“Black Man in a White World” by Michael Kiwanuka

"Black Man in a White World" comes from Michael Kiwanuka's 2016 album Love & Hate, and its title lays the subject out without a flinch. Kiwanuka built much of it himself, singing lead and playing both guitar and bass, while Inflo, who produced the track and wrote it with him, sits at the piano. Graham Godfrey supplies the drums, the percussion and the handclaps.

Around that core the credits keep widening: four backing singers in Jay Abdul, Paul Boldeau, Phebe Edwards and Ladonna Harley-Peters, and a string section credited to Wired Strings, with Natalia Bonner and Jenny Sacha on violin, Emma Owens on viola and Rosie Danvers on cello. Richard Woodcraft recorded and mixed it, and the whole thing swells from a one-man band into a crowd.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.