Loyle Carner has opened up about the importance of using his live shows to speak out against toxic masculinity, and recalled how he has grown since his debut album.
Check out the full interview above.The British hip-hop singer and songwriter caught up with NME on the red carpet for this year’s Mercury Prize, and looked back on his huge set at Reading & Leeds earlier this year.Here, the shortlisted artist reflected on his performance on the main stage last month, and revealed why he devoted a large portion of the set towards counteracting harmful attitudes.“It’s magic, man,” he began, explaining what it felt like to generate such a positive response from his live set. “I feel like the conversations I had after the show, those little bits mean the most.
Like when kids go ‘Thank you’.”Carner also recalled how someone got in touch with him after the set to tell him that his moving performance encouraged her son to come forward and start a discussion about mental health.“I got a beautiful message from a random mum on Instagram saying that her son went through some stuff.
I don’t need to disclose it, but it was the first time he was able to say to her ‘Yo, that I went through, it hurt me’,” the artist added. “I think giving kids a place to talk like that – especially young men because it wasn’t allowed when I grew up – it’s important.”He continued: “It was funny, man, that video got posted on some Instagram [page]… and the comments on it were so toxic.
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