TRACK REVIEW: slowthai (ft. A$AP Rocky) - MAZZA

TRACK REVIEW:

slowthai (ft. A$AP Rocky)

PHOTO CREDIT: Crowns & Owls

MAZZA

9.4/10

The track, MAZZA, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NhyFEZKq48

RELEASE DATE:

5th January, 2021

GENRES:

Hip-Hop/Punk-Rap

ORIGIN:

Northampton, U.K.

LABEL:

Method Records

The album, TYRON, is released on 5th February. Pre-order here:

https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/slowthai/tyron

PRODUCERS:

Slowthai/Kwes Darko/SAMO/Dom Maker/Kelvin Krash/Kenny Beats/JD Reid/KIKO/Daniel Duke

TRACKLISTING:

45 SMOKE

CANCELLED (ft. Skepta)

MAZZA (ft. A$AP Rocky)

VEX

WOT

DEAD

PLAY WITH FIRE

i tried

focus

terms (ft. Dominic Fike & Denzel Curry)

push (ft. Deb Never)

nhs

feel away (ft. James Blake & Mount Kimbie)

adhd

__________

THIS review is about a new song that…

PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Smithies for DIY

also features the talents of A$AP Rocky but, as I am looking ahead to the release of slowthai’s new album, it is going to be about him. I will mention A$AP Rocky in the context of the song but, when it comes to the rest of this review, I am spending time delving into the life and background of slowthai. I am going to sort of do a chronological thing when it comes to slowthai, as I think it is important to have a look at his earlier years and ascent into music before coming right up to date and discussing the track, MAZZA. Maybe you know quite a lot about slowthai and his music but, for those who do not, I am going to introduce a series of interviews where we discover more about the Northamptonshire rapper. I was interested in learning about Tyron Kaymone Frampton’s teenage years. In this interview from The Guardian from last year, we look at his earlier years - and why music was always going to be where he was heading:

“In his teens, he wagged school, doing stuff he shouldn’t to bring in money. Then he went to music college in Northampton and met indie kids for the first time, who broadened his horizons by playing him Radiohead and showing him that some of his roadman attitudes were “bullshit”. But gradually, his friends started settling. “I was always like: “Come on, let’s do the music. The music’s the thing.” And they would be like: “No, I want to get a mortgage. I’m going to get a job. And I want to work my way up.” And I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t go and put on a smile and be like: “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” I would rather die. I would rather put everything into something and fail a thousand times and have no money, than live a life unhappy, just to scrape by.”

At one point, he went down to London, to the then-pirate station Rinse FM, with his friend rapper Izzie Gibbs. Stormzy and Jaykae were there, but they didn’t give him the time of day, “because I hadn’t done anything,” he says. “Not like I hold any resentment for it. It empowered me to further myself, because I was like: ‘Nah, I ain’t having it.’ I’ve always believed I could do it, a hundred per cent”.

I like slowthai because he is quite complex and there are different sides to him. You have this sort of energy that projects from him; he is also quite sensitive and shy. Listening to his music, and it is hard to get a sense of who the man behind the music is. That is not a negative. It is just that the music has a lot of variety and energy; one wonders who the real slowthai is. I like looking at interviews where we get these insights and pieces of the jigsaw. Returning to that interview with The Guardian, and we get a window into his personality and his home situation:

“Despite his tiredness, the 25-year-old’s particular charisma pops through the screen: the cheeky maniac at a club, the one who gets the vibe peaking simply through lairiness. Slowthai is called that because his name is Ty (Tyron Frampton) and he spoke slowly as a kid. But it’s clear his mind is going a mile a minute. His answers to my questions are long and complicated, often philosophical. “I’m always going off on tangents,” he says. “Sorry about that.”

He’s in his studio, a basement room in the house in Northampton that he shares with his fiancée and his mum, Gaynor. I can see a sofa, covered in piles of folded laundry – “Here’s a Santa suit!” – and shelves with boy bits on: a rubber head of James Brown under a glass dome, a Clockwork Orange Alex statuette. Slowthai has spent a lot of lockdown time in this room and he chats about the audio books he’s been absorbing (Ego Is the Enemy, Akala’s Natives, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan), computer games he’s been playing (Fifa, Call of Duty, the new Tony Hawk). He strums on his guitar. “I’ve been trying to learn the Wurlitzer!” he says. Slowthai’s eyes curve like a cartoon when he smiles. He is nearly always smiling”.

