Countless aspiring singer-songwriters find themselves touted as “the next big thing”. Not many, however, create such a stir with their first demo that the head of Universal Music flies out to Islington to see their first-ever gig, radio heavyweight Zane Lowe champions their music on his show and Jay-Z gets personally involved in signing them to his label, Roc Nation. What was Jay-Z like, I ask Isaac Gracie, who recorded that track, Last Words, in his bedroom. “I haven’t met Jay-Z!” Oh. “He’s Jay-Z for god’s sake, he’s got more important things to be dealing with than a pasty-skinned kid from west London.”
Gracie, who grew up in Ealing, was in the middle of a creative writing degree at the University...