Out Now: Deep Waters by Nadirah X, a Banjo-Driven Single Ahead of Her RiverRun EP
Out Now: Deep Waters by Nadirah X, a Banjo-Driven Single Ahead of Her RiverRun EP
The Jamaican-Born MC Pairs Her Verses with Ned Douglas Production and a Banjo Lead
Nadirah X released Deep Waters on 8 August 2026 as a visualizer and lyric video on YouTube. Bandcamp followed on 4 September. The single sets a banjo at the centre of a downtempo groove, an unusual start for a rap record.
Nadirah X’s visualizer for Deep Waters is on this page, and her catalogue runs from Ink to Seasons, with the coverage gathered on her artist profile. Deep Waters came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Press play, then read on for the story behind the song.
From a 2002 Talent Contest in Jamaica to Seasons, Nadirah X’s Road to Deep Waters
Nadirah X is a Jamaican-born MC, writer and performer based in Los Angeles, United States. Poetry came first for her, and rap grew out of it.
Her career started in 2002, when she won the Irie FM and CME Big Break competition in Jamaica. The prize then led to a show where she met Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. As a result, Stewart signed her to his label and took her on tour in Europe.
Those years brought a wide run of work. For example, she co-wrote Go Green, the 2007 Greenpeace anthem, with Stewart, and Annie Lennox, Sarah McLachlan and Bonnie Raitt appear on it. Her debut solo album, Ink, followed in 2011, with Stewart as executive producer.
Likewise, the recent run is just as busy. She released Brainstorm with Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 in August 2022, and Strike A Note and Iggy Magazine both covered it. I Got You followed that November, and The Music Asylum wrote it up. In January 2023 came Let Love Surround You with Bosaya, plus a remix.
Then came Seasons, a 12-track album, on 14 January 2025. Its title song features the British reggae MC Tippa Irie. The guest list also takes in Chris Taylor and Scheol Dilu Miller, Diziah, Mahaut and Olaf Blackwood. Ned Douglas produced the whole album, as he has produced her music for more than 20 years.
Deep Waters Puts a Banjo Under Nadirah X’s Verses and Turns a Toxic Love Story Around
Nadirah X wrote the words to Deep Waters, and Ned Douglas wrote the music. Douglas once served as musical director at Dave Stewart Entertainment. With Stewart and Annie Lennox, he also co-wrote her song Here It Comes. So the new single comes out of the same circle that first signed her.
However, here he changes course. A banjo drives the track and gives the downtempo groove a folk colour. For Douglas, that is a real change of direction. Against it, she raps in tight, clipped lines, and the chorus rises over the banjo.
The lyric tells the end of a relationship from the side of the person who stayed too long. The first verse is about someone who tried to hold her and smother her (I’m the one you tried to hold). The second verse then counts the warnings she let pass. She turned the other cheek too many times and ignored the signs, flags flags flags on the play.
Then the chorus turns it around. Now the other person is the one in deep water. Her line I pray somebody come get you out is part prayer, part payback. Itchy Silk reviewed the single in September and heard the same mix of hope and retribution in the hook.
Morcheeba and Ursula Rucker, Two Reference Points for Deep Waters
Listeners who found downtempo through Morcheeba will recognise the instinct. On Big Calm in 1998, Ross Godfrey played pedal steel and lap steel over beats his brother Paul programmed. Deep Waters makes the same kind of move with a banjo.
For the words, the closer comparison is Ursula Rucker, the Philadelphia poet. Her work with The Roots began on Do You Want More?!!!??!. Ntozake Shange could not deliver a spoken-word piece, so the band asked Rucker instead. On her records with 4hero and King Britt, a producer’s groove carries the poem. Nadirah X takes the same approach on Deep Waters and lets the groove carry her verses.
MusicDrops.News’s curator team: “After an album with six guests, Deep Waters has Nadirah X alone on the mic, and it suits her. One voice, one banjo and a story that needs nobody else to tell it.”
After Deep Waters, Nadirah X Heads Toward the RiverRun EP With Ned Douglas Producing Again
Deep Waters is the lead cut from RiverRun, the EP Nadirah X has lined up next. Douglas is also producing it. In fact, the change of sound on this single is the best reason to listen now, before the full record arrives.
The single suits listeners of alternative pop, art pop and chillout, from the United States to Europe. Above all, it is for anyone who likes downtempo with something to say. It will also reach fans who have followed her from Ink through Seasons.
Start with the lyric video at the top of the page and follow the words as the song plays.
Deep Waters is out now on Bandcamp. Follow Nadirah X across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Deezer, YouTube, Linktree, Instagram, and Facebook.
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