Rapper Loyle Carner hits out at J.K. Rowling and the far right at Reading festival

Loyle Carner spent much of his Reading Festival set on August 30 talking, and the talking is what carried. The British-Guyanese rapper played the main stage, now called The Grid, in the afternoon, ahead of Role Model, Florence + The Machine and Chase & Status, and used the gaps between songs to say what he thinks.

The clearest line came before Horcrux. "This song is called Horcrux because I love Harry Potter," he told the crowd, "but I don't really like J.K. Rowling." The remark drew loud cheers. Rowling has faced sustained criticism over her views on gender and trans rights, which she denies are transphobic, and several actors from the forthcoming HBO adaptation, among them Bel Powley, John Lithgow, Nick Frost and Paapa Essiedu, have distanced themselves from her position.

Later in the set, talking about his five-year-old son, Carner criticised what he called toxic masculinity and argued for teaching emotional intelligence to young people. He then introduced Speed Of Plight as a song in direct opposition to the far right. At another point he asked the audience to make some noise for the NHS.

Horcrux comes from his fourth album Hopefully!, released in June last year and largely about parenthood. He has explained the title before: the idea of a Horcrux holding a fragment of a soul struck him as close to the parts of himself that will live on in his children.

This is not new territory for him at this festival. His 2023 Reading set included a speech about toxic masculinity and breaking cycles of trauma before Still, a moment NME listed among that year's highlights. He told NME afterwards that giving young men a space to talk matters, and cited a message from a mother whose son had been able to speak about something painful after seeing him play.

Speed Of Plight appears on Hugo, his Mercury-shortlisted third album, which NME called his most polished record in a four star review. He headlined Glastonbury's Other Stage in 2025 with Jorja Smith and Sampha as guests.

The Sunday he played closed a weekend that had already carried headline slots from Dave and RAYE, a run of unannounced sets, and a Spotify playlist tie-in for ticket holders. The rest of the weekend's hip-hop bookings sit on the festival tracker.