I think that slowthai is a very rich and complicated person. It is interesting how interviews and features talk about the contrasting sides and contradictions of the man. Vice wrote about this in their interview from last year:

“But there are at least two sides to slowthai. There’s the one whose face is corrupt with pure manic energy and could turn around any living person’s bad mood with a bit of wordplay and flirtatious charm; the one for whom shirts are meaningless, existing only for the moment they’re taken off. Then there’s the one who seems socially shy; the one who, during our time together, wants to eat in the car instead of in front of people and laughs nervously under pressure”.

I shall move on to the debut album of slowthai, Nothing Great About Britain. That was released back in 2019 and, to me, it is one of the finest debut albums of the past decade. It is a fantastic work and one that was rightfully praised and celebrated! Returning to that quoted interview from Vice, and it seems that the popularity of the debut album afforded slowthai the opportunity to give something back to his family:

“The success of Tyron Frampton’s debut album Nothing Great About Britain in 2019 has meant “freedom” for his family: freedom from financial concerns, freedom for him to focus solely on music. The 25-year-old rapper permanently lives with his mum sandwiched in the middle of a long row of terraced houses in Northampton. It caters to all, with a room for his mum’s semi-permanent make-up salon and a basement for his studio, where he’s been busy writing his second album. Ten minutes later, Patsy is chatting and chatting, as nan’s do on their way out, and pushes past Ty in the back door frame. “Text me, because you never do,” she chides”.

Slowthai’s ascension has been rapid, so there’s been a lot to celebrate. After spending 14 years on a Northampton estate, raised by his single mum since the age of three when his dad left, Ty made a name for himself depicting working class life around him. Both incendiary (politically, emotionally) and considerate, he was specific in his mission to make Nothing Great About Britain, and British politics in general, accessible for everyone. He played shows for £5, put mirrors up to audiences at gigs to champion them and rapped about his love and respect for women, especially the number one woman in his life: his mum, immortalised as his “only queen” on “Northampton’s Child”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Liam Hart for FADER

There are a few more things I want to cross off of the list before coming to slowthai’s latest song but, as we consider the artist and all of his sides, I think humility has to come to the fore. One would not assume a rapper would be defined by their humbleness. That is not a shot but, again, when you consider the music, one tends to think of something more boastful and aggressive! I think there is something quite rooted about Tyron Frampton. I want to bring in an interview from DIY, where we get another window into slowthai’s (I will refer to him like this rather than Tyron Frampton) family life and how rooted he is:

“The young musician’s humility is evident, and despite his achievements this year you get the impression that his life now ultimately isn’t that different from how it was before the fame, fortune and fancy tour buses. He still spends as much time as possible at his mum’s house in Northampton, or drinking tea at his nan’s (“PG Tips or Yorkshire Tea”); having been so busy this year he hasn’t been able to spend much time at home, so he’s looking forward to Christmas back there. “I love being at home, so now I’ve got a bit of money I’ve been doing up the house me and my mum live in because that’s nice for her,” he explains. What does she think of all this? “I think she’s just proud. She’s seen me go from being a little twat to having this success, so really she’s just happy that I’m doing this,” he chuckles. “The night before the Mercurys, I was in my studio at home and she came down just crying. I got really angry at first because I thought somebody had upset her. The way she was crying I thought somebody was dying or something [but she was just proud]. I get everything from my mum, she taught me most things I know, so it’s nice to take her places. I’ve been trying to take her on holiday but she won’t go off work”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lee Ramsey

There is one slightly sour event that I need to nod to before moving on. One cannot help but to forget a rather unfortunate event at the NME Awards early last year where host Katherine Ryan was on stage with slowthai and there was a drunken altercation. It is a moment that slowthai regrets, but it was quite ironic that he was picking up the fan-voted Hero of the Year award and then the incident occurred! In the interview from Vice, slowthai reacted to a true low point:

“I wish I went and sat back in my seat,” he says of the moment things escalated. “But I’ve never been that type of person to waddle back, ya know? The only other time I’ve ever been around a comedian is when I walked into a pub and into the back room like ‘what’s going on here’ and the guy instantly targeted me. I should’ve learnt from that.”

