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Music

Should Black Artists Be Speaking Up About The Trayvon Martin Case?

We spoke to Jammer and Boyadee to get their opinions.

As the dust settles on the controversial not guilty verdict for George Zimmerman, after shooting Trayvon Martin dead, we asked Boyadee and Jammer if black artists should be speaking up.

BOYADEE

"Even though they dug up all this stuff on Trayvon, y’know, that he was a bad yoot in the area, to follow him, unprovoked, and take his life, how is that justified? Zimmerman didn’t know him personally, so he was following him purely because he fit that description; a young black youth. He was just a black boy hanging out and Zimmerman decided it was his place to take the law into his own hands. It's a travesty of justice.

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I do think it is as clear cut an issue of race because it was fuelled by racial profiling. If it were a white dude, would this have happened? The fact that they gave him his gun back is insane. How good an example is it that not only was his gun license not taken away, but the weapon he used to take someone’s life is given back too? That speaks volumes to me. I understand that law, but I think there must be times when it’s too black and white, the morality of it was not taken into account.

Of course there’s racial tension in the UK, lets not be naïve, but I do think we’re more tolerant than America, they’re extreme. The UK and US have very different histories and therefore very different attitudes. Racism is a lot more brazen, where as over here, with groups like the BNP and EDL, it can masquerade as something else. But we’re still more multicultural, there‘s mixing at least, I don’t think that’s true of America. Racial profiling in the States is so sensationalised, people believe it for truth. If they’re told that every single black boy on the block is out to rob, is out to murder, then the every day man will take that as fact. And the States push these stereotypes; black boys are demonised, if it’s not that violent image it’s black boys sitting on the block, out of work and eating chicken.

Is it the duty of black artists to speak out? It's difficult, on one hand, if you’re only known as a rapper, you could say it’s just your job to rap. These guys who talk about ballin’ out, driving big boy whips and fucking bad bitches to entertain us, are they in a position to suddenly start preaching? They’d just get shut down by the powers that be. But, if you have a vested interest in these issues and you’re really about that life, then yes use your profile and step up to the plate. I feel like it depends artist to artist, but it’s more effective if it comes from someone who’s very politicised. I don’t want to skirt around the subject, but to say it’s a “duty”, I don’t know, however you feel it will come out in your music anyway.

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What’s the solution? Education. And it’s a joint effort, we do need people in the limelight, not just musicians, to act as role models and educate us. Prominent black men who’ve got through that negativity, that adversity, and done something with their lives. They’ve pushed through and not shut the door behind them. Like, if you’re stereotyped you’ve got to flip it, if everyone thinks you sit around eating chicken, then make fucking money selling chicken, help yourself.

That anger has become a disease in the black community, where we keep it in our little microcosm, and it goes round and round in circles and only damages us. We need to turn it into something positive."

JAMMER

"Well, the young guy didn’t have a gun. What was Zimmerman scared of? The thing is this happens with police officers all the time. You hear that a guy gets shot because they thought he had a gun or they shot him because they thought it was a gun but it was a lighter or because he was reaching into his bag for something but it was a mobile phone. It’s always the same old story. Me personally, I feel that until we all go home to our countries we haven’t got a say. Whenever stuff like this happens, all we can do is sit back and watch. No matter what opinion we have, nothing matters. Institutionalised racism definitely exists in Britain. I wouldn’t pinpoint the government but these things are happening and going on. I just try not to watch the news because it’s no good. The news will make you see what they want you to see in any scenario.

I think social media has made it much easier to write [about social events] as well. One person will write “they’re rioting now” and everyone else will go straight away. It’s a lot of power in the pedestrian’s hands. It’s bigger than us though. I'm just trying to make some music that makes people feel good because all of these things are much higher than us. As a rapper, you can’t really have too much of an opinion. If you have too much of a wise opinion, people aren’t going to want you to talk too much. I've seen it happen to artists, man. I've seen artists speak their mind and things just start to go down hill for them.

Certain artists can put themselves in that place – like Akala – as the political rapper. There are certain things that happen where he’ll touch on that subject. I haven’t put myself out there as a political rapper, I've not put myself out there as a role model in that sense. I'm a musician but at the same time I look up to other people. My dad was a real role model for me, but some of these young kids look up to 2 Chainz and Jay Z and what these people are doing is bad. They’re making a lot of money and should be helping other individuals.

We [in grime] get parred for not even saying much. We’ve already been painted with a bad brush. I speak with my mind and not so much about government issues. People are like “you're a grime MC, you should be speaking the truth” and when I'm on a record you should be like “you’ve got to go to school”, noone’s really gonna listen to me."