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© ukhh.com 1999 - 2003
article 0058 added 15.01.03 words
Doc Brown
Yes people, Whats gwarnin? As a trainee social worker, youth worker and rapper, I have to say, the news was kinda messed up this week. I love my Hip Hop Culture and Rap music and we've been getting thoroughly shafted by the press, TV, local authorities and the Government for too long. So, basically, I though I'd just send out an open letter to see who feels the same... maybe we can start organising. You never know.
Did anyone see Blak Twang on This Morning trying to defend Rap to Richard & Judy? He
didn't actually do so well. Even rappers seem to be getting a few things backwards like, erm, the BIGGER PICTURE. Its cool for Twang to say "orite, but what about Scwarzenegger films?
They're violent and no-one complains" but lets get really real:
Rap and Garage music is created by and for 'ethnic minorities' and people of all races who tend to be from more deprived backgrounds. Many were once immigrants who had to make their way in this country under the pressure of racism and prejudice, jobs that
weren't open to them and areas they were socially banned from. Through fear they kept to themselves, moving into the areas in England where upstanding British Citizens didn't have to deal with them and the government could ignore them without fear of losing key support and, when the time came, votes.
All this created areas with a worrying level of poverty and a feeling of hopelessness- Trickle Down: Family breakdown... Alcohol and substance abuse... Domestic violence... Kids
don't wanna be at home, so they stay on the streets. Schools blackball them. Businesses do not consider them, money is scarce. Some kid tells another kid that if he could accompany him in the jacking of a car up the road, he'll get £500.
Another kid sees all this shit happen like his parents before him and decides to write a song about it. He is castigated for 'glorifying ghetto violence'.
Politicians and the media got it all backwards, but that's how they want it. They are not stupid. Everything I wrote here they not only know about, they could give you a better breakdown of it than me, with facts and figures
as well. The problem is that Rap and the aggression that surrounds it clearly highlights the areas and situations in the UK that are the government are trying to ignore. Rap in the Bronx did the same thing. It was attacked by the mainstream because it touched on mainstream guilt.
Who is responsible for the welfare of entire areas? Who is responsible for the positive progress of Lambeth? Of Brent and Hackney? Of Newham and Haringey? I don't think its rappers. What the fuck are we voting for? We're voting to make our little part of the world a better place because that is THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES . They fuck up, don't take care of their side of the deal, entire communities turn to shit and the So Solid Crew and Grand Theft Auto 3 get blamed. This is a fucking joke.
Remember that Blak Twang tune where he said 'Don't let dem fool you'?
I look at this whole thing like the birth of Graffiti Art. Kids looked out their window every day, saw nothing but grey skies, grey walls, grey pavements and grey rubble and thought, 'what if there was a mural right there, full of colour to wake up to every day?' It was done and succeeded in bringing a tiny ray of sunshine to forgotten regions. The New York City Council said that it signified the start of the fall of the five boroughs to gang violence and drug wars. The cause rather than the reaction. That's twisted.
They try and sell it to you on the news everyday, arse-backwards.
Don't Let Dem Fool You.
Written by Doc Brown
