Each week, Music Week profiles a red hot brand new artist. Here, we turn our attention to rising Northampton rapper Slowthai.
KEY TRACK: T N Biscuits
LABEL: Bone Soda
MANAGEMENT: lewis@toyitoyi.co
TWITTER: @slowthai
WHO: A 23-year-old MC who goes by the name Slowthai.
WHAT: A hard-edged mix of hip-hop, garage, grime and dubstep with bars spat at tooth-shattering speed.
WHERE: Northampton, 67 miles North-West of London.
SO, SLOWTHAI GOES IN RATHER HARD THEN?
In a big way. Documenting youth and the difficulties of smalltown UK life, it’s as if the rapper’s songs emanate from the gutter. ‘Fuck the toilet, I’m sick on the couch/Sorry if this is your house’, he raps on Murder.
IS THERE ANY LIGHT IN WITH ALL THAT SHADE?
Actually, the light emanates from the production, bass rumbles and drums snap to make Slowthai’s work strangely danceable. A recent show at London’s Hoxton Hall was a melee of gyrating bodies.
FAIR ENOUGH. WHAT’S NEXT?
It’s early days yet, but Slowthai’s thinking big. In 2017, he told culture site The Basement, “As long as I’m the best here, it don’t matter - I’m the best.”