Scruffy hip-hop to blame for English gun crime, says Tricky - UPDATE: science agrees
- Artists:
- Tricky »
Tweet This
Share on FacebookTricky** has, unsurprisingly, spoken out against violent crime in England, adding that hip hop “_has to take some responsibility for the gun culture we’ve got over here”.
The Mercury Prize-winning trip hop star – real name Adrian Thaws – reckons the country of his birth is “getting more like America every day_” but a more aggressive, alcohol-fuelled English temperament makes our plot of land a more dangerous place to live than, say, the Bronx.
"I love hip hop, began Thaws. “But it has to take some responsibility for the gun culture we’ve got over here.
“We’re getting super-violent. You can walk around the Bronx for days on end and nobody bothers you. In England, you can say the wrong thing in a pub and, before you know it, you’ve got a bottle over your head or a bullet in your brain. English people have got quicker tempers.”
It’s difficult to know whether Thaws – who was born in Bristol – is correct in proclaiming such vast generalisations. Is it right to tar the whole of England with the same oily brush, to compare places like Marlow, Barnes and Canterbury unfavourably to the Bronx? That’s up to you, but Tricky can at least pinpoint something more specific in the quest for a cause, appearing to tell Uncut that a lack of positivity and sartorial care within hip hop culture is what differentiates it from English pop subcultures past.
"What have they got to get them through hard times? We had punk rock and ska and bands that made you feel you could do anything,” says Thaws.
“We were into clothes in a big way. Anything to take our minds off the stress. They don’t have to think about getting dressed. They get the baseball cap and trainers on, that’s all it is. But they’ve got nothing to take the pressure off. That’s maybe why they’re more violent than we were.
“That and the fact they have access to serious artillery,” he continued. “We used to throw stones at each other. Now they shoot bullets at each other. Hip hop has got a lot to do with that._"
Tricky’s comments seem to resonate with ACTUAL, SCIENTIFIC PROOF that hip hop – along with The Rolling Stones, **AC/DC and Patrick Swayze, (seriously, DiS isn’t trying to be wacky) - begets violence.
Glasgow University reckons hip hop and rap – those separate entities so lumpenly foisted together by middle-aged, white journalists – are among the genres of music most likely to incite violence between patrons of Britain’s pubs and nightclubs.
Scientists monitored “playlists and outbreaks of fighting at eight pubs and bars in Glasgow city centre” according to the Times Online and found that “loud rock and rap music encouraged customers to drink more, increasing loutish behaviour that often spilt over into violence. The pounding rhythms also made it difficult for customers to hear one another, causing misunderstandings.”
Hardly the most in-depth study, but DrownedinSound believes that last point to be most pertinent – if you take hundreds of people who’ve been working long hours in shit jobs all week, pack them into sweaty, sticky, expensive boxes wherein communication is impossible and then soak them with premium lager, what chances do the hordes have of not_ acting Big John Bollock when 50 Cent’s ‘P.I.M.P’ comes swaggering into their midst?
Tricky
DiS isn't trying to be wacky?
*cancels subscription*
What an imbecillic study.
And it's funded for by the NHS!
Aparently Robbie Williams' Angels clams people down
It seems to have the opposite affect on me.
When you said Science...
i thought you meant the guy off Big Brother 4. The one from t'hood/Keighley.
For the amount of scientific research done in this,
you may as well have just asked that chump's opinion.
i only read the article
coz i wanted to hear what Science was up to!
2 things:
1. "...with ACTUAL, SCIENTIFIC PROOF that hip hip – along with..."
where are your copy-editors?
2. "Glasgow University reckons hip hop and rap – those separate entities so lumpenly foisted together by middle-aged, white journalists"
hip-hop and rap *as genres* ARE the same. Obviously it is possible to rap (verb) in a non-hiphop song (nu-metal etc), and it is possible to sing (not rap) in hip-hop. Also, hip-hop culture encompasses more than just rapping or rap music. But when people talk of 'rap music' as a genre they are not referring to Linkin Park - they are referring to hip-hop music. 'rap music' is just an archaic term for hip-hop (since hip-hop was the first kind of music to predominate rapping).
yes?
NEWS JUST IN
Tricky to blame for people thinking Tricky is shit
well
Tricky makes me feel violent, does that count?
Big John Bollock? LOL :D
I can understand why people might be more prone to reacting angrily when hip hop is playing rather than say, classical music, but the study that Glasgow Uni did needs to be more scientific than that. What pubs were they and what's their usual clientele? Did the testers decide the music or did the pubs in question maintain control over the music? What time was it in each pub?
I've only been to America once and I don't know what bars are like over there in the Bronx, but I wonder how their drinking culture compares to ours in big cities. Do they have our binge drinking culture, and to what extent?
The one part I really disagree with Tricky is where he seems to blame hip hop music for facilitating increased flows of firearms and ammunition into the UK. Surely this is due to changing factors in gang composition and organised crime activity and easier routes of access to the UK for arms traffickers than hip-hop music?
more details...?
Has anyone come across the ORIGINAL scientific article ? The Times article makes no mention of any of the authors, or journal it was published in. I'd like to have a closer look at this, as it may answer the questions posed by CaviarAndCigarets, and decide whether it actually is "an imbecillic study" or whether black_rooster is simply responding in a way many people do when they see something that doesn't fit into their worldview.
Here we go
Forsyth, A. J. M. & Cloonan, M. (in press, 2008) Alco-pop?: The Use of Popular Music in Glasgow Pubs. Pop Music Studies, 31, 1.
Journal of Popular Music Studies - it's hardly 'Nature' is it. The guy should stick to looking at alcohol, rather than try and get in the newspapers.
I went out in a wig last weekend,
next thing I know I'm wearing Wiley's Rolex.
Nothing to do with the article. Just thought i'd roadtest the gag.
I'm going to get myself some serious artillery.
Maybe one of these...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Mattress
ah so the hypodermic needle theory rears its head again
pop culture causing crime - what about the numerous other factors that could be looked at rather than scapegoating music.
It is well known and greatly researched that one of the major causes of crime is criminals - bang em up i say oh and kill em Grrrrr :-)
Spotifriday #32 - This Week on DiS as a playlist
Spotifriday #31 - This Week on DiS as a playlist
In Photos: Is Tropical @ Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds
In Photos: Johnny Foreigner @ The Harley, Sheffield
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
Comments
- Post a new comment on this article