Who is popular today?

Whether it’s Dave and Stormzy castigating the government or Kanye surrounding himself with young Londoners, black artists have expertly capitalised on the visibility of the Brits stage
The Brits are no stranger to protest or political statement: the 1996 ceremony contained both, with Jarvis Cocker driven to moon Michael Jackson over his sanctimonious environmental-awareness hit Earth Song. In 2014, David Bowie pleaded with a pre-referendum Scotland to remain part of the UK. Katy Perry made giant skeleton effigies of Donald Trump and Theresa May dance on stage in 2017; a year later, a drunk Damon Albarn railed against Brexit.
But there is something about a new wave of emboldened black British artists taking centre stage and delivering an unambiguously political message that feels far more historic and impactful: not pleas for unity or cartoonish satire, nor traditional rock-star rebellion, but explicit condemnations of Britain’s ongoing history of racism, delivered into the heart of primetime TV. Continue reading...