To understand Slim’s story, it’s important to head back four years ago, to his first release. In 2019, not long after he dropped ‘Still Working’ – his slick debut mixtape of finely tuned rap, told with trap lingo – he went to prison. The South Londoner had expected the moment and he’d started releasing music one year earlier, for the first time in his life, as a way to prepare himself.

“It was an outstanding case, so I knew I was going to go in,” he explains. He’d been arrested and subsequently banned from Scotland in 2018, so while he waited for his case to be heard, he decided to give music a proper try. “The trap rappers and the real rappers were coming through,” he remembers. Plus, “I had a schedule I needed to fill.” Music became the thing.

Slim’s first single “Different” arrived in 2018, with follow-up record “Magic” and break through track “Again & Again” coming after. Each one building his story as one of the UK’s next-up rappers to watch. This led to a link-up with GRM Records – the iconic label and juggernaut responsible for platforming some of UK’s biggest names in rap. “It started working and the traction came – I thought: ‘This might be the other angle for me in life,’” says Slim.

Then flash forward. Mid-way through a tour, six weeks after releasing the critically acclaimed ‘Still Working’, which reached the UK Chart Top 40, Slim had to carry out his sentence. He went inside in May, 2019 and stayed there until his April, 2023, while his debut album – feat collabs with M Huncho, K Trap and Headie One continued to rack up plays.

Because Slim anticipated the bid and had begun setting up his music career, he thought about the future. “It was about maturing,” he explains. “I did a few years as a young offender when my dad passed. It’s a contrast: the negative of my dad passing last time, and this time a good thing, as my daughter was born. But it made me realise I need to buck my ideas up and be straight.”

Winding the clock back…

Slim grew up in south London borough Lewisham in the 2000s. Born in 1995, he was surrounded by the UK’s then growing rap movement, but didn’t make it himself until later.

When Slim’s first songs arrived in 2018, he knew he had a lot of experiences to talk about. A want to tell his story. “When I can feel someone’s energy and what their story is from their music, that’s when I want to lock in,” says Slim of his favourite musicians. It’s this same approach that he’s taking with fresh music and his upcoming tape, which bring his real-life experiences into the light. It’s motivational hustler music.

Slim announced his return on June 1 with laser-focused comeback single “Double R’s” – his first release since being locked up. You can hear the hunger. “I'm fresh home, I'm patterned like I never missed a minute / Half a mill for a mixtape, 27 for a brizzy,” he raps over atmospheric, smokey trappy production, his voice shining like a beacon. “That was the first song I recorded. It was the fresh home energy. You can’t re-do that unless you’ve had the experience of getting out,” he says.

On the track’s meaning, Slim says: “It’s coming back from a bad situation. I’m showing them you can come back heavy and hard. No matter what you’re doing, everyone goes through sticky times. It doesn’t have to be jail. It could be anything: a family member could die, your mental health [could be bad]. When you come back refreshed, this song is how you might feel.”
The track comes ahead of SLIM’s upcoming follow-up record – ‘Still Working 2’.

It’s also one of many new tracks Slim’s recorded in the month or so since leaving prison. “It’s about doing stuff “people won’t expect.” Pushing new angles, sounds, motives. Recording back-to-back-to-back.

This approach all goes back to Slim’s mindset from day one. Which, coincidentally, also leads into the record’s name: Still Working. “I have to treat it like that. When I was caught up in my graft and my grind, I was non-stop,” says Slim. “That’s me. 110% at all times. Sacrificing meals just to work. Sacrificing family time. Now I’m here. The main difference is the fact that police aren’t going to be kicking off the studio door because we’re doing something illegal.”

This time around, Slim’s motivated to bring his polished rap records to a wider audience. To pick up before the jail time, where that headline tour in 2019 left off, pushing his plans forward.
“For me to transfer what I was doing on another hustle, to this, is nothing for me. I don’t have to worry about a lot of things that can happen. For me, everything is easy. That’s the honest truth.”
He’s still working.