Samm Henshaw Found His Voice In Church — Now He's Bringing It To The World

In the music video for South London singer Samm Henshaw's ecstatic, radiant "Church," the opening time we visualize him, he's floating down the street aboard a cloud. Before long, he glides his way to an actual church, proclaiming the exultant chorus en route ("Wake up and get yourself to church!") And continuing in front of a lively choir if he arrives. Because the former Chance the Rapper tourmate told MTV News recently, the scene recalls his own story finding his voice indoor places of worship.


"It all sort of happened in church," Henshaw, 25, mentioned over the phone. As a preacher's son, he unleashed his voice in front of people for the opening time ever at church youth camp as a kid at a companions urging. "He mentioned, 'You should go up and sing,' and I was like, nah, I don't aspire to do it. Although I noticed the courage."


His courage extends behind just his voice, a raspy, elegant wail that anchors his soul- and hip-hop-inspired confections. A common Samm Henshaw track sounds like a gospel-tinged pop tune — "Church" and 2018's "Broke" boast a lively, loose slickness with a lot of sky-scraping vocal moments — although he's not a fan of the "gospel pop" label. "You'll know As soon as I make a gospel joint!" He tweeted in March. Still, a gospel energy flows through Henshaw's catalog, a collection that snagged him a spot as one of the inaugural artists to perform at The Lose, New York City's latest cultural efficiency center, for its Soundtrack of America series in early April. (Its official description labels it "a five-night concert series celebrating the influence of African American music with a new generation of groundbreaking artists.")


As much as Henshaw's textured voice is his moneymaker (indeed, he can deploy it for both aching Usher covers and smoky R&B originals), he is a songwriter at heart. He commands piano and guitar. His process demands hammering out a solid chord progression, then singing on top to find the melody. Working on "Church" specifically, he noticed some resistance to what became the song's actual subject matter. "I remember being in some sessions... And people could be like, 'Oh, don't do that; it's also gospel-y or also church-y,'" he told Noisey.


"'Church' as a word can instantly make [people]... Be put off by that," he elaborated while in our conversation. "[But] as soon as it comes to mainstream music, it's going out to each person, not just one specific audience. With 'Church,' there's no agenda. I'm not attempting to promote anything. I'm just telling a story."


That story demands a sweet memory with his mother. "My mum became like my personalized alarm clock on Sundays waking me up [to go to church]!" he wrote in a Genius annotation of the song. "I wanted to try and replicate that feeling in the lyric, without actually shouting or screaming over the song." The end result is a recreation of pure elation, the same kind he still gets from his trips to weekly service. "It's still very much a piece of my life at the moment," he revealed over the phone.


Even as his songs and videos rack up millions of streams and as his audiences grow larger, Henshaw is aware it may all vanish in a moment. He likens himself to an athlete one injury away from early retirement. That's why he made sure to finish school before committing to music full time a number of years back, a decision he also attributes to the prodding of his meticulous, hardworking Nigerian parents. "I routinely have to think about the fact that this is everything going according to plan, and that one day, God forbid, my voice could turn on me," he mentioned. "I could've dropped out of university and ended up not getting a deal, and things could've not gone the way I wanted them to."


Such an outlook places Henshaw in an enviable position. He's a sincere songwriter with a luminescent stage presence and brawny vocal cords — and he's got a plan B, should his situation ever require it. What that is, though, isn't crucial to his immediate plans, which are to keep pumping out music while in 2019 in anticipation of an eventual album. The release plans, he mentioned, are tactical and, as of right now, undefined; he doesn't want a number of new material to get "lost in the rubble."


Based on his Twitter presence, Henshaw could routinely pivot from art to arts criticism if he required to. His unvarnished quips on Captain Marvel ("meh"), The CW's Arrow ("it lost the sauce"), and Green Book ("fantastic movie") instigated me to put forth a number of queries about 2019's upcoming blockbusters, starting with the Todd Phillips-directed Joker. "I think it's gonna be really good 'cause Joaquin Phoenix is a genius, nevertheless I just don't really know how I feel about DC [Comics] at the moment," he mentioned. Back in the MCU, meanwhile, he's even much less optimistic about his emotional state right after Avengers: Endgame wraps: "Something's gonna happen and we're not gonna visualize Captain America in any more films, and that's gonna suck."


As for the epic conclusion of Game of Thrones, his preference show ever" that's he's "gutted" about? "I think it may go either way," he mentioned a couple of weeks back. Since then, he's declared for Residence Stark (or is it technically House Stargaryen?). "Jon Snow for the Throne..." He tweeted Sunday night soon following the Season 8 premiere. "Or [Tyrion]... Either way I think Khaleesi has lost it."