Artist: Kwes E

Album: fingers crossed

Release Date: October 17, 2025

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Background:

Kwes E is a Ghanaian British rapper and singer who began releasing music in 2019. He is a frequent collaborator with Jerk rapper YT as well as rapper-producer kare. He is also affiliated with Jim Legxacy though they are yet to release a song together (snippets of collaborations between the two have been shared on Twitter). Kwes could also be compared to Legxacy (and particularly UK rapper Len) due to his propensity for combining the tempo and drum patterns of Jerk music with both West African and Caribbean percussion and rhythms.

Kwes was primarily known for his collaborations with YT until the lead single for fingers crossed, juggin, was released on October 6th, 2024 and achieved some viral success. Although fingers crossed is not Kwes’ debut album, the title reflects that this project is his big swing towards becoming a major artist and that its reception from listeners is somewhat critical.

Review:

“Song of the Summer”: a commonly (albeit arbitrarily) touted metric by journalists and pop charts alike. That said, with listening habits continually fragmented by the infinite realities of fame in the streaming market, it has been a (tiringly) repeated sentiment as of late that the concept of a “Song of the Summer” is dead. But why must such a claim be held hostage by a flagging monoculture?

When I heard Kwes E’s fela kuti, the second single for fingers crossed, in April 2025, it was immediately apparent (and somewhat forecasted by its song title) how refreshing the song’s instrumentation and vocal performance were. In a husky but smooth register, Kwes is singing over a jerk beat with lush but almost g-funk like synths gliding over it, the beat provided by WhyLunar. As a genre that is no stranger to integrating rage synths, Kwes calling himself a rockstar on the chorus is nothing revelatory. However, the full lyric over that instrumentation: “Rockstar like Fela… I’m finna blow like Fela” (this quotation omitting the vocal glitches that help maintain a bit of a rugged Soundcloud/digicore feel) reveals Kwes’ intent to unite and intermingle multiple genres of music borne out of Africa and the African diaspora. Kwes raps melodically and at a mid-tempo befitting of the afrobeats genre. As you hear his performance, and where in each measure the snares land, the line between high-tempo jerk rap and mid-tempo afrobeats blurs in exciting ways. To praise the song less academically, the beat is lush, the bars are smooth, and the chorus is so catchy. I grew up during the blog era and putting my online friends onto music from a new rap artist I was excited about made me feel young again. The song and the enjoyment of following this project’s rollout with a few friends dominated my summer.

It must also be noted that a majority of the music videos accompanying fingers crossed prominently feature dancing. Dancing was once endemic to hip-hop culture, with the backing instrumentals of 1980s hip-hop frequently rooted in disco and electro. With all due respect to both Drake and GoldLink’s semi-frequent forays into afrobeats and house, the 2010s were not a heyday for danceable rap music. With the success of Drake’s “Nokia” and Tyler the Creator’s “Sugar on my Tongue” in 2025, as well as the futuristic swag revival recently perpetrated by Metro Boomin and Playboi Carti, perhaps a sea-change is occurring and a desire by listeners for major-key danceable hip-hop has been felt. That is quite the expectation to put on any album, however, so instead I will just delve into the eclecticness and catchiness of Kwes E’s fingers crossed.

The tracklist is interesting and short enough (at nine tracks barring an interlude) that I will cover its entirety. Admittedly, the opening track always ocean isn’t one of my favorites of the album and is one might argue a bit too literal an example of a “cinematic album opener”. That said, the instrumental knocks in a sort of darksynthy way (I would say this album in general has some of my favorite synths I’ve heard all year), and within two minutes Kwes introduces multiple themes that are present throughout the record, which help prevent the song from being nearly as vacuous as the Travis Scott songs it may resemble (“The Plan” for example). Those themes are a proud afrocentricity, a reverent sensuality towards African women, and the (admittedly more ubiquitous in hip-hop) contrast between socioeconomic inequality and the liberation of purchasing designer goods (a thesis that can certainly be scrutinized but is treated pretty sincerely by Kwes).

