Clever, bleak, funny, bracing, aware of a broad musical heritage but never in thrall to it: after you hear Nothing Great About Britain, it’s even more obvious why Slowthai stands out.
slowthai finds himself as the poster boy for Brexit Britain and it’s a mantle that this street poet will no doubt relish.
The Bajan-British rapper’s debut tackles the UK’s pressing crises—a looming Brexit, class hostility, widening poverty—with great jokes and writerly candor.
It’s at times a brutal listen, but hidden between the hard knocks is the sound of a charismatic young artist who knows he’s making a debut album to remember.
What connects is the dark charisma in Slowthai’s aggrieved squawk, a yelp of rage, fear and occasional self-loathing, crackling with the visceral betrayal of the left-behind.
On his debut album, slowthai proves himself to be an exciting new voice in the UK hip hop landscape.
His debut album, the knowingly-titled Nothing Great About Britain, succinctly captures the mental state of that fractured nation, and the fizzing energy of an exasperated youth.
Fresh and exhilarating, Nothing Great About Britain firmly establishes slowthai as one of U.K. rap's most relevant artists.
Nothing Great About Britain is great at expressing a dizzying sort of (anti-)national pride, but the LP never quite puts its finger on new and newly inclusive ways of reimagining the nation.
A record that reveals the whirlwind of hype around Slowthai to be not much more than invisible garments on an arrogant emperor.
#2 | / | DJ Mag |
#2 | / | Dummy |
#2 | / | PopMatters |
#3 | / | Dazed |
#4 | / | Bandcamp Daily |
#4 | / | NME |
#7 | / | Complex UK |
#7 | / | Northern Transmissions |
#9 | / | MondoSonoro |
#9 | / | The Guardian |