The spotlight on British rap has slowly started to widen its reach. From the shadows, comes out slowthai, a rapper that will put Northampton on the map with his brute and aggressive flow. We met the raw talent that might be the next big thing in the UK.

Photos : @alextrescool

Whether on stage or in the studio, slowthai « no space no caps » (as he specifies) is one of the few artists who performs as if his life is on the line. The proof? The Northampton-based MC performed at the Hoxton Hall in London. He made his entrance carried in a coffin by his team, in front of the eyes of an amazed audience. The funeral convoy finally arrived onto the stage, before an explosive slowthai rose from the dead and turned the room upside down with his song “R.I.P.” At the end of a frenzied performance, he ends in the middle of the crowd, stripped to his boxers, with bare feet : a dying breed, who expresses a devotion and energy that is all too rare nowadays. Powered by an incredibly brutal flow, the universe to which the young rapper transports us is abrasive and intense : “I like going wild. I’m not relaxed. I like coming and being in your face. I want people to break out from their stereotypes and be themselves. As a human I just don’t give a fuck, I’m unruly.”

He started to attract attention in 2016, after the release of the song “Jiggle”, which depicts his daily life through sincere, genuine and vivid storytelling. It is precisely this storytelling style that launched slowthai’s come up, in Northampton and further south in the capital. His lyrics reflect a lifestyle that the majority of his fanbase can relate to. “It’s the same kind of struggle whether you’re in London, Nottingham or Paris. It’s the same. Struggle is everywhere. People hear it and they know it’s sincere. I don’t chat shit.” In “The Bottom”, the Northant talks about how he spent his youth “without a father figure”, having only the choice between drugs or a job. But thankfully, life isn’t just about choosing between the red and blue pill.

In “North Nights”, slowthai showcases the range of his artistic talents with a video clip filled with well-executed movie references that perfectly represent his world. He gives a nod to the greatest horror movies of all time that go hand-in-hand with his raw and aggressive style. The opening scene is filmed Blair Witch Project style before we see the MC disguise himself as Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange. Then, inspiration is drawn from American Psycho with the face of the British MC reflected in a kitchen knife, followed by him rapping through a shattered door, just like in The Shining. But the most impressive part remains the sequence in the bathroom, which is inspired by La Haine. A significant mention: the “fake mirror” effect that was first seen in Mathieu Kassovitz’s movie was reproduced brilliantly using two identical products (here, the toothpaste and the soap dispenser).

His flow range is also what makes slowthai interesting, switching between a slow and fast pace and making his voice pitch rise at certain moments. To find his own style, he spent hours relentlessly polishing his craft: “Gotta put 10,000 hours to get where I wanna be otherwise I won’t progress and get any better and be complacent. I hate the feeling of contempt. I just feel like it’s boring when you get to the point of ‘yeah I’m happy’. I just wanna progress.” This goal for the Northamptonian shines a light on a rap scene that is developing and producing music worth giving a listen. In “The Bottom”, his producer Kwes Darko spoke specifically about the fact that every city in England has something to offer : “UK culture is usually very centered towards London, like that’s where UK culture presumably is from the outside world like people who aren’t British. But really, you got Birmingham who got they [sic] own culture, Manchester got they [sic] own culture, Nottingham got its own culture. Even Liverpool got they [sic] own culture and obviously Northampton as well.”

The rap scene in Northampton is certainly alive and well, with artists such as Izzie Gibbs, Statz and of course slowthai, who started spitting his first bars on beats his father made on Garage Band. In his youth, he dabbled in late night rap battles outside of nightclubs but during this period, rap was not serious as he was : “fucking around doing stupid shit, dumb stuff just to get by.” Thankfully, he took charge of his own destiny : “Then I was like yeah let’s try and make something positive rather than be negative.”

This change of spirit gave birth to two small projects that came out in 2017 : slowitdown (not easily found on the web today) and I WISH I KNEW. The first of these is made up of three tunes, including “T N Biscuits”, his most popular video on YouTube with more than 400,000 views. The second, I WISH I KNEW, compiles six songs and shows off the musical identity of the British rapper: a blend of hip-hop, garage and grime which fuse together to make slowthai’s signature sound. The Northampton MC is still growing as an artist, and doesn’t really think about the future : “I’ve taken every step as it comes. Obviously I’ve got a plan and I see where I’ve got to be but I just want to make music every day and make this movement a thing. There’s no milestone where I’m gonna be like ‘yeah I’m good’. I’ve faith in everyone around me and I know that we’re gonna get to where we need to be. In the future I just wanna live life and be happy.” A positive note that suggests a really promising 2018 for slowthai, with tunes to sample the British way: with tea and biscuits.