Loyle Carner

British MC Loyle Carner employs a deliberate, poetic cadence over warm, jazz-inflected beats that echo 1990s acid-jazz and hip-hop textures. His Mercury Prize-nominated debut Yesterday's Gone established him in the late 2010s, while Not Waving, But Drowning climbed to number three on the U.K. album chart; he resurfaced in 2022 with the third album Hugo.

Born Benjamin Coyle-Larner in South London, he circulated early demos that secured a 2012 support slot in Dublin alongside MF Doom after reaching friends King Krule and Rejjie Snow. His first release arrived in 2014 with the EP A Little Late, followed the same year by the collaborative cut “Guts” featuring poet/rapper Kate Tempest. After issuing the independent single “Tierney Terrace” in 2015, he joined AMF, the Virgin EMI imprint, where growing attention from alternative hip-hop audiences highlighted the contrast between his measured delivery and the sharper style of his Croydon peers. Candid, inward-facing rhymes drew notice through “The Isle of Arran” and “Ain’t Nothing Changed,” both included on the 2017 debut full-length Yesterday's Gone, which earned a Mercury Prize nomination months later and appeared on several U.K. year-end lists.

Carner entered the U.K. singles chart for the first time in 2018 with “Ottolenghi,” then improved on that showing the following year with Jorja Smith on “Loose Ends.” His sophomore set Not Waving, But Drowning landed in April and became his second gold-certified album. Further 2020 singles arrived as “I Wonder Why” with Joesef, “Yesterday,” and “Let It Go” featuring Erick the Architect and FARR, while Carner and brother Ryan co-directed the video for Arlo Parks’ “Eugene.” He returned in 2022 with Hugo, his third full-length, highlighted by the Madlib-produced “Georgetown.”