“The way that I see it is that this person is…is, uh…dancing or, like, at a location or something and then just like it’s all momentary…and it’s like time stops and it’s like just like I’ma fuck up my life [sic].”
The overall atmosphere of the night seemed far from depressive, though, with a queue of dedicated fans extending halfway up the street from where Heaven is located, before the doors were opened. Even though this was the first show that was scheduled at the venue, it was the second one to be announced there, following the relentless demand for tickets after the announcement of the first show.
Joji’s set was near-faultless, but the same could not be said for what came before. The promoters’ scheduling seemed poorly planned and executed, entailing a great deal of waiting around for the first support act — a DJ who mostly played trap music and didn’t even show up until 8:30pm (despite the doors opening at 7pm). Once Joji finally did appear onstage, the lighting was, at times, too hazy to allow for a good view of him. But perhaps this was a decision made to complement his lo-fi sound.
Occasionally, the hype-man accompanying Joji also felt a little unnecessary, as Joji was able to hype up the crowd himself, no doubt thanks to his cult status amongst fans (gained for both his previous and current work). His sharp, spontaneous wit, the kind that has marked all of his projects to date, also helped here — he even shared a brief anecdote about his time in London and seemed pretty pleased with the existence of English breakfast — “she was wild…damn” — and Big Ben.
The set featured a variety of tracks, ranging from earlier hits like ‘I Don’t Wanna Waste My Time’, to more recent ones such as ‘ATTENTION’ and ‘Demons’. And, even though his stage presence occasionally appeared amateurish, it reflected an easy-going personality and downplayed a hidden professionalism, especially where vocals were concerned — these were bordering on sounding like tenor at times, despite his vocal fry.
Unfortunately, the set lasted for a fleeting forty minutes. However, for the entire duration, the audience was enraptured — surely an impressive success for Joji’s first headline date in the UK. It was also heartening to see how much the audience’s reaction meant to him — he’s no doubt more accustomed to performing alongside other 88rising artists — and he appeared humbled by the support.
I’m anticipating as much of a positive response as he received in London to his upcoming dates in Europe, as well as the second London date which is scheduled for this Wednesday (12th of December). I wish him the best of luck for the rest of the tour.
If you want to catch Joji live, as he tours to promote his latest release, check out the link below for dates and tickets.
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