It was a career highlight gone sour. When he returned to the stage to collect his ‘Hero of the Year’ award, people started to boo. One audience member called him a “misogynist” and he reacted badly, throwing a glass into the crowd. The emotions on his face were comprehensible: confusion, fear, powerlessness. Moments after he jumped off the stage and disappeared, clips of his exchange with Ryan had already been shared on Twitter and labelled sexual harassment”.

There is another interview that I want to bring in where that night is also covered. When he spoke with DAZED last year, slowthai had an interesting perspective on the incident:

“Speaking about the night three-and-a-half months later, Frampton says that the videos don’t offer the full context of what happened. “It’s inexcusable to do anything like that, but people just see one side,” he says. “You can’t judge a book by a two-minute video clip.” The two clips that went viral from the night were actually taken from separate moments at the event, and primarily show Frampton’s responses to Ryan, cutting out her parts of the joke. A third video of the exchange shows a longer back-and-forth between Ryan and Frampton”.

There are a lot more positives to slowthai than negatives. I want to sort of bring things fairly up to this date, as lockdown has been a tough one for all artists. I think the family bond is very important to slowthai. As we learn from the Vice interview, it seems that lockdown at home has been a fairly positive experience:

“Back home, he went into lockdown with Katerina and his mum. This was a comfortable prospect for Ty (“I’ve always just been around women, my mum and my sister, that was always my unit”). Instead of touring and festivals, he started eating properly, learning to cook Russian meals from his girlfriend: things like borscht and a vodka pasta, based on one they’d enjoyed in LA. Slowly he noticed that he looked less and less ill, less exhausted from touring and being on the road.

The insular, homely life suited him. “As I’ve gotten older, I like snuggling, I like watching movies and eating, I like cute shit. I’m not gonna hide away from it,” he grins. That’s all fed into his next album. “I like being softer though, and not being so aggressive with my voice and stuff. Having some piano moments and sweetness”.

Sticking with slowthai and family…I was interested to learn about his sister and mother and whether they are fans of his music. One listens to slowthai and there are no obvious influences that come to the forefront – he is a unique artist who has his own spirit.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joshua Gordon for CRACK

In an interview with GQ from 2019, slowthai is asked about his musical influences:

“Do your mom and sister like your music?

Yeah. I think they both could do every song word-for-word.

For example, say I'm at home chillin' and I just hear my chune bangin' out and it'll be like a car parked outside. And I'll be like, "Who the fuck is this? What is this?" I think it's one of my boys just tryna piss me off. And I look out the window and it's just my mom like in the car just jammin' out. I've seen her drive past. I've been walking down the street once and she drove past, I could hear it. And she's just singin' word-for-word.

But my mom's quite young, so she listens to a lot of what I listen to. She finds stuff that is relevant now. She would be like playing this song and I'd be like, "What the fuck are you listening to? I ain't even heard this shit!”

What type of stuff was she playing when you were growing up?

It was a lot of garage, a lot of jungle, a lot of dance music. And Portishead. A lot of R&B as well. My mom would play random shit, man. She weren't so much into soul, that was more my nan. All the rock influence comes from my stepdad.

I always used to love that song from Reservoir Dogs, [sings] "You put the lime in the coconut and mix them all together, put the lime in the coconut and you feel better." I could listen to that on repeat as a kid. That was my shit, man”.

Forgive me for giving a big build-up to the MAZZA, but there is a lot to uncover regarding slowthai! I like how there are different emotions and styles that work their way through his music. Maybe, in some respects, people expect male artists to be quite limited; like they are going to talk about certain things and that their emotional palette is quite limited. There is a richness to slowthai’s work that is intriguing and revealing. Going back to the interview from The Guardian, we discover more about the textures and emotions in slowthai’s music:

“This attitude might sound understated, but it’s not delivered that way and does not extend to Slowthai’s approach to his music: he’s always been highly ambitious about that. He believes in albums. “I’m a fan of David Bowie,” he says. “I like albums, I like narrative, I love films. The idea and the story that flows from start to finish, it’s always been important to me.” Plus, he knows what he wants to make: TYRON was meant to be his third album, but the times seemed right for it to come out now. Vengefulness and rebellion, introspection and self-blame. The full emotional gamut.

