Endorphins

In the crowded and competitive world of UK rap, Octavian Godji is doing everything he can to stand out. The 23-year-old South Londoner arrived on the scene with a gripping backstory: He left France for Britain at an early age, attended the prestigious BRIT School, endured homelessness at age 15, and slipped into drug dealing. But it was last year's debut mixtape Spaceman--an elegant suite of woozy beats, deft poetics, open-book confessionals, and the spirit of Noah "40" Shebib--that lifted him out of the pack. Follow-up Endorphins goes in a new direction--or rather several. Octavian is having fun, pulling at different stylistic threads to see what's at the other end. And with high-profile guests matched by a crisp collection of beats, Endorphins feels more like a major studio debut than the mixtape it's billed as. -Pitchfork-