Loyle Carner is all grown up.

Speaking to Hypebeast from a U.K. music studio, the South London rapper finds a moment of solitude while waiting for his crew members to turn up for a session. Surrounded by amplifiers and microphones and talking into a Zoom screen, Carner opens up on the most intimate, soulful and altogether human album he’s ever made.

Carner, real name Ben Coyle-Larner, reminisces on his almost decade-long music career, which originally sprung to life when he was 19. “There have been times when I have been high on confidence, then low on confidence. Times of being super happy and super sad. At the start of the album process, I was in a bad place, I was low,” he tells Hypebeast.

In 2014, Loyle Carner released A Little Late, an E.P. packed with smooth jazz samples and an honest recollection of his love affairs at the time. It reflected on the struggles of being broke and the heartache of losing loved ones, showcasing much more than the myriad of surface-level rhymes floating about at the time and presenting a new-school rap prodigy with nothing but time and potential on his side.

Aside from the tales of unrequited love and money struggles in that project, his two following studio albums; 2017’s Yesterday’s Gone, and 2019’s Not Waving, But Drowning, brought us to a three-year hiatus. That pause in workflow allowed Carner to find himself once again – and make some of the best music of his career in the process.

Loyle’s hiatus finally ends today, with the launch of his third studio album, Hugo, where the 28-year-old lays himself bare like never before. This new album digs deep into the complex psyche of Carner. We hear stories of love, pain, Black excellence, family matters, and the struggles that come with being mixed race.

While the project sees him connect with regular collaborators such as Kwes and Rebel Kleff, we also hear a new side to Loyle Carner’s rap that deviates away from jazzy samples and boom-bap instrumentals such as the Madlib-produced “Georgetown” and the delicate “Homerton,” that sees Carner ride subtle piano keys alongside JNR Williams and Olivia Dean.

With new music, the time for the latest look into Loyle Carner’s life is now upon us. Hypebeast spoke with the rapper over Zoom to talk about all things Hugo, holding racists accountable, his relationship with fashion, and much more.

HYPEBEAST: Hugo, your third studio album, is finally out today. How are you feeling and how was the whole process of putting it together?

Loyle Carner: It’s a relief to have new music out in the world and to step away from it. Before it’s out, you’re still thinking about things you can change and as soon as it goes out, it’s no longer mine – it frees up the time to start my next venture. But the process was good – it was long – but it was really fun, and heavy at times. But it was a powerful time.

Your music is always very personal, do you find it difficult to share what is effectively your diary with the world?

I’ve never thought about it like that – that’s just the kind of music I make, and it’s exhausting. I’ve tried to go to the studio and make something that’s happy when I’m sad, or sad when I’m happy, but I just can’t do it. I grew up heavily into playwrights and theater and I think films, poetry, and plays are very exciting.

When you’re watching a film and you see two parents arguing with the kid sitting in the room – it’s those kinds of things that I’m always moved by. I’ve never been moved by superheroes or whatever… maybe that’s filtered into my music?

Talk to us about the space you were in when writing the opening track for Hugo, “Hate.”

I was scared. That song is about hate being rooted in fear, and you fear what you don’t know. But at the time, there were a lot of things going on in my personal life and over lockdown, I was afforded the time, space, and quiet and I thought that nobody would hear my music again.

Then I started making music that was purely for me and this is one of the things that came out. I had to let people know where I started – because at the start of the album process I was in a bad place, I was low.

In an interview you did a few months ago with another publication, you said you wanted to experiment with new sounds for this project. Have you achieved that?

The main thing was finding the confidence to work with a lot more musicians. I’ve always hooked up with Jordan Rakei and Tom Misch and a few others that play, but I was always scared to get in a room with a full set of players. But this time, I spent a lot of time with Rocco Palladino, Alfa Mist, Youssef Dayes… all of these people are musical geniuses. It helped my writing process – I could be freer. If I wanted to have a go at The Guardian for getting Kano and Wiley mixed up, I could. It allowed me to be braver and less sensitive.

“I want to let the people that listen to me know that the likes of Clints, Corteiz, and Always Do What You Should Do, are affordable, U.K. brands with high quality.”

A lot of Hugo is centered around Black excellence and the ignorance that can come with it. How come you decided to explore this topic a lot more than we’ve heard before on past projects?

Everyone knows what it feels like to be othered in some way. There’s a spectrum of severity, but everyone knows what it’s like to be in a situation and you’re the odd one out. Whether it’s your hair, skin color, glasses, sexual preferences – whatever. This album is true to me. But we must come together as a collective and hold people accountable for ignorance and mistakes. I want us to be able to call things out, give advice and teach people how to not make the same mistake twice.

“When I dropped my last album and took time away, I was still thinking of this pocket of music being outsider music and I thought that people didn’t want it.”

Do you think the vast majority of people in the U.K. realize that a lot of Britain’s culture stems from Black heritage?

I think everyone is on a constant journey of discovery, I didn’t learn Black history; my mum is white, and I grew up with my stepfather who’s white, and my half brother who’s white, so there was no extra knowledge. For a while, I was annoyed with my mum because I asked why she never taught me this, and she told me that she didn’t know! She has no idea that certain music, or tempos came from Africa. All of these things that are inventions of Black culture have just been washed away.

Like Mansa Musa, I only found out about it just before the lockdown. I was so pissed that nobody had ever told me about him. Imagine if I was young and in a classroom and there was a Black king that was not capricious or nasty, but he was kind, open, giving, and brilliant at mathematics. But I think that it’s a beautiful time now that there’s more openness and people want to be a part of the culture from whatever background they’re from. But as long as they use things from our culture and realize that they’re borrowing it and doing it with love, I don’t see it as a problem – that’s what’s beautiful about right now.

Hypebeast has seen you connect with independent fashion brands like Clints, Always Do What You Should Do, and a few others. How important is fashion to you?

I used to look back at the likes of Eminem, who on TV, was wearing simple stuff: tracksuit bottoms and a white T-shirt. During the time he was the most famous person on the planet, there were a lot of kids that wanted to dress like him. But, to dress like him, you didn’t need a million-pound chain and a Gucci hat. Maybe that’s what I’ve been leaning into as I’ve started to see the small bit of influence that I have over the people that listen to me. I want to let the people that listen to me know that the likes of Clints, Corteiz, and Always Do What You Should Do, are affordable, UK brands with high quality.

You and the likes of Little Simz, Kojey Radical, and Knucks have carved out a new and refreshing lane in U.K. rap. Do you think it’s now time for this subgenre to shine on a bigger level now?

I always thought I was on the outside looking in because I came up in such a weird way – I never had any ‘rap friends’ [laughs]. But it’s been beautiful to see the likes of Simz, Knucks, Kojey, my friend Barney Artist, finally, get the respect that they deserve. When I dropped my last album and took time away, I was still thinking of this pocket of music being outsider music and I thought that people didn’t want it. But it’s so inspiring for me, Simz especially – even Dave – but in that lane, that kind of stuff gives me a reason to keep going. I thought, do people even want to hear this?

“We must come together as a collective and hold people accountable for ignorance and mistakes.”

Taking it back to the very start of your career until now, how much has Loyle Carner evolved as a musician and person?

There have been times when I have been high on confidence, and then low on confidence. Times of being super happy and super sad. Musically, I’ve tried to say more with less. I’ve made sure that everything that I’ve done has moved me in either a positive or negative way. But I think I’ve just grown up a bit, and I’d like to say that I have become more open-minded because I used to be very closed off. I didn’t want to know anyone, I just wanted to do my thing in my own little world, but that’s not the case anymore.