JoeJas is back to steal your heart, soul, mind and body with his freaky and freewheeling full-length Left Handed Bandit — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Exploring the life of an outcast, the oddball U.K. rapper, masked musical marvel and one-man multi-media multi-tasker’s fifth album — and the followup to his 2022 release Gaps & Nomads — sees our favourite nomad finding out there’s no place for him in this cold old world. So, like anyone forced to fend for themselves, there’s only one option open to him: To stake his own place, make his own mark and turn into the sinister (look it up) thief of hearts known as the Left Handed Bandit.
JoeJas’s journey of emotional evolution is captured and chronicled through the genre-bending music, which runs the gamut from the blazing rock guitars of RUN?! to the Neptunes-inspred WTF and the jazz instrumental that is Planet’s Masked Appearance. Lyrically, the disc covers everything from life, growth and death to the many splendours and horrors of love — as seen through the personal prism of JoeJas‘s private perspective, which has been undeniably skewed by the Left Handed Bandit’s mutated mind state.
The title track gets busy mid a smouldering slow jam propelled by a minimalist funk-hop backbeat and decorated with colourful swirls of keyboard, bongo, brass and flute, our anti-hero gived us a peek behind his face-saving disguise as he opens himself up to the possibility of love. But even though he proclaims himself a romantic thief, it seems like he’s really the one who’s had his heart stolen:
“Have you ever been with a bandit?
Hearts I’m snatching
They drip when I bag ’em
Would you ever be with a bandit?
Never stay maskless
Defence from the past tense
Nah, you never been with a bandit
Tell by the way you never leave it’s tragic
Have you ever been with a… Nah
Will you ever stay with a bandit?”
Illustrated by one of his cartoonishly comical and stylishly creative video starring and shot by JoeJas himself, Left Handed Bandit is a song “exploring relationships from the view of a person who doesn’t show affection in ways that conform to the norm, which leads to questioning of themselves and the partner they are with.” This song also plays into the grander narrative of JoeJas’s musical mythology, with his alter-ego / character Gappy becoming a bandit who holds the heart of recurring love interest Sally in his hand.
Meanwhile, WTF boldly and brazenly blasts of out your speakers like a long-lost collaboration between The Neptunes and Timbaland. Underpinned by thwacking 808s, driven by grinding bass tones and sweetened with string synths, the rebellious and irrepressible track serves as potent propellant for JoeJas’s sharp-tongued verbal gymnastic and proclamations of unimpeachable greatness:
“Like man, what the fuck
Y’all niggas can’t tell me nothing
Been doubted
But never been crushed
Finna go global
Check my first LP
And the name of the band
Niggas that’s all me
Keeps it hassle free…
Man I got big goals
So I set the bar steep
Everything hands on
So what’s outta my reach?”
“WTF is a scream for all the people doing things their own way making it work no matter what,” says JoeJas. “Theme of doing things your own way is also felt in the song’s structure, moving from a head-bobbing groove to synth chords and sung melodies — then an eerie alt trap ending, jumping genres and sounds to show that there are no rules!”
He oughta know: An artist and producer (under the alias HairyMuffinMan), JoeJas has been rapping since he was 11. He started producing at 17 because the beats he was on did not showcase the full vision he had for his music. He put out his self-produced debut album Planet in 2016, blending influences from punk, jazz, hip-hop and R&B. This genre-mashing has become a defining point in his music.
He has shot, edited and directed all his videos, which feature a distinctively colourful visual style. In his performances, he takes audiences into the world of the albums he’s created, introducing them to his many characters and balancing his off-the-wall energy with slower grooves and sombre sounds. In 2020, JoeJas won the Vans Musicians Wanted competition, earning praise from Anderson .Paak for his unique style.
Check out Left Handed Bandit below, and find JoeJas on his website, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
