Grime is stifled by “institutionalised racism” and prejudice, say MPs

The UK's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee has published a report that says grime musicians are facing increased challenges to share their music and perform live due to "institutionalised racism."

The lengthy report into the UK's live music scene as a whole delves closely into the problems faced by those involved in the UK's grime scene and was delivered today to MPs.

Citing tougher licensing sanctions and the police's propensity to shut down gigs at short notice, the report said that "Prejudices against grime artists risks stifling one of the UK’s most exciting musical exports." A number of British grime and hip-hop artists - most notably Giggs - have had their live shows repeatedly shut down last-minute over a number of years.

Rapper ShaoDow, pictured above, is one of those who was invited by the committee to share their experiences as a grime performer in the UK. "I had a venue cancel on me on the day that I was meant to go there," he told MPs. "I was booked for a performance in a club and called them ahead of time to say, 'I am on my way', and they said, 'Oh, by the way, we were just listening to your music. You make hip-hop'. 

"I said, 'Yes', and he said, 'Oh, we cannot do that here, we will lose our licence'."

UK Music, an organisation representing the UK music industry at large, welcomed the DCMS committee's findings, saying: "We must root out discrimination wherever we find it."

You can find out more about the overall contents of the report here.

Two UK drill rappers were recently given suspended sentences for apparently breaching an injuction by performing their own music, while the UK drill crew 67 also criticised media and police last year for scapegoating the genre for violence in London.