[clothes rustling]
- Yes, GQ, what's going on?
It's your boy, Loyle Carner.
And these are my 10 essentials.
[upbeat music]
[graphic warbling]
My notebooks probably from this last album
and a little bit of the one before.
I really prefer to write in my book as as opposed
to write on my phone because when I, you know,
erase my line, the line still exists.
Whereas on your phone, if you erase what you're writing,
then it's gone forever.
And then if you go back, maybe there was space for it
to use it as a chorus or a title or a kid's book
or whatever you wanna use it for.
Do you know what I mean?
So yeah, I'd like to kind of leave footprints.
Hopefully, I'll be able to give 'em to my son one day.
No distraction.
Like when I open this, it doesn't go like,
[Loyle imitates beeping sound], you know, someone said
you've got a double chin or someone said
that your mom's fat or whatever, you know, it's just like
just in the book.
It's like just a whole page that just says drug free
which is what I am, you know?
But don't need to put it in two pages, you know what I mean?
That's a lot of real estate worth of notebook.
For my last album, I wrote a review
before I started working on my album.
It was something I got from Questlove.
There's a book by Questlove that's called,
the "Creative Quest."
And in it he says that, you know, on on every album
I think from "Things Fall Apart" by The Roots,
which is one of my favorite albums of all time.
He wrote a review because he kind of helped him, you know,
on reading it back and throughout the album process
it would keep him on track.
That was my old title.
That's what I was gonna call my last album as well.
"Hurt People, Hurt People"
A line I got from a poet called, Lemn Sissay,
from his book, "My Name Is Why."
What I love the most is when I'm recording,
if you get to hear this noise,
[paper rustling] that's my favorite.
And I listen for it for other rappers as well to know
if they're really about it or not.
[upbeat music]
My baby bag. [graphic warbling]
Every parent knows, nappies.
You always think that you don't need money
and then it's that day where it's like a mountain of shit.
These are easy nappies.
These are just
[nappies rustling] ones that you can wear
as a hat.
Beaker, "There's a Bear on My Chair,".
A classic, this is my son's favorite magic wand
which is the most important part of the baby bag, really.
This is the elder wand owned by Albus Dumbledore.
If you know, you know.
And my son's favorite spell is Expelliarmus
or Expecto Patronum. [graphics whooshing]
He's got into a crazy pocket
at the moment actually where he'd be like
like Avada Kedavra which is obviously the Killing Curse
in Harry Potter, if you don't know.
And so I would die and the only way to come back
to life was he'd have to kiss me on the head.
But now I've started doing it
with him where even if on the street
if I hit him with an Expelliarmus or whatever, he dies.
Like on the street, there's nothing you can do about it.
Paddington Bear, which comes with me on tour
and I try to get photos with him everywhere I can.
You know, my son can't travel with me everywhere
but as long as Paddington is there
I guess he's there in spirit.
It's nice to kinda have a piece of him with me.
What else he is in there.
[bag rustling] Simple stuff.
Greatest fruit known man, orange.
No offense to Jon Bernthal who did one of these
and said grapefruit.
I also have in my phone, which comes with me everywhere
a picture of my, my son and my girlfriend and me
in a little photo booth on Brighton Pier.
You know, my son and my girlfriend really are my world,
you know, my Earth, so my everything.
Very lucky to have them. Shout out to my guys.
[upbeat music]
[graphic warbling]
I got into Muay Thai just after my son was was born
because I got a serious dad body.
And after that I needed to fix up really.
But I always wanted to get into fighting.
I think more for my head to kind of find some peace
as opposed to let go and be aggressive.
Gave me like discipline.
A good friend of mine said to me once,
my friend, Barney, told me that freedom without discipline
is just chaos.
I was living in chaos before and I think now, you know,
I've found some discipline and I love that all you
need is these things.
And I take this with me on tour.
I skip however I hit the bag or I just hit the wall
you know, or just hit the air.
Who knows, I'm gonna... [hands clap]
Soon.
Me on a YouTuber fight, I'm joking.
Everyone needs to get hit in the face once.
I know a lot of people who needs
to get hit in the face. [laughs]
[upbeat music]
[graphic warbling] Chessboard.
We made these for the release of my album.
These are lyrics from one of the songs actually.
Pawn to E4, Bishop C4, that's light work.
Queens run free.
I can see more of my best days.
My heart banging out my chess plate
Queen to F7, that was checkmate,
which is a thing called the Scholar's Mate,
which is like the batiste chess move
is what my dad beat me with.
My dad was the one who taught me to play chess.
And it's, yeah, it's like how you win chess in four moves
against a rookie.
Through learning to play chess, you're also learning
all these different things that I like that you know.
So he's teaching me how to be patient,
how to plan the next steps ahead.
So it was kind of almost like inadvertently
he was preparing me for fatherhood.
But yeah, I also love it just because it's not online
you know, I hate being on the Internet or whatever.
