Steg G speaks up for Scotland’s voiceless on his latest album, Live Today. Winner of the 2019 Scottish Alternative Music Award for Best Hip-Hop, Steg G, was commissioned by Glasgow regeneration orchestra, The Glasgow Barons, to produce and write Live Today which is a thought provoking, politically-charged album featuring some of Scotland’s best emcees. The political nature of the album begins from the first track, “Wee Small Hours” (ft. Solareye, Freestyle Master, Empress, and CCTV), which takes us to the scene of the Govan Riots in 2019.
Live Today was written with the people of Govan in mind. Steg G spoke on the scene in Govan in 2019, “We came back from doing a gig in England and there were Police, gangs, helicopters and riot vans everywhere. The Stephen Spielberg film 1917 had just been shot along the road at Govan’s Graving Docks and he might have been seeing a war from more than 100 years ago but the one I was seeing was right there in front of me. Coming back from celebrating the best of Govan to an appreciating audience, the riots were shocking for us and we thought, ‘This is our home, we need to talk about this.'”
Speaking on the lyrical content of the album, Steg G said, “These issues and stories that we speak about on the album are often voiceless – our daily lives and the issues we deal with don’t normally have a platform. We’re giving voice to thousands of Scots living in a tough, unforgiving ecosystems of addiction, poverty and crime. It speaks a painful, delicate truth about what lies beneath the surface of the mainstream.” Several of these issues are discussed on the track, “Space Age Addictions.” (ft. Solareye).
Overall, Live Today is a thought-provoking project with excellent instrumentation, and lyrics from Scotland’s best emcees. Recorded at Steg G’s studio, The Kitchen, Live Today was released on February, 25th 2021 and is now available on all major streaming platforms, as well as physical purchase.
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