The most distinctive quality of Jordan Adetunji’s music is how eclectic it sounds: it’s a melting pot that blends the jerky rhythms of club Rap with elements of Rock, R&B, Jersey Club and Afropop, creating addictive bitesize records that are inventive and strikingly dynamic. His growing discography, which currently includes a handful of singles and a debut mixtape, houses seductive and melodic rap songs that owe much of their influence to Cash Cobain’s raunchy interpretation of Drill music. The animated records erupt with the frenzy of hardcore Punk as well as other colourful and vibrant sounds that could easily soundtrack an anime fight scene. This comprehensive approach to making music that adopts influences from an array of established and obscure styles was inspired by the video game soundtracks Adetunji heard as a kid. 

“Growing up, I played a lot of games like Need For Speed, Fight Night, Tekken, and a bunch of role-playing games, and I heard a lot of music in these games that inspired me to start making my own music as I grew older,” he tells me during a Google Meet conversation one afternoon in late November.

Adetunji’s clear aspiration to stretch his music out across genres and play with form is what birthed 2023’s ‘ROCK ‘N’ RAVE,’ his official debut project that manages to neatly encapsulate much of what he is about. Tender opener “INAUGURAL EPISODE,” is a slow, heartfelt confessional that’s buoyed by elegant violin strings and serves as a soft introduction into his eclectic and distorted world before listeners are immediately jolted to live with the insistent and booming bounce on “DECAY.”. This arbitrary style also birthed “Kehlani,” his inescapable breakout single which took off worldwide and peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The single also recently earned him a 2025 Grammy nomination for Best Melodic Rap Performance where he is up against heavyweights like Beyonce and Future, highlighting just how far he’s come in a short amount of time. 

Long before the 25-year-old became a Grammy-nominated act, he was just an inquisitive teenager with a knack for tinkering with different sounds and melodies. Born in London, Adetunji lived in one of the city’s largest commercial areas for about 10 years before relocating to Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, with his mum and siblings. Even though he had been fascinated by the idea of making music as a kid living in London, it wasn’t until he got to Belfast that he began to cut his teeth as a budding musician. There, he picked up music classes in high school, specifically learning how to play the trumpet. 

“From there on, I started trying to record my own music on my mum’s laptop. After a while, I got my own small computer, a cheap interface and then I started recording songs and putting them online,” he tells me of his early journey. 

After posting a bunch of spirited rap videos on Facebook, Adetunji put out his first official single in 2020 titled “Close 2 You.” The Dancehall-inspired single was followed by the frenetic, Rock-influenced “Wokeup!” just months after, quickly briefing early listeners that he wasn’t one to boxed in. British singer and songwriter Oli Sykes, who is most famous for being the frontman of the Rock band Bring Me the Horizon, happened to be one of Adetunji’s early admirers and he was intrigued by the then-upcoming singer’s Alt-Rock and Rap experimentation. He reached out to Adetunji and subsequently got him a deal with RCA Records. 

Even after signing with RCA, Adetunji continued to record music in his bedroom, just like he did as a kid, tinkering and incorporating even more disparate elements to his already expansive sound. It was during one of these recording sessions that the framework of what would eventually morph into “Kehlani” was created.

“I had always wanted to write a song about someone who embodies a certain powerfulness and someone who is strong and stands for what they believe in. So I just ended up putting Kehlani’s name in when I was making the song,” he tells me, speaking of the inspiration behind the song. 

“My brother was there with me while I was making “Kehlani” and I remember debating if I should keep the name in or take it out because I didn’t know what the reaction would be,” he continues. Unsure of how people would take to the song, Adetunji posted a snippet of the song on TikTok and to his surprise, it immediately took on a life of its own. This encouraged him to complete the song which he released shortly after and the rest is history. 

Following the success of “Kehlani,” Adetunji shows no signs of taking his foot off the gas. He secured a highly anticipated remix with the alluring and self-assured inspiration of his Grammy-nominated single before closing out 2024 with the saccharine, Lil Baby-assisted “Options” which is cut from the same cloth as his breakout record. Speaking of how the collaboration came about, he explains that the Atlanta rapper was one of the first people to reach out to him after he released “Kehlani.” 

“He showed me mad love. I finally met him in London and he said he would like to work with me. I sent him two songs that I had recorded and he dropped a verse on one of them,” he explains.

Looking to further acquaint his newfound audience with his eclectic soundscape and to cement his status as one of the most inventive new acts on the scene, the Grammy nominee recently announced the imminent arrival of his latest mixtape titled ‘A Jaguar’s Dream.’ 

“A Jaguar, to me, is someone who moves through spaces and conquers every space it enters. This is how I feel with my sound constantly evolving and conquering every space I enter into,” he explained in an official press release. “A Jaguar’s Dream is an entry into my love life and my world of thoughts through sound and emotion. A real manifestation of my dreams I wish to make reality.”