So anything I can do except for FIFA,
I'm happy to be online when I'm playing FIFA.
The only person I beat who was supposed to be quite
good was that guy, Magnus Carlsen.
I beat him in that four moves.
I'm joking, I'm joking.
Who have I beat?
Ottolenghi I've played, quickly wiped it.
Nah, I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking.
I actually don't remember which means I probably lost.
[upbeat music]
My next essential [graphic warbling]
is a EpiPen.
Oh, fuck. I just realized I left it at home.
Can I bash you my keys, if you go to my sink, yeah?
Yeah, it's an essential, I bring it everywhere.
[production beeping]
My next essential is a EpiPen.
It's just a shot of adrenaline 'cause I'm allergic to nuts.
I'm also allergic to tahini but not sesame seeds, weirdly.
So, you pull this out, it like releases a little
like a little needle and then you just jab it in
essentially your bum cheek, you know.
Wait for it to click, wait three seconds, and pull it out.
And you should be right as rain, but don't use it
if you haven't had an allergic reaction.
I know what your kids are into.
[upbeat music]
[graphic warbling] Sports bag.
Do you know what I mean?
Ready for anything.
For me swimming, you know, you're focusing on your breath
[water burbling] there's so much
sensory deprivation here under waters
for someone like me with ADHD
and just be able to think, clear my head, relax
and exercise at the same time.
My rollerblades, Bauer's, man.
The first pair of Bauers I had, they were ice skates.
My dad got them for me 'cause it was the one thing
me and my dad used to do actually.
He used to take me ice skating.
And then when we reconnected I got my dad
a pair and now we sometimes we hit the park
and go skating together.
I have always been a Liverpool fan
and back when Crystal Palace was in the Premier league
they were my local club.
So, I had two teams 'cause I wanted to watch
match of the day.
For a long period of time, I wanted to be a football player
but I wasn't good enough.
I played right wing back.
That's why I'd like to play like Trent Alexander Arnold.
Who do I think is gonna win the FA cup?
[Loyle sighs]
- I don't wanna talk about it. [laughs]
Liverpool, we had a great time, we had a great run
but it's getting harder and harder
as we watch right now, so... [sighs]
Next question. [laughs]
[upbeat music]
It's actually a work of our club.
[graphic warbling] Yeah.
I have maybe like 300 of these or something.
I don't know. I'm wearing one now, actually.
The perfect collar, good length of sleeves,
not too baggy, no diss to any of the other ones.
You know, whoever you are.
Guild, Fruit of the Loom, I don't care.
You're cool but you're not pro club.
I don't even wanna talk about V-necks
or the like the weird like DJ Khaled one.
You know the one that goes down like that.
Miss me, miss me with it.
The reason why we're playing white T-shirts is 'cause
that pocket of time when I grew up all
of my favorite rappers, that's all they were wearing, man.
Ludacris is probably must star icon from back in the day.
Him, Pharrell Williams, those guys.
[upbeat music]
[graphic warbling]
Queen Olives with cumin and lemon.
You know, any olives are cool, particularly green ones.
But these ones right here, you know, I have to eat them all.
I will probably eat them.
I don't really eat sweets, I don't really eat chocolate
I just like salty things, so I like these.
I like popcorn, I love crisp.
Crisp is really like my crypto light, you know,
I'm trying to be a role model on this, you know,
so I could have chosen crisps
but then what am I showing in the next generation?
You get me? [upbeat music]
[graphic warbling] Liquid Paraffin 50:50
[bottle thuds] also in here
and what's this?
[paper rustling]
Parking ticket?
I got really sensitive skin and when I was growing up,
it used to get super dry 'cause I had eczema.
And when I found this cream I just began to glow bro.
[graphic tinkles] To get the little
kind of look man, you just gotta get no sleep.
Get woken up at like 4:30 to change nappies.
Wake up, don't get a chance to eat breakfast,
run out the door, grab your cream, and just bash it up.
I recently, I've been using Humanrace by Pharrell Williams.
Si, I cleanse now.
I'm a cleansing person.
[upbeat music]
[graphic warbling]
First got introduced to the carrot juice
when I was maybe like five or six
and my mom was super healthy,
super holistic and I wasn't allowed Coca-Cola
or coca pops or chewing gum or sweets or anything.
But I was always allowed carrot juice and I dunno
it reminds me of spending time with her in the park.
Yeah, I love it. It's everything.
It's juice, it's sweet.
Not too sweet.
Pat full of vitamin C, ginger in there.
[sighs] It's magic, bro.
And I can see in the dark as well.
I stopped drinking when my girlfriend fell pregnant
'cause she stopped drinking and then it just stuck.
I loved the feeling of not drinking
and then I kind of replaced alcohol
with happiness and I'm the happiest I've ever been.
Be grateful for your essentials.
Peace. [upbeat music]