A week ago today Yeezy took to The Brit Awards stage and became the talk of the night. He's got a solid track record of being the talk of award shows regardless if he's nominated or not and the same can be said in regards to performing. Thankfully he was performing at this year's Brits and Sugar Honey Ice Tea did he shut it down. Rihanna was originally booked for The Brits, but maybe she was too busy with the Wolf Of Wall Street and wanted to use that time to get cosy. So in comes Ye to save the day, now he could've played it safe and done a set which would have taken us back a few years when he last visited The Brits. Give those in the crowd what they want, those chart-topping bangers they sing in their car, at BBQs etc.
But Ye doesn't do safe, so instead we got the debut of the track the Hip Hop generation and anyone who has taste in music has been waiting for "All Day". Since that performance everyone and their dog has had an opinion on that performance. Seen everything from "Do Black Brits Need Kanye?" "Why has Kanye got our MCs looking like backup dancers?". Opinions are like..... well you know the saying. So I'm going to try and add some balance to the people who are losing sleep over Ye's performance and stage presence from some of the UK's MCs.
"Do Black Brits Need Kanye?"
In a word No, but lets see what Ye brings to the table ,"Tony Stars/Iron Man voice" Songwriter, Record Producer, Rapper, Director, Fashion Designer and Entrepreneur. What part of that list makes you want to avoid interacting with this guy if you're in any of the areas he's involved in? If that's not your thing but you're musician who makes music and aspire to win a Grammy award for your craft, the man so far has 21 to his name.
Some of us have short memories when it comes to this music scene I swear haha. One of my favourite rap groups (UK & US) of all time S.A.S. already had Kanye tuned into the UK scene from way back. It doesn't hurt to have someone of Kanye's status showing appreciation to the UK scene. Question for those losing sleep over it, I assume you'd rather our guys were at home or in the studio watching it on TV, instead of being part of a moment that had everyone people's attention?
"Why has Kanye got our MCs looking like backup dancers?"
So is it really the end of the world, that Ye asked some of the UK's finest to accompany him on stage? In what way does this action of sharing a stage with a global entertainer affect our guys? Would anyone have spoken about anything other than the song, if he flew in people from Chicago to take the stage with him? Who else that attended, was nominated and won at The Brits, was going to bring anyone of the guys on stage? Don't worry I'll wait...........
He also shouted Skepta at the end of the performance, who shouted out anyone from the scene when they won their award, that's connected to the scene? Don't worry you've still got time.
Many on social media were commenting how The Brits reflected this year's Oscars (aka white wash) but Ye comes along and has that type of stage performance and people switched it up and moaned "Oh look at those blacks on stage acting like thugs blah blah blah" get over it WE owned that night. Another one is "Why didn't he let one of the guys spit some lyrics?" Well at the end of the day The Brits requested Ye to perform.
But why should our guys perform at The Brits for free? This award show which is clearly a more expensive and better produced in comparison to the MOBOs, don't care about our scene. Hence the invites sent out probably only included footballers and Tinie Tempah. That's not a knock on Tinie at all, just saying The Brits know who they want to have at their show. The ignorant reactions that came from this performance, which could be argued sums it up for alot of the middle class against it, can be found on Skepta's new banger:
Whether those against the scene like it or not, Wiley & Dizzee are some of the leaders of this. You can pretend that you're only aware of them via the songs they make to raise awareness of their ability on the charts such as Bonkers, Wearing My Rolex etc...... but that's just another layer they've recent acquired due to understanding how it all works.
Someone like JME fully understands how the industry works, but he's so aggressively confident in what he does, naturally you pay attention as his passion dedication and ability demands it. The scene is healthy and its back to where it was a few years ago. I'm not the biggest Grime expert and they're people better placed than me to comment on this, but I've been involved with many of the artists and contributed to helping the scene. Scene is best it's been for some time now, without any labels offering anything near to what they do for singers based over here. The scene is sustaining it's self with many artists capitalising on the boom of social media and allowing us to connect with them and resulting in more events taking place.
Why can't the naysayers just embrace the fact that our scene is getting acknowledged in a very organic way (you may say social media has a part to play in this), without selling something watered down to do so? It feels like these same people who've got a voice in the scene, are indirectly upset that this is finally happening without them maybe? Why should some of the best artists the UK has to offer, be content with local recognition or letting guys who can sing be the only ones noticed internationally? Can we ALL just embrace that this is happening and long may it continue. These guys work hard in the scene to get their craft and skills noticed, let them have this moment and the many more to come.
I attended and experienced Mr Bigz's debut headline show last week, and it was further testament our guys are taking their craft very serious and doing it their way. His performance wasn't just playing songs and rhyming over them. He presented a full band and engaged the crowd as all friends not random people filled in a room. He took full advantage of the intimate venue and used that in his favour.
So let the collaborations between both sides of the ocean continue, stop clowning Drake for watching Top Boy and appreciating the guys. Ok I'll admit I chuckle when Drake gives us the yardie voice mixed with uk slang mixed with whatever else he wishes to throw in there like West Indian cooking. To all the MC's, producers, video directors, fashion designers of the UK continue to do what you love and enjoy, don't let these small minority of naysayers who always have something to say when the US artists show appreciation bother you. Me personally I'm rooting for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment