"Forgiveness" is a single from Tottenham-born rapper

Wretch 32 Jermaine Sinclaire Scott (born 9 March 1985), better known by his stage name Wretch 32, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter from Tottenham, North London. He was a member of the grime collective Combination Chain Gang, before forming The ...

that appears on his second album ''

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

'' and features vocals from

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

and Odd Child Recordings-signed singer

Etta Bond Henrietta "Etta" Bond is a British singer-songwriter. She was the first signing to OddChild Music, partially owing to Bond becoming friends with Labrinth thanks to a fluke Myspace encounter. Career Writing material for her debut release, Bond ...

. The lyrical content on the song follows Wretch asking forgiveness of those around him as he attempts to pursue his dream – including his son. Cited as his favourite track from the album, the song was selected as the fourth single to see release in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and was released as a digital download on 11 December 2011. The track was edited for the official release, removing the first minute of the track in which producer

Labrinth Timothy Lee McKenzie (born 4 January 1989), better known by his stage name Labrinth, is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Labrinth signed as a recording artist with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Music in 2010, ini ...

sings his version of the chorus.

Background

Speaking of the track, Wretch described it as "one of

hose A hose is a flexible hollow tube or pipe designed to carry fluids from one location to another, often from a faucet or hydrant. Early hoses were made of leather, although modern hoses are typically made of rubber, canvas, and helically wound w ...

tracks where I really spell it out a lot about my Mum and Grandad, it's me asking for forgiveness as I chase my dream". "Forgiveness" was initially recorded in early 2011, following the number-five debut of the

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

Traktor Traktor is DJ software developed by Native Instruments. It is also used as a sub-brand for Native Instruments' associated DJ hardware products. History Traktor was first released in 2000. The initial versions available were ''Traktor DJ'' ...

". The demo, which leaked briefly in March featured vocals from

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

singer/songwriter

Emeli Sandé Adele Emily Sandé ( ; previously Gouraguine; born 10 March 1987), known professionally as Emeli Sandé, is a British singer and songwriter. Born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England and raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Sandé rose t ...

. The track was then re-recorded by Wretch 32 during the year to feature vocals from Etta Bond, a

singer signed to the producer of the track,

's, record label Odd Child Recordings. During an appearance on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

's Chart Show, Wretch 32 told host

Reggie Yates Reginald Yates (born 31 May 1983) is a British television presenter, actor, writer and director with a career spanning three decades on screen as an actor, television presenter and radio DJ. Yates played Leo Jones in ''Doctor Who'' and has wo ...

that the collaboration came about following contact between Wretch and Bond via

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

.Wretch 32 begins his 'Chart Journey' on the Chart Show – 6 November 2011

, Retrieved 2011-08-11. Wretch was asked the question how he is feeling about the new single, Forgiveness in online magazine Purple Revolver he replied "''This is the most personal record on the album for me, on one of my earlier projects I had a song with a similar vibe and it was everyone's favourite song so I promised myself, if I ever got the chance I would make 'Forgiveness' a single. It's not about chart positions...just the music.''"

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

that accompanied the release of "Forgiveness", It received its first play on 4 November 2011 on Flava. The video was then uploaded onto Wretch32TV (Wretch 32's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel) on 8 November.Wretch 32 reveals music video for 'Forgiveness'
SoulCulture, Retrieved 2011-11-08. During the week of 14 November 2011, the

was rated on

MTV UK MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & I ...

as MTV's Most Wanted. The premiere broadcast in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

of the "Forgiveness"

was on

MTV Base Africa MTV Base is a 24-hour music channel from Paramount Networks EMEAA. There are three different feeds of MTV Base Africa; for South Africa, West Africa and East Africa respectively. History The channel was launched in February 2005 with a live ...

on 12 December 2011. At three minutes, thirty-nine seconds, the video features an arrange of moody visuals – all of which are shot in and around

St Mary Magdalene, Paddington St Mary Magdalene, Paddington, is a Grade I listed Anglican church at Rowington Close, London, dedicated to Jesus' follower, Saint Mary Magdalene. The parish was established in 1865 and work on the church started in 1867. Although complete in , ...

, London, mirroring the lyrical content regarding

forgiveness Forgiveness, in a psychology, psychological sense, is the intentional and voluntary process by which one who may have felt initially wronged, victimized, harmed, or hurt goes through a process of changing feelings and attitude regarding a given ...

for his career-driven behaviour. The interior of

, featured in the "Forgiveness" promo was also used in scenes for ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

'' featuring

Hugh Jackman Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian and British actor, singer, and producer. Beginning in theatre and television, Jackman landed his breakthrough role as Wolverine in the ''X-Men'' film franchise and the Marvel Cinem ...

and the music promo for

Jessie J Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), known professionally as Jessie J, is an English singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End musical '' Whistle Down the Wind ...

Do It like a Dude "Do It like a Dude" is the debut single by British singer-songwriter Jessie J. The song was released as the lead single from her debut studio album, '' Who You Are''. It was released as a download in November 2010 in the United Kingdom with a p ...

. When Wretch 32 was asked i
Pyromag
"Who’s concept was it to be all filmed around and in a church?" Wretch's reply was "Yhh we really wanted it to reflect exactly what we were saying in the song, I think it needed to be gritty and dark to make you feel like wow and I think we managed to do that. Theres two ways to do videos either going with the concept of the song or a completely different one to the song which works sometimes; but this was one of them songs where I thought it would be best to stick to everything and just do it like that." The

was commissioned by

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publisher (popular music), music publishing busin ...

. The team behind the

are

Director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

Matthew Walker, Producer Benjamin Everingham and

Director of Photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

Steve Annis. Additional crew Focus Puller: Ahmet Husseyin, Gaffer: Craig Davies, 1st AD: Oliver Kester, 2nd Camera assistant: Sy Turnball, Grip: Alex Hudson, DIT: Sophie Baggaley, Location Manager: Richard Sanchez, Make up & Hair: Rebecca Wordingham, Production Designer: Anna Graziano, Colourist: Rich Fearon. The

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

is available in two versions, the official label release edit and the bootleg director's cut which is available only on

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

. The video promo is currently unavailable on ITunes Store or the official

website. The video can still be viewed on

Live performances

Wretch 32 performed an acoustic version of "Forgiveness" on 17 October 2011 for SB.TV alongside featured artist Etta Bond and the LBC (Lonsdale Boys Club) – who also aided with backing vocals. The track was also performed by Wretch 32 and Delilah as part of a live session for

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts Black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been ...

MistaJam Peter Dalton (born 19 January 1983), known professionally as MistaJam, is a British DJ and radio presenter. He is known for presenting radio shows on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra from 2005 to 2020; since 2020 he has presented on Capital Danc ...

on 18 October alongside tracks "Don't Be Afraid" and "Sane's The New Mad".Wretch 32 Interview + Live Session Tracks

, Retrieved 2011-11-08.

Track listing

Personnel

Songwriting A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

– Jermaine Scott, Timothy McKenzie *

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

– Timothy McKenzie *Additional vocals – Etta Bond, Labrinth (album version) Source:

Chart performance

Release history

References

{{authority control 2011 songs 2011 singles Wretch 32 songs Song recordings produced by Labrinth Ministry of Sound singles Songs written by Labrinth Songs written by Wretch 32