Why We Picked This

VMP: This one took a while to happen, can you talk me through how this ended up as a Record of the Month? We were talking about this as far back as April

Alexandra Berenson, Head of A&R: Back in March, I was approached by Dean from True Panther Sounds about this album. I had been sort of tangentially aware of slowthai as an artist: he did a song with Flume that I put in On Rotation ‘cause I thought it was really great. And I’d heard some of his other singles and was like “Oh, this is fucking cool,” so when it ended up in my inbox, I was like ‘Great, this is gonna be really interesting.’

I don’t know if anybody remembers, but I sent it around, and from those conversations, we’d decided this record was really interesting, it’s something we want to do something with, so we’re just going to do it as a store exclusive.Then maybe three months later, we had a conversation where we were like, “Why don’t we just do this for our rap subscription?” Everyone seems to be really enjoying it, it’s being very well-reviewed, and we wanna put some heft behind another new RHH artist because… this is the first new album and new artist we’ve done this year since Ivy Sole.

Andrew Winistorfer, Classics A&R: The thing that kinda happened for all of us was that this record grew on all of us. I remember being like “This is really cool, it’s an exclusive for sure.” And then, sometimes we get stuff really far in advance, and I cycle stuff on and off my phone, and slowthai stayed on there for a really long time. I would keep coming back to it. We were trying to figure out what to do for November, and all of us had reached a point where it was like “This isn’t just exclusive-worthy… it’s Record of the Month.” Michael, how did the interview go for you? You did that in August.

Michael Penn II, Staff Writer: I kinda thought the interview was gonna depend on which slowthai I would get on what day. Most of it was me watching him do the Hi-Fives, he was super-cool, and then watching him debate with his manager about whether or not he needs to ship certain things back to the U.K. ‘cuz he can afford it. Then they decided to just buy another suitcase. I watched him look at collectible toys and shit like that. I interviewed him in the office at Twist & Shout, the manager let us sit in his office, so it’s just me, Ty, and a buncha files and shit. He’s just so cool, so warm, super-insightful, mind all over the place, really fascinating dude. He gave me, like, four hugs at the end. He’s dope.

AB: These are the types of projects we love; I think we do a really good job of working with really great, kind people who also happen to be incredibly talented. And every time something like that reveals itself to us, that’s when we know this was the right call. Everything about this checks all the boxes we look at for Record of the Month, and I really do think the personality of the artist is kinda a big part of it in some instances.

Package Details

AB: It looks like a Jawbreaker, it looks super-fucking-cool. White on the bottom, red-and-blue-splatter, I think it was supposed to be synonymous with the Union Jack. There are lots of red, white, and blue flags in the world.

Cameron Schaefer: Also pressed at QRP, where all of our Classics records go. An audiophile pressing of a UK rap album… a Quality Record Pressing, so to speak!

AW: And the first U.S. pressing.