Everyone Loves a Goldenboy Until He Has to Grow Up

There is something quite funny about LEN making an album that sounds like a victory lap when the wider UK music industry still hasn’t fully given him the trophy.

Because if you’ve been paying attention to the UK underground, LEN isn’t necessarily new news.

But Goldenboy feels like the project where he is properly saying, okay, enough now. I know who I am. I know what I’ve contributed. I know the sauce is there. Whether everyone else catches up is almost beside the point.

And I think that is why I’ve found myself coming back to this project.

On first listen, Goldenboy is exactly what the name suggests.

It’s obnoxious. It’s horny. It’s designer clothes. It’s Hennessy. It’s women. It’s backstage. It’s money. It’s sex. It’s being the guy everyone is looking at when you enter the room.

Basically, LEN is having the time of his life.

But the more I sat with it, the more I realised that the interesting part isn’t actually the flexing.

It’s what happens when the flexing stops working.

The tape opens with “Sexit”, which should really tell you everything you need to know about where we are going.

LEN literally introduces us to this ridiculous “get sexy for the summer” world before taking us straight into leaving the function with a girl.

Subtlety has left the building.

And honestly, good.

Then you get “Strike a pose”, “Whine am well” and “Couture”, and suddenly this whole Goldenboy universe starts forming.

Women aren’t just beautiful. They’re wearing Celine. They have their own money. Their bodies are “couture”. Jean Paul Gaultier is part of the sexual language of the record.

LEN is obsessed with aesthetics.

Everything has to look good.

The woman.

The outfit.

The car.

The party.

Him.

And that is important because Goldenboy is a tape about image almost as much as it is about excess.

LEN understands the character he is playing.

The sunglasses. The skinny jeans. The women. The money. The slightly insane confidence.

He knows exactly what people think LEN is.

And instead of running away from it, he turns the volume up.

Then we get to “Make way”.

And this is probably one of the clearest mission statements on the whole album.

LEN literally says he is done being humble.

He talks about his value, his money, his ego, not entertaining anything average and what he charges for a verse.

There is no fake humility here.

And I kind of love that.

Because underground artists are constantly expected to act like they are waiting to be discovered.

Waiting for the co-sign.

Waiting for the playlist.

Waiting for someone bigger to validate what their own audience has already known for years.

LEN doesn’t sound like he is waiting for anybody.

Goldenboy sounds like the victory lap of an artist who hasn’t technically been handed the trophy yet.

That confidence runs through the entire project.

But what stops it from becoming boring is that LEN slowly starts showing you where some of that confidence comes from.

On “Backstage”, you get the women, the guest lists and the Hennessy again.

But LEN also slips something else in.

He talks about having “keys” before he was doing sound checks, then immediately connects being onstage now to remembering when he didn’t have money.

And that changes how I hear some of the flexing.

Because suddenly the backstage access isn’t just backstage access.

It represents distance.

The money means something because there was a time when there wasn’t money.

The artist lifestyle means something because there was a life before being an artist.

You see that again on “Frontal lobe”, where LEN says that at fourteen he already felt like he had to be “the man”, before describing getting involved in things he probably shouldn’t have been involved in at that age.

And I don’t think the album sits with that long enough for me to turn this into some deep trauma analysis.

That would be doing too much.

But it does give you context.

There is a reason independence seems so important to him.

There is a reason money comes up constantly.

There is a reason being perceived as weak almost feels impossible within the Goldenboy character.

Then comes the song that I think explains the entire album.

“Who i am” is probably my favourite song to think about on this project.

It starts with LEN basically saying that he has to admit who he is and that he is comfortable being himself.

Then he gives us the list.

Money.

Women.

Sex.

Alcohol.

Cigarettes.

Life.

Being LEN.

And the chorus keeps coming back to one thing.

This is who I am.

On the surface, it’s another flex.

But I actually think it is one of the more revealing moments on the album.

LEN isn’t asking you to think he is respectable.

He isn’t giving us the rapper version of “I’m actually a really nice guy underneath all this.”

No.

He likes what he likes.

He is who he is.

And he seems almost relieved to say it.

