slowthai will release his new album UGLY, on March 3rd via Method Records/Interscope Records. Today, the UK artist has shared the new single/video for album track “Selfish.”

“I want to be there for them but I’m always striving, working, reaching further.” Unbridled ambition that takes him away from those who’d like him to be around more could be deemed selfish, but he sees it more as selflessness as he works for everyone’s future, lifting each other up. His distaste lies with those who are only out for themselves and will trample on anyone to reach their goals.

The UGLY album cover is suitably up close and personal, with the camera zooming in tight on the left side of his face. The title of the album — an acronym for U Gotta Love Yourself — is freshly tattooed beneath his eye. During radio sessions for his number-one follow-up album, TYRON, he covered The Verve and Elliott Smith. He is as ready to guest with Idles and Gorillaz as he is with Tyler, The Creator, Denzel Curry, or Disclosure.

“The first album was the sound of where I’m from and everything I thought I knew,” he says. “The second album is what was relevant to me at that moment in time, the present. And this album is completely me — about how I feel and what I want to be… it’s everything I’ve been leading up to.”

UGLY is about reconnecting with first principles. Plunging into rock music, with as much singing as rapping, it is both a striking departure for slowthai and a return to the roots of Tyron Kaymone Frampton. When he was a teenager in Northampton he loved emotionally intense rock music, notably the likes of Nirvana, Radiohead and Daniel Johnston, and wanted to join a band but that’s hard when you don’t play an instrument and feel self-conscious about singing in public. Hip hop, his other love, enabled him to be a self-reliant vocalist and producer. “This album was me trying to emulate the spirit of the brotherhood ethos that bands have. Music is about the feeling and emotion that goes into it. Like an artist making a painting, it’s the expression of that moment in time. I really felt like I didn’t want to rap, whereas before, rap was the only way I could express myself with the tools I had. Now that I have more freedom to create and do more, why wouldn’t we change it up?”

Produced by Dan Carey at his home studio in South London and alongside frequent collaborator Kwes Darko, UGLY is a fluid combination of musicians including Ethan P. Flynn, Jockstrap’s Taylor Skye, Beabadoobee guitarist Jacob Bugden, drummer Liam Toon, and on the dark and woozy title track, his friends Fontaines D.C. “They’re men after my own heart, they love what I do, I love what they do. Together it’s amazing.”

“It doesn’t matter what or who people think you are, you’ve just got to stay true and respect yourself. I have UGLY tattooed on my face because it’s a reminder to love myself, rather than put myself down constantly or feel the impression people have of me should determine who I am as a person. At the end of the day, the art I make is for myself, and the music I make is for myself, if I enjoy it then who gives a fuck. So, the way I should live my life should be without any expectations of anyone else. I think it’s something that we all need to hear because everyone needs a smile, and everyone needs a bit of joy and you need to look in yourself to really feel it because no one else can give you the real feeling.”

slowthai
UGLY
Method Records / Interscope Records

1. Yum
2. Selfish
3. Sooner
4. Feel Good
5. Never Again
6. Fuck It Puppet
7. HAPPY
8. UGLY
9. Falling
10. Wotz funny
11. Tourniquet
12. 25% Club

Pre-order UGLY by slowthai HERE