Two years after the Grime4Corbyn movement launched with the aim of connecting energised fans with the Labour leader’s politics, several of the genre’s big names have called into question its effectiveness.
The movement, which was part of the so-called “youthquake” during the 2017 general election when Labour motivated under-45s to vote, was a missed opportunity, according to several acts who feel let down by the way they have been treated since.
The organisation’s website is no longer active, and there are no planned gigs or events during the current election campaign.
Former vocal supporters Novelist and AJ Tracey, who appeared in a video expressing his support for Corbyn ahead of the 2017 election, declined to discuss their previous involvement with the campaign. Krucial, a grime artist who wrote in the Guardian about his decision to support Corbyn in 2017, said at the time it was important to make sure it was not seen as a “one-off, viral trend” like the Ice Bucket or Mannequin Challenge. According to some acts, however, that is exactly what happened.
“The general consensus is that they were used,” said one grime manager, who asked not to be named. “They didn’t follow up. They weren’t expecting a general election so soon, and it’s a bit late to go to the grime community now after ignoring us.”
In a recent interview with the Observer, Tracey said he would not be voting for Corbyn this time, and that he gave his support in 2017 because he was the “best of a bad bunch”. “It actually helped him a lot and I feel like he didn’t capitalise on it,” he said of Grime4Corbyn. “He didn’t utilise what he had.”
Several other grime acts, including JME – who interviewed Corbyn and helped to inspire the movement – did not respond to a request to take part. Skepta, JME’s older brother and winner of the 2016 Mercury prize, has been another vocal critic of political groups’ use of grime.
In an interview with Q, Skepta – real name Joseph Junior Adenuga – said acts sold “themselves for fucking bullshit” and that four months after the campaign, politicians “don’t give a fuck about us again”.
Organisers of Grime4Corbyn reject the idea the party manipulated or used acts. Adam Cooper, one of the group’s organisers, said the group had run workshops, and had been invited to colleges and youth clubs to discuss the campaign and its impact since 2017. It also signed an open letter criticising the injunctions imposed on drill rappers preventing them from performing certain tracks because of violent lyrics.
“You can’t really please everyone,” said Cooper. “I think doing the less high-profile work after the election: going to youth clubs, colleges and running workshops might have given the impression that we disappeared. Or that we weren’t continuing the momentum and that wasn’t really the case.”
Members of the Grime4Corbyn team are involved in Fck Boris, a street party with dance music at its core that hosted an inaugural event in London in July. Another is planned in Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge constituency on 16 November, with more than a dozen other events planned in places including Barnet, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Hendon and Kensington.
Cooper, who is part of Fck Boris, thinks that it makes sense to shift focus. “Grime this isn’t as popular today as it was. A lot more people are listening to Afrobeats, to drill and other kinds of music,” he says. “Also, the discourse around young people has changed. ‘Fuck Boris’ is something that Stormzy is saying, it’s something that Slowthai is saying. It’s a different kind of energy and that should be built upon.”
Stormzy’s image is used by the group, but the artist who shouted “fuck Boris” during his headline Glastonbury set in June and told the Guardian about his admiration for Corbyn in 2016, has not given it his official endorsement. Johnson later claimed Stormzy actually said “back Boris”.
“It seems like this election date was chosen to prevent the student vote having an impact,” a spokesperson for Fck Boris said. “Boris is trying to prevent certain groups from voting and we’re doing mass registrations to counter that.”
Lester Holloway, who worked for Operation Black Vote in the run up to the 2017 election, said: “Grime4Corbyn made a big difference in the last general election.” He said the 77% share of the ethnic minority vote that Labour won in 2017 was helped by grassroots initiatives, such as Grime4Corbyn, which targeted younger voters.
Moving on from grime to something else makes sense for both activists and Labour, he added. “You need something new and fresh, so they probably don’t want to make it too boring by repeating themselves,” he said. “Regardless of what they do, we’re still very likely to see a large portion of the BAME community voting for Labour.”
A Labour insider said there was ongoing contact with some grime acts but that no events could be announced for the time being.