The tension built up by always ocean releases into entitled, a track that is straight-up afroswing. The synths still have a cinematic feel to them but the song is full-on danceable, befitting of a nocturnal club setting but before people are too drunk to move. Even for those who do not typically listen to afrobeats, the synth leads are luscious enough that the song may win you over. The song also samples a lyric from the gothic synthpop influenced UK rapper Zukovstheworld, the first of Kwes’ musical peers that the project tips its hat to. dorothy in red margielas is a jerk song with a slight rage flavor to the synths. Kwes’ delivery is energetic and mantra-like, and the composition as a whole delivers a series of dopamine rushes. The backing vocals sound like they could have been sampled from a 00s Craig David song or something, but it is actually Moses Ideka, a minimalist cyberfolk artist affiliated with Kwes. The chorus is also immediately memorable, and the music video incorporates clips from the arthouse anime Angel’s Egg, which reminds me of the type of hip curation that made sectors of the blog era exciting.

lyk is an absolute highlight of the album for me, where Kwes goes ballistic over an instrumental that reminds me of the Detroit Techno offshoot genre Ghettotech but also leaves space for Caribbean-influenced percussion plus a vocal delivery befitting of Dancehall. Kwes frequently serves as YT’s vocal engineer and perhaps through this (plus a diverse music taste), he’s able to inhabit a variety of vocal cadences throughout this album that all sound credible and help keep things varied. wouldacouldashoulda is a bouncy Jerk cut with YT that won’t shock people who have heard YT’s “#stillswaggin” before, but their chemistry is great together and the synths pop.

The aforementioned fela kuti is the rare song I wouldn’t hesitate to call pop genius with its genre experimentation that still sustains such a catchy chorus and verses. addicted to divas is a collaboration with Ireland MC deathtoricky, whose music often has the frenetic energy of the Digicore movement but ultimately opts for a blissful sound. Over a regal but still uptempo trap instrumental, Kwes’ husky voice versus Ricky’s more nasal cadence augment each other well.

7am is an R&B cut that has a glide and polish to it that reminds me of Lloyd’s “Get It Shorty” or as the Pitchfork review mentioned, The Dream. It’s a bit of a departure from the sounds of the rest of the album but stops just short of being saccharine. It probably helps that it is not a ballad but instead has an Atlanta bass style bounce to it. juggin would have been a strong candidate for my Song of the Summer 2024 if it hadn’t come out in October of that year. Opposite to lyk, Kwes speeds his voice up which over these naive sounding piano chords and the childlike but not cloying lyrics, fits perfectly. The song has blazed past a million streams on Spotify and I am addicted to it.

The album closes with go up a collaboration with kare, who provides a verse (though I know him best as a producer). By design, this is not the most lyrical album ever, but kare’s verse does provide a more conflicted perspective on the pursuit of fame, so that the album name fingers crossed may not just be about reaching fame but doing so without losing something priceless. The song deploys these elongated synth and vocal patches together that are very cloud rap, meanwhile the rhythm is jerk with a brief detour into the atmospheric afrobeats subgenre alté.

What I mean to convey through this track-by-track rundown (and the highlighted lyrics below) is that Kwes covers quite the variety of dance music and hip-hop on this project, while still maintaining an identity all his own. What excites me about various strands in the UK underground right now is that the music manages to be both artful and fun, and Kwes E’s fingers crossed is a sterling example of this.

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Talking Points:

-Are you familiar with any of the artists featured on this album? Which ones do you like or dislike? Did you listen to this album and discover any artists?

-Do you think with the recent success of Drake’s “Nokia”, Tyler, The Creator’s “Sugar on my Tongue” and the Futuristic Swag revivals from Playboi Carti and Metro Boomin, and the prominence of Jerk music online, that we will continue to see an influx of danceable hip-hop in the near future?

-Personally, do you welcome hip-hop that is inspired by afrobeats?

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Favorite Lyrics:

Rockstar like Fela… I’m finna blow like Fela

-fela kuti

City lights in my face, nothing better

Shine like the slipper on my Cinderella

African Cinderella cause I miss home

Always on my body cause I always shoulda known

-always ocean

Girl I'm rockin' with ya had to let ya know

CDG on dark skin baby let 'em know

Take a flight to Mykonos let's see the coast

Turn your room to studio I'll show you flow

-lyk

I'm too shine

Mama said that I'ma get there in due time

Had to speed it up, I had to do crime

Had to speed it up, I had to jugg, jugg

-juggin