English Barney Artist and Bombay Bicycle Club frontman Jack Steadman, under the moniker Mr. Jukes, have teamed up with fellow English MC Kofi Stone for a new song, ‘Check the Pulse’.
Fusing the soulful production of Steadman’s beats with the whip-smart flows of Artist and Stone, ‘Check the Pulse’ plays like a genial throwback rap battle. The track will be featured on Artist and Steadman’s upcoming collaborative LP The Locket.
“One of our dreams for the album was to have a Cypher style song!” Artist explains. “We knew Kofi would be the perfect fit and boy did he deliver on this one. It’s guaranteed to make you bop your head, especially the end section where we go head to head.”
Indeed the highlight of the song is when Artist and Stone trade lines in the final verse, playing and feeding off each other like jazz musicians as they alternate on whatever ruminations happen to fill their minds. The song as a whole plays like an easy melding of the minds, like these three artists we bound to make a record together, with the result being a relaxed and highly enjoyable collaboration.
“We fill a locket with memories we protect, and don’t forget to keep it round your neck,” Artist raps on the upcoming album’s title track. The mood of the album seems to focus on release and easing of tensions, especially coming out of a global pandemic. “The aim is to bring hope to people after the maddest year,” Artist concludes.
“It was a pleasure to link up with my brother Barney and go back to back with him,” Stone offers, “also Mr. Jukes is a wizard on production. This one’s got a real nice bounce to it, looking forward to playing it live.”
If you want to see them play it live, check out the video performance of ‘Check the Pulse’ down below.
