Croydon’s SL was 15 when he revolutionised the rap game. Breakout hit “Gentleman” pioneered a patronisingly laid-back, almost nursery rhyme-like take on the UK street rap lineage of Giggs and Sneakbo that no one had quite heard before, or since. He was 17 when he soundtracked 2017 Christmas time with “Tropical”. With both tracks boasting streams in the hundreds of millions, you’d think that SL, now just 23, would feel like he had the world at his feet. Instead, when we linked up in Peckham last week in the run-up to the release of his sophomore album, Block Tales, today, it seemed like the world weighed heavy on his shoulders. 

I meet SL with his signature balaclava off. With such a larger-than-life reputation, it takes me a moment to recognise him, but his distinctively arched eyebrows, constantly scrutinising, give him away. “I’ll be so real with you,” he tells me, speaking with a wisdom beyond his years. “Nowadays, music’s gotten a bit… what’s the word? Corporate? Back in the day, it was a lot more fun but, as time went on, it only got worse. I think that’s where [“Gentleman’s”] tired flow came from, to be completely honest.” 

SL, it seems, has had to grow up quick. But, then again, it was all there on wax. At just 15, he was rapping about speeding down the motorway past curfew, being weighed down by a “couple problems” he needed to deal with, and his mum telling him he’d “lost the plot”. The track’s title sums it up: SL was a “Gentleman” before he had even finished his GCSEs – and he never did.

Since then, he’s seen unrealistic expectations come and go, while SL, who was consistently top of his class at school, has remained fixated on the big picture. “I remember how the brands used to act, the levels people were expecting me to hit, I’ve seen everything change,” he reflects. “I always feel like I should’ve been better, should’ve hit higher.” He’s left the street life behind – “repurcussions are inevitable, eveything that goes up will come down” – and has since patched up his relationship with his parents. “They can’t deny the rewards that [music] reaps,” he explains.

It’s from both of these developments that SL’s latest project emerges, telling the semi-autobiographical tale of a gang member who robs drugs from a rival, but ultimately loses his best friend in the process. “Stay away from the streets,” he sums up of Block Tales’ message. “There’s really no winners in the end.”

Scripting almost the entirety of the project’s verses, including features, and auditioning friends and acquaintances to voice various supporting characters on the album, SL makes a compelling director on Block Tales. He even made sure that the protagonist’s opps, who are said to be from “up north” in the project’s storyline, are voiced by real-world Liverpudlian rap stars Aystar and Booter Bee.

It’s an impressively cohesive creative vision that strikes an effortless balance between narrative and standalone singles, but, when I ask SL how he’ll celebrate the release, he remains as stoic as ever: “We’ll see if it’s something worth celebrating.”

“It’s a data game, and, I ain’t gonna lie, I’m nearly at the point where I can fully do anything I want,” he continues. “I just need a little more and then I’m playing at my own race.” What will life look like after that? I ask him. “That’s the beautiful thing, bro, however I want it to be,” he responds. “I’ve been trying to leave this country, maybe to Australia or the south of France. Somewhere I can fly under the radar.” SL the rapper might be all about guns and drugs, but, behind the balaclava, he just wants one thing: peace.

Below, prodigious UK rap star SL breaks down the cinematic vision that led to five tracks on today’s release, Block Tales.

“ROBBERY”

SL: I feel like the beat selection on this is very particular. “Robbery” was one of the first beats I found, and it gave me the momentum to finish the rest of the project. It sounded kind of American, and, since I was listening to a lot of Sticky Fingaz’ music, it resonated. I also wrote my friend’s part, who appears on the track. If you leave people to their own devices, they might start writing about random shit, and I wanted it to follow a storyline.

“BLOCK TALES FEAT. CATCH AND GIGGS”

SL: I’m a big fan of Giggs, same with Catch. Most of the features got done kind of soon after I made the music but, with this song, it was probably a year until I could get them on it. Giggs’ schedule is crazy, but we finally got them on it and the rest is history. This [takes place] after they’ve done the robbery, they’ve had a little celebration, then weird things start happening to them and they don’t really know where it’s coming from. That’s where Giggs and Catch came in – I’m asking them for help, essentially.

“SHOOTER FEAT. AYSTAR AND BOOTER BEE”

SL: This song’s definitely in my top three on the project. It’s basically like the outro. Aystar and Booter Bee are the people that we robbed, they’re on the other side, and then it all ends in one big shoot out. In the story, it was a guy from up north that we robbed, so I wanted artists from up north to fit the storyline. Aystar and Booter are literally the best from up north doing it right now. I gave them a rough idea like, ‘I’m pulling up on you, you pulled your gun out, blah blah blah,” and then they just killed it.

“SUMMERTIME FEAT. KNUCKS AND SAINTE”

SL: This is essentially the credits, because we done this song apart from the rest of the tape, like over a year after all the rest of the songs were finished. When I last linked up with Knucks it went so well that another one was overdue. We both kind of had a good relationship with Sainte so we thought he’d fit well as well. We made about three songs in the session, but we all agreed “Summertime” was the best one. This is after the robbery and the shooting and it’s like it could all start again, same story, different characters.

“NICE AND GOOD FEAT. SL” – KNUCKS

SL: This was the first time we linked up with Knucks, I was new to him at the time and I remember everything I was hearing was hard… why for that. We made a few tunes, and when we made “Nice and Good”, I never really heard the banger in it, it was more his team that were like, ‘This is fire.’ Then it ended up going off.

Block Tales is out now.