When Avelino’s father passed away, the Tottenham rapper was only a young boy. He elected to rap under his father’s last name, the tragedy aligning his focus to make a mark for himself, and his family. “Out of the worst thing that ever happened to me at the time arrived the best thing,” he tells Apple Music. “I’ve now got this unlimited source of motivation and fuel to continuously push, embrace challenges, and make a career.” A razor-sharp student of UK rap, Avelino found a creative mentor in Wretch 32, who laid out the red carpet on 2015’s joint mixtape Young Fire, Old Flame, accepting his fellow N17 MC with open arms. With nimble flows and conscious-leaning lyrics at the focal point of his arsenal, following projects F.Y.O, NO B******T, and EGO KILLS were sincere odes to self-exploration. From the passions of this journey comes debut album GOD SAVE THE STREETS. Executive-produced by Wretch 32, it finds Ave’ serving the breakdown of a mindset that clouded his past. “I want to help,” Avelino says. “Through my music, and my art, using my personal growth and change of mentality to spark others to do the same. It sounds cliché, but if you change your mind, you can change your life.” Binding drill, grime, drum ’n’ bass, and hints of techno, the album is a showcase of hip-hop finesse, from the rhapsodic refrain of “1 OF 1” to the bouncy synths of “VEX.” “This album is almost as simple as making my bed,” Avelino says. “This is me as an artist. And this is all that I bring to the table.” Read on as he dissects GOD SAVE THE STREETS and opens up on the experience of recording his album sober. “GOD SAVE THE STREETS, PT. 1” “This song sets the scene. You’re not really speaking to the streets if you’re just telling them, ‘You’re wrong for this.’ They don’t want to hear that. You have to want to understand people. I had [British former gangster] Marvin Herbert speak at the start. I think it’s powerful to have him give an early perspective.” “GOD SAVE THE STREETS, PT. 2” (feat. RA) “It took a couple of weeks to finish this because me and [UK producer] Raf Riley were working the beat a lot. We recorded about 12 or 13 different versions, with different beats—but it still felt incomplete, until Raf suggested we put two together and see what happens. He’s a mad scientist the way his brain works; he’s made it sound like the music fell apart, and somehow fixed itself.” “TWIN FLAME” “The challenge with love and relationships is that it can be toxic if we’re not used to the idea of loving ourselves. You’ll find something pure, good, and your self-image almost causes you to find a way to fuck it up, just because it feels too good to be true. You’re too used to madness. That’s why I chose to only mention love towards the end of this song—everything before shows there’s a lot of pain inside. And I’ve always wanted to sample Kano’s [2005 track] ‘Brown Eyes’—he was my first favorite rapper growing up.” “VICIOUS CYCLE / A WORD FROM WRETCH 32” (feat Wretch 32) “I’m talking about a vicious cycle here. It’s that constant negative loop that we grow up in. You make a negative choice, you get a negative result. And eventually, it’s going to sting you. I call it the unholy trinity in the streets: death, jail, and the lack of peace of mind. You experience either one of the three. Then, Wretch 32 brings out that big-brother energy, telling you how it is. It’s a telling-off, really.” “VEX” (feat. BackRoad Gee & Ghetts) “I was going to see [British songwriter and producer] Fraser T. Smith one day. We listened to the album and he’s making notes: ‘There’s a sound that’s missing from here…a space here, there’s an energy missing on this part.’ Then I played him this song, and he’s like: ‘This is the one for the album!’ The track before leads perfectly into this, channeling that youthful frustration and ignorance. When BackRoad Gee comes in, it’s almost like he’s not listened to what Wretch has said on ‘VICIOUS CYCLE.’” “1 OF 1 / A PIECE BY RAF RILEY” (feat. Raf Riley) “Sonically, I needed something to embody when me and Raf link up. It’s unique! The song symbolizes things starting to change for me—when I saw myself as one of one. I’m not like everyone, we’re not all the same, this is my path.” “SO WHAT / SMOKE INTERLUDE” (feat. PRGRSHN) “If ‘1 OF 1’ is self-realization, then this track is self-reflection. Just really taking the journey in for what it is, where I’m from, where I stand and where I’m at. I talk about crime and violence and how, as human beings, I don’t believe we’re born to like it. I believe the influence and the conditioning of our environment eventually makes it part of who we are. So let’s show some understanding for certain decisions when we make them, especially for those growing up in the ends.” “SIN CITY” (feat. Wretch 32) “This is where I really needed to talk about the necessary evil of fun. I was in the studio with Raf, and he cut the lights and started playing his keyboard. All he had was a small blue light and he just started playing the chords you hear on the song. Then my guy Bambz [DJ and producer] added the unbelievable scratches from an old song of mine called ‘Higher Power.’ They’re both such unique guys.” “THROUGH MY EYES” “This whole album is inspired by the Sex Pistols, from the name to the artwork. I needed to hear them on this, so we sampled [lead singer] Johnny Rotten’s vocals. After taking you on a trip [on ‘SIN CITY’], this song feels like the perfect place in the album, lyrically, to take you on another. Not through London having fun, but back in the trenches.” “BROTHERHOOD” (feat. Tiggs Da Author) “I’m still close with many people I knew when I was a kid, from the same block and the same council estate. We’ve lost friends, we’ve lost money…a lot has happened. But the one thing we held on to was our brotherhood. Tiggs Da Author is a real voice of the streets, so he had to come in and just tell it how it is as well, and he did that.” “ACCEPTANCE” “It’s easy to finish your album with a banger. But with the time, effort, and care that’s gone into this, and what I stand for and believe in as an artist, we just felt like this message reflects the work more. This is the second song I ever made sober. A significant factor to this album is that I broke my dependency on alcohol while creating it. My whole career up to now was very rock ’n’ roll. But it started becoming a real battle for me. After recording without alcohol the first and second time, suddenly, I’ve made all of these songs completely free of the demon that was holding me back. God made man in his own image, so he exists within you. You have to make the change for yourself.”