How Skepta Tried to Show the Establishment ‘This Is Grime’

dontdiedontkillanyon · February 2017

Vague political statements were the norm at last night’s BRIT Awards. Katy Perry danced amid a phalanx of miniature houses (comment on... the housing crisis?) and giant skeleton puppets that were probably meant to be Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May. When the 1975 won the award for Best British Group, frontman Matty Healy gave a surprisingly meek acceptance speech for a man whose image is built on (delightful) ridiculousness: “People in pop music and the public eye are told to stay in their lane when it comes to social issues. But if you have a platform, please don’t do that.” That… was it. Fader editor Aimee Cliff summed up his remarks and others like them: “2017: artists use their platform to tell other artists to use their platform to tell other artists to use their platform to tell other artis—”

Forgetting the outside world for a moment, there was plenty to talk about within the room. The recent narrative of the BRITs has revolved around its exclusion of grime, definitively the UK’s fastest growing cultural phenomenon. In 2015, it took Kanye West to get Skepta, Stormzy, Novelist, and two dozen more grime artists on stage during his performance of “All Day,” which prompted a rash of (predominantly racist) complaints to British broadcasting standards association Ofcom. By way of response, Skepta rush-released his single “Shutdown,” which featured a skit based on the outcry read in a middle-class woman’s voice: “A bunch of young men all dressed in black dancing extremely aggressively on stage, it made me feel so intimidated, and it’s just not what I expect to see on primetime TV.”

No grime artists were nominated at the 2016 BRITs, leading to an inevitable #BRITssowhite backlash. Ceremony organizer Ged Doherty promised that changes were being made to the 1100-strong voting body to ensure that history didn't repeat itself, and for a while, at least, it looked as though they’d made some progress for 2017. David Bowie was the only white artist nominated for Best Male Solo, alongside Skepta, Michael Kiwanuka, Kano, and Craig David. Lianne La Havas, Nao, and Emeli Sandé stood alongside Ellie Goulding and Anohni in the Female Solo category; Skepta and Stormzy were both up for British Breakthrough Act. But on the night, Sandé was the only black artist to win in a British category. (Beyoncé, Drake, and A Tribe Called Quest cleaned up the international awards, which were barely mentioned for reasons that went unexplained.) As with the Grammys, the impression was of an establishment trading off the image and artistry of young black creatives, but denying them the recognition they deserve.

When Skepta performed “Shutdown” halfway through the night (following a pitiful interview with Rag’n’Bone Man, the white soul trustafarian who beat him in the Breakthrough category), he used his literal, physical platform to send a message to the music industry. The illuminated staging beneath his feet alternated between flashing red and displaying portraits of his peers taken from writer Hattie Collins and photographer Olivia Rose’s book This Is Grime, a handsome oral history of the genre. “Skepta’s management team got in touch and said he really wanted to celebrate the scene as part of the performance,” says Collins the morning after the performance. Collins has spent more than 13 years covering grime, and her admiration for the scene is evident from the intimate anecdotes she’s extracted in the book, while Rose’s tender portraits capture the artists in domestic settings. Fighting hangovers from Skepta’s after-party, the pair Skyped to discuss grime’s snub, industry cluelessness, and the importance of there being no “true” story of grime.

https://youtu.be/YD8BstwcCUM

dontdiedontkillanyon · February 2017

Pitchfork: Would it be wrong to see Skepta’s use of these photos as a protest against the BRITs?

Hattie Collins: I think that the prize he really cared about was the Mercury [which he won], and I think Stormzy has perhaps been a more vocal figure in grime about the BRITs and the lack of diversity last year. I think Skepta really probably just wanted to use his platform to shine a light on the scene. It was more a chance to display 100-odd people who would possibly most likely never get to be that stage.

His use of that imagery felt meaningful, whereas the BRITs using grime to promote how supposedly inclusive they are turned out to be hollow when they didn't reward any of the artists. Were you surprised?

HC: I was surprised, but I'm surprised at myself for being surprised, because why did I expect any better? Somebody said this to me last night—they gave us the chips but not the steak. I had several conversations last night with key industry people who were patting themselves on the back like, [adopts posh voice], “Oh, you must be so pleased.” Are you insane? If anything it just highlights again how out of touch they are.

Olivia Rose: This might sound mad, but to me it's like Brexit, it's like Trump. How does all of this mad stuff keep happening in 2017? It's so obvious—you only have to look at people's Instagram followers to see who the breakthrough artists of the year were. Ignoring "urban music” is just whitewashing, it really is. The people who vote are not in tune with what the music means to people who live in this country. Somebody asked me last night, “Who is Stormzy?” How can you not have heard his name?

Chip%20and%20Stormzy%20backstage%20at%20Lethal%20Bs%20KoKo%20gig.jpg

Chip%20and%20Stormzy%20backstage%20at%20Lethal%20Bs%20KoKo%20gig.jpg

Chip and Stormzy backstage at a show, from ‘This Is Grime’

There's always debate about whether grime “needs” the validation of the industry at large. Do you think what happened last night matters?

HC: It will have no consequences whatsoever on the scene itself. Having said that, if Stormzy had won, if Skepta had won, the impact would actually have been pretty big. You know, Stormzy has an album out this week. It was so telling that it took Ed Sheeran to bring out one of the hottest music stars in this country—you can compare it to Adele and Beyoncé at the Grammys. The Brits itself didn't want to bring Stormzy onstage, and kudos to Ed for sharing the stage with Stormzy and giving him some love on the air.

It has been theorized that as totally independent artists, their success is seen as a threat to the system that the BRITs is founded on. What do you think?

OR: If that is the case, then the music industry needs to wake up. Things are done in a different way now, and you either adapt or react against it. It's so the BRITs that they would reward the dead man and not the black man. That's the bottom line.

Grime doesn't have a huge written culture around it. Why was it important to make This Is Grime an oral history?

HC: I've written about grime for a long time, so I don't see myself as outside of the scene, but I'm also certainly not a person who's shaped it, so I was very cautious of extolling what I believed grime to be. One of the important things about grime is that it's made by a bunch of mates from East London, so I wanted it to have its own voice.

OR: There is no true history. There's so many different versions of the same story: how grime got its name, when things started, where exactly you pinpoint that. That was the other thing, allowing the story to be told in all of its different forms.

HC: Since we've done the book, I'm hearing more and more stories, and it feels such a waste not to continue to document them, so hopefully it'll be a shifting project.

Kano%20in%20his%20car%20near%20Plaistow%202016.jpg

Kano%20in%20his%20car%20near%20Plaistow%202016.jpg

Kano in his car, from ‘This Is Grime’

What would the next chapter be?

HC: It would be the last year: the Mercury, the BRITs. It would be really good to have a very frank discussion about the industry and the impact of these institutions upon the scene. It's not just about awards—it does have a deeper impact politically and culturally. I think that's really interesting in this post-Brexit, Trump-ruling world—these conversations that are important, that have been important throughout grime with things like the Form 696 era.

Any final thoughts about last night?

OR: My final comment is, ? the BRITs! Skepta’s after-party was a turn-up, we all had fun.

Did any of the artists talk to you about what had happened?

HC: I spoke to Skepta for quite a while, but definitely not about the BRITs. I honestly don't think that they're bothered. He's riding so high in his life right now, I just don't think he will give the BRITs a second thought.

JME%20brother%20of%20Skepta%20member%20of%20BBK.jpg