It’s been a long time coming, but Avelino has finally released his debut album, God Save The Streets.
After four mixtapes, countless singles, and over a decade of hard work, the North London rhymer turns the page on a new chapter with 11 new tracks. With Young Fire, Old Flame collaborator Wretch 32 drafted in as executive producer (he also steps in to offer some words of wisdom at the end of “Vicious Cycle”) and hit-maker Fraser T Smith assisting, it feels scaled up with higher stakes and a broader scope.
We’d already heard some of the tracks—“God Save The Streets Pt. 2” with R.A and “Vex” with Ghetts, BackRoad Gee, and The Sex Pistols’ Glenn Matlock—but save for a stylish boat party and a pop-up appearance on Carnaby Street, the contents of the album were kept fairly under wraps.
On the subject of Matlock, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the punk guitarist appears on the album. You can see it in the visual references to the band’s famous/infamous single that won them the ire of the mainstream at the time and you can hear it in Avelino’s voice-for-the-voiceless lyricism. It’s a cliche to say that rap is the new punk, but Av said it best himself in a column for us last year: “I’m on the same side as the person fighting the good fight against the powers that be, the powers that set us up to fail in a system that treats us unfairly.”
Dive into God Save The Streets in full below.
