London Is Burning
Photos by Nina Mouritzen
Theophilus London won’t let you forget his name: the first track off his latest full-length, Timez Are Weird These Days, is an ode to it. But before his eclectically sampled mixtapes began blowing up the blogosphere in 2008—before he began designing shoes for the likes of Cole Haan and charming the crowds at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival—London was just a kid from Brooklyn, growing up one of 20 cousins in Flatbush, insecure about his first name. We recently took a stroll around one of his favorite neighborhoods—Vinegar Hill—to chat about how far he’s come and how Brooklyn remains central to his identity as an artist.