Often, young men are only allowed to express two emotions, I say: anger and horniness. “I don’t think that they’re not allowed to express other emotions, it’s that they allow our society to make them feel that way,” he says. “I’ve got so many boys [friends] that are just angry in general, at life. And they have a reputation, so they think they have to act a certain way. Out of all my friends, they know I’m the one that if they wanted to cry, I’m there. It’s OK to cry. It’s not a thing [that] you’ve got to be the hardest man in the UK and walk around with your chest pushed out”.

“The final track on TYRON, adhd, talks about how Slowthai can’t be alone. How he needs his friends. It features a phone call from him to a mate, just saying that he misses him. It’s Slowthai’s favourite track on the album. He played the guitar, sampled it, and once he heard the sound, he knew what he wanted to do.

“I always wanted to make songs that make people cry,” he says. “Not just that you made people feel good, but you’ve really hit the emotion, or made them relive a moment where they feel something. And with that song, I never used that tone before and everyone in the room just went into the same headspace I was in. It allowed me to get everything off my chest. And I was dragging myself through the dirt. It made me feel like I’m hitting what I want to say. I’m fully getting it out. I’m expressing it”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Crowns & Owls

It might sound like slowthai is an artist who strives for perfection and a sense of completeness through his music. In fact, the sense of the imperfect is what makes his music so strong and engaging. Circling back to that GQ interview from 2019, and slowthai offers explanation as to why a sense of the imperfect creates perfection:

“I say imperfect not as a criticism, but because that’s what Frampton wanted it to be. “Imperfection is what creates perfection,” he says when we sit down to talk ten minutes later and I ask him about wanting visitors to hear “every detail, all the mistakes and characteristics that make ‘Toaster’”. “It’s like, the Mona Lisa’s smile isn’t perfect because she’s got perfect teeth, it’s the off-ness of it, how it captures the realism”.

“Anything I’ve ever appreciated,” he continues, “be it soul music, rock and roll, punk or even the blues from the Thirties with Robert Johnson, there are bum notes, it’s rough and it doesn’t sound clean. Most of it was recorded to one track and captures the feeling, the vibe: you can’t re-create that.” He says he’d like visitors to “hear the honesty, hear all the different parts. I want people to have an opinion. It’s all good for me to want something, but I want to hear what you want, what it makes you feel. It’s like with the meaning of my lyrics, it doesn’t matter what I meant, because if they mean something completely different to you, then that’s more important. If it makes you smile, who am I to say you shouldn’t”.

Just a few more things I want to explore before I get down to business. It is rare, when we think of U.K. rappers, to look outside of London. I think things are changing in the way that respect. The BBC just named Coventry-based Pa Salieu as their Sound of 2021 winner. There are great artists in Rap and Hip-Hop from outside of the capital. There was a bit of surprise from some when they learned that slowthai was from Northampton. Taking from the GQ interview, it appears slowthai has a lot of affection for his hometown:

“Rap fans were immediately intrigued by the MC from Northampton, one of the few voices on the scene from outside of London and the only one not from a major city. Frampton is hugely proud of his hometown.“ It is weird because, when you’re from such a small place it feels like no one is ever going to take you seriously,” he says. While we’re on the topic, I mess up majorly by accidentally saying “Nottingham” instead of “Northampton” (it was a slip of the tongue!) and I can tell Frampton is really quite upset. He rebuffs me by reeling off Northampton facts to prove the place’s significance: “It’s the biggest town in Europe, or second, or third, or somewhere around there,” he says (it’s third). “But we’re one of the biggest. We would have been the capital of England but we didn’t have a cathedral and we didn’t have a port, so we couldn’t import and export and therefore couldn’t be the capital. But we are closest to the centre and I think Princess Diana is buried in Northamptonshire – she’s from a similar sort of place. Thom Yorke lived there at one point in time. We make shoes, we’re known as cobblers”.

This sort of moves us to slowthai’s second studio album, TYRON. From the title, one would assume it to be his most personal album. I think it will be more of an exploration into his true self and being than Nothing Great About Britain. When he spoke with DAZED last year, we learnt more about the objectives of TYRON:

“Fans, eagerly awaiting album two after Frampton teased the news on Twitter last month, can expect “two sides of me”, he says, “AKA two sides of Tyron as a person. The person who got to this place and the person who is trying to be”. With a grin, and a quick look back to his manager to see how much he can tell me, Frampton reveals that the title of the record is already “in the world” – he adds that it’s even been said during our interview – and is due imminently. Self-described as the best music he’s ever made, the rapper says the album will offer both a softer and harder side of him, with more aggression shining through. “This is to push people,” he enthuses, rhythmically adding: “If you’re in the gym, I want you to push. If you’re at work and someone is doing your head in, I want you to push and get your own money. This is about inspiring people to better themselves”.

