There is a trend amongst rappers nowadays to namecheck basketball players in their bars. Recently, on his feature on 21 Savage’s a lot, J Cole mentioned New York Knicks and Orlando Magic point guards Denis Smith Jr.and Markelle Fultz respectively. 2009’s star-studded Forever was done in honour of Lebron James, and at the start of this blog, we featured Sheck Wes’ breakout hit, Mo Bamba (another Orlando star, this time a centre).
Loyle Carner opted for a different approach. Following his critically acclaimed debut album Yesterday’s Gone in 2017, Ottolenghi is named after Israeli-British chef, Yotam Ottolenghi. A bit different to a sports star! This was Carner’s first release since his album, and the honouring of the chef is fitting, considering the charity work he does. He runs cooking schools, primarily for children and teenagers with ADHD, to help them to cook and cope with their disability. It’s an issue close to his heart, having grown up with the condition also, and his school is brilliantly named Chilli Con Carner.
It’s based off an experience Loyle Carner had on a train, where he was reading the chef’s cookbook, Jerusalem, and was asked by a fellow passenger about his “Bible book”. He cites it in the song, singing “they ask about the bible I was reading/Told them that the title was misleading labelled it Jerusalem but/really it’s for cooking Middle Eastern” and he has employed New Zealander Jordan Rakei to supplement his gritty, hip-hop-washed singing voice.
The gentle combination of piano and synths becomes slightly more energetic with an assortment of drums, but the pairs delicate voices combine beautifully to create a frollicking track that breezes through a lazy summer evening. Loyle Carner’s intelligent lyricism and eloquent rapping are becoming notorious within the British hip-hop scene; a thriving community outside of the now global grime scene. Rakei is cut from the same cloth as Carner, producing effortlessly chilled out, hip-hop inspired music. The combination is as expected; a cleverly produced, mellow song that was well worth the 18-month wait Loyle Carner fans had before he released new solo music.
Spotify Playlist Link: https://spoti.fi/2CKuVex
A Song A Day 