George the Poet Artsnight


George the Poet

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the meaning of black culture in music, theatre, writing and

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I have a dream that the black man will have the hand the white man.

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Black lies matter, White lies matter, everybody's lies matter.

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Immigration should mean controlled immigration.

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Black culture is a term used for people of African descent. Is black

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culture a uniform thing or isolated pockets of creativity? East Coast

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rap to East London grime. All the similarities, all the differences

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and the hybrids come with time. Speaking about black culture, often

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young adults and teens come to me, black music has bridged many gaps.

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But the Heritage is undermined by the lack of economic ownership. I'm

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from a generation that has grown with that, watched our creation,

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sliced while our history and spaces are blown to bits. From where I

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stand in the UK, it is a shadowy area and I'm keen to cast light in

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the form of art mind. Within every community there exists

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a range of voices. We create what we become so we can change the choices.

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That is the magic of art. It allows us to engage with the story.

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Speaking of engaging with the story, meet ritual for it. -- Rachel for E.

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I asked why she was writing, it is not supposed to be confidential? Who

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will she showed to? She says she is happy to understand things. If I

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want to try it I can write stuff down and we can discuss it. I

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already understand things and if I want to discuss something I would

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just say it. But I would bury my head in my diary is I was hurt,

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confronted with this misguided 18-year-old. She kept going on about

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it being my session and it is her job to listen. So I thought if I

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have these weekly sessions I might as well speak my mind. If it is her

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job. I had a show about a young girl from south London. Your writing her

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perspective with both admiration and respect for what she sees. It was a

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bit tongue in cheek, you see how she will be perceived. She has this

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south London kind of stereotype that you sort of right. Her name is

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candies but actually she is incredibly bright. I like the idea

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of you hearing this attitude and accent and then she starts to save

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the we agree with. Did you know black people are more likely to get

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stopped and searched by police? And she says it is statistics like that

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but make me do what I do. I did not ask you why you do your job. And you

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doing this does not change the fact that we live in a world where an

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armed police officer can shoot the young boy dead. We do not really

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talk about this stuff. And if we do it is like, you have equal

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opportunities now, what are you complaining about? I do not think

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that kind of stuff, like you cannot say it is not PC. I think that

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stands for politely condescending. Like you are coming and telling me I

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need your help. Do you feel there is a responsibility of representation?

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Initially I just wanted to express myself. To be a pioneer for the

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representation of black women. It is important to convey the variations

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within black women. When you turn on your TV or read a newspaper, they

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always take certain boxes or act a certain way. I want to twist things

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and play with stereotype. What does it mean for this thing called black

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culture? Where does that story fit in. I'm not here to before black

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culture to go this is a global responsibility. Gender equality,

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racial equality, we all need to take responsibility. Not how we fix this

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as black people. That is explored in the play and it is interesting how

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it is received. For some this topic is illustrated through a preacher.

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When she starts to speak people laugh. Everyone recognises this. I

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get people to clap as if they were in church. Then there's topic of

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them and us and how we fix this situation, I start to speak about

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that. Wake up black people. I know nobody

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going to preach this on a Sunday morning. But God has said you'll

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wake up and start making excuses about how we have to work twice as

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hard when the truth is we just will not see it. Open our eyes beyond the

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physical, so it are sci-fi as individuals and start to focus.

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Complaining how the Lord does not here are calls. Kudos. Do you feel

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you started off as politically charged? Yes, politics came from my

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own experience, people expected me to embody these stereotypes, how

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women are perceived and the kind of woman you had to be to succeed. The

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kind of things you had to do to be successful. I thought hold on,

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switch this up a bit. Your mission initially was not to try to save

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these people do not exist and that is just a figment of your

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imagination, but to take some existing identities and add a bit

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more colour and variation? Exactly. You said you recognise these women

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and that is why we are laughing. We can relate to it. All we are

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embarrassed because we have experienced something like that. And

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sometimes you consent the audience question why they are liking that

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character. Because I relate to you, or look down on you, it creates this

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discomfort which is also interesting. It is opening dialogue

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and people are talking about it. That is more likely to cause things

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to happen and change. I know, I'm fully aware Obama is in

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office. The dream come true. But the truth is black people, real change

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starts with you. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That is

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change of the divine kind. You leave that behind and you turn to him.

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That makes all things new. Only the grace of God can really change you.

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Now I'm saying white folk got to go together, it seems only a few blacks

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have got to make the world better. Black is successful, why cannot

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black and success befriends? You cannot go to school because you can

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hustle for another dollar. Wake up. It is not the world was Iraq fault.

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It is not the fault of that white guy who got the job. Wake up. -- not

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the world's falls. Do you think there's a difference between racial

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and gender politics, that you embody? For me racism always trump

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sexism. And within the sexism it is always like, black women are...

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Black men are strong and that women are sassy and a bit much and she

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needs to calm down. I feel there is always constantly levels within

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either inequality. Congratulations again. Talent has messed you up!

