First Listen: JayaHadADream's The Bank

Jayahadadream is making her mark in the UK rap scene, and her latest single, The Bank, dives into Garage with a feel-good edge while keeping her lyrical honesty. After a standout BBC One Extra freestyle in 2024 opened doors to dance producers, she’s leaning into a sound that’s new for her. We sat down with her to talk about The Bank, why she’s feeling Garage, and the headspace behind it. With visuals dropping Sunday evening, this track’s built for summer sets.

“I’ve always liked Garage as a listener but I never thought to make a garage track, I feel like you get so stuck in your own ways,” She says. 

The Initial Reaction

The Bank comes in with a classic Garage beat, bouncy, nostalgic, pure early 2000s UK vibes. Jayahadadream’s flow is clean and playful, hitting the beat’s pockets with ease. It’s a shift from her usual style, which she describes as “quite conscious and thought provoking” This track’s lighter, with lines like “16 bars take straight to the bank” and “but the future is bright,” balancing empowerment and a cheeky nod to her British humour. She cites Flirta D, Bruiser, and D Double as inspirations, saying, “they really characterize themeselves in their bars and I was really thinking about that and how I could do it but be authentic at the same time.”

“It’s really nice to jump on Garage and do something like just a bit more feel good but with the truth within that as well,” she says. The track’s a banger that captures her moment of arrival while acknowledging the grind.

Artistic Perception

The Bank is about knowing your worth through the noise. “I really felt like I’d stepped into a new chapter in my career of like wow I'm really part of the scene now,” Jayahadadream says. “I felt a lot of love and I felt like I wanted to make a track that reflects the ups and downs." The song, born from sessions with ZDot and Krunchie, is “really epitomises the highs and lows but how to overcome them, that’s definitely an empowerment track like how to just block out the noise and keep doing your thing.”

She got intentional with the flow: “I spent majority of the time writing trying to think of where I would sit on the beat,” she says. “This was the first track where I really thought about how and where I would sit on the pockets.” 

Visuals

The visuals for The Bank, were shot in London featuring none other than Bank tube station. “They’re street visuals, very punchy and bold,” Jayahadadream says. She’s already brought the track to life at Glastonbury with DJ AG and a headline slot at Rum Shack, plus Big Weekend. “I did it with a live band so it sounded like really different,” 

Final Thoughts

The Bank shows Jayahadadream’s range, flipping from the introspection of her earlier track Nothing’s Changed to a more upbeat take. “They have kind of a similar theme,” she says, but while Nothing’s Changed" is “a lot more focused on the dread that I feel having to go back to where I grew up,” The Bank is about “yeah things haven’t changed but you need to make the best of it.” She adds, “my emotions contradict and I think I want my music to reflect that,  this upcoming project is really about the juxtaposition between the highs and lows.” With collabs in grime, Garage, and UK rap coming, she’s ready to keep it rolling. “I want people to see that you can come from nowhere and make it,” she says. Jayahadadream’s got more heat on the way, stay tuned.

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