Blending orchestral film music with hip-hop rhythms much like his American peer Adrian Younge, the London-based vocalist, beatmaker, and director Jeymes Samuel performs at times under the alias the Bullitts when issuing his hard-to-categorize work. His first outing under his given name arrived in 2006 as the mixtape Urban Folk Music: The Prequel; three years later he introduced the Bullitts project with the album They Die by Dawn & Other Short Stories. Returning as Jeymes Samuel, he supplied a partly symphonic yet stylistically unbound song score for the 2021 feature The Harder They Fall before writing, helming, and sharing production duties on the 2023 biblical comedy-drama The Book of Clarence, for which he likewise created the music.
Born in London, Samuel began shooting film at eight yet turned to music during his teenage years, first exploring house and issuing the 12-inch “When It Rains” on Giant Steps in 2000. After further short releases, the hip-hop-rooted 2006 full-length Urban Folk Music: The Prequel appeared on Little League, the same imprint that launched the Bullitts in 2007 via the single “The Bullitts Theme.” The moniker nods to the Steve McQueen picture Bullitt; beginning in 2010 the project posted a run of “FlixTapes” online, each layering fresh vocals atop favorite movie and television themes. The 2011 single “Close Your Eyes” arrived next, boasting unexpected contributions from actress Lucy Liu and rapper Jay Electronica, while “Supercool” followed later that year. The self-produced debut Bullitts album They Die by Dawn & Other Short Stories surfaced in mid-2013, serving as a companion to the Samuel-written-and-directed film of the same name in which he also starred opposite Rosario Dawson and Giancarlo Esposito. That same year Jay-Z and director Baz Luhrmann recruited him as Executive Music Consultant for the latter’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and the short documentary JAY-Z: Legacy appeared in 2017.
Samuel next wrote, directed, and produced the 2021 Western The Harder They Fall. Its original score reached stores in January 2022 through Geneva Club/Roc Nation; he also supplied the track “No Turning Around” to the companion soundtrack featuring Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, CeeLo Green, Laura Mvula, and additional artists. His subsequent project, the film The Book of Clarence, was co-produced with Jay-Z, James Lassiter, and Tendo Nagenda; it premiered at the London Film Festival in 2023 and opened in the United States in early 2024. Both the original score and the soundtrack, again composed entirely by Samuel, dropped the same day as the movie and include appearances by D’Angelo, Jorge Ben Jor, Terry Callier, Doja Cat, and others.
