Headie One - Edna

Resident Advisor

"GANG"'s genre-busting experiments appeared like a neon signpost, signalling the "critically acclaimed" ..

The Guardian 0

(Relentless)
The drill king’s debut album could be a breakthrough moment

Sometimes, Irving Adjei feels like a motherless child. The rapper’s first album proper is dedicated to Edna Adjei, who died when he was a child, and the things he wishes she had taught him – specifically, forgiveness. He has her image tattooed on his arm.

The album’s first track, Teach Me, feels her absence acutely, looking back at Adjei’s chequered youth on the storied Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, north London, with a sister and a father who struggled as his son went off the rails. “He start to wish he aborted me,” considers Headie One, the rapper Adjei became. Already prolific, Edna is his second major release this year, following the genre-busting mixtape, Gang, released in April. Though he’s best known as a drill artist, a controversial variant on hip-hop more minimal and bleak than grime, Gang lunged away from drill’s cold insularity towards tunes, experimentation and a broader audience (Jamie xx and FKA twigs made guest appearances).

Related: Headie One: 'In prison, the only thing not taken away from you is yourself'