Steg G releases a new album, ‘Live Today’ on Powercut Productions.

It’s the first long-player from the Glasgow-based hip hop artist and producer since 2019 and takes over where ‘The Air Inbetween’ left off’.

“An exploration of masculinity rooted in the streets of Govan,” the 11 tracks capture life in Govan over a 24-hour period and was written in the backdrop of the Govan Riots in 2019, as Steg G recalls, having been at the scene: “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.”

The album was written, produced and composed by Steg G, aka Steven Gilfoyle, who was the winner of the 2019 Scottish Alternative Music Award for Best Hip Hop.

Commissioned by Glasgow regeneration orchestra, The Glasgow Barons, Steg G is joined on the record by some of Scotland’s leading rappers including Solareye from Stanley Odd, Empress, Govan rap duo CCTV, and old cohort The Freestyle Master, the duo releasing A Declaration (700 Years and Counting…)‘ – which celebrated the anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath – with his old cohort the Freestyle Master, in August 2020.

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.

“For a while, I’ve been observing just how fast life can be in communities like Govan and how quick things can change in 24 hours. It’s a constant battle, trying to keep sane and healthy. Many of the themes we touch on have led to the loss of too many too soon – this is a tribute to them.”

Paul MacAndlin, Artistic Director of The Glasgow Barons, said: “’Live Today’ is as close-to-the-bone an artistic response as it gets and The Glasgow Barons are proud to have commissioned this timely album from Steg G and the troops. The people of Govan will relate to it and everyone in Scotland should listen to it.”

To mark the album’s release, The Glasgow Barons will perform the orchestral version to live audiences later in the year, alongside specially commissioned instrumentals Almost Achilles, Always the Heel by Aidan Teplitsky and Scotland versus Scotland by Kevan O’Reilly

‘Live Today’ – supported by Creative Scotland and the William Grant Foundation – was recorded remotely and produced, mixed and mastered at Steg G’s studio The Kitchen, and is available to buy on CD and download and stream.

More at www.steg-g.com / facebook.com/Steg3000