Lex wrote poetry too — her way of finding meaning in the world that unfolded around her — and performed at open mic nights. Those poems gradually transmuted into introspective rap verses, laid over dreamlike, warm beds of sound. She began releasing music in 2016, on SoundCloud initially. “Young Black and unsung, young Black London,” she raps over booms, baps and soulful keys on early unreleased gem ‘Wednesday (Freestyle)’, distilling her perspective into a single lyric.
On her excellent debut mixtape ‘Government Tropicana’, released in 2020, Lex digs down into her experiences as a young working-class woman in our capital city, enriched by the duality of being Black British and Black Nigerian, informed by Igbo teachings, and guided through the neo-colonial metropolis by the light of her faith. Lex’s belief in God instilled in her the idea that reality can bend. “The basic premise of believing in a miracle, believing in this force that bends reality,” she muses, “being open to the concept of a world that can bend, that could shift in your favour, has been invaluable to me.” It’s a concept that breathes through her work on ‘Forward Ever’.
Serving as the project’s sole executive producer, with co-production and engineering credits on all nine tracks, Lex conjures a surreal sonic world that blends hazy electronica with Afrobeat, hip-hop, jazz, jungle and soul. Her voice is centred less here, instead serving as a layered, rich component in a broader piece of art that feels like magic realism. “I think the production speaks to more ambition. The production contributions were a lot more heightened during this process,” she says, explaining her hands-on method.
“Music is frequency. I think the words, the melodies, the guitars, the samples, where the drums sit, they’re all part of the same thing. It’s an attempt to communicate. How the music starts, stops, bends and retracts, it’s the same as writing to me. My aim with this music is to be as specific as possible. As I continue to move forward in this, God willing, I’m just trying to get more and more specific,” she adds. “I want the music to feel like what’s happening in my head, you know?”
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