Jordan Adetunji Interview

When I ask Jordan Adetunji how growing up in Belfast shaped the artist he is today, he replies without a second of hesitation: “I feel like it made me more confident because I already stood out. There weren't many people that looked like me where I was from,” he asserts. “I wanted to be more strange anyway, so I played on that—I enjoyed it. I enjoyed being the odd one out,” he reiterates. In response, I wonder aloud whether that sense of "strangeness" still follows him today. His answer is brilliantly self-assured. “Yes, I am just me and I keep to who I am. I don’t feel like changing anything to push a narrative; people can see through that. I think being myself is my thing right now.”

Born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in Belfast from the age of 10, Jordan’s youth was occupied by the universal rituals of adolescence—trying to blend in at school and kicking a football. “It was a different kind of environment for me, learning a whole new culture. I got into music while I was there; it’s definitely influenced me a lot,” he reflects. In 2010s Belfast, the dominant sound leaned toward earnest folk song and polished indie-rock anthems. Jordan, meanwhile, was building an internal melody of his own, pulling from the likes of Busta Rhymes, post-punk textures and the emotional intensity of emo staples like From First to Last.

“I started making my own music when I was fourteen. My mum bought me a MacBook and I used GarageBand to record,” he recalls. “I was doing a lot of covers and putting them on Facebook. Some did quite well and it gave me a confidence boost.” There’s a resilience in how he views the journey from that teenager to the Grammy nominee of today. “I continued. I kept going,” he repeats. “I remember saying to myself years ago that if I don’t get a breakout song by 25, I’m gonna quit. It’s funny—it happened when I was 24,” he adds, laughing.

That breakout arrived with the song of summer 2024: the viral, ubiquitous “Kehlani”. It was the moment everything shifted. For Jordan, though, the reality didn’t quite land until he was performing on stage at KOKO in London later that summer, hearing a roomful of voices throw his lyrics back at him. “This is the first time everyone knows my words,” he laughs. “It’s so strange—it feels so weird.” Suddenly, the song was pervasive. "I’d be walking down the street in New York and I’d hear the song once. I’d go past another street, I’d hear another car blasting it. Five, six cars in one day. I’ve never seen that before." The momentum climaxed when Kehlani herself reached out to feature on the remix, released in August 2024. I can feel a smile transmit through the phone as he tells me, “I was just excited. I always thought it was gonna come, but I couldn’t see when,” he says. “I was always too shy to ask—I’m happy she reached out to me.”

Since then, the track has racked up over 600 million streams, earning him a 2025 Grammy Award nomination for Best Melodic Rap Performance. Now 27-years-old, the musician is known for his self-described “Rock ’N’ Rave” sound, fusing high-energy electronic production with punk rock elements. Listen to his tunes and you’ll hear everything from alternative hip-hop, rap, R&B with Afrobeats and hyperpop.

It’s not just his genre-molding sound that’s piqued his fandom. Jordan describes his sartorial instinct as “alternative and colourful,” often stepping out in haute Balenciaga and Rick Owens, offset with bespoke jewellery. This visual world draws from a longstanding love of anime – titles like Naruto and Dragon Ball – influences that surface in his artwork and overall aesthetic. There’s something beautiful to be said about Jordan’s parallel with anime protagonist Naruto Uzumaki, a young ostracised ninja who achieved his dream to become the Seventh Hokage (village leader). It’s clear Jordan’s success is following a similar arc of strength and determination. “It’s inspired a lot of the imagery I’m into, too,” he elaborates further, noting how these stories inform his broader taste. “I’m into a lot of Korean aesthetics—it’s a big thing for me.” It’s that distinct style that means he even counts Jaden Smith as a fan. 

In January 2025, Jordan released his 10-track mixtape A Jaguar’s Dream. This time, the focus shifted from the momentum of a single to the architecture of a full body of work—a cohesive concept. There was a sense of urgency behind it, too: a need to broaden his published artistry and showcase the breadth of his skill. Working within a self-imposed time limit, he pulled together songs quickly, some drawn from the same sessions that produced “Kehlani”, others written more retrospectively—chosen for how they fit the world he was building. The result is a project that captures a distinct creative headspace, where instinct and intention meet. “The jaguar moves through different spaces and conquers each one it steps into,” states Jordan. “I feel like that’s what I do.” The tape leans into that sense of range, moving from the slick, sexy energy of “Too Many Women” featuring kwn to “305” alongside R&B artist and rapper Bryson Tiller. But beyond its sound shifts, the project marked a turning point in how he understood his audience. On tour, he saw that connection reflected back at him. “It was nice to see that everyone’s favourite song was different,” he says. “Every night, it changed.” In that sense, A Jaguar’s Dream isn’t just a collection of tracks—it’s proof of concept: that his world, however fluid or genre-less, is one listeners are willing to step into. 

If the mixtape was about conquest, his latest track, “Climbing Up”, is Jordan’s look through the rear-view mirror. He admits he’s never been one for chasing streaming numbers; for him, success has always been visceral—defined by the support of those who see themselves in his struggle. So, it’s no surprise, his lyrics can bring you to tears. Born from a moment of writer’s block in a stripped-back session, the track is direct in its candour, tracing cycles of doubt and perseverance—“struggling… I’m still struggling,” he writes, before recalling the words that pushed him forward: “you gotta fall before you climb.” It’s a song about the unspoken heroism of getting out of bed when the world refuses to slow down for your pain. For Jordan, it’s deeply personal, touching on a history of addiction and the resilience required to keep moving. This introspective vulnerability offers a stark, grounded contrast to the high-octane drill-cum-RnB energy of “Kehlani”. Talking about the new single, Jordan’s belief is as steadfast as it is humble: “It’s okay to just get up every day; that’s actually an achievement.” He continues, “every time you get up, you’re winning. Even if people are holding on to your legs, you’re still gonna try again. Just keep going.”

And true to his word, Jordan keeps going. When we chat about his dream collaborations, he fires off two names as diverse as his own catalogue: “I really wanna do a song with Don Toliver; I feel like that would be fun. This one’s random, but another person I’d love to do a song with is Ellie Goulding—I like her voice.” He’s tight-lipped on the details of his next releases, but he tells me to expect “cool features that people won’t expect.” I have no doubts.