Homage or Rip-Off: My Love-Hate Relationship with Slowthai Music Videos

Tyron Frampton, who goes by the name ‘slowthai’, is a 26 year-old British rapper. He has just released his sophomore album ‘TYRON’, the follow-up to the hugely successful debut album ‘Nothing Great About Britain’. I want to preface this blog post by saying that I am actually a huge fan of slowthai. He is in my opinion one of the most exciting British artists to emerge in the last few years and I think his journey into stardom has only just begun. His music is vast, ranging from aggressive neo-punk meshed with rap to more introspective, socially conscious songs. He has proven time and time again that he is extremely tapped in to British politics, society and culture, with N.G.A.B. tackling themes of racism, class and many other issues. He has also brought this dissection of Britain into his music videos, with videos such as ‘Gorgeous’ painting a perfect picture of Englishness through smoky pub pool rooms, McDonald’s car parks and kids wheelying down the street on mountain bikes. However, I feel that far too often, slowthai resorts to disjointed and somewhat lazy references to old films to create a narrative in his music videos.

Slowthai has worked with a few different directors in his music videos but often joins forces with creative duo ‘The Rest’. All of his videos seem to have a similar aesthetic which almost makes them feel like a series. The first instance of these film references is in the video for ‘North Nights’, containing references to A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and La Haine. The video was intended to be an homage to these films, with famous shots and outfits being recreated with slowthai and although a little disjointed, the video works conceptually. After North Nights there are 4 more music videos with original concepts until the release of the ‘Doorman’ music video. In this, there is a glaring reference to Trainspotting with slowthai diving headfirst into a toilet. However, again it arguably works with the concept of the music video. Three more music videos are subsequently released, again with original concepts. But the release of the ‘Inglorious’ music video is where I first started to notice slowthai’s reliance on old references as the video features another reference to A Clockwork Orange. Most of the segments in the music video are original and thought provoking, for example the opening shot of slowthai being baptised surrounded by police officers. He is then subject to Chinese water torture before being placed in front of a projector, eyes wired open mimicking the famous scene from A Clockwork Orange. The reference makes sense in the context of the video, suggesting authorities trying to silence him. But the reference isn’t particularly clever and given the fact he had referenced A Clockwork Orange before in the North Nights music video, I find it peculiar that he would do it again. I thought that this was just a phase as after all, he is an upcoming artist finding his feet creatively. However, he has carried on this trend in the music videos for songs from the new album TYRON.

Before the new album though, slowthai released three non-album singles. One of these singles entitled ‘BB (BODYBAG)’ had and dark, eerie music video with visceral imagery of teeth being pulled out and slowthai playing ‘the knife game’. I loved the video but one thing that struck me whilst watching it was a feeling that all the of the shots were familiar references to films that I couldn’t put my finger on. I don’t think that there were references but still, I feel like it’s not a good sign that I had that feeling. When slowthai started releasing the videos for album singles, he started off strong with two amazing videos for ‘nhs’ and ‘feel away’, two more introspective cuts from the record. But then again, he released two videos both of which containing references to films. First, he released ‘MAZZA’ featuring A$AP Rocky and captures the experience of a bad trip, all set in 1960s Soviet-style hotel rooms. The video references Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and rips off the famous ceiling baby scene from Trainspotting. Much like the Clockwork Orange reference in ‘Inglorious’, it works in the context of the video but the use of a reference to the same film in two separate videos I think just shows laziness. In the second video for the song ‘CANCELLED’ however, it is a string of clunky references to films including Scary Movie, American Psycho, Candyman and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The American Psycho references in particular are just uncreative, essentially copying famous scenes from the film shot for shot.

There is nothing wrong with reference or homage to previous art, music, film, culture etc., and it is undoubtedly quite common. However, it is important to make the distinction between reference and copy as sometimes these ‘references’ are far too literal. It slightly pains me to see it happen again and again with slowthai as he has shown before that he can make incredibly creative, thoughtful, aware videos. In my opinion, by resorting to pastiche, he is selling his creativity short. I think Gen-Z and Millenial obsession with ‘retro’ without a doubt feeds into this, as judging by the YouTube comments on the videos, people clearly like these old references. But more often than not, it seems like it is just a replacement for a creative concept, shoehorning in a semi-related film reference in the hopes that it will still be cool because it is ‘old’ or ‘retro’. Like I said at the start of the post, I am a fan of slowthai and in no way write this to throw hate at him. But given that he has demonstrated the depth of his creativity when it comes to music and the accompanying videos, I just wish he would push himself harder sometimes to make something more original.