He's been building up to this for a few months now, but Che Lingo has finally released his second album, Coming Up For Air. The first taste came with "My Radio", a surprise collab with Queen's famed drummer Roger Taylor, followed by "Out Of The Blue" earlier this month.
At 10 tracks, it's a lean collection, but it's been a little while in the making. In the time that's passed since Che's critically celebrated first album, The Worst Generation, we've had a handful of collabs and features, but with the exception of last September's "Vibe Check (Palo Santo)", this is the first significant solo release since that last album.
Alongside the new album, Che also shared the Reece Selvadorai-directed visuals for its latest single, "Private Dinners", which features Jordan Mackampa. On the face of it, the track seems to play out like a lot of success stories-celebrating the wins and acknowledging the journey-but beneath that, it's the South London rapper exorcising some demons that he's been holding on to, specifically his unhealthy relationship with food and dieting, and wanting nothing more than to get back to enjoying food as a communal celebration.
"[Coming Up For Air] is an intimate and personal look at myself and the people like me who find it hard to see themselves sometimes," Che explains. "It's for the moments you hate your job, or you're emotionally exhausted, finding it hard to see what makes you valuable. It's a place to get lost and escape and remember what and who you value within your life and purpose. I've had a number of months to sit with myself and unpack a lot of things, some of which I'm still exploring, or battling, after experiencing losing family members, sustaining terrible injuries, distancing from friends and relationship struggles, money issues, even an eating disorder. The CUFA album, in my own way, is to let people know that they aren't alone in these trials.
"Waves of depression and confidence, financial instability and love-it all starts with you and we always have to start from zero again a number of times in life, the bottom of that dark silent bed of dust and sediment is where we find our own ways to breathe."
