Don't Judge Me
by FKA Twigs (featuring Headie One)

Album: single release only (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In 2020 FKA Twigs lent her vocals to "Judge Me (Interlude)," a track from drill rapper Headie One and English producer Fred Again's joint mixtape, Gang. The three artists later expanded the airy interlude into a full-fledged track and dropped "Don't Judge Me" as a single on January 26, 2021.
  • The song starts off with Twigs' plea to her beau that they should center their relationship on love and acceptance. Headie then shares his experience of being a black man in Britain, recounting the many times when he's been judged because of the color of his skin.
  • Fred Again (real name Fred Gibson) supplied the automated dancehall beat. Gibson frequently works with Ed Sheeran; their collaborations include "I Don't Care," "Beautiful People" and "Afterglow." He has also hooked up with Stormzy ("Own It") and AJ Tracey ("West Ten").
  • FKA Twigs co-directed the video with Emmanuel Adjei, who previously worked with the likes of Beyoncé and Madonna. The clip highlights anguished Black models and dancers encircling visual artist Kara Walker's Fons Americanus. The fountain, located at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, contains allegorical motifs referencing the suffering endured by Black people from Africa, America and Europe, particularly pertaining to the transatlantic slave trade.

    Adjei said: "In this audio-visual document we get to witness artists FKA Twigs and Headie One, amongst other Black British influentials, fighting against invisible forces of judgment and oppression. Having the enormous Victorian-inspired fountain Fons Americanus by visual artist Kara Walker - depicting the historical, sorrowful story of slavery and colonization - as our setting, and particularly as the spirit of the film, this important monument creates another layer of depth and meaning to an invisible yet shared history."
  • Poets Solomon O.B. and Benjamin Zephaniah also show up in the video along with the radio host Clara Amfo.

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