Ben Tibbits

blackwave.: The Hip Hop Frontrunners Relishing The Challenges Of Success

The difficulty of the second album - an age old cliche. Some get it stupendously right, aggrandising their craft and acclaim to unfounded heights, whilst others falter and fall, crash and burn, disintegrate their hype and dismay an expectant fan base. No pressure then! Belgium hip hop duo, blackwave., comprised of singer/producer Willem Ardui and rapper Jean-Valéry Atohoun, achieved laudable success with their slick, breezy debut LP 'ARE WE STILL DREAMING?’, but the dreaded curse of the second album loomed over them. Creative walls and frustrated sessions ensued, all was looking lost… until they went and got ‘no sleep in LA’.

A chance comedic meeting of musical souls brought upon the creation of blackwave.. Over our Zoom call, singer and producer Willem tells me “I had a gig with my band at the time in Brussels, and Jean was studying to be an audio engineer and happened to be mixing our show for an assignment. It was kind of disastrous to be honest - it was in a small cafe and everything seemed to go wrong. The mixing table broke down, there was a lot of feedback in the room, but we managed to have a good time and were introduced after the show. I found out that he was a rapper, and at the time I was looking for people to work with because I was making beats. I was using the internet to send them to artists but to finally find someone in Belgium to work with was amazing. We immediately had the idea to get started”.

It was a swift and seamless coalition of talent and direction, with the pair delving straight into a sound that they describe as “telling our own story whilst mixing the classic with the new. We always want to surprise the listener”. A debut project derived, a body of work that merged stylistic sensibilities in nonchalance whilst ultimately feeding upon a marketable sound, achieving them boundless success in their native country, although perhaps falling short of wider potential commendation. So what next? A lull. The scent of cessation lingered in the air, a spark was needed.

Somewhat ironically, the incentive for the album came from a blockage in their artistic development. Following the impactful debut, rapper Jean admits that the duo “fell into a void of not knowing what to do next. We hadn’t made any extra music past the first album, so we were stuck in a place where we didn’t know what to write about or what to start on. Knowing that we had to make new music, we went to LA, sitting with the feeling that if nothing came out of it it’d be fine. But immediately, from the first or second session over there, we realised that we actually have so much to write about, we just didn’t have the inspiration back home”. Willem adds “The starting point was not knowing where to go, or who we were as an artist anymore. That whole journey of finding that is what the album is about. It’s the different stages of finding out who we are as people and as artists”. The very notion of a lack of inspiration provided the inspiration itself; an incredible motivation to any creative struggling with their next move. So, now galvanised, could they deliver?

’no sleep in LA’ is a subtly moving, gregariously groovy and resolutely emotional effort. The duo proceed to master the sound that they explored on their debut, with sharpened production, denser themes and more striking performances. They match, if not outdo, the star studded feature turns from US mainstays Caleborate, Lute and Abhi the Nomad, delivering a refined yet expansive eleven-prolonged dive into sunny sonics and personal imperfections. A darker, more ample look into the straits of existence, they touch on topics like “depression, feeling lost, grief, love, relationships. We always try to come at it from a hopeful perspective which is why I think it sounds the way that it does. We aren’t nihilistic people, we are hopeful”. It’s an impactful body of work that tackles austere themes without taking itself too seriously; it’s reflective and helpful, with the boys wanting listeners to “relate to certain things and realised that they aren’t alone in what they are going through”.

It seems like the creative wall that blackwave. found themselves trapped beneath after the first album has been much easier to climb over following the second. “We’ve been working on a lot of new music for a third project already”, comments Jean. “We’re going to take our time with it, but I would say that it’s 60/70% done”. Developing as an artist can often be a locked door, but it seems now Willem and Jean have found their key - sometimes a little perspective is all that you need.