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The tedium of softboi rap

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A male British rapper who is unafraid to show tenderness and vulnerability is not a particularly new phenomenon: Dave, Stormzy, Headie One and Kano have all walked this path in recent times. None, however, has made emotional fragility his USP to quite the same extent as Loyle Carner, who writes about his children, his masculine role models, mental health, race and inherited trauma in an unthreatening sing-song style which has made him both a pop star and a bit of a poster boy for Feeling Things. His tour is named after his fourth and most recent album, hopefully!.

To his credit, he has put his money where his rhymes are. Carner has preached about knife crime from the stage at Glastonbury. He was talking about his ADHD before it became the topic du jour for celebrity over-sharers. He even set up a cookery training programme, Chilli Con Carner, for kids struggling in school. Something of a gourmand, he has songs titled ‘Carluccio’ and ‘Ottolenghi’. The latter was aired in Glasgow and, like much of Carner’s output, was a pleasant enough offering but lacked........

© The Spectator