**MONCLER + DINGYUN ZHANG** jacket, **EVANGELIST** glasses, and talent’s own necklace.

We follow the heavenly light, mirroring its path and holding it between our fingers in the distance. We peer at the moon in all its glory, a memory comes to mind, then a wave of nostalgia, maybe even a song floats in, and we whisper our desires or silent wishes. What answers might we be hoping for? Then again, maybe the mere presence of this miracle in the sky is an answer in and of itself? For musician Jnr Choi, the moon has been the recipient of questions on countless occasions, and more recently, he received an answer back from the cosmos.

The South East London-based musician, artist, and model released his first independent project, SS21, last summer—a compilation of frenetic energy colliding with tendrils of summer joy, yet carefully sewn together with seamless melodies. Simultaneously, he began working on his follow up project, which birthed “TO THE MOON”... and the rest is stratospheric.

**MONCLER + DINGYUN ZHANG** jacket, **UNDERCOVERISM FOR REBELS** pants, **CAMPERLAB** shoes, **EVANGELIST** glasses, and talent’s own necklace.

The track in question samples Sam Tompkins’ cover of “Talking to the Moon,” originally sung by Bruno Mars. Jnr compels the listener with his lyrical meanderings, toying with the tried and tested grime-conducive BPM of around 140. In November of 2021, “TO THE MOON” debuted, and after only a few short months, the track is close to reaching 100 million streams, with over two million videos on TikTok to accompany it. And you know you’ve heard it—whether mixed over a montage of an influencer hiking in the Himalayas, or a couple expressing their love, or just about any reel needing some cloying sonic accompaniment, Jnr is there.

Jnr tries at times to make sense of the confounding reception to his hit song. “It just spread like wildfire,” he says, shaking his head, “and became a thing, and now we’re here.” And it’s true. It feels like Jnr has arrived like a natural onslaught, entering 2022 with the top US track on TikTok. He released his own visual, sharing, “It was a mix of an introduction to me as the face to the song, as well as the space that the song gives, and the trajectory it takes you to when you listen to it.” He continues, “So we kind of put all those little aspects into a cooking pot, and created this little cinematic movie of what we thought the song represents.”

**BURBERRY** top, pants, and shoes and talent’s own glasses.

For Jnr, the track represents him deeply. The 22-year-old was born in The Gambia before he moved to London, and found himself awakened by a recent trip back to Africa. “I find it funny, because it was like, whilst I was in Africa, I was just observing and everyone’s mad happy,” he recounts. “Everyone’s always smiling, everyone’s positive, and it may look like they have way less. And I’m like, ‘How am I in London stressing?’” This epiphany strung inspiration atop and through his musical aspirations. “My goal is to connect the dots with the sound. I make afrobeat stuff, I make very very afro-influenced music. And blending the two, being from London, and having a grime influence with the afro stuff—that is what I intended to do, just connecting the dots.”

Connecting dots into songs can sometimes result in little time machines—tight little recollections of who we were before. It’s in this spirit that Jnr Choi interprets the world in seasons, knowing that there is never truly an end, and that there will always be a rebirth. “They will all be moments,” says Jnr of the unique nature of songs to define our intervals of emotion amidst the tug of time. “That’s one big thing with music— your favorite songs take you back to a time. You hear a song and it takes you back to a moment in your life. That’s how I want to release my music.” He continues, “I feel like I’m gonna look back at this time in ten years as the day the door opened.”

**AMI PARIS** jacket and **MARTINE ALI** bracelet.

A phone rings in the background and I ask Jnr who is calling, or whom he hopes might be calling, and minutes pass before he answers. He jokes about it being his accountant, but then shares it’s his family in The Gambia, eager to bridge the thousands of miles that separate them from him. Jnr explains that family and friends are the recharge that he needs. He lives with three of his best friends, all of whom work together on music and make a point to check in on one another, sometimes coming to him for “grounding and stability.” He elaborates, “Life gets cloudy if you let it. Just remember that your gut’s always right, your intuition is always right. That’s my thing.”

With the moon always by his side, Jnr Choi’s intuition must be true. With all this talk of the moon, you might ask what it is that he shares with his celestial confidant every night? Perhaps a wish, a mantra, or maybe a call home? “I talk to the moon all the time,” the musician concludes. “I say thank you. I’m grateful.”