Tiggs Da Author has dropped his debut album ‘Blame It On The Youts’, an album that has been preceded by years of featured appearances but only a handful of EPs and mixtapes. Made up almost entirely of solo performances, the project feels like a significant moment in the 30-year-old’s career.
‘Blame It On The Youts’ draws upon a variety of soul, jazz, funk, afrobeat, and reggae sounds, with each individual track blending these sounds together in different combinations and to varying degrees. ‘Zulu Gang’ is a contemporary reggae track that incorporates dancehall and afrobeat rhythms, whilst tracks such as ‘Just a Little’ and ‘Suitcase of Sins’ are colourful soul blues cuts that sound as if they could have been lifted from a Michael Kiwanuka album. In fact, Tiggs specialises in effortlessly contemporising the genres that have influenced popular music across the entire project.
‘Fly ‘Em High’ featuring Nines, the only single prior to the album’s release, is the final song on the album and is probably intended as a bonus track. Notably, the track is completely distinct from the rest of the project, both because of its musical composition and the fact that it has a feature. It is as if Tiggs was trying to throw his fans off the scent for what was about to come. Instead, ‘Fly ‘Em High’ is typical of Tiggs’ more recent music prior to ‘Blame It On The Youts’, where the singer tapped into hip-hop, afroswing, and drill sounds, enlisting rappers for verses whilst he provided melodies. Having engaged in this current sonic trend on his almost entirely collaborative ‘MOREFIRE’ mixtape in 2019, ‘Blame It On The Youts’ appears to be a more musically timeless piece of work, one that feels like it is the project that Tiggs always wanted to make.
Nonetheless, the musical variety on this new album should not be a complete shock to his listeners, as the enigmatic singer-songwriter has a history of experimenting across different genres. Consider his 2017 song ‘Work It Out’, which is a vibrant re-make of indie cult classic ‘Jerk It Out’ by Swedish rock band Caesars. Equally, born in Tanzania but raised in London, the singer has always sought to incorporate his Tanzanian roots into his music. Whilst speaking about this cultural influence with PRS for Music in 2019, he said, “[Tanzanian music is] very free-flowing and unconventional. A lot of the jazz music over there doesn’t really have a structure. It’s just more of a vibe, everything is melody-driven, and I’ve tried to apply that to my music.” Driven by jazz-inspired instrumentation and frenetic musical arrangements, ‘Blame It On The Youts‘ is undoubtedly the artist’s most fully realised example of the “free-flowing” music he aspires to make.
Tiggs’ music has always exhibited his ear for melody; however, this new project takes his artistry to a new level. ‘Blame It On The Youts’ is an eclectic mix of tracks that highlights the South Londoner’s versatility and ability to fuse genres. The album is surely the perfect soundtrack for the forthcoming summer.
‘Blame It On The Youts’ is available to stream below:
