Slowthai: ‘It gives people more of an insight into my mind’

The 26-year-old rapper sounds penitent for the imbroglio with comedian Katherine Ryan at the NME Awards early last year. The drunken incident seems to have triggered some self-examination and a desire to rid himself, he says, of traits of “toxic masculinity” with which he grew up.

His new album, TYRON, delves into his personal struggles in the past year. “It gives people more of an insight into my mind and where I’m at, and where I was at the beginning of this tough time,” he says. “Before even Covid happened my mental health was all over the place, I was definitely going through a lot of downs. I had a lot of ups but when you’re caught up in the downs you don’t necessarily appreciate the ups.”

The Northampton-born MC had originally planned this to be his third album. It was brought forward due to the pandemic, he says, explaining: “Everyone’s mental health is being tested more than ever right now, so I felt like it was more important to focus on that than, say, politics or social commentary.”

Although this record might bear his first name, Slowthai believes it’s less autobiographical than his first, Nothing Great About Britain, which recounts his upbringing on a working-class housing estate through a series of grime-influenced vignettes. “That gave you more insight into where I was from, what I was surrounded by and the outlook on life. This is more internal, it’s more about feelings and emotions and mindset rather than what I’m doing day to day.”

If the first half of TYRON – featuring guest appearances by the likes of Skepta and A$AP Rocky – is angry, its second side is decidedly more introspective. Slowthai says he wanted to challenge some stereotypes. “All my life I’ve been told I’m this person and it’s like the irony of it,” he says. “You live in a certain life and everyone thinks you’re a bad person then you start doing something (like this) and everyone thinks you’re a public person. You’re running around and shouting like a mad man and aggressive all the time and people have another stereotype of you. When you feel something in your head and you’re chasing the high of that you get caught up in this character that isn’t everyday life. It is part of me, my younger self, but it’s definitely not the full ticket. To be portrayed as just a mad man all the time isn’t necessarily myself.

“I was listening to one of my early songs in the car the other day and it just felt like my outlook had grown. I’ve not become grown-up because I always want to have that innocence of a child when you’re looking at new things, but I’m getting older now and my understanding has changing, what I appreciate and connect with isn’t the same as it used to be.”

One of the album’s key tracks is nhs. The rapper has questioned last year’s Clap For Carers, arguing the health service should have been appreciated all along. Today he refutes the idea of stirring controversy as a marketing gimmick. “The other day I was watching some John Lennon interview,” he says. “When he was standing for peace and trying to bring people together they said the same thing to him, ‘is this just a marketing thing?’ and he got frustrated, and I felt the same the same kind of frustration.

“As an artist you’re only ever talking about what frustrates you. I don’t think ‘how can I make a song to further myself?’, I’m just thinking, ‘what is hacking me off that I want to express?’ and that’s what it was. I think we get too caught up in it being the NHS and the clapping, it’s about just having gratitude and appreciating everything that you have.

“Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and praise it for one minute, but why aren’t you continuously doing this? Why aren’t you trying to change something? Why aren’t you putting in money and trying to build it up so these people who are putting their lives on the line have a more comfortable life? Gratitude is like a gatekeeper – the more grateful you are, the more you receive.”

Slowthai recently dedicated the song Feel Away to his younger brother Michael John, who died at a year old. Making his brother’s memory proud is a huge motivating factor, he says. “I feel it as an older brother, not having my little brother here in these moments, because I’d take him everywhere,” he says. “That was one of my dreams. I have to take account for my actions and make sure I’m living as much (for him). If it was skydiving I’ve got to jump out the plane because if he’s watching over me, he’s going to be in that moment with me. Everywhere I go I carry my little brother on my shoulder.”

TYRON is out on Friday February 12. www.slowthai.com