Recess: Londonâs Black nightlife planners
You can predict how a night is going to pan out by the crowd outside a venue. Are they cutting shapes in the queue? Chatting with strangers? Or lining up in an orderly fashion? âWhen people walk in and they already start grooving, or if I hear people singing from early, weâre in for a good one,â says Jojo Sonubi. Reading the crowd has become an art form for Jojo and his brother David, who in 2016 founded Recess, a Black club night programming parties across the capital. Their aim? To combine dancehall, UK hip hop, bashment and afrobeat music into one legendary package.
Six years, 20 team members and almost 80 parties later, Recess is now the bedrock of Black Londonâs nightlife scene, operating out of its HQ in Tottenham. The Sonubi brothers have created a party recipe that is incredibly moreish. âYou see different friendships form. You see the same groups of friends coming back and watch people grow up,â says Jojo.
When nightlife venues shut down on March 23 2020, Recess began airing its NS10v10 DJ battles via Instagram Live â gathering more than 20,000 viewers. It marked the birth of No Signal, an online #blackradio station playing music from across the African diaspora that now has listeners from more than 90 countries.
What started as partying with 70-something friends in Shoreditch grew to events hosting Stormzy, Headie One and GoldLink. âStormzy was really enjoying himself, just dancing at the back,â says Taja Boodie, Recessâs photographer and a producer at No Signal. âH