Ottolenghi

Album: Not Waving, But Drowning (2019)
Charted: 74
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is titled after the Israeli-English chef Yotam Ottolenghi. It features dreamy vocals from Brisbane-reared singer-songwriter Jordan Rakei, whose other collaborations include Disclosure's track "Masterpiece" from their Grammy-nominated album Caracal.
  • The song was inspired by an incident on a train when Carner was reading Ottolenghi's cook book Jerusalem. The rapper explained to NME that somebody came up to him asking why he was reading a Jewish book, "He was coming at me – not physically, but he was threatening me," Carner said.

    The rapper felt intimidated and tried to diffuse the situation by saying, "I'm not Jewish but so what if I was? I'm not doing anything to you." The man left the train in a huff, spitting cuss words.

    When Carner got into the studio he told Jordan Rakei the story and they came up with this track. "The song isn't really about Ottolenghi," Carner said, "but it wouldn't exist without him, so it made sense to pay homage."

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