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Last February, Northampton rapper slowthai was staring a career meltdown in the face. Following a controversial joke at the 2020 NME awards involving the show host, comedian Katherine Ryan, Twitter users moved to “cancel” the rapper by spreading videos of the incident online without context. After the fact, slowthai apologized profusely on social media and Ryan stated that the rapper did not make her feel uncomfortable at any point. As part of a series of single drops last summer, slowthai indirectly addressed his attempted cancellation with “ENEMY,” a homophonic title for NME. With his latest two disc project, “TYRON,” slowthai attempts to move forward, channeling equal amounts of rage and vulnerability in an impressive — and mostly successful — showcase of emotional and musical growth.
The first half of the project — with song titles in all caps — sees the rapper in full rampage mode, supported by strong production from frequent collaborators SAMO and Kwes Darko. On the album opener “45 SMOKE,” Kwes Darko places a heavily modulated, creeping piano loop over the top of drill-style drums to create an absolute banger of an intro. The beat matches up perfectly with slowthai’s unique flow, highlighting and never overwhelming his abrasive delivery. SAMO and Kwes Darko employ a similar strategy on “MAZZA” featuring A$AP Rocky, using a lowkey stepwise melody to anchor a busy landscape of high hats, 808s, and kick drums. Yet “45 SMOKE,” “MAZZA,” and the rest of the tracks on the first half are disappointingly straightforward — rhythmically and melodically — compared to some of the singles released by slowthai last summer like the menacingly aggressive “BB (BODYBAG)” produced by Mount Kimbie and the wonderfully spastic “MAGIC” produced by Kenny Beats.
Like the beats, slowthai’s pen game on the first disc is solid, but severely lacking in certain respects. On “CANCELLED,” one of the lead singles for the project, the rapper teams up with fellow UK native Skepta in an abrasive response to slowthai’s 2020 NME Awards fiasco and cancel culture. Skepta’s repetitive eight bar chorus is remarkably tone-deaf: “How you gonna cancel me? / Twenty awards on the mantelpiece.” Besides it being a dry and repetitive hook, Skepta’s defiant attitude seems totally inappropriate — especially considering that he was uninvolved in the NME scandal or any other past incident involving cancel culture. On the track, slowthai seems to distance himself from his collaborator, deciding to focus on spitting clever rhymes: “Harry Potter, I’m off the vodka / Orderin’ lobster said it’s preposterous.” slowthai only takes one verse on the track, a confusing choice that further highlights the ineffectiveness and insensitivity of Skepta on hook duty. The track plays like a bad Skepta song with a slowthai feature. On “MAZZA,” the stark difference in delivery and accent between A$AP Rocky and slowthai allows the track to maintain its punch and avoid the monotony of “CANCELLED.” The last track on the first disc, “PLAY WITH FIRE,” displays slowthai, unencumbered by features, in top lyrical form and provides a nice transition into the softer second half of the album.
The introspective turn on the latter half of the project makes up for some of the first half’s failure with overall better production from Mount Kimbie, Kenny Beats, and Kwes Darko. The disc’s second track, “focus,” produced by Mount Kimbie and Kenny Beats with writing credits from James Blake, features a pulsating vocal sample that warmly cradles slowthai’s off-kilter delivery. Mount Kimbie and Kwes Darko join forces on “push,” a stripped-back acoustic guitar-based beat that highlights a beautifully sung chorus from Deb Never and allows slowthai to show off his chops: “Sellin’ drugs gets you richer, that’s a royal flush on the river.” The cool, breezy beat-making on “focus” and “push” gives context to and enhances the lead singles off the second half like “nhs” and “feel away.”
Throughout the second disc, slowthai opens himself up in ways rarely seen in his discography. On “i tried,” the rapper utilizes a laid-back, deliberate flow to talk about himself: “If Hell’s meant for sinning, Heaven’s never been for me.” The change in approach from “CANCELLED” to “i tried” is jarring but welcome, and it highlights slowthai’s skillful versatility. “terms,” which features Dominic Fike and Denzel Curry, is the one low point in the second half as it distracts from slowthai’s tender lyricism with a less than stellar hook from Fike, killing the momentum set up by the prior two songs. The Fike and Curry track excluded, the second half of the project expands on ideas from slowthai’s first project, “Nothing Great About Britain,” in songs like “Toaster” and “Ladies” — tracks that were overshadowed by the commercial success of bangers like “Doorman.”
A little more than half the length of “Nothing Great About Britain,” “TYRON” offers more than double the emotional content and lyricism via the second disc of the project. While slowthai first gained popularity with punk-inspired bangers, the rapper has worked to diversify his catalogue and prove his maturity as an artist. On Feb. 19, the project debuted at number one on the UK album charts. The Northampton rapper’s efforts seem to be paying off.
—Staff writer Ryan S. Kim can be reached at ryan.kim@thecrimson.com.
