Kano Vs. The Sunday Times
Kano has recently recorded a song to promote the government’s diploma scheme. More Than One Way, which you can download for free at his official website, is the result of this partnership. However, the London rapper had a problem recently with the Sunday Times’ reporting of the collaboration. He said on the Guardian’s music blog:
The Sunday Times wrote a negative piece about my involvement in promoting the diploma, trying to paint me as the stereotypical “bad-boy rapper”. The piece was full of mistakes. For one thing, I’m not helping Ed Balls, I’m helping the future of our youth, and if it wasn’t about that then I wouldn’t be involved. “Foul-mouthed” or not, I’m doing more for my community than a lot of others. This scheme could potentially change a young person’s future for the better, so how could you be against that?
So, has he been unfairly portrayed? Let’s look at the accusations that his lyrics are ‘violent and obscenity-strewn’. The example that they are quoting is from a song called Ghetto Kid from Kano’s rather good debut album, Home Sweet Home:
Don’t fuck with me / I’ve got my knife and I could get a nine milli [9mm pistol] / And niggas know I’m blowin’ up shows like a terrorist.
On the surface, it fits their description, but that’s the whole point. It fits their narrative, even though what they’ve essentially done is take the lyrics out of context. It’s almost as if they were pre-destined to bash Kano for two reason: that hip-hop that originates from the more urban parts of the UK that doesn’t sound remotely mainstream is evil and that the government is trying to connect with the youth in an embarrassing way that will make them lose more votes than those gained at the forthcoming election, so they searched through his lyrics on some unofficial lyrics site to try and find the most ‘controversial’ examples to fit the narrative.
I tried to see if any other national newspaper had reported it. Only one other broadsheet, The Daily Telegraph, did and it was, thankfully, in a far less snobby and patronising tone than that of the Sunday Times, though they do make reference to his ‘lyrics about guns, knifes and violence’ to make it sound like all of his songs are about those three things, which is untrue.
The real impression that is given by this article is how hip-hop continues to get a bad reputation in some of the national newspapers, both tabloid and broadsheet. Hip-hop will only get a mention if it is in the mainstream and is uncontroversial and lyrics that aren’t too harsh – not that there is anything wrong with rappers like Dizzee Rascal and Jay-Z, who fit this description. Anything that is born out of life in the rougher parts of town is painted as evil and a bad influence, threatening the values of our society by talking about violence and guns all the time and throwing swear words all over the place, even thought swearing isn’t limited to hip-hop. It’s a perception that needs to change, and I’m saying that as someone who isn’t a massive fan of hip-hop in the first place.
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Posted on January 27th, 2010 by Max
Filed under: Features, News
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