Nothing Great About Britain is a properly provocative album title for the Brexit era. It belongs to slowthai, aka 24-year-old Tyron Frampton, a rapper from the central English town of Northampton. The “thai” part of his chosen moniker is a play on his first name, not his ethnicity, which is Irish-Barbadan. He’s building an impressive career by making an artful mockery of stodgy old England in her time of crisis. A new NYT feature has a lot more about how he went from the child of a single teen mom to guesting on Flume mixtapes and otherwise taking the world by storm.

Today slowthai released the video for Nothing Great About Britain’s title track. The song’s a stuttering banger delivered in a style that reminds me of the Streets’ Mike Skinner. Speaking of that mid-aughts UK rap moment, at one point he raps, “I ain’t Dizzee, I’m just a boy in the corner.” But if slowthai is reverent toward the history of English hip-hop, he doesn’t much give a shit for the rest of his nation’s heritage. The video spoofs the mythology of Excalibur and ends with slowthai calling Queen Elizabeth a “cunt” before inheriting the throne and leading a pub singalong of “God Save The Queen.”

Watch below.

TOUR DATES:
6/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
6/21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
6/22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere

Nothing Great About Britain is out 5/17 via True Panther/Method. Pre-order it here.