Three of the UK’s most influential and groundbreaking artists FKA twigs, Headie One and Fred again.. have come together on new single ‘Don’t Judge Me’.Originally featuring as an interlude on Headie and Fred’s GANG mixtape, ths expanded sequel is accompanied by a video from acclaimed director Emmanuel Adjei, renowned for his work with the likes of Beyonce, Madonna and Sevdalisa among others.
In keeping with the song itself, the ‘Don’t Judge Me’ video – supported by global fashion platform FARFETCH – is a powerful comment on the experience of being black and British in the world today. It features FKA twigs and Headie One alongside a cast that includes poet and Black Lives Matter activist Solomon O.b, writer Reni Eddo-Lodge, model and activist Kukua Williams, musician and poet Benjamin Zephaniah, dancer and singer Lisa Elde, mental health advocate Nicole Crentsil, fitness expert and trainer Efua Baker, footballer Mahlon Romeo, activist and model Munroe Bergdorf, model Danto Earth and broadcaster Clara Amfo. Although every individual’s experience is different, all share a struggle against an invisible oppressor – propagated by cultural, systemic and structural biases – that is often hard to see and even harder to overcome. In the video, FKA twigs is styled in all Black designers, available via FARFETCH.
‘Don’t Judge Me’ was premiered by London’s hugely influential No Signal, with twigs and Emmanuel Adjei guesting on the station during a one hour takeover.
Watch the ‘Don’t Judge Me’ video below:
Talking about the video, director Emmanuel Adjei says:
“THE INVISIBLE OPPRESSOR
From someone’s appearance, we are unable to judge whether a person discriminates over color, sex, religion, or gender. The oppressors within the people surrounding us, most often remain invisible until their abuse against others is revealed. This is one of the reasons why, for generations, discrimination is so hard to fight. Who must the victim fight against if it can’t identify the perpetrator?
In this audio-visual document we get to witness artists FKA Twigs and Headie One, amongst other Black British influentials, fighting against invisible forces of judgement and oppression. Having the enormous Victorian-inspired fountain ‘Fons Americanus’ by visual artist Kara Walker – depicting the historical, sorrowful story of slavery and colonization – as our setting, and particularly as the spirit of the film, this important monument creates another layer of depth and meaning to an invisible yet shared history.”
About FKA twigs:
Throughout her career, including three EPs (EP1, EP2 and M3LL155X), her Mercury Prize and Brit Award-nominated debut album LP1, and latest release MAGDALENE, FKA twigs has established herself as one of the most innovative artists, performers, producers, and directors of her generation. MAGDALENEwas named one of the best albums of 2019 by outlets including NPR, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Billboard, Complex, Crack, Loud & Quiet, PAPER, TIME, USA Today and Vice, among others, and received a GRAMMY Award nomination for “cellophane” as best music video. Pitchfork declared, “with limitlessly innovative songwriting and production, the cinema of twigs’ music has never been more affecting. MAGDALENE is not just on the vanguard of pop, it’s in a breathtaking class of its own.”
FKA twigs has taken a complete approach to every facet of her art and career, and has been honoured with a Webby Special Achievement Award for her “incredible contributions to digital culture and for constantly using the internet to create and distribute experimental art.” She’s directed and starred in campaigns for Nike, Google Glass, Calvin Klein and Apple, and made her big screen debut in Honey Boy. Most recently FKA twigs collaborated with Hiro Murai on her acclaimed “Sad Day” video.
About Headie One:
Headie One has cemented himself as one of Britain’s leading rappers and most formidable talents. Widely recognised as ‘The King of Drill’, Headie’s success has seen the grassroots subgenre rise from the underground to become one of the most applauded scenes in contemporary music.
Since arriving onto the scene in 2014, he has released a number of seminal projects; ‘Headz or Tails’, ‘Drillers & Trappers’ and last year’s ‘Music X Road’ which became the first Drill project to reach the Top 5 on the UK Albums Chart.
April 2020 saw the release of ‘GANG’. his collaborative project with Fred again.. The experimental project propelled Headie into spaces previously foreign for a drill artist, featuring collaborations with FKA twigs, Sampha, Brian Eno and Jamie xx.
His long-awaited official debut album ‘Edna’ was the culmination of a steady progression that has seen Headie One amass over 100 million global streams and release multiple 10 singles with ‘18Hunna’ with Dave, ‘Only You Freestyle’ featuring Drake and ‘Ain’t It Different’ with Stormzy and AJ Tracey.
Upon its release, the project was immediately critically acclaimed, receiving praise from The Independent, The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, CLASH, The Face and many more.
About Fred again..:
As an acclaimed solo artist and producer, Fred again.. has been behind some of the biggest crossover songs in recent years. In 2020, he released GANG, his collaborative artist project with Headie One. It was the culmination of months of collaboration in the studio between the two artists, who first struck up a close friendship in 2019. The sound of two worlds coming together, the project featured some of the UK’s most exciting and innovative artists including FKA twigs, Jamie xx, Sampha and Berwyn
Fred has firmly established himself as an artist, releasing a run of acclaimed solo tracks described as “Actual Life”; a signature sound that sees him building tracks around vocals uncovered from the unlikeliest of sources; from obscure YouTube clips to personal FaceTime conversations, random Instagram accounts and iPhone video footage of half-remembered nights out. Rather than creating songs about experiences, the music is actually made out of those experiences. The end results shift between dancefloor-inspired euphoria and yearning melancholy, with Mixmag exclaiming “It’s the search for authenticity that makes Fred again.. so exciting – and makes us reckon he could be the real deal.” and Pigeons and Planes adding ““Fred again.. is a British artist taking a unique approach to his mesmerizing dance tracks”
Straddling the underground and mainstream with ease, the London-based, BRIT Award winning producer also recently added his production skills to tracks as diverse as Stormzy, Ed Sheeran and Burna Boys number one hit “Own It”, Headie One, AJ Tracey and Stormzy’s “Aint It Different” and “Lifetime” the acclaimed debut solo single from The xx’s Romy.
About Emmanuel Adjei:
Emmanuel Adjei is a Ghanaian-Dutch filmmaker and visual artist, whose work has explored the realms between film, music video, and art installation. With a primary interest in storytelling, Adjei’s work interrogates concepts of power, freedom, displacement, and inequality, told through his multi-layered dramatic narratives. Creating atmospheric worlds in both a painterly and cinematic style, Adjei always seeks to challenge the boundaries between fiction and reality. Adjei’s work has been screened at Academy and Bafta qualifying festivals around the world and 2020 saw the announcement of Emmanuel’s contribution as a creative collaborator, film director, and visual effects director to Beyoncé’s visual album Black Is King, which had its successful premiere on Disney Plus, receiving widespread critical acclaim.
Adjei’s career has been marked by collaborations with a variety of recording artists such as Madonna, Beyoncé, Mark Pritchard, and Mykki Blanco. His short film The Formula (2016) and music video Human (2016) for Sevdaliza, has been hailed by critics, and his most prominent mind-bending short film Shahmaran (2018) received numerous awards and nominations at the UK Music Video Awards, D&AD, Young Director Award, Camerimage, Kinsale Shark Awards, Epica Awards, Shots Awards, Creative Circle Awards, Ciclope Awards, and Le Club des Directeurs Artistiques. In line with the success of his prior work, his distinct visuals for Madonna’s Dark Ballet (2019), and Batuka (2019), has been praised by the likes of The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Dazed, NME, and Billboard.
Adjei holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Utrecht School of the Arts (NL) and went further to study Film at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (BE).
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