James Massiah & aloisius - Hot Winter (Dreaming About Being Closer)

What this video is

Released in early 2025 on life is beautiful records — a London-based gesamtkunstwerk label and collective founded by aloisius — 'Hot Winter (Dreaming About Being Closer)' sits within a thriving South London experimental underground that bridges jazz poetry, spoken word, and electronic production. James Massiah, a South London poet and musician whose work explores sexuality, mortality, and hedonism, is a central…

Why it matters

Represents a contemporary strand of UK jazz-inflected spoken word/poetry-rap — described by critics as splashing jazz breaks and flutes in a Vegyn-meets-DJ Shadow production mode — that consciously connects the lineage of 1970s jazz poetry and proto-rap (Gil Scott-Heron) through 1990s hip-hop to…