“Everyone should sing, even if you can’t sing. I think everyone can, they just think about it too much and they just haven’t found where they can sing. I’m just pouring out what I’m feeling. I just wanna sing my heart out” - UK rapper Slowthai says in the Independent interview about his new album 'Ugly' ("U Gotta Love Yourself"). Slowthai turns to singing, with the production also leaning to the indie-rock side (producer Dan Carey previously worked with black midi, Squid, Chubby and the Gang, and Fontaines DC). The recent £1 pub gigs tour was also a novelty - “any way I can give the opportunity to people who come from a similar place as myself and are struggling, why would I not? For me it’s about playing music and sharing them moments with people".

UK rapper slowthai has shared his new single 'Selfish', and has announced his third studio album, UGLY (an acronym for “U Gotta Love Yourself”), set for release in March. The chaotic, propulsive 'Selfish' features strong drums and guitar. To promote the new track, Slowthai has live-streamed himself hanging out in a custom-built room fitted with floor-to-ceiling two-way mirrors. Watch the video of the track below.

Pa Salieu and Slowthai are 'Glidin'' extraordinarily on their collaborative single; Yves Tumor goes big-rock on 'Jackie'; Clairo shares a lovely bit of folk on 'Blouse'; quickly, quickly goes electronica folk on 'Everything is Different to me'.

Speed Stick is a new supergroup featuring members of Polvo, Bat Fangs, and The Love Language, playing blues on 'Knot'; Eels released a funny new video for 'Are We Alright Again' starring Jon Hamm; God Is An Astronaut do their post-rock thing on 'Burial' after so many years, but they're just so good at it; Slowthai shared a new song 'NHS' announcing his new album.

Sufjan Stevens says 'Sugar' is "about the desire for goodness and purity", and the hypnotics quality of the song makes a case for it; Amanda Ong is a singer-songwriter on the rise, her beautiful voice promises a lot - 'Leave Me Alone'; it's hardly a new song, but Brandi Carlile's version on 'Mad World' sang from the bottom of her lungs ads a new dimension to it; Slowthai's 'Feel Away' is, well, different - it's gentle and mellow, with a video of James Blake singing from rapper's uterus!; Death Valley Girls sing for love and joy on 'Under the Spell of Joy'; Small Bills is a new project, made of rapper Elucid and producer the Lasso, their first single 'Safehouse' goes from afro-beat to funk, from discomfort and uncertainty.

'So You Won’t Forget' is a new Khruangbin song from their forthcoming album 'Mordechai', slightly less world music, slightly more funk, a summer breeze song; Compton rapper Problem's 'Janet Freestyle' is a tribute to his friend Nipsey Hussle, it samples Janet Jackson, and features jazz musician/Kendrick Lamar collaborator Terrace Martin; Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and Suicidal Tendencies bassist Ra Diaz covered Billie Eilish's 'Bad Guy' - that would have happened had her brother been a metalhead; metalcore outfit Misery Signals play tense and dense on 'The Tempest'; American Trappist go psych-rocky on 'Losing My Grip'; Slowthai is back with yet another new song, 'BB (BodyBag)', he's still pretty much angry; Apollo Brown & Che’ Noir feature Black Thought on soul-heavy 'Hustle Don’t Give'; dark-pop newcomer Daine sounds like a polished Billie Eilish on her debut single 'Picking Flowers'.

“Everyone send your thoughts to Slowthai. Fuck knows where he is, but God bless the boy… fucking nightmare” - was The 1975 Matty Healy's reaction to Slowthai's shenanigans at NME's Awards, 'Enemy' is rapper's own take on it, not something everybody's gonna agree with, but he does take a legitimate stand; Arthur Gunn played a beautiful cover of Bon Iver's 'Hey Ma' at 'American Idol'; Naomi Lien's 'Don’t Need None' is a, well, decent R'n'B song, with a video made with a budget of enthusiasm, no banknotes exchanged; the title says it all really in 'Raincheck Summer' by Lillian Frances.

