Jordan - Crooks & Queens [CD]

NQ Records

£10.57

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: 4889807
Barcode: 0602448898074
Release Date: 18 Nov 2022
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

The last few years have been transformative for Jordan McCann. He didn’t have the easiest start in life, raised in a deprived part of Salford, Greater Manchester, by a single mother and surrounded by crime and poverty. Like almost everyone around him, crime and violence were everyday and completely normalised. In truth, there weren’t many honest ways of making a living. An inevitable stint in prison in his late teens, however, turned out to be the making of him.

At school, Jordan had always had an appetite for knowledge and always worked hard. Outside the classroom was a different matter, but he always wanted to learn. So when he found himself locked up, he turned to the music courses offered to inmates as an outlet. Inspired primarily by gangster rap—both UK and US—it was the likes of Morrisson and Giggs that spoke to him over here, and in America it was cult West Coast rhymer Woodie from Antioch, California, that he admired most. That potent and underappreciated combination of densely-packed lyricism and darkness spoke to Jordan in a way few other rappers did.

For Jordan, growing up in Salford, London was just as foreign to him as California. Manchester may have produced a decent stock of rappers and MCs over the years, but Salford never really had the same clout. “There’s never been rappers from where I’m from,” says Jordan. “There’s never been a culture of music in Salford. Me doing rap, it’s unheard of there—it’s like an alien spaceship landing in your back garden.” A large part of that, he says, is a lack of resources and generally being overlooked by the rest of the country. “It’s a bit backwards, my city,” he says. “We’re a few years behind, musically, and people wouldn’t dare do the things that I’m doing. There’s only one studio here as well. I’m really the first person to do it.”

Undeterred, when he was released from prison on drug charges in 2019 , he emerged a different man. The old Jordan would have reverted right back to the bad habits that got him there in the first place, but this time he came out with a purpose and not just for himself. “There’s loads of people relying on me to win so I have to win,” he says. “I’ve got no one to fall back on. There’s no one I can go to for money, no one I can go to for anything.” It’s a lot of pressure, but there’s no doubt he’s risen to the occasion. “It stresses me out,” he confesses, “but that’s just how it is. I can’t really explain to you how much pressure it is.” His career is gaining momentum at a dizzying rate and he’s now ticking off goals and supporting his family while he’s doing it.

Jordan’s streaming numbers on Spotify and YouTube are climbing ever higher. Almost all of his singles on Spotify, including his “Christmas Freestyle”, have been streamed over a million times each and “Footsteps On My Shoes”, his charged-up collab with new gen bassline kings Bad Boy Chiller Crew, has been streamed close to four million times. His YouTube numbers are even more impressive: every single video he’s put his name to, whether originals, remixes, freestyles or collabs, have all been viewed millions of times, some much more than that. His Fire In The Booth session from two years ago, for example, is on 13 million views and his Morrisson collab, “Brothers”, has been watched more than 14 million times. And it’s not just numbers either: the fact that he was able to bring together rap legend Benny Banks and WSTRN’s Louis Rei, with Mic Righteous, AyT, C3SIX, Tal Greazy, K Don, Meany, and Nubreed, put them on an eight-minute remix and still get over four and a half million views is testament to the respect he’s earned in the game.

And now that he’s signed to Mancunian powerhouse NQ —the label, recording studio and management company that Aitch calls home—things are really starting to step up a gear, beginning with his debut full length project, Crooks & Queens. Up until now, Jordan’s been a singles guy, banging out underground hits one by one, but with the new project he’s switched up his process a little, focusing more on songwriting than simply making bangers. More than that, it was about making a collection of songs for the girls that listened to his music, not just the lads. “I’ve never done songs about girls or even referenced girls apart from maybe one freestyle,” he says. “It’s never been my thing. I’ve never had girls dancing in my video and that. I’ve never wanted to give off that image. But most of the letters I got were off girls and all the support I’d got was off girls, and they always said how much they wish they could relate to music and that they wished that I rapped about this and that so I made a lot of songs.

“I feel like a lot of women go through this shit with us. More than anyone. Especially mums, daughters and sisters—they have to deal with a lot of the shit. We’re crooks and they’re our queens, so I wanted to pay homage to women with this, all the women in my life that have gone through all this shit with me. They don’t want me to be a gangster. They want someone who has the capacity to open up, so every one of these songs is for a crook and a queen.”

Music is still first and foremost, but there’s a bigger plan in the works and he’s always thinking years into the future. Just this year, for example, he landed a starring role in Amazon Prime Video series Jungle, a new six-part series directed by Junior Okoli and Chas Appeti that lands September 30. Jordan will play a character called Bully and share the screen with Tinie Tempah, Jaykae, IAMDDB, RA, M24, Rimzee, Poundz, Double Lz and more.

This is only the beginning of his journey, but these movements are laying the groundwork for much bigger things. “I’m gonna proper go for it this next 12 months!” And it’s not out of impatience or greed—it’s because he’s wise enough to know how fragile this can all be and he has no intention of wasting a single opportunity. “I never thought there was no way out,” he says. “My brothers are in jail, my family’s in jail. My poor mum has been terrorised by the police. My dad’s committed suicide. This is a massive turnaround for me, an unbelievable turnaround. It’s a one in a billion turnaround! But I believe I’ve got that through perseverance. No matter what.”

TRACKLIST
1. Intro
2. Little Hulton
3. Backpacking (Featuring Ard Adz)
4. Tell Me Why (Featuring Maverick Sabre)
5. Gypsy King Interlude
6. Badman (Featuring Tion Wayne, Morrison, Turner)
7. Represent
8. Charlestown (Featuring Millyz)
9. Danny Boy (Featuring Maverick Sabre & Big Narstie)
10. Soul
11. Traveller man