UK hip-hop legend Jehst drops limited edition ‘Mork Calling Orson’ t-shirts

Artist: Jehst

Title: Mork Calling Orson – the t-shirt

Label: YNR Productions

Genre: Hip-hop

What the best dressed heads are wearing this year, UK hip-hop legend Jehst unveils a brand new set of ‘Mork Calling Orson’ t-shirts

Available for pre-order, the tees bear the artwork of one of 2023’s most acclaimed albums, created by top designer Matt Littler

‘Mork Calling Orson’ is Jehst’s sixth album reaching a typically supreme standard of syllables and similes bearing a red-eyed hue. Featuring the tracks ‘Daily Planet’, ‘Lonely World’,

the BBC 6 Music-playlisted ‘One Horse Town’, ‘Wild Herb’ and ‘Autumn Nights’, and with Confucius MC, Eva Lazarus, Lee Scott, CW Jones and SINDYSMAN guesting, Jehst continues to unlock his superpower of making the melancholic incisively slice through all before him.

His partiality for provocative references to the fore, and sloganeering that “you hear the voice of God when I rock the mic”, “Jehst for president” and “I’m Nas in that ‘Illmatic’ phase” without either irony or pretence, ‘Mork Calling Orson’ begins as drowsy, clouded and dry-mouthed, occasionally letting light peer through the curtains, otherwise at peace with self-imposed exile (“ain’t no sunshine, regardless of climate change”). Soundbites of Robin Williams are interspersed with namechecks of Audio Two, Vanilla Ice, Daley Thompson, Mayor Quimby and Aloe Blacc, and Keor Meteor and Beat Butcha provide subtleties of assistance on production.

The classically 90s, NYC beats of ‘Footsteps’, and ‘Lonely World’ mutedly following its lead, have Jehst rising up, alert to self-examination and the outside world. Returning to familiar sticky green comforts on the G-funked ‘Wild Herb’, is a trigger for the album to find strength and leave its shell, with the subsequent ‘Doctor’ and soft rock lineage of ‘Daily Planet’ and ‘Flight to LA’ allowing for streams of consciousness and the sort of word association and reactions to reality that have been Jehst’s hallmark for four decades.

The lullaby of the BBC 6 Music playlisted ‘One Horse Town’ is the album’s centrepiece, gently ascending and fighting any previous pessimism, before Jehst retreats behind the ‘Front Door’ and on the graceful ‘Skyline’; a fractured soul conflicting his previous status of “mentally irate, physically primate”, stays eloquently, edgily tack-sharp to the last.

“A living legend – maybe the most influential name in UK hip-hop” –

Romesh Ranganthan, BBC Radio 2

“‘Mork Calling Orson’ is definitely one to watch for 2023 – keep a space free on your best of the year lists” – Lauren Laverne, 6 Music

“An incredible record for 2023 from one of the real icons of UK rap & hip-hop” – Gilles Peterson, 6 Music

Tracklist

1. Cornerstone

2. You featuring Lee Scott

3. Footsteps

4. Lonely World featuring CW Jones & SINDYSMAN

5. Wild Herb

6. Doctor

7. Daily Planet featuring Confucius MC

8. Flight to LA

9. Autumn Nights featuring Confucius MC

10. One Horse Town featuring Confucius MC & Eva Lazarus

11. Front Door

12. Skyline