Earlier this year, author, filmmaker and DJ, Jesse Bernard, presented an intimate history of Black British music in his latest book, Escaping Babylon. Ahead of his appearance speaking to Nate Agbetu at this weekend’s We Out Here festival, he sits down with Rob Kazandjian to talk about some of the lesser known voices he spotlighted in his book to trace their impact on British culture
Robert Kazandjian
21 August 2026, 14:49
“Not everyone has to believe as passionately about this as I do,” the writer, DJ and filmmaker Jesse Bernard tells DJ Mag. “But I know if I don’t tell the story, someone else will. And I can only tell the story through my own experience, and by drawing on those stories from the people around me.”
Jesse has profiled Black British music royalty like J Hus, Little Simz and Central Cee for the covers of a glittering clutch of publications, and explored grime’s global impact through COMO VOCÊ — a 2022 film documenting Brazil’s own emerging grime scene. All the while, he was working on his book: Escaping Babylon: An Intimate History of Black British Music.
