The end of the beginning

Loyle Carner talks to Rolling Stone UK about his third album, hugo, which sees the 28-year-old rap star deliver his opinion on the urgent issues facing the UK, while reflecting on how fatherhood and maturity signal the start of a new phase in his life

- ATHIAN AKEC

In art, golden generations are produced in somewhat paradoxical conditions, somewhere in the grey area between opportunity and pressure. The renaissance of British rap is in many ways reflective of these dynamics. The commercial and critical success of the now-dominant genre has coincided with a nation that has experienced wave after wave of economic and social strife.

One of the leading voices in British rap, Loyle Carner returned in October 2022 after a three-year hiatus with his latest album, hugo. Now 28, he’s been making music since he was 18, going from supporting MF Doom at his first gig to selling out the OVO Arena Wembley weeks before we meet for his Rolling Stone UK cover interview. After the well-received coming-of-age debut album Yesterday’s Gone in 2017, he propelled himself into the mainstream two years later with the populist-minded second album Not Waving but Drowning, which examined the limitations of making a dream reality.

After achieving the fame and affluence afforded by charting albums, sold-out tours and prime festival slots, where do you go next? Album three, hugo, primarily produced by Kwes with support from frequent collaborators Alfa Mist and Jordan Rakei, is arguably a more expansive examination of the outside world while also offering a more candid look at Carner’s internal dialogue. Its 34-minute run time ties together the personal and the political. He comments on what it’s like to mourn youth, the importance of forgiving his father after he became one himself, and even the raw emotion of anger. On the political side, he takes aim at class stratification, materialism and over-policing of Black communities in British society.