At some point years after folks like Q-Tip, Pharrell, and André 3000 first embodied it, the term “genre-blending” became the most annoyingly vapid descriptor in my inbox. Gradually, a compound adjective that had once been reserved for people like Lauryn Hill or Kanye became lifeless boilerplate copy for any shitty artist who listened to Nirvana once and decided they were “more than just a rapper.” For every Doja Cat or Trippie Redd, there’s 10 or 11 who are a few flops away from becoming either an IG model or a morally ambiguous streamer. The thing is, “blending” suggests control, and you can’t control something you never really grasped in the first place. But sounds are a lot easier to corral when you create them yourself. As his own primary producer, Jim Legxacy flaunts the deft, improvisational control of Jérémy Doku. The producer-rapper swirled disparate sonic elements for his breakout 2023 album, homeless nigga pop music, and he makes the mix even more seamless — and more expansive — black british music, a mixtape that oscillates between textures and feelings with an impressive dexterity that defines the best artists.