I think TYRON is going to be a really interesting album. You can pre-order it (the link is at the top of this review) and experience an album that has two distinct halves. We learn more about the album from an interview in The Face:

“TYRON is split into two conceptual halves. The first is the hype, excitable, sweat-inducing slowthai that you’d see at one of his shows, where he’ll strip off and source accessories like sunglasses or socks from his fans and, more often than not, end up crowd surfing. The tracks are short, like flashes of lightning, with their names capitalised. As you might have gathered, it’s the angry half. “Used to jack cars with a Phillips,” he yells on 45 SMOKE, a searing trap cut with bass that threatens to blow your speakers. The A$AP Rocky-featuring MAZZA is equally aggy: “Ayy, make the place look like a murder scene!” he raps”.

And there’s a tune with Skepta called CANCELLED that tackles the idea of people gleefully tearing him down: “I must be cancelled, ain’t got much longer.”

When a preview of CANCELLED started doing the rounds, the reaction was split between some gassed fans and others who disapproved. The abuse allegations towards Octavian had recently emerged, and people were critical of slowthai’s apparent insensitivity in teasing a track with the defiant refrain: “How you gonna cancel me?” featuring Skepta (who’d previously been affiliated with Octavian) while social media was filled with discourse about purging the music industry of abusive men.

But as someone who witnessed domestic abuse first-hand growing up, slowthai is quick to denounce it as indefensible. He’s also ready to challenge anyone making that tenuous link between him and the alleged deeds of another musician.

“There’s a pocket of people that just want to see you fail, they constantly have your name on their lips. [But] I’m making music for myself and people that listen to me. I’m not making music to talk about anyone else’s situation. I’m not the narrator of their story so fuck ’em. I have my voice. But I’m not there to be man’s guardian.”

The second half of TYRON is softer, the more vulnerable side of slowthai demonstrated in reverb‑y guitar lines and sweet, crackly production”.

On the Kelvin Krash-assisted nhs, slowthai urges the listener to confront their flaws, warning that otherwise they’ll be stuck with them: “Always had the bum knee, you will always be chubby /If you suck in your tummy, when you’re starin’ at the mirror”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Smithies for DIY

With A$AP Rocky’s spotlight coming later, the first moments of the song are from slowthai. There seems to be discontent and a sense of annoyance in MAZZA’s introduction: “Yeah, yeah/Jesus Christ/Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (Huh, huh, huh, huh)”. One is instantly intrigued as to what the song could be about and why the hero is so irked. The first verse is a fast and furious delivery where there is a sense of the frantic at work. A$AP Rocky interjects and adds a sense of conversation – or adding to the paranoia -, and we get these vivid scenes and lines from slowthai: “Mazzalean (Mazzalean)/When I'm pulling up, muddy dungarees (Yeah, huh?)/Make the place look like a murder scene (Murder)/Ayy, when I make moves, I'm a money fiend (Money, yeah)/Suicidal tendencies, what's up, man? (Bang, bang)/Feel like I'm down, I say "What's up?”/Way too, way too, way too gully, give me money (Give me it all)/Cannot trust me, no one ever fuckin' buss me change/(Buss me, buss me, buss me, buss me, buss me)/Look how shit changed/Feeling like these drugs made me better than I was”. I said how TYRON is an album where we learn more about the different sides to slowthai. How honest this is to some of his darker moments I am not sure, but I get this feeling of a man who has succumbed to darker days and experienced addiction and violence. Of course, there is some heightened emotions and a sense of the fictional, but there is a lot of slowthai in the song. The first verse is this electric and captivating thing where we get all these wild scenes and explorations. The ending of the verse is especially striking: “Walk in, made a big bang (Yeah)/Propane with a Roxanne (Brr)/Gin and tonic, I'm a bigger topic (Yeah)/Bigger pocket, can't close my wallet (Blah)/Quicker blotting, like my name's Sonic/Glass home, we stone chucking”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Steven Ferdman/Getty Images

