Edith Nelson aka Shiloh and Barbara Boko aka the production duo DAMEDAME* did sort of come out of nowhere. Their producer credits include three songs from 2021 to 2023 and then suddenly they are credited as producers on 10 of 16 tracks on Jorja Smith’s excellent third album falling or flying. All I can tell you is the clearly talented women are from Birmingham in the UK, which is only around 10 miles from Walsall where Jorja is from.
The first two songs DAMEDAME* produced, “Plan” and “Genjutsu” by Otis Wongsam, feel like two sides of a coin. The first is hard hitting hip hop that feels trapped in a Birmingham street corridor and the latter is electro soul hop that feels perfect for an after hours lounge. Their final song pre-Jorja, “FOR THE PEOPLE” by METTE, is a shimmering Afro Pop number meant for the radio and dance floor. The Jorja album falling or flying is naturally very close to a hybrid of all three of these tones throughout, with some added melancholy live instrumental depth, due to it all being filtered through the Walsall songstress’s superpower.
The quality of DAMEDAME*’s production is shocking for Jorja. They feel engrossed in her best textural potential plus their chemistry feels seasoned for years even if the credits don’t tell that story. This is yet another example of transcendent women producers that seems like it may be tied to my theory I wrote about two years ago in my end of the year piece. I often have trouble finding women in the credits with substantial enough histories to write full pieces on for this publication. My theory is that there is a lack of safe studio spaces for women producers to flourish even if they have exceptional talent curated from years of training separate from major artists. It makes perfect sense that a prominent woman vocalist would find a diamond in the rough like DAMEDAME*, who have no prior resume of significance, and immediately trust them with a near full album because of how secretly excellent they are.
Their work with Jorja did luckily foray into a few major placements for the duo. From 2024 to now they’ve furthered their core sound for top-tier artists from Tems to Wizkid to Jim Legxacy for absolutely excellent songs on each of their most recent albums. Yet, rather than dedicate their next chapter to racking up credits for others, DAMEDAME* has instead just released as ear-awakening an album as I’ve heard in 2026, DREAMS ON THE PASSENGER SEAT. It’s an intoxicating listen. They both sing and rap on the record with expertise. The production takes the hybrid from the Jorja album and warps it through a late night r&b filter. It’s my favorite debut album by any artist this year. While I do believe there may be some truth to my theory in the prior paragraph, if I’m wrong and they were just keeping most of their work for themselves, that would also check out. I hope to hear them on Jorja’s next record and producing for a plethora of other major talents, but what I’m now most excited about is their potential to be one of the next cemented producer/vocalist combos of the modern era.
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