Jords has a chip on his shoulder

Jords has been making music for an impressive fourteen years. From dropping “Your Mind” back in 2016 to his most recent release, “The Real Survive”, the Croydon-based rapper has presented all possible versions of his character. With bags of life experience to thank, these ‘versions’ have evolved into something that extends beyond place and genre. “It’s the war, the battles, the difficult times that really make a man of you,” he affirms. The man Jords is presenting in “The Real Survive”? One who is defiant, has a chip on his shoulder and wants to shout about it. At the end of the day, it all comes down to truth for the DIRT IN THE DIAMOND creator. It’s something of a throughline for both the artist’s music and life — “I’m just saying that the real survive, and I’m still here and I’m not going nowhere.” 

How are you? How’s life treating you at the moment?

I’m cool. I think I’m in a place of not being overwhelmingly happy or overwhelmingly sad, I’m just enjoying being present. I feel like I’ve got a bit of a chip on my shoulder at the moment and I’ve got a lot to say.

“The Real Survive” feels like it’s setting up something bigger with this upcoming Mixtape J. What’s the story behind the track?

The story behind “The Real Survive” — I really took my time with it, so I wrote my verse in 2022 driving on the motorway coming back from Manchester after having a session with TiyBox (he produced the instrumental). I knew it was cold and a special verse. I just didn’t do anything with it because I thought I don’t really have much more to say on this. It took a couple of years to figure out what we wanted to do with it. Initially, I tried to get Chip on it and we were exploring options but it didn’t feel right. Then I went to Paris with RV in 2023 and we just really connected. He’s a real good guy, someone that I’m grateful to call a friend. After that, we got in the studio, he vibed with it, loved the tune and his verse is, for me, one of my favourite RV verses, which is an honour. With the chorus, my guy Margs wrote it and another artist called Rax Rebl. We took our time. We needed the right voice, and Oxi is someone I’ve had under my wing for a while and it just made sense. As soon as he came into the studio and recorded it I thought, this boy’s gonna be a star. It just needed the extra touch of Sachellys. [It’s a] real brick by brick, piece by piece, taking our time kind of song. 

You’ve always talked about blending genres and pushing boundaries. How does this track fit into that approach?

I think this is another take, for me, on a Drill tune. I’m not really a Drill artist and I wouldn’t necessarily call it a Drill tune, but the instrumental has Drill drums. It’s just a bit more futuristic. And if it’s Drill, then RV is the right person to do it justice. I always like getting someone that’s authentic to the genre on [a song] and give it my own take. It feels almost drill, not quite drill, almost bars, not quite bars. I’m kinda just speaking.

Bringing in RV, Oxi and Sachellys feels like a really deliberate choice. What was the chemistry you were looking for in this collaboration?

The collaboration is one of my favourite parts. At the moment I feel everything I’m doing is hitting and it’s making a mark, and I’m never one for thinking about things in a generic way. To be honest, I’ve been doing this for so long, I find it hard to think about things in the traditional approach. It just felt fun having Sachellys singing in Spanish, it felt fun having RV on the verse and it felt fun hearing Oxi’s take on the chorus that was written for him. It’s like cooking! When you’re cooking, you want to try a little different seasoning sometimes here and there. It’s like, how’s it going to sound? Let’s experiment and see where it’s going to end up. Luckily this time, it sounds amazing.

The track talks about authenticity and loyalty — themes you’ve explored before. What’s driving that continued exploration?

It’s just life, man. Over the last couple of years I’ve had a lot of realisations about people. Things have ramped up a lot in the last couple of years and the attention on me has gone up a bit. When that attention on you goes up, you see how people’s attitude towards you changes. Noticing all of that, I’ve dropped bare fake people in the last couple of years and the real really did survive. Seeing that and seeing where life is going, the next challenges in life, I think the most important qualities that I find to have in people is loyalty — more than love, more than like, more than all the rest of it, it’s loyalty.

You’ve spoken before about creating music as a form of therapy. What was the emotional landscape you were working through with this track?

Like I say, I wrote this track back in 2022 when I was still signed to a label and things were super up. I was living out the dreams I’d dreamt since I was sixteen, but discovering the reality that comes along with the things people find desirable, like fame, fortune and success. There’s another side to everything where, firstly, you become quite numb and, secondly, you realise that things aren’t as great as people build them up to be. I was able to find peace in this realisation and recenter, finding out what’s important all over again. I wasn’t consciously thinking of these things when I wrote the song but, as always, my unconscious and subconscious find their way into the music. 

