Layyah Returns With Silk-Threaded Pivot Toward Intimacy And Control ‘Feel Like’

Fresh from a breakout year that included becoming the first woman to win BBC Three’s ‘The Rap Game UK’, South London rapper-vocalist Layyah changes the temperature with “Feel Like.” The new single pairs velvet R&B phrasing with a low-lit hip-hop chassis, then leans into dancehall flickers and UK afroswing bounce. Platinum-selling producer JB Made It sculpts the space: a warm, mobile bassline; crisp drum programming; and enough air around the topline for close, conversational vocals to read as intent rather than ornament. The song’s first impression is understated confidence, less a chest-beat than a hand on the small of the back guiding you to the dancefloor.

Layyah’s writing has always balanced bite and feeling; here she centers chemistry without forfeiting agency. The hook is light on its feet, but the framing is deliberate: strength and softness can co-exist, and desire can be playful without surrendering authorship. That composure mirrors her wider trajectory since ‘The Rap Game UK’, where co-signs from Kenny Allstar, Fumez The Engineer, and Riki Bleu positioned her as a prospect built for pressure. On “Feel Like,” that composure becomes aesthetic: verses slide rather than swing, ad-libs work as inflection, and the percussive diaspora touches keep the groove pointed, equally viable in headphones or late-night radio rotation.

As a marker for what might follow, “Feel Like” is less about maximal statements than about refining a signature. The track threads the emotion of classic R&B through UK rap cadences with a light afroswing tilt, aligning with influences Layyah frequently cites without mimicry. It also sits coherently next to recent singles “Money Moves” and “Passenger Side” (the latter with Scorcher), suggesting a run that can flex from grit to gloss without losing voice. If the aim is durable presence rather than a spike of virality, “Feel Like” is a useful proof: an earworm built on restraint, clarity of mood, and a narrator who knows exactly how she wants the conversation to go.

What ultimately lingers is the song’s economy. There’s no over-writing, no over-singing, just a tight radius of detail that invites replay. That choice reads as intentional growth from an artist who has learned to hold center stage, whether in competition settings or festival slots, and now applies the same focus to record-making. “Feel Like” doesn’t announce a reinvention so much as it calibrates the dials toward intimacy and control. In a year where the next chapter matters as much as the last headline, Layyah picks a lane that suits her: poised, rhythmic, and built to travel.