Stormzy has accused the media of “intentionally spinning his words” after comments he made about racism in the UK during a recent interview.
The British rapper was recently interviewed by the Italian newspaper La Reppublica to promote his new album Heavy Is The Head, and spoke about racism in the UK, which he said is “definitely, 100%” still prevalent, even if it is more “hidden” than it has been in the past.
He explained: “The difficult thing with the UK is... in Italy it’s a clear problem, whereas trying to explain that Britain is a racist country [to a British person] is the most difficult thing ever.
“They think: ‘No, it’s not. Stormzy you’re successful. Look at London, there’s loads of black people …’ It’s a more difficult case to fight.”
Unfortunately, since then, a number of news outlets have misrepresented Stormzy’s comments, suggesting he claimed the UK was “100 per cent racist”.
On Sunday morning, he publicly responded to ITV News’ coverage of his comments, saying: “You lot can suck my dick for this.”
He later added: “All you publications and media outlets that are intentionally spinning my words for some click bait can suck my dick and please don’t try beg it in the future.”
During the same interview, Stormzy suggested that Boris Johnson’s appointment as prime minister could embolden people in the UK who hold racist views.
“If the top person can openly say this racist thing – the ‘piccaninnies’ remarks, ‘watermelon smiles’, comparing Muslim women to a letter box – if that is our figurehead, the top man, the leader we have to follow, and he openly says these things, he encourages hate among others,” he explained.
“Before, people had to hide their racism. If you felt something bad about about black people, about Muslims, you had to shut up. Now these people have the confidence to come out in public to say everything. This is scary to me, that scares the shit out of me.”