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Culture provides a dialect, an antidote

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An outlet for anyone denied respect.

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The medium through which you and I connect.

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From spoken aspirations to some commemorations, culture can

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Not to see the barriers that we inherit, to see

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First you make a sound, then you wait a while.

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Then you get the kids trying to emulate your style,

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England is a -based culture. Something is seminal as England is a

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bitch penetrated consciousness. But your accent and methods were

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uncompromising. How was it to be received at that time? At that time

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we were trying to do something new with poetry. I was trying to use my

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words at the time to articulate how we felt about our experiences living

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and growing up, struggling in a racialised society.

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The tension with the police in the 1970s and 1980s... It has not

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stopped. We are the generation that continues to bear that. But at the

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emergence of this cultural setting, how was it coming out and just

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clearing space to the cultural in a way that wasn't able to your life?

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Still fighting. You're talking a lot of stuff that should get you in

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trouble. You made one poll about the SPG. I was vilified by certain

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sections of the right-wing press. Which I took as an endorsement. But

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I was doing the right thing and saying the right thing.

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# Everywhere you go it's the talk of the day #

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Everywhere you go you hear people say

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# The special patrol our murderer. The demonstration against the

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National Front degenerated into a running battle between the police

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and demonstrators. I remember being sceptical when I came to the studio

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with some of my stuff. There was one in particular, the SPG, you know who

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you are dealing with with this guy? And he'd go, well, bass, tell you

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what, you don't mind not putting my name on this record!

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Their Peach, London teacher and father of two children was hit hard

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on the head and died. The pathologist said he may have been

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the victim of a Robert Koch. The police say the officers carry

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standard truncheons and not rubber cosh is and according to the yard

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the police inquiry into Peach's death is being pursued with vigour.

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-- rubber cosh. I remember Linton saying to me I'm not contriving

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anything, these are things happening around us and I'm just reporting on

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it. And I was downward that. It was at the moment what was going on,

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being recorded, so that future generations could hear the state of

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it. # Is England becoming a fascist

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state? # The answer lies in your own state

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# And in the answer lies your own fate. #

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Interestingly what is spoken about what is the Jamaican influence on

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the punk movement, the skinhead movement. Do you feel any affinity

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to that? Both music types were the music of the unemployed in the 1970s

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and it was black and white working-class youth solidarity.

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Expressed culturally. We have to be careful when talking about black

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culture. What is black culture? Culture is not determined or defined

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by pigmentation. Caribbean migrants have contributed to British popular

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culture and it has become institutionalised. But the black

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communities had to wage struggles after struggles after struggles

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against the police and certain reactionary elements. Do you feel

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like there has been some progress in the translation of these different

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cultural moments meeting in the spaces we are creating? Even though

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we had to resort to riots and insurrections and uprisings in order

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to integrate ourselves into British society we have by and large done

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so. And we are no longer on the periphery of British society. So,

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yes, there has been progress. It should only get better but we will

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wait to see. All right then, we will be looking forward to it and my

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generation is indebted to you and eternally grateful for your

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contribution. We are eternally grateful of the contribution of our

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parents' generation because they laid a solid foundation for us for

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stop I'm looking forward to your work, I'm sure you have much more in

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new. -- I'm sure you have much more in you.

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Every culture follows an invisible order and many exist

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This one has been on an uncharted journey.

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To all the latecomers, this one started early.

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Diasporas have hand-picked their moments, unique to

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And created many a hybrid form, like the one in which I perform.

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But the concept of blackness is relatively new and it gets

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It's a mix of ethnicities with separate histories, so black

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Two and a half years ago I was sitting at Cambridge doing my

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finals, and I had a question on my paper about culture. The question

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was: What is black music. And I quoted one book heavily, and that

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was The Black Cats And To. -- the black at Atlantic. I'd like to ask

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you what the term black culture means? How long have you got? The

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first thing we should say about black culture is it is a 20th

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century invention, and even earlier it was something called Montenegro

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culture and that was always in debate, in dispute. And before that

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culture we can say it was African culture. That had to be jam-packed

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as well. There were a range of different cultural forms that

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matched the linguistic, cultural, religious anthropological

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complexities of Africans as they became slaves, and were shifted by

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force of violence across the Atlantic. Ultimately you see culture

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as alive as its subjects. It is a thing that evolves, breathes, reacts

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and adapts? Yes, races and doesn't see culture in the fluid developing

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historic way. Races and six to pickle you and capture youth within

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a particular specification of the culture that you are supposed to

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inhabit. Is itself owned? To suggest it is self owned suggests it is a

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kind of property, you either own it or you don't. My next question is,

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is it not intellectual property? I don't think it is intellectual

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property. It became intellectual property when people put it under

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copyright. That caricatured commodified Armagh Hollywood form

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arrives in our computers and headphones and that invites us to

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join in and plays ourselves in what I would call a generic culture, a

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generic black culture. There was a popularisation of

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gangsta rap in the 90s. Having been a product of that exact marketing

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and identifying with that experience much more than I would have

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identified with the wider British experience, these things are

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projected so powerfully. Sometimes the music isn't a load of car alarms

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and shouting. Sometimes it is really compelling and exciting.

