Me on The Politics Show

As Jack mentioned on Saturday, I was invited to speak on The Politics Show this Sunday about the controversial Form 696. The form relates to live music and the Metropolitan Police's ability to request sensitive and discriminatory information from promoters, performers and patrons so as to assess the "Potential risk" of that event. Feargal Sharkey wrote a fairly explicit letter to the Met asking for the form, which while officially voluntary has become mandatory in many London boroughs, to be reviewed, an "Official review" has been announced and it's hoped will see the form repealed. While the main focus of the outrage has been a racial one, there are far reaching implications for the creative community as a whole. By filling in Form 696 we are effectively allowing The Police to decide that if they don't agree with my message and who I'm delivering it to, then they can shut me down. Throughout history music has been a great communicative tool in times of struggle and hardship, the idea that I can no longer use the gift I feel I've been given to communicate a message to my people, because The Police don't want me to, scares me to my soul. The Police State doesn't get much realer than that. In Chile, in South Africa, in Afghanistan, songs were used to inspire, to teach, to relay messages of hope and determination against fascist regimes. In London, 2009 we have to ask for permission. You can watch the show on the BBC iPlayer HERE. The Form 696 section kicks in at about 31 minutes. If anybody could rip the 696 section so I can put it on Youtube I'd appreciate it. I downloaded the whole thing through the iPlayer software but the BBC appear to have it coded like clever internet people.


While in the Green Room waiting to go on I managed to grab a quick chat with Peter Tatchell about Form 696 which was pretty great. Peter Tatchell's one of the bravest men in the country, he doesn't give a fuck, a real fighter for the downtrodden. I don't always agree with him but it takes a lot of balls to be that guy.

There's been a lot of people very outspoken on the Form 696 issue including DJ Semtex, DJ MK, Bashy and Tinchy Stryder whose blogging helped me when doing last minute research on Saturday night so I thank you all. Also thanks to Akira for sending the BBC in my direction. I'm gonna tear down Dawn of the Don on Friday. Yiggity!

VIDEO: Tinchy Stryder Feat. Taio Cruz- Take Me Back

Tinchy Stryder- Take Me Back

Keeping the UK theme going. I just got given the new single from Tinchy Stryder. His first [?] on Island Records. You can hear a snippet above, it features Taio Cruz. I don't know why but I'm much happier for Tinchy Stryder to be the guy who can make a Taio Cruz record work than I am about a few other Grime MCs trying to "Crossover". I think I believe Tinchy. Without trying to patronise him, I think he's genuine, most of the other guys have been soured by industry politics and Tinchy seems to brush it off. Plus his ratio of good verses is way higher than most in the scene. The single is out in January, be on the look out for the video and the remix which features Sway and Chipmunk. Sway's the other dude I think can carry the "Pop" edge in his music well.

Tinchy Stryder Feat. Roachee- Rollin' [Video]

Some actual Grime? I thought all they were making was sweet boy under-18s power ballads these days? Thank fuck for this. Roachee spits that real grime shit. Haha. I honestly thought it was gone forever.

DJ Jack Nimble talking about 'The Blogspot Mixtape'[VIDEO]

Jack was talking about how he was going to write this great blog for 'The Blogspot Mixtape' but in the end I think he said "No. Writing is for suckers" he's part right. But he knew he had to blog, so he sat down and spoke to a camera about the whole affair. The syncing is a bit funny on the intro to the video but honestly we don't know how the hell that happened? We can't actually separate audio and video. I guess we can but we don't know how. Ho hum. The rest of the video is good though. Check it out.

Marvin & DJ Jack Nimble- 'The Blogspot Mixtape'

Tinchy Stryder- Stryderman [VIDEO]

I'm feeling this. Something of the Michael Jackson about it.

Tinchy's on Blogspot