The world, and this country especially, is full of contradictions. With my new track and accompanying video, ill Manors, I'm just highlighting them, I'm not condoning anything. I aired my feelings about the riots very publicly when they happened and I still feel the same way.
What happened in Tottenham in some ways I can understand, but what happened everywhere else in the country was opportunism. I won't justify it because I don't agree with it. In fact it upset me so much I want to change it, so I wrote this song to bring the issue back to the forefront of public conversation. I feel it has been swept under the carpet and forgotten about, and it still needs to be properly addressed.
Since the riots happened I haven't heard enough people within the public sector asking the two most important questions; "why did it happen and how can we prevent it from happening again?" I do have a theory as to why and how but first I need to make my point. And I've chosen satire to do so.
The point being made in my song ill Manors is that society needs to take some responsibility for the cause of these riots. Why are there so many kids in this country that don't feel they have a future, or care about having a criminal record?
I think one of the reasons is that there is a very public prejudice in this country towards the underclass. These kids are ridiculed in the press as they aren't as educated as others, because they talk and dress in a certain way... but they're not as stupid as people think.
They are aware of the ill feelings towards them and that makes them feel alienated. I know because I felt it myself growing up. These kids have been beaten into apathy. They don't care about society because society has made it very clear that it doesn't care about them.
An example of this is the word 'chav' that means council housed and violent, a derogatory phrase that is openly used by certain sectors of middle England to label and define people from poor backgrounds. It's a derogatory phrase no different in my opinion to the ones concerning race or sex. The difference is that the papers use it publicly. If they did the same with racial or sexist derogatory terms it would be deemed, and rightly so, as offensive and politically incorrect.
That in my opinion is hypocrisy.
If you're born into a family that's has enough money to educate you properly, you are privileged. You're not better than anyone else, you're just lucky. Certain sectors of middle England, not all of them, but the ignorant ones need to wake up and realise that... and stop ridiculing the poor and less fortunate. That is what this song is about.