A nice punky song 'M1A1' buy the Gorillaz, featuring slowthai and Slaves, with the cartoon band members showing up in the video; Nicolas Jaar revived his Against All Logic alias and has shared a song 'Alucinao', a collaboration with FKA twigs, song is tagged as "grimeton" (probably a portmanteau of "grime" and "reggaeton); Peter Bjorn And John released a jazzy pop song 'Drama King'; old school hip-hop house is full again - Method Man and Redman feature on a Gang Starr remix of 'Bad Name'; producer Daniel Avery and Nine Inch Nails synth wizard Alessandro Cortini have announced their new collaborative album with a new song 'Illusion of Time'; Royde Da 5'9'' proves he's in fine form with 'I Don't Age'; “Murderfolk” artist Amigo the Devil has released a new Tom Jones cover 'Delilah', on banjo; underground rapper Aesop Rock is back with a new single 'Rogue Wave'.

BC's selection is different from the most other big outlets, plus we like BandCamp, so here it is, their 100. The top 10 - mostly albums that others don't feature: 10. False - 'Portent' 9. Helado Negro - 'This Is How You Smile' 8. Ex Hex - 'It’s Real' 7. Jamila Woods - 'LEGACY! LEGACY!' […]

Here the full 70 list; the top 10 spots are taken by the following: 10. Purple Mountains – 'Purple Mountains' 9. Big Thief - 'U.F.O.F.' 8. Angel Olsen – 'All Mirrors' 7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – 'Ghosteen' 6. Jamila Woods – 'LEGACY! LEGACY!' 5. Dave - 'PSYCHODRAMA' 4. Fontaines D.C. - 'Dogrel'  […]

Producer Mura Masa unveiled 'Deal Wiv It', an up-beat and raw news song with Slowthai on the microphone. The video for it, released yesterday, shows Slowthai getting out of an apartment ("Fighting with my sisters in the house/She's on the couch, she don't move much"), running about in slow-motion outside a housing estate ("I see […]

Slowthai's favourite album of the 2010s is 'Die Lit' by Playboi Carti because it is "our generation’s hardcore music". To Weyes Blood it's Connan Mockasin’s 'Caramel', "a progressive concept album with some beautiful sadness sprinkled in between". "A whopper and hella refined" - Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs said about her choice, 'Silence Yourself' […]

The new breed of punk isn't so punky sonically, it's the attitude, BBC argues: 30-year-old US rapper JPEGMAFIA channels the aggression of the crowd into brutal bursts of movement that sit somewhere between an intoxicated Iggy Pop and an irate DMX; snarling Northampton rapper Slowthai blasts what he sees as the toxicity of Brexit Britain […]

London rapper Dave has won the 2019 Mercury Prize with his debut album 'Psychodrama', a critically acclaimed concept album about mental health, relationships and social conditions. This year the Mercury shortlist was just great: 1975‘s 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships', slowthai‘s 'Nothing Great About Britain', black midi‘s 'Schlagenheim', Little Simz‘s 'GREY area', Foals‘ 'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1', Nao‘s 'Saturn', IDLES‘ 'Joy as […]

UK newcomer Slowthai and Miami rapper Denzel Curry have a new collaborative track 'Psycho', where they trade verses over chopped up horror movie violin screeches, courtesy of English producer Kwes Darko.

"The rap, grime and future R&B (Nao, slowthai, Little Simz, Dave) represented the most incisive rising British talent, the guitar rock (Idles, Fontaines D.C., Black Midi) was suitably disjointed, angular and innovative, the poised and/or melodramatic art-pop (Anna Calvi, Cate le Bon) bore not the faintest trace of Paloma or Florence, the bigger names (The […]

“Everyone has that stereotype when you’re a bad kid: you’re going to go to jail and end up with a kid at a young age. Well, I ain’t in jail and I ain’t got a kid and my family’s proud of me” - English rapper Slowthai says in an interview with the Guardian about his […]

1. Deafheaven: 'Ordinary Corrupt Human Love' 2. Sons Of Kemet: 'Your Queen Is a Reptile' 3. Møl: 'Jord' 4. Mitski: 'Be The Cowboy' 5. Earl Sweatshirt: 'Some Rap Songs' 6. NoName: 'Room 25' 7. Rivers of Nihil: 'Where Owls Know My Name' 8. Pusha T: 'Daytona' 9. Kendrick Lamar: 'Bad Kid Chill City' 10. Kids […]

It's mostly solo women and only one band in the top 10 artists nominated for BBC Sound of 2019. Names and description: Grace Carter Searingly personal, piano-led pop Silence Flohio Raw, punchy, poetic rap Wild Yout Dermot Kennedy Folk roots with a hip-hop influence Power Over Me King Princess Queer pop queen-in-waiting 1950 Mahalia Casual, […]