Pauli The PSM brings it all back home on powerful new track “I Got The Beat”

With stream-of-consciousness vocals that interweave messages of resilience and black identity, along with imagery of Marcus Garvey, James Brown, North London's Edmonton and Jamaica, Pauli The PSM is setting out all the facets of their identity in a track undulating with vibrancy.

With the instrumentation made up almost entirely of Pauli’s drumming, there could be potential for the track to feel sparse and hollow. Driven along at a ravenous pace, Pauli brings an assured intensity to the beat, which is capped off with a gloriously danceable synth line.

“This started off as a one-take freestyle in my voice memos,” says Pauli. “In the first verse, I’m spitting knowledge and empowerment and it ends off with me just catching a vibe. But essentially, I just wanted to remind people that I’m still a badman on drums.”

They also explain that the song and accompanying video act as tributes to two places the musician sees as home. “This video is very much an ode to Edmonton (North London) where I am from. Omar Blair-Mangat is responsible for the mixed media approach of 35mm Kodak stills interweaved throughout the visual.”

“I teamed up with Ramario Chevoy who’s been bugging me for the longest time about getting in the dance studio to work on some choreo. We wanted to pay respects to our JA roots, but we weren’t about to be objectifying the gyal dem, so instead we were daggering the drums [laughs].”

The striking all-round experience that Pauli The PSM offers up comes as no surprise from a creative whose output is significant and expansive in equal measure. After initially making a name for themselves as music director for Jamie xx and FKA Twigs, collaborations with Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz Sound System and Idris Elba have followed, as well as a support slot for Sampha. As a composer, they worked on Maurice Harrice’s awarding-winning Centrepiece, and as a composer and music director for YouTube Originals' Black Renaissance, featuring Barack and Michelle Obama.