Theophilus London

Theophilus London fashions a worldly and offbeat strain of pop that pulls together elements of soul-pop, calypso, new wave, and present-day R&B. Functioning as singer, rapper, songwriter, and producer, he reached Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart with the debut album Timez Are Weird These Days in 2011, though his music consistently travels outside familiar lanes to a degree that frustrates tidy labels, a quality made plain by the 2014 follow-up Vibes!, which entered the Billboard 200. A frequent studio partner to others, he earned a Top 20 pop placement as featured performer on Kanye West’s “All Day,” a cut that later brought a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance. Toward the close of the 2010s he moved closer to completing his third album by releasing occasional singles, among them the 2018 track “Only You” made with Tame Impala.

A native of Brooklyn, Theophilus London was born in Trinidad and arrived in New York at the age of one. He began circulating music in the late 2000s via the digital projects Jam! and This Charming Mixtape. These freely shared releases found an audience among music blogs while London pointed to inspiration from Michael Jackson and Prince as well as Lord Kitchener, Kraftwerk, and the Smiths. After another noncommercial project, he issued his first major-label recording on Reprise in 2011, the EP Lovers Holiday, which carried production from Ariel Rechtshaid, David Sitek, Dev Hynes, and Jocko plus a guest turn from Solange. Much of that material resurfaced later the same year on the full-length Timez Are Weird These Days, which reached number 30 on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart. After the stylistically varied singles “Rio” with Menahan Street Band and “Tribe” with Jesse Boykins III, he released the second album Vibez in 2014. Executive produced by Kanye West, the set climbed to number 23 on the R&B/hip-hop chart and number 167 on the Billboard 200; West appeared on “Can’t Stop,” and two tracks featured soul legend Leon Ware. The cover art of London’s previous album deliberately echoed the design of Ware’s self-titled 1982 LP.

By the end of 2014, London’s own guest appearances had become numerous. Standouts included Maximum Balloon (David Sitek)’s “Groove Me,” Big Boi’s “She Said OK,” and Azealia Banks’ “JFK.” The list continued in 2015 with the commercial arrival of Kanye West’s “All Day,” which also featured Paul McCartney and Diddy among a large cast of contributors. The number-15 pop hit earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance. From 2017 into early 2019 London issued a series of independent singles, among them the Tame Impala collaborations “Only You” and “Whiplash,” while finishing work on his third album.