Premiere: Soul Boy Joel Culpepper Reveals Funk-Licked “Poetic Justice”

For the past couple of years, South East Londoner Joel Culpepper has been locked away working on his debut album proper, Sgt Culpepper. We got the first taste of the album in “Return” and “W.A.R” last year and now we’ve got a new taste, “Poetic Justice”, along with some fresh new visuals from Julianknxx. 

Produced by Tom Misch and Swindle (who also acted as executive producer for the album), “Poetic Justice” centres around scorched guitar licks and jazzy flourishes that the production duo have splashed generously across the instrumental. Culpepper’s smokey, soulful tones are still the star of the show, however, and if the video’s anything to go by it looks like he had a blast making it. 

Speaking on the track Joel said: “I got to write this one with Tom Misch after a session for his album project with Yussef Dayes. Tom reached out after hearing ‘Afraid To Be King’ produced by Roy Davis Jr. Pleased he did cause I’ve been a fan of his work for a while. I feel like justice is poetry, but it’s also complex. Part of justice is forgiveness; no longer enslaved by the pain of what someone’s done to you, but the ability to move on from it.”