Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Steve Yates

Akira the Don, When We Were Young

Welsh rapper Akira the Don was scheduled to release this debut on the giant Interscope until it decided tracks such as 'Thanks for All the Aids' (an anti-Live8 diatribe against everything from the World Bank to the Catholic church) made it unsellable. This is bad news for When We Were Young, because Interscope would have imposed the discipline it's crying out for. There are moments of brilliance (notably 'Liverpool', a fuzzed-up autobiographical tale of being a shoplifting runaway), but the wilfully dishevelled tone mires much of it in a murk of its own making.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.