England riots: Opinions from the music scene

Amongst the plethora of articles written about the riots in the past week, some have attributed a portion of the blame to rap music’s influence on our youth, particularly on young black people. Miguel Cullen speaks to music industry insiders about their reactions to the riots and the stories surrounding them.

Lloyd Bradley, music journalist for The Guardian and MOJO, and author of perhaps the world’s most respected history of reggae, Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King

“One thing that I’m upset about, and so are a lot of people I know, is the way this was pitched as a black event, which is ridiculous. If you look at the front of the papers, most of the images are of black people, and you think: ‘this is a black event’.

I’m finding that quite offensive. I watched Darcus Howe on Newsnight last Monday night, and thought it was atrocious. They seemed to have got him on there to say ‘this is a black problem’, and seeing as Darcus’s head is stuck in 1977, he expounded this and made out it was the blacks against the police. I found myself agreeing with Edwina Currie. And that sort of thing can’t be healthy.”

Mad Professor – famously remixed Massive Attack’s album with his No Protection album. The Guyana-born musician who became the most prolific and respected dub producer in the UK

“When you become a Londoner, you lose your ethnicity. My next door neighbour [in south London] is Indian, another is Iranian. It took New York decades before they get that kind of integration. As a musician, I expected this riot months ago. With the case of Smiley Culture, [the reggae artist whose death in March of this year after police arrived at his home with a search warrant sparked anger in London’s black community and is being investigated by the IPCC] no one has taken any notice of. There were a lot of questions around his death and it’s been brushed under the carpet.”

Kano, who alongside Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder and Chipmunk is one of the UK grime artists to have translated his music into a mainstream success story

“I understand the anger and frustration coming from the Tottenham community and young people all over the country. We all have questions that need answering. I want to know why Mark Duggan was shot and not arrested. Now, these young people are distracting the attention away from the shooting. Setting fire to a police car is going too far, but I get it, there is anger towards the police. Burning down and burgling local businesses? Come on. Last week a Sony building was burned down and I, along with many others, lost all the stock that I keep there. We need to do ourselves a favour: not act exactly like the stereotype the media already paint of us.”

Brinsley Forde, ex-lead singer of Aswad, the UK’s most prominent reggae band. Forde also starred in the cult film Babylon, which depicted the trials and racial tribulations suffered by a young black musician growing up in south London in 1980

“The spark was of course the reaction to Mark Duggan’s death. This was real – this was a reaction to a young man’s life being taken and protesters rightly demanding answers.

Brixton saw the least disturbance in the days of the riots, yet the police choose to invite the news cameras to show black youths of the area being arrested, so the country jumps to their stereotypical opinions that the black youth of under-privileged ghettos are the enemy.

Britain’s largest gang is the Metropolitan Police Force who when opportunity arose may or may not have lined its own pockets [through News International] just like the youths we’ve seen – taking the opportunity that was presented to them.”

DELS, a young rapper and labelmate of Roots Manuva [Ninja Tune / Big Dada] whose new album features contributions from Roots Manuva and Hot Chip. He also works as a youth worker

“My concern is as not just a youth worker, but also as a young mixed-heritage man living in Britain. What now? I’m afraid that the repercussions of this will only serve to damage the perception of black youths in Britain today and their already troubled relationship with the police. Inevitably, young black people will be demonised in the media as a result of this – which would be a shame because what we may see now is a moral panic that will punish young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who were not involved in the riots.”

Eliijah, from Rinse FM and part  of grime music’s most influential DJ collective, Elijah & Skilliam

“The rioting’ll continue in whatever form – whether it’s looting, whether it’s breaking up football matches. Policing is not the solution. Shooting rubber bullets at people won’t do anything ’cause the same problems are gonna be there.

Is it because of the negative headlines about the economy? My sister’s sitting here – do you know anything about the economy? People I know don’t know about that. A lot of the people I know that are graduates like me are now working in retail – that’s not what they expected. But the people that were out in the street? It doesn’t add up – they’re just going out to get a free pair of trainers.

I remember being 18 and having nothing to do – but I didn’t do that.”

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