But then the outro comes in.

A woman is basically telling him that one day he is going to realise how stupid he is, that he is never going to change and that he needs to grow up.

And LEN just keeps repeating:

this is who I am.

Which made me think.

Is that self-acceptance?

Or is “this is who I am” sometimes the easiest excuse for not changing?

Because that question ends up haunting the rest of goldenboy.

Then there is “Hate it or love it”.

This is probably the moment where LEN’s relationship with the UK underground becomes the most obvious.

He talks about newer artists, people taking from his style, people not catching up and being treated like he is somehow a newcomer despite how long he has been doing this. He straight up calls himself a veteran.

And I think this is where the wider conversation around LEN gets interesting.

Because there is clearly a frustration there.

Not necessarily that nobody knows him.

People know LEN.

The frustration feels more like the gap between influence and recognition.

There are artists who become important to a scene before the industry knows what to do with them.

Their sound travels.

Their clothes travel.

Their language travels.

Their audience gets it.

Then eventually the mainstream catches up and acts like the ideas appeared from nowhere.

LEN seems very aware of that cycle.

And on Goldenboy, he has reached the point where he is saying it himself.

Hate it or love it.

This is where the album becomes much better than I initially gave it credit for.

Because after spending most of the project positioning LEN as this untouchable guy with money, women, access and unlimited confidence, suddenly the relationships stop being so simple.

On “Pick up the phone”, he is chasing someone.

Now he is explaining.

Now he needs her to believe him.

The same man who has spent the album being wanted is suddenly asking somebody to answer him.

Then “My fault” takes it further.

He admits that she doesn’t feel seen.

He admits that he hasn’t given her everything.

She feels like an option.

And then comes one of the most revealing ideas on the album.

She tells him he cannot fix the relationship through shopping because money isn’t the problem.

And I thought, there it is.

Because what has LEN spent this whole album giving value to?

Money.

Clothes.

Access.

Trips.

Status.

Things.

Goldenboy understands transactions.

Goldenboy understands getting the girl.

Goldenboy understands buying the thing.

But what happens when somebody wants something from you that cannot be bought?

That’s when things get uncomfortable.

And then we arrive at “Coincidence”.

This is probably the most important ending the album could have had.

Because LEN starts questioning why this woman even likes him.

Everyone else is wondering what she sees in him.

Eventually, he starts wondering too.

Then he admits that he deserves love, but asks whether what he is experiencing is actually love.

And then, finally:

He says he is scared.

That is probably the most interesting LEN on the whole album to me.

Not LEN with the clothes.

Not LEN backstage.

Not LEN telling everybody they stole his sauce.

LEN asking whether someone actually likes him for him.

Because suddenly the confidence from the beginning of the album looks slightly different.

Maybe Goldenboy knows everyone wants Goldenboy.

But does LEN believe people want LEN?

And the album almost laughs at him for asking.

The final voice we hear mocks the whole persona, complaining about rappers having too much ego and questioning who “goldenboy” even is.

Which is kind of perfect.

Because after an entire album spent constructing Goldenboy, the final question is essentially:

Okay, but who is that?

I think that is why I’m slightly confused by how quietly this project seems to be moving outside the people who already understand LEN.

Because Goldenboy has personality.

And right now, personality matters.

This isn’t an artist trying to make the safest possible version of UK rap.

LEN is weird.

He is funny.

He is arrogant.

He is horny.

He cares about fashion.

He cares about money.

He clearly cares about being respected.

And underneath all of that, there are moments where you realise he cares much more than the character would probably like you to know.

The album starts with him trying to leave the party to have sex.

By the end, he is wondering if somebody genuinely loves him.

That is an arc.

Sex. Style. Money. Status. Identity. History. Ego. Relationships. Accountability. Fear.

And none of it requires LEN to suddenly become somebody else.

That might be the point.

Maybe Goldenboy isn’t about LEN finally growing up.

Maybe it is about him becoming self-aware enough to realise that being completely comfortable with who you are doesn’t mean there isn’t still work to do.

Everyone loves a Goldenboy.

Until Goldenboy has to be a person.