Slowthai song lyrics

British hip-hop is invariably tied to its politics and history, and in the late 2010s, slowthai became a megaphone for the nation’s inequities. He was perfectly suited for the role, given his uncontainable energy on the mic and chameleonic ear for beats that draw from sources as disparate as grime, pop-punk, and Atlanta trap. He’s also felt like an outsider. Born Tyron Frampton in 1994 in Northampton, roughly 60 miles northwest of London, he embraced a small-town mentality fast. It was in Northampton, too, that he saw his first grime shows, sneaking into performances by OGs like Roll Deep and Devlin. As a teenager, he started freestyling with friends, but ultimately took to writing his verses, filling them with the details that defined his forgotten generation in the U.K. His debut album, Nothing Great About Britain, released shortly before Brexit in 2019, crystallized those thoughts into a cohesive, compelling, wildly entertaining body. Rapping in an artful sneer, slowthai documented the class disparities that plague his society, exposing them in his stories about women (“Doorman”), school friends (“Gorgeous”), and Northampton. It catapulted him to international fame and garnered the attention of American rappers like ASAP Rocky, who put out slowthai’s thrilling sophomore double album TYRON on his label AWGE. Slowthai’s approach is one that blends the personal with the political, and the sounds of home with the music of the world.