JUNGLE by KEZIASOUL Is a Neo-Soul Mother's Plea to Her Two Sons
A British Alternative Soul Single About Staying Safe and True in the Concrete Jungle
JUNGLE by KEZIASOUL is a mother talking to her sons. A neo-soul singer and songwriter based in Birmingham, United Kingdom, she released it on 16 October 2026, featuring the poet Casey Bailey. The image at its centre, the city as a jungle, has a long history in Black music. But she uses it for the most personal reason there is.
KEZIASOUL’s single is in the playlist below, and her story so far, from Symphony Hall to this single, is collected on the KEZIASOUL profile. JUNGLE reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Listen first, then read on for the long line of jungle songs behind it.
The Concrete Jungle Has Run Through Black Music From Bob Marley to Grandmaster Flash
That image goes back a long way. In April 1973, Bob Marley and the Wailers released Catch a Fire, their first album for Island Records. One of its songs was Concrete Jungle.
Nine years later, on 1 July 1982, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released The Message. Its hook compares the street to a jungle, and the song turns that into a portrait of pressure and survival. In 2002 it became the first hip-hop recording added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.
So the wave this single joins is a long one. Reggae sang about the concrete jungle, and hip-hop described what it does to people. Meanwhile, soul has long been where someone sings back about it with love.
Where KEZIASOUL Fits, a Singer Who Turned JUNGLE Into a Message for Her Two Sons
KEZIASOUL comes to that tradition from the stage. She has sung at Symphony Hall and at the Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival, and she has supported Gladys Knight. She also appeared on The Voice UK in 2021 on will.i.am’s team. Her influences run from Billie Holiday and Nina Simone to Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse.
Her biggest song so far came through other hands. The DJ Danny Kane produced I Got You, and Nightmares on Wax remixed it. That is the project George Evelyn started in 1988 and later took to Warp. The remix has since passed 149,000 plays on Spotify. Her vocals were also heard on Love Island in 2024. Then Got A Feeling, a radio edit with Guy Burns, passed 22,000 plays. She is now writing new music with her brother, the producer Eybes Beats, moving between soulful R&B, hip-hop and contemporary sounds.
A Poet’s Ear and a Mother’s Warning Shape the Words and the Sound of JUNGLE
JUNGLE is closer to home. She wrote it with her two sons in mind. It is a plea to stay safe, to stay true to themselves and to learn who is really in their corner. It is an alternative soul record with neo-soul at its core: a full, warm production with her voice carried at the front, unpolished and heartfelt.
KEZIASOUL, credited as Kezia Johnson, wrote the words and music with Bailey and sings it, and Eibblon Johnson co-executive produced the record. Bailey is a writer, performer and teacher who served as Birmingham Poet Laureate from 2020 to 2022. His BBC commission The Ballad of the Peaky Blinders won a Webby Award in 2020. Before that, his debut collection, Adjusted, came out in 2018. So a poet’s ear for a line sits next to hers on the record.
Two Soul Voices Who Share the Shelf With KEZIASOUL and Her Single JUNGLE
Lauryn Hill is the clearest ancestor. On To Zion, from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1998, she sang about her decision to have her son rather than put her career first. Carlos Santana was her guest on it. KEZIASOUL names her as an influence, and JUNGLE picks up the same thread: a mother singing straight to her child.
Cleo Sol shows where British soul has taken that idea. She is a member of Sault, and she made Mother with her husband, the producer Inflo. The album came out on 19 August 2021 and explores mothering and responsibility in long, patient songs. KEZIASOUL works on a smaller scale, but JUNGLE belongs on the same shelf.
The jungle in the title, then, is the city her sons are growing up in. The song is what a mother can give them before they head out into it.
BlackSounds.News curator team: “A neo-soul single with a poet on board and a mother’s warning at its heart. Play it for anyone you would want home safe tonight.”
Stream JUNGLE on Spotify and Apple Music, follow KEZIASOUL on Spotify and Apple Music, and find every link on Linktree.
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