The many horror references in the music video for Slowthai’s ‘Cancelled’
Before the pandemic struck in 2020, Slowthai (real name Tyron Frampton) had become persona-non-grata following a regrettable incident at the NME Awards. After a year of silence, the Northampton rapper responded to the incident with ‘Cancelled’, a song which poked fun at his cancellation by including an array of references to classic horror films.
After exploding onto the scene with his critically-acclaimed debut album Nothing Great About Britain, Slowthai was built up as a necessary voice in difficult times. However, Frampton made unsavoury comments to Katherine Ryan during the award show, which he claimed to be in jest, but the jokes failed to land. To make matters worse, the musician fought an audience member who shouted abuse at him and ended up trending on social media for days.
Slowthai issued a public apology shortly afterwards and then went on a journey to deal with the issues that caused the outburst. Then, a year later, he reflected upon his problems with the help of Skepta on ‘Cancelled’, a song that allowed him to get into character as a horror villain.
Speaking to Zane Lowe about the track, Slowthai recalled the night that ‘Cancelled’ was born: “I’m sitting down, and I’m just in a negative place, I was being negative. You know when you’re just that one bad apple in the room? Yeah, the energy is off, I’m just like, ‘Fuck everybody, like, fuck everyone.’ Yeah, it’s in my head. It’s just in the back of my mind”.
He added: “I’m one of them people that can push stuff to the side, but it was just weighing on me. And then Skep, he could see that I was going through it. He’s got a song called ‘Going Through It’ that helped me. But he’s like, ‘Yo man, this is your defining moment.’ Because he is a larger than life character, Skep. He’s the best.”
The first reference to horror films occurs at the start of the video when they pay tribute to the original Scary Movie. However, rather than shout ‘Wazzup’ down the phone to one another, they opted for the British version and said, ‘Wagwan’.
In the video, the pair also honoured American Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Candyman, Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by villainously cosplaying the films. The Rest, who are Northampton natives Alex Motlhabane and Lewis Levi, are the team behind the genius video and deserve credit for making it happen.
Watch the slasher-inspired visuals for ‘Cancelled’ below.
