Slowthai has pleaded not guilty plea to two charges of rape, stemming from an alleged incident in September 2021.
The 28-year-old artist entered his plea in a British court on Thursday (June 15).
Born Tyron Frampton, the hip-hop artist was charged last month with the oral and vaginal penetration of a woman without her consent.
Frampton’s co-defendant, Alex Blake-Walker, pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and two sexual assaults, the BBC reports.
Both men are accused of raping the same woman, but Blake-Walker is also accused of sexually assaulting another woman.
Both men were released by Oxford Crown Court, and have been placed on conditional bail until their trial begins in July 2024.
During that earlier court appearance, where he appeared before Oxfordshire, England, magistrates court via video link, The Guardian noted, Frampton did not enter a plea and only confirmed his real name, date of birth and Northampton address.
Prosecuting lawyer Adam Yar Khan said at the time that the rape charge must be heard at crown court, due to it being an indictable-only offense.
Slowthai made his break into the music mainstream with his Mercury Prize-nominated 2019 album, Nothing About Great Britain, which hit the U.K. top 10. The following year, he collected the “hero of the year” at the 2020 NME Awards, though the talking point from the evening was his behavior towards host Katherine Ryan, which erupted into a fracas with members of the audience. He later admitted in an apologetic tweet that his actions were “shameful”.
Slowthai’s popularity soared. His sophomore album, 2021’s Tyron, topped the Official U.K. Albums Chart, and, in the same year, he earned a Grammy Award nomination for dance recording. Earlier in 2023, his Ugly LP peaked at No. 2.
When the allegations were made public, the rapper was quietly scrubbed from the lineup for the U.K. summer festivals, including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, and Australia’s mid-winter event, Splendour In The Grass, and he withdrew from a July 8 concert at Wembley Stadium with Blur.
Lizzo has made it clear that she never abandoned her album Love in Real Life.
The “Juice” artist recently responded to rumors that the project had been cancelled after fans expected it to arrive last year. Rather than putting out the album at the time, Lizzo instead released the mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling in June.
During a new conversation with Billboard, the “Truth Hurts” singer explained that the album itself was never scrapped and is still the same body of work she plans to release on June 5 under its new title, B**ch.
“I think the biggest misconception about my album is that I shelved Love in Real Life when I didn't,” she said. “(B**ch) is technically the same album. I just changed the name. The music is the same.”
Lizzo shared that the main difference between the earlier version of the project and the upcoming release was taking away the original title track, which eventually led to the album being renamed.
“When you change the name of something, it changes its destiny,” the singer explained. “Like, when I went from Melissa to Lizzo, it changed my destiny.”
“When this album went from Love in Real Life to Bch, it changed the trajectory of its past,” she continued. “I do think that I feel like I can express myself the way that I want to express myself right now through Bch. I think Love in Real Life was really sombre and a little bit more introspective, and I think B**ch is a little bit more empowered and self actualised and bold.”
Before the newly titled album arrives, Lizzo has already released the singles B**ch and Don’t Make Me Love U.
The artist had previously spoken about stepping away from Love in Real Life during an earlier interview with Vulture, saying the project “just wasn't what I was feeling right now”.
She also mentioned that much of the album had originally been written back in 2022.
“By 2025, I've changed, the world has changed so much, and so much has happened,” she said. “I was like, ‘I need to do s**t differently, and I don't know what it is, but I'm going to just start following my instincts.’”
