slowthai: “Selfish”
UK rapper slowthai has a unnerving charm to him—something about his slurring and particular enunciations, and his visual language, makes him an uneasy spectacle. His 2019 debut album Nothing Great About Britain remains one of the great pre-pandemic debuts. I wonder if we’ll ever again have music as eviscerating and with such a strong point of view. slowthai, born Tyron Kaymone Frampton, took his upbringing and turned it into a series of unflinching narratives about the perpetual decline of his country. In that way, he was a hip-hop traditionalist. And still, his insistence on punk tones made each and every song a shot of adrenaline. The album was critically acclaimed and remains his best work.
The pandemic brought a shift in all music—most artists were looking inward, and not all were finding anything worth sharing with as much urgency as slowthai. In 2021, he released his sophomore album, TYRON. This two-disc effort began a process of unspooling the man behind the act. Again, this is hip-hop tradition. slowthai’s angst and gritting deliveries carried the album. A few uneven features, additions that felt more about name recognition than chemistry, couldn’t keep the record down. It was obvious slowthai had a roiling within him, something shaking up his snowglobe heart. The album gets very close, but struggles to resolve either disc in full.
slowthai’s third album, UGLY, is slated for March 3, 2023. This record is billed as The One. This will be slowthai’s moment to fully merge his rock and rap sensibilities, to completely unseam the sutures and spill his guts for public consumption and personal healing. Today’s release of the lead single, “Selfish,” hints as much with its pulsing percussion and slowthai’s atypical flow and tormented voice. The potency of “I’m just thinking for myself” speaks to a bouquet of social ails. How as a people we’ve all splintered further and further apart in the name of individualism—though I do wonder if that is uniquely American, or if the poison of wanting to be special impacts everyone at some point. When slowthai sings, “We get what we deserve,” I can only assume he wants to communicate a very specific peril. That is, we are all instruments in our own demise.
Less doomsday-esque, UGLY stands for “U Gotta Love Yourself.” The songs were recorded in and out of therapy. Again, this album should be The One. slowthai’s acclaim—the awards, the shows, the critical writing, and even the brief on-stage controversy—is not in question. What I find more interesting is the timeline of his success. It’s challenging to break pre-COVID and return with new music to satisfy a new world with new needs. And yet, I’m not all that worried. slowthai is a very perceptive writer. He knows what to say and how to say it. He knows how to make thorny music danceable. He knows how to make you feel guilty for dancing. Most importantly, slowthai understands how to hold all the complicated emotions that come with raging and trying your very best.