As hip-hop grows to find news homes and shapes, British grunge rapper, Stormzy proves that the U.S. is not the only place where this vocal vehicle is necessary. He channeled the spirit of YG’s “FDT” and used his BRIT Awards freestyle to question the effectiveness of the U.K. government.
After winning two BRIT trophies, even beating out the ever-favorite Ed Sheeran, Stormzy closed out the show with a politically charged freestyle aimed at British Prime Minister, Theresa May.
“Yo, Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?/What, you think we just forgot about Grenfell?/You’re criminals and you’ve got the cheek to call us savages?/You should do some jail time/You should pay some damages/We should burn your house down and see if you could manage,” he rapped before including popular English publication the Daily Mail into his lyrical onslaught.
The Grenfell Tower, a 24-story public housing flat in London’s North Kensington neighborhood, caught on fire on June 14, 2017, resulting in 71 deaths and 70 injuries.
Many assume that the poor upkeep of the building by the government caused the building to erupt in flames. In August, the Prime Minister issued an inquiry into the fire that according to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s website is intended to “the immediate cause or causes of the fire and the means by which it spread to the whole of the building” as well as “the scope and adequacy of building regulations, fire regulations, and other legislation, guidance, and industry practice relating to the design, construction, equipping and management of high-rise residential buildings.”
With nearly a year passing since the blaze, families are not only looking for answers, but they are looking for homes. The Guardian reports that as of Dec. 2017 four out of every five families affected by the fire are homeless. While May did not watch the BRITs, the British Prime Minister’s spokesperson responded to the artist.
“The PM has been clear that what happened at Grenfell was an unimaginable tragedy, which should never be allowed to happen again. She is determined the public inquiry will discover not just what went wrong but why the voices of the people of Grenfell had been ignored for so many years,” the spokesperson stated before added the fact that the U.K. has spent over £58.29m in wake of the tragic event.