Saturday, June 21, 2008

Lethal Bizzle at Download

'If you want to slag off the music, fair enough. But why bring race into it?'

June 19, 2008 3:50 PM




"If I had found it at the beginning of the set, I'm not sure I would have carried on. It was a banana skin, thrown at my feet as I played last weekend's Download festival. On the outside, someone had written "Bizzle you black cunt". I couldn't believe my eyes.

It had always been a bit of a risk for us - myself, my DJ Twister, and my fellow MC 2Face - to play Download at all. It's a heavy rock festival and I think I'm the first rapper ever to play there. I didn't immediately say yes when I got the offer; I asked my manager who said they wouldn't have asked me if they didn't think I'd rock it. So I agreed.

Then the messages started to appear on my blog and MySpace. People were asking: "Are you doing Download? Are you serious?" Then I found a message board thread with over 100 posts, all of them talking about when I was going to get bottled. By the time I left for the festival I was fully aware that my booking was a problem.

That didn't stop me being surprised at the size of the crowd waiting for me as I took to the stage last Sunday. We were on the second stage, but while I had been expecting a small tent, it was open air and the crowd was massive. I was nervous, but the size of the crowd fired me up. I accepted there was going to be a majority who didn't want me there, but I was going to turn it in my favour.

As soon as we stepped on stage - blloooshh - the bottles, liquids, even a carton of Muller rice started to fly. To be honest, I was kind of relieved that it had begun, but about 80% of the crowd was throwing stuff. It looked like the whole field was raining bottles.

I wouldn't say there was a racial element to what most people were doing, I really wouldn't. I know the history of Download and that it's really central to the metal scene, that the fans are passionate and protective of their music. And the weird thing was that by the end I had got most of the crowd on my side! I'd showed a lot of balls and I gained respect - 90% of the people there applauded me off. But then I found the racist stuff and my mood totally changed.

Being who I am, I'd probably do it again. I'm pretty sure my DJ wouldn't though. We're used to getting looks and things like that when we tour middle England, six black guys getting out of a van, you can see they're looking at you and getting defensive. That can get frustrating, but you deal with it. This was different. Why did they have to bring my race into it?

The funny thing is that I'm sure there's lots of different races involved in the metal scene, whether in bands or in production. Music is really multicultural in general and for a long time popular culture has been a way of getting beyond colour. But these people couldn't do that and, to me, they're sick in the head. If you want to send out a message about music, fair enough. But what the fuck is the point of bringing in my skin colour?"

From The Guardian.

No comments: