'It's My City' ft. Ricky Blaze/'Just Say Yes' ft. Darren B - Jelluzz (single review)

Jelluzz is back with more of his sugary urban pop this time roping in NYC's Ricky Blaze for chorus duties on 'It's My City' and Darren B for 'Just Say Yes'.

Strictly made for fans of anyone like Chipmunk (i.e. Grime artists from London who are now on Radio 1, T4 etc) these two tracks are synthy, upbeat and about inane stuff like partying with champagne and getting girls into double beds.

Jelluzz is about as Americanised as someone who still has a North London accent (and a pretty likeable flow) can be and there are plenty of teenagers who ride buses whilst playing music through tinny phone speaks who would love to bump this in a similar way.

'It's My City' is out on 3oth November on Big Deal Management.

Artist Profile: Jelluzz

Name: Jelluzz

Age: 23

From: Tottenham

Current project: 'Capital Letterz' (the mixtape) and 'Die Never, Live Forever' (the album)

Current single: 'Hold On'

Tell us the story behind the track: I was getting tired of the politics in the music industry and personally I was going through some setbacks at the time, and it just made me want to give up music, until I bought a scratchcard for a laugh and won £2000! That gave me the motivation to write Hold On, where even though we all go through our drama, you just gotta stick at it and get through it. It's something I definitely see alot of people identifying with.

Record label: In a partnership with Big Deal Management.

Who you roll with: Solo but associated with Sincere and Young Entrepreneur Records.

Favourite album: Kanye West - 'The Graduation'

Describe your style in three words: Futuristic, Artistic, Mainstream

'Hold On' - Jelluzz (single review)

Despite having a creased jumper on the cover Jelluzz is pretty smart musically. He and his producer have scooped up all the latest trends in the urban music scene and expertly pieced them together to create ‘Hold On’.

Double-time flows, screwed and auto-tuned vocals, flow fashion-esque adlibs and Timbaland-ish synthy production meld together to create ‘a fresh slice of urbtronica’, apparently. Whilst not my usual cup of tea, my reckoning is that Jelluzz would appeal to a fair few people out there, especially the ladies and the radio listeners. This track would also sound pretty awesome in a club environment and could probably stand up to a lot of the R’n’B tracks out there at the moment.

It’s the overall sound of this song that makes it what it is; the lyrics are not so much of an integral part of it. They’re kinda sung and definitely on a positive, head up high tip but the theme barely matters, they contribute to the finished product well.

To be honest, it’s the beat that makes this track and that’s fine. Jelluzz has an ear for what’s marketable and that’s a big skill to have; this track aint half bad.

‘Hold On’ is released on 22nd December on Big Deal. Visit Jelluzz on myspace by adding /jelluzzmusic to the usual url.