Young

Isaiah Hull – the self-proclaimed “stand-up tragedian” from Old Trafford, Manchester – unveils his extraordinary new body of work: POCOMANIA. The ten-track project marks his first album for Young Recordings, and is both a spiritual reckoning and sonic eruption. Co-created with acclaimed producer Kwes Darko, POCOMANIA sees the pair exploring what mania sounds like in today’s Black Briton.

The title POCOMANIA references a Jamaican spiritual practice that creolises African ritualism and Christianity, brought to Britain by Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson — the first Black woman to work for the BBC, who also staged a BBC radio play titled Pocomania in 1938. Through this project, Hull and Darko—Jamaican and Ghanaian respectively—trace a lineage of diasporic sound and resistance, using mantra, drum, and voice to explore mania, rage, and redemption.

POCOMANIA opens with the galvanizing recent single “A IS FOR AFRICA”, a monochrome audiovisual statement released on 6th May to mark the 60th anniversary of Una Marson’s death. Directed by Hull himself with creative direction from Akira-Kai Kitazono and Josh Renaut, the video introduced Hull’s militant clarity and magnetic chaos. “Show ‘A is for Africa’ to anyone who asks about me,” Hull said. “It doesn’t need a degree to understand. We made it and laughed. It is for the children.” Across tracks like the urgent “UNION JACK” (“Our culture’s been stolen – you get your Union Jacked!”), the delicate “REVIVAL” and the rallying title track, Isaiah Hull contorts his voice, his verse, and his visual storytelling into a singular declaration of Black British reality. It marks the latest chapter in the career of an artist who’s already left an indelible impression on UK culture, whether opening for Skepta with a poem at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, presenting a TEDx talk as a 19 year old, supporting the likes of Kae Tempest and Saul Williams as a poet, or a series of acclaimed releases and collaborations with the influential London-based gesamtkunstwerk life is beautiful, most recently with 2024’s t he d esir e d efec t. With POCOMANIA, Isaiah Hull takes his place among the vital voices shaping the future of British music.