Louis Culture likes to mix things up. As we stand at the counter of the Tate Modern’s cafe, he orders a cappuccino; before, following a few seconds thought, opts to also order a lemonade. He sees each side of the coin across the myriad of topics that we discuss; conscious of the contrasting nature of instinctive opinion. It’s fitting then, that Culture’s music refuses to be pigeon-holed.

Amongst the most experimental and creatively-inclined stalwarts of the UK alt rap sphere, since his emergence Culture has been a driving-force in the progression of a scene that is still fully chiselling its own identity. “It was finding out that you can do whatever the fuck you want and no one can say anything,” he says on his resilience against convention, an ethos inspired by artists that he looked up to growing up; the Tyler’s, the Dean Blunt’s and the Kanye’s.

Culture was born-and-bred in Battersea, a picturesque Thames-bordering London suburb that is known for its expensive new-build apartments and recently reopened luxury shopping centre Battersea Power Station. “I’m always particular when I talk about Battersea,” he says, a witness to the undercurrents of the popular tourist spot. “The Battersea I grew up in is a lot different from the Battersea that I know. There were gangs, you couldn’t go to certain areas, and there was G-checking and all these things going on. But I was lucky to have the park, and my mum’s a very cultured person. I went to a lot of schools – I wasn’t the best behaved kid [laughs] but it allowed me to meet a lot of people and soak in a lot. My mum is super musical as well, has always loved the arts and is very creative. She’s always been supportive of my expression and my career.”

From excelling in English at school and his uncle gifting him a Fruity Loops demo at 10 years old, Culture began to find a love of the craft, and before long would meet the friends and peers that have in part moulded his career. “I took it seriously before but didn’t have the proper community, which is something I got [when I met] them,” he remembers on Elevation Meditation, his collective alongside Lord Apex, p-rallel, Finn Foxell and Xav. “I was doing music with people before but we weren’t as well aligned, but meeting Apex changed that. It was a support system for each other – we weren’t necessarily like anyone else.”

EM have, alongside contemporary collectives like House of Pharaohs, Nine8 and The Silhouettes Project, augmented the reputation and pushed the boundaries of UK rap that doesn’t fall beneath drill, grime or trap’s respective brackets. The reverberations of their impact, although subtle, can be heard throughout the London community. “It was gradual,” he offers. “I think it helped that London saw us together, it was the power of numbers. We left our stamp on London, we did a lot in West and South in the early days that I feel like people won’t forget.”

Over the past half-decade, in coalescence with Culture and his EM peers’ rise, the UK rap scene has diverged into a multitude of directions, consistently ameliorated to new creative heights. “I watch everything,” the observant Culture offers. “I’m a fan of it first and foremost, and I remember a time when it wasn’t like this, so it’s exciting to see so many people coming up and doing their thing and having the bravery to be themselves. It’s more normalised, people aren’t bound to one genre anymore.”

An epitomisation of UK rap’s increasing diversity, to date Culture has unveiled three EPs; each stylistically disparate from the last. In 2020, he released “Smile Soundsystem”, an electronica-influenced, glitch-laden and immersive debut that is first-and-foremost influenced by “the dance,” Culture reminisces. “It documents me being 19/20 years old. I was going through some stuff in life before it, and when I started to go out again, p-rallel was playing every weekend, Tommy Gold was playing every weekend, we’re going to Tate Late, all these places. It was a very dance music driven time and the EP documents that. There’s so many pieces to it, I love the world that it sits in and I’m excited to return to it.”

Following a few stopgap standalone singles the following year (“Naked” and “Dream” being some of his finest work to date), Culture shared his sophomore EP “When Life Presents Obstacle” in 2022, the longest and densest project of the three at a sprawling 10 tracks. It’s narrative-driven, rap-heavy and visceral. “There were elements of my last project, when reflecting on it, that [made me feel that] maybe I’d sold myself short by making a record that was just predominantly rap. But I wanted to do it to make a project to tell my story. Finishing that, it was like – onto something bigger… or smaller in a way.”

Culture then arrived at “I Can’t Wait To See U Again”. Released earlier this month, his new EP has the shortest run time out of the three, and is an intricate focus on songwriting and song construction outside of rap’s linear parameters. Although maintaining the edge of his earlier work on the likes of “Mannequin”, the EP’s tone is generally softer than its two predecessors; more inward, beautiful and emotionally potent. Culture pushes his vocal prowess to new heights with more melodic singing, and there’s a folky, acoustic guitar-tinged timbre across the 6 tracks, with the instrumental palettes often sparse and stripped back.

Thematically, at the core it’s a breakup project. But it’s also about self-discovery and reflection. “It’s the story of missing a person but also a story of missing yourself,” Culture divulges. “A conversation that has always stuck out to me – I can’t remember if I said it to a person or if they said it to me – in a breakup, the exciting part is rediscovering yourself. It might suck at the time, you might not be able to accept it or address it or whatever, but there is that exciting part. I think that’s what the project represents; I was seeing someone, and when we split up it was about processing it. The project is a collection of songs about that situation, but also the growth of me.”

It’s his most vulnerable work to date, a characteristic that is still often lacking from rap in Britain. Culture acknowledges the scene’s stigma towards vulnerability, but sees light at the end of the tunnel. “I think a lot of it is how you process trauma. The reason why we can talk about this is because of where American rappers have taken it. We don’t have a world-wide equivalent to a Drake or a J Cole – in the sense of a vulnerable rapper who is comfortable talking about their feelings. The faces of UK rap globally are trapping, talking AP’s and drill, which is fine because it’s accurate and that’s life here. The reason I say processing trauma is because you only feel comfortable letting your guard down when you’re in a safe space to do that. A lot of UK rap is coming from a traumatic place, where they are doing the best they can with the resources they have. I have a lot of sympathy for that part of the situation. But, it’s coming; there’s been so much progression. The fact that me and my friends and my peers can do shows in front of thousands of people at festivals shows that it’s come a long way. A big part of it is people just knowing it’s okay to be vulnerable, especially men.”

Currently embarking on a first UK and European headline tour, a celebration of his evolution and acclaim, Louis Culture continues to reach new artistic heights. “I Can’t Wait To See U Again” reinforces his position as one of the UK’s most significant players at pushing the alt rap sound forward, whilst simultaneously flaunting the diversity of his vision. It seems that the next checkpoint on Culture’s trajectory is a debut album, on which he plans to combine the sonic sensibilities he has explored across the three EPs – an exciting prospect. “I can’t wait to simplify everything that I know to make the next one,” he concludes, looking onward to his next chapter with focus and fearlessness. “It’s going to be interesting, building this world. I just want to continue to impact and be compelling.”

Listen to “I Can’t Wait To See U Again”…