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LAUGHTER Does that not feedback into a

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cultural question about people's acquisition of information and how

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people choose to go about building up their narratives of understanding

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the world? Absolutely. But I still think there is something restrictive

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about these portals and channels of flowing information, which end up,

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or could end up in narrowing our understanding of the richness and

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complexity of identity. I would rather that we could find a richer

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and deeper sense of humanity. And culture? And culture.

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What is the function of a cultural commodity? Is it intellectual

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property? Or maybe an alternative to poverty.

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When a community creates an economy, are its people renumerated properly

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to build themselves and support themselves?

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Or are they overcome by the corporate world?

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# This isn't music # This is a sport # I

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think I'm ready to retire # Something I say to young artists and

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rappers, look at rap is one of writing. I wish somebody told the

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bat when I was 20 and said you are a writer and rap is one form of

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writing. Is wrap something that can take different forms, energy and

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life force? Wrapping is writing, environments

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Wairarapa-Bush from does not show us the intellectual roots it had in the

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first place. By the time I got to university I felt like the cultural

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imperialism I was battling with to be respected as a lyricist isn't

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worth it and I might as well drop out of the music and deliver it more

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conversationally and people received it as poetry. It is an intrinsic

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issue people have with young kids from the hood, young black kids

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calling themselves poets. Every convention they say makes rap not

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poetry is a convention Shakespeare used. He wrote 154 sonnets and every

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single one is set to a particular flow and remember either time you

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get back to The Tempest, It Is Double-time. He was obviously a very

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intelligent guy but so was Tupac. I'm second-generation, black

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Caribbean, Scottish, I'm confused by the boxes, they just breed

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confusion. It all seems like insanity. Why must I rob you of your

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humanity to feel good? When I talk about rock music to

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young black kids they say it is white people music. There were

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African American musicians who inspired the Beatles, led Zeppelin,

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Pink Floyd are named after two blues singers. We have cultural

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appropriation, what's the difference between exchange and appropriation

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question at exchange is I say I like the culture and I will borrow from

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it but I will acknowledge the influence.

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# To me that is cool, if urban means street that is called. What they

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were listening to. How do we get to a stage where rock music is nothing

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to do with black people and Jazz music is only in classical music

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venues and there are four black people in the audience? Music is

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still marketed on racial grounds. If you fall between the cracks as an

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artist, or if you're not easy for all the music industry they don't

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know where to put you. That is like their favourite statement, and what

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they mean is you don't fall into the stereotypes of blackness but you are

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also not white. For me the artist has a tremendous

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role to play not just in black culture but every culture as an

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alternative source of power. In the case of a world where racial

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hierarchies aghast it's incumbent on the black artist to say these things

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can be defeated like this, it is really political. But the powers

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that be would like music to be apolitical, not just black music.

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One thing I say to myself is you are political being black.

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Whiteness is political too. Whiteness does not have to be

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predicated. It doesn't have to be explained.

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Everything else has to be explained but it just exists.

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Blackness makes people uncomfortable. There is a bad

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history, thinking about black-white relations. IBO asking if I'm a

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racist, oh my god, I didn't own any slaves, all of these responses that

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are more about the person's and paranoia. But the paranoia goes both

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ways. My mum's family is Scottish and my dad's family is Jamaican and

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I was waiting for racist abuse. But it didn't come. Even as a

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ten-year-old I waited for somebody to say something, I was on guard,

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saying where is the races and, when it is coming? And it didn't come and

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it was like get over yourself. My Scottish family would have been more

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bothered if he'd been English. They thought he is black, at least he's

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not English full stop their issues with the English often override the

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issues of people with colour. I want to be comfortable just making

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money and not having anything to say about the world is. I'm one of the

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lucky few that has been able to do both. That is black culture's gift

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to the world. And what people come to reggae music for. Why people and

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black people. It is that unique insight that only black people can

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offer because only black people have had that specific racialised a

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stratified class experience. Thank you very much. Any time.

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The concept of blackness is relatively new. The tides of change

:26:57.:27:02.

are rising quietly. We are in different times entirely. We've

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already transformed the usual norms expected of chart-topping musical

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forms and while our efforts have come to the fore there is a new

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generation that hunger for more. They want to mature in the world of

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business. It's the age of the young black entrepreneur. UC, black

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culture is the umbrella term for works by people of African descent.

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But maybe one day the term will mean an overarching pan African ascent.

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To end my Artsnight here is my choice to play us out.

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# Buffalo soldier # In the war for America #

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As a child I used to listen to this song with my mum while she explained

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the journey of many black diasporas.

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# Buffalo soldier # Said he was a Buffalo soldier

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# Win the war for America # Buffalo soldier #

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Dreadlock rasta # Driven from the mainland

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A slow start in the south-eastern corner of

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