Kanye West's 2015 performance, debuting his new song "All Day", at the Brit Award's can arguably be seen as controversial. On one side we saw the performance being praised for the recognition of grime music in the UK, Kanye used his international platform as a worldwide artist to promote and embrace the culture of grime. Kanye's lyrics delve deeper into just rap, he recognises the struggles and history of what has happened in the past. "Don't really matter what I make, boy, you know I still go wild Like a light skinned slave, boy, we in the mothafuckin' house!" Kanye looks at how those of a lighter skin tone were given more privileges, in the slave era, than those with darker skins.
However, there was also a lot of negative backlash of his performance, gaining criticism from many. Instead of seeing Kanye and the other artists who were on stage with him, including Skepta, Krept & Konan and Stormzy. Some critics believed that his performance was promoting "gang" culture and violence and it was not appropriate for a show like the Brit Awards. One woman saw Kanye's performance as "a bunch of young men, all dressed in black, dancing extremely aggressively, on stage, it made me feel extremely intimidated". But why? Why should this image make someone feel intimidated? It can be argued it is because the media has perpetuated the image as "black culture as gang culture". This has been so in so many incidents, for example, Michael Brown who was shot by police in Ferguson. The media spread an image of him as a gangster, using pictures that could possibly see him in a bad light, blaming him, not making him a victim.
Grime, R&B and Hip Hop, may be associated with certain people, but it does not mean it appropriates certain ways of life. I see Kanye's performance as enlightening and I believe that the stereotype of "black" music needs to be re thought.
Quite a lot of stuff is now being written on rap/ resistance/ politics, so it could be interesting to look at this. The big question is how do you turn this idea into a project that appears in public space? Perhaps you could make a one-off music event or video? A re-enactment of a Kayne West number performed by white female kids? Controversial for other reasons obviously! But you need something to take the idea into public space.
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