Kae Tempest has released his fifth album, Self Titled, today. It was co-produced by Kae and Fraser T Smith (Adele, Stormzy), who encouraged Tempest to write from the first person, as opposed to the more character-based songs which typified previous albums.
“I was thinking about other rappers I love, and the moments that really get me are when someone tells their story,” Tempest told The Line of Best Fit. “It didn’t feel daunting. It felt like I’m ready. It’s time. I had the right beats. I had the right feeling. I was in the right place.”
Kae says Self Titled is a love letter, a conversation, with Tempest’s younger self and deals head-on with coming out as trans. From opening song “I Stand on the Line”:
I’m alive, thirty-five years dying to breathe
Was on my knees, fighting panic at thе back of the stage
Looking for salvation in the crowd
Tryna hold it up, but I couldn’t hold it down
I was swimming, but thе waters were rising
Terrified if I told the truth and stopped hiding
And said what I couldn’t bear to say to myself
I would sacrifice everything I’d made for myself
My family, my friends, the people who felt my music, would all leave
It was a belt ’round my neck
It was too big to look at square on, it kept growing
I’d known it forever, but I tried to stop knowing
Thank God, for the multitudes in us
The younger selves that will not give up even when we’re inclined to
If you turn your back on the light for too long
The light doesn’t die, it just stops trying to find you
The album features contributions from Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant, Young Fathers, Connie Constance, and Tawiah, and the production, grand and inspiring and the most classic-sounding hip hop record Tempest has made yet, is fantastic. Listen, and watch Kae perform single “Statue in the Square” at Glastonbury, below.