Slowthai was acquitted, but still risks cancellation

Slowthai, with “Ugly”, released in 2023 had reached a new peak in his career. A record that still exudes restlessness and power, but which does not hide its fragility. A journey in search of a painful happiness that passes through the acceptance of one’s own vulnerability and the rejection of the judgment-prejudice combination. The incendiary and British working class rap anger that characterizes the previous ones 2019’s “Nothing Great About Britain” and 2021’s acclaimed “Tyron” it is intact, but put at the service of a personal conflict with himself. The British artist, who also had the title tattooed on his face, certainly does not forget the invectives in this chapter, the aggressive flow and references to today, including the warbut he also decides to delve into his own body and mind.

Eighteen months of silence

A journey into oblivion, a premonition. Yes, because Slowthai, after being nominated for a Grammy Award in 2021 and for a Mercury Prize in 2019, after the release of his third album, was accused of rape. The rapper, until then considered one of the most interesting and alternative artists in the world, it was quickly removed from the Glastonbury Festival lineup and his entire tour was cancelled. The news was even more indigestible because Slowthai has always been a symbol of yes rap corrosive, aggressive and acidicbut at the roots of ethics and values. On several occasions, for example, he distanced himself from the toxicity of a certain chauvinistic and misogynistic rap. After eighteen months of total silence, he was cleared of those terrible accusations (the sexual intercourse was declared consensual and the reconstruction of the accusation untrue) and is now free to restart his musical career. But many are rightly wondering: will he succeed? “Even if he is acquitted, many things will remain compromised. He will be cleared,” Patrick Gibbs KC, Slowthai’s defender, told the jury before reading the sentence which the artist followed with a liberating cry in the courtroom.

The reaction of the fans

Marcus Johnstone, a criminal lawyer specializing in sexual crimes, explained to the BBC: “Winning a criminal case and being found not guilty is often not the end. Celebrities in particular experience being ‘cancelled’ when they find themselves accused of a sexual crime“. Let’s be clear: the accusations made against the rapper were serious and it was correct to wait for there to be a trial, with a sentencebefore being able to comment on the matter and possibly return to planning the release of new music, but it remains clear how the name of Slowthai is perceived in a completely different way today compared to the beginning. “How are you going to erase me?” he asks in a 2021 piece with Skepta. Now the future is back in his hands, but the public and the industry will also play a fundamental role in this new game of rebirth in the coming months. We’ll see how they react. Reading the comments on the news of the acquittal, between “I’ll listen to it again” and “I can’t like it anymore”a picture of great uncertainty is immediately perceived.

A new challenge: to be reborn

On the one hand there are those who will keep the prejudice alive, despite the acquittal, and will close the doors, on the other there are those who, heartened by what was established in the courtroom, will reopen them. These are delicate situations, in which crystal balls and predictions work even less. It must also be said that several artists have had or have horrible life behaviors, and often in a hypocritical way they turn not one eye but two, separating the person from the character, but here, due to the accusations and the artistic story of the rapper himself, everything, already at the starting line, has evidently taken on a different weight. Slowthai did well to face this ugly story by entrenching himself in musical silence and thinking only of his defense and rehabilitation. Never again would he have thought that that human and sentimental chaos, described in “Ugly”, were only the appetizer of something even more impervious and complicated.