THE GREATEST LYRICISTS IN THE WORLD TODAY
Every generation needs its poets and here's the 23 musical scribes who define 2010.
Meanwhile, you can vote for the best lyricists ever here.
Words: Emily Mackay, Matt Wilkinson, Barry Nicolson, Mark Beaumont, Laura Snapes, Dan Martin, Sam Wolfson, Martin Robinson, Jaimie Hodgson
Wimbledon-born 24-year-old social satirist, currently the inner-city troubadour of choice
Urban storytelling: makes you think of Boris Johnson getting all ‘owtwaged’ over a grime track about knives, dunnit? No more: Jamie T hoses fresh life and colour into everyday scenes of metropolitan desolation – the drugs, the binges, the fights, the overdoses – thanks to possessing the tongue of an Olympic gold medallist in High-Speed Cunnilingus.
Jamie’s juxtaposition of semi-cockney post-war dialect with the scatterbeat patterns of modern rap give him a unique sense of urban heritage unavailable to most grime gang-bangers from the Brixton estates. Ultra-modern, yet timeless. That’s Jamie down to a T. MB
Key lyric: “Bottle of wine and an old 45/Rifle in the corner that her grandfather left her when he died/Said ‘no surprise, I’ve had to use it quite a few times’”
(‘Emily’s Heart’, 2010 single)
Latest Jamie T News
Jamie T reveals guest appearance on Rancid song – listen
Singer breaks long silence with backing vocals on a new version of 'Wrongful Suspicion'
Jamie T wraps up his summer live shows at V Festival
Singer-songwriter plays one of his last gigs before hitting the studio
- Aug 22, 2010
More Jamie T Reviews
10 Tracks You Have To Hear This Week (09/11/09)
Yeasayer, Jamie T, Lil Wayne, The Antlers
- Nov 9, 2009
Live Review: Jamie T
The new tunes are great, but it’s the gags that make this show – in a converted loo – so memorable. Ginglik, London, Wednesday September 9
- Sep 16, 2009
Album review: Jamie T - 'Kings And Queens'
The Wimbledon troubadour tries a bigger sound, with largely successful results
- Sep 8, 2009