The video’s shot against London’s brutalist architecture — there’s something about that landscape that seems to resonate with your sound. What draws you to that aesthetic?

To be honest, I kind of disagree, you know. I feel that nowadays my music kind of transcends location but, at the same time, I grew up on the blocks, in the ends — I grew up in that environment, so that’s always gonna be a part of me. But, on the flip side, I’ve created a film that’s based in the 1970s, or another film that’s shot entirely in Jamaica, and these things show the breadth of what I’m creating. There’s other landscapes and things that I’ve seen whilst travelling the world that I’m yet to display in video, but soon come!

From your early days in Croydon to now, how has your approach to storytelling evolved?

I guess I’ve just experienced more. I was having this conversation the other day — I’m an artist and I’ll always be an artist. I will never not be an artist. It’s not a career for me, it’s just life, innit? As long as I wear my heart on my sleeve as I make my music, then the rest is subconscious and will just flow. Specifically with the mixtape, I have been making a conscious effort to rap and get better at rapping, listening to a lot of rap to sharpen my skills. In terms of my approach, it’s always the same and that just comes from wearing my heart on my sleeve.

You’ve always been about creating music that goes beyond just a typical rap track. What are you trying to communicate with “The Real Survive”?

It’s like I say on the song, “It’s too easy, I’m just speaking”. I’m just flexing my muscles on this one. On the tape in general, I’m just trying to let everyone know that I’m good. Like, I’m actually good. I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. I’ve got a point to prove. I’m on the other side of independence and I just wanna have fun, enjoy it and talk my shit.

You’ve talked before about the UK rap scene being more about longevity than controversy. How do you see “The Real Survive” contributing to that narrative?

Nowadays, I see longevity comes after controversy — it’s the war, the battles, the difficult times that really make a man of you. It’s about showing all sides of your character — the side that can go to war, the side that can nurture people through pain, the side that can have fun and fall in love. The side that can be defiant (this is the side that’s being showcased on “The Real Survive”). I’ve been making music for fourteen years and I’m still here. I’m not gonna call myself real, I’m just saying that the real survive and I’m still here and I’m not going nowhere.

There’s something fascinating about the international perspective Sachellys brings with the Spanish outro on the song. How are you thinking about global storytelling in your music?

Sachellys is a G, man. I really enjoy what she did on the song. It was a completely fresh perspective that I could never bring. Music’s taken me round the world. I’ve been to Australia, I’ve been to Spain, India, Czech Republic — so many places because of music. When you see all these different environments, you realise a lot of it is the same story but different details. We only have a finite amount of emotions, so this bonds us all together. People are oppressed all over the world. In Australia I met Aboriginal people who call themselves Black people, and they are the oppressed people over there, similar to Black people here. There’s not even much difference in the details, just the accent, the way they speak, how they shave their dread locks. It’s different but the same.

You once said music is the only place you can truly control your narrative. How is that playing out with this new project?

I’m protective of my process, protective over that space. This is all just what I wanna make. I might grow past it and look back and think, maybe I’ve improved on this or that. But at the time, in the moment, it was how I felt. When I was making DIRT IN THE DIAMOND, I spoke a lot to Margs and I said, bro, I need to make a mixtape next. We recorded “Marley Flow” and “The Real Survive” before DIRT IN THE DIAMOND came out. I was excited for the album to come out, but I already knew I wanted to make a mixtape next. And, even now, I know what I want to do after Mixtape J drops. 

What’s left? What are you still hoping to explore or prove with your music?

Honestly, when it comes to what’s left — I’ve had a great career and realised there’s so much that’s out of my control, like awards and stuff. Even though I’ve had nominations or millions of streams, these things are ultimately out of your control. Going forward, I wanna create something animated and I wanna create a feature-length film and travel the world. There’s a lot of other things I wanna do, but those are my main points of reference right now. I’m not at a point of wanting to prove anything to anyone anymore, I think I’ve already earned my stripes. I just like my music! I wanna make music and enjoy whatever’s left of my career. 

MIXTAPE J will drop on 6 June 2025.