A$AP Rocky comes to the spotlight for the second verse. The two work really well together on the track - and they have different delivery styles. A$AP Rocky is a little slower and more soulful (if that is the right word?), whereas slowthai is more intense and ramped-up. It gives MAZZA this nice contrast and agility. Again, one gets some rather striking images and arresting imagery in the verses. There is this dizzying excess and urgency at work: “Olive, body shaped like a bottle/Popeye off of spinach/Pop a model 'til she swallow, dropping Tyler off, damn/Light a flame, toss a Molotov/Drop it off, then I Mazel Tov/Pop a whole god dang champagne bottle cork/Still might find me in a mosh pit/And I still ain't even corporate/Walked in with who I worked with (Yeah)”. There is a lot of confidence and swagger in the second verse. I love the wordplay and the way A$AP Rocky delivers his lines. Like I said, there is a difference between the two rappers and the worlds they are projecting. A$AP Rocky – as a counterpoint to a more British landscape in slowthai’s words – brings us to American streets: “Got jokes uptown, Harlem world, New York like I'm Pop Smoke/Riding 'round in the drop rolls, watching rats in the pot roast/Finger polish with the topcoat, the bottom platinum but the top”. A$AP Rocky ends his verse and then throws the microphone back to slowthai: “Bling, bling, that's barcode/Ring, ring, that's a smartphone/Beep, beep, there your heart go/slowthai, here your part go”. The video is really interesting: we see the two in different hotel rooms as they are both smashing the place up. Maybe as a result of intoxication or fear, we see slowthai destroying a television and both look into mirrors and we see them with widened, almost cartoon-like eyes. It is a great visual where we get this connection and bond, despite the fact the two are not close to one another. We get some final words from slowthai: “Different goals/On the street, play different roles”. I think that is one of the big takeaways from MAZZA: we have two class rappers taking us into different streets and worlds. It is an engrossing and fantastic song that has already signalled itself as one of the highlights from TYRON.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sirui Ma for Vice

I want to nod to the future and what is coming next for slowthai. I think there is a lot to love about slowthai and, when TYRON arrives, I think it will get a hugely positive reaction. Returning to the interview with Vice, we discover what is next for slowthai:

“Who can slowthai be moving forward? He’s still the person who created the most important album about Brexit Britain, and its legacy, he hopes, is that it made people “think for themselves”. He’s still the person who encouraged young people to engage with politics, and he will continue to prove that he’s still one of the most exciting rappers in the UK. Behind his computer there’s a piece of fan art so big and stylistically impressive that I mistake it for a professional commission. It was gifted to him by a female fan at one of his shows. Now, when he’s making music, it’s right there in front of him: a huge black board of handwritten lyrics, and tea in bone china cups with saucers and Boris’ infuriating face mid-roar”.

A part of him is at peace with the fact that he was made an “example” of. He says, on a tangent, that he feels great sympathy for people who’ve been cancelled maliciously or targeted on social media. “That’s the worst thing for me, that we live in a world where these things actually happen and hurt people and leave people feeling repressed and suppressed or pushed down,” he explains. “At the end of day, we’re all here to be our truest selves and fulfil our potential and when people hinder that or stop you from being who you’re meant to be or dim your light… I just can’t understand why anyone would wanna make people feel them ways. I’m always changing and growing and I hope people can see it”.

It is quite heartbreaking that, perhaps, it will be a long time before slowthai can share TYRON with the world in terms of live gigs. Quoting from the DAZED interview, slowthai shared his views regarding the possibility of future gigs at a hard time:

“Although a tour is likely off the cards, Frampton maintains a glimmer of hope that he’ll be able to share his album with a crowd. “We were looking at getting a big bit of land and putting a stage up there, then you know them balls?” he smirks. “The big see-through things that you walk inside?” He means zorb balls. “Doing a show and putting people in those.” Whether or not he’s joking (it’s always difficult to tell), Frampton is clearly optimistic about the future. “We need to move forward,” he concludes, “and keep it moving”.

I shall leave things there, but I would advise people buy a copy of TYRON as it is going to be one of the most important and revealing albums of the year. I think we will learn more about slowthai as a person than we did on his debut - though he set the bar pretty high with Nothing Great About Britain! Despite the odd setback through his career, I think that slowthai has come a very long way and marked himself as one of this country’s most important voices. Even though he has achieved a lot already, I get the feeling that slowthai will not rest; this hungry and thrilling talent...