artworkandstuff

[artworkandstuff]

Evaluation

When I first thought of the subject for my FMP I never once imagined the extent to where it’d take me. I still can’t believe how much I have achieved and how professionally executed it is. I did intend to go into depth with my subject choice and for the past few months I have been surrounded by politics. I am one for news and I’d consider myself a lover of politics but I’ve been constantly keeping up to date more so than other times in the past so that if I need to change my work or adapt it I can. That’s the beautiful thing about choosing a subject that’s constantly changing and will forever continue to. I’m glad I never forced myself to make any certain style of music, as it was simply rap. Rhythm and poetry and it was just that, they were able to evolve into their own and I feel that if I forced myself to make certain styles my work wouldn’t be to such a high standard.

Artists such as DAVE and Akala have definitely been a source of inspiration for me. Majority of my research focuses on these artists, DAVE in particular for his maturity at someone the same age as me and Akala for his intelectual raps and historical tracks and everything that affects everyone. It’s incredible. Knowing that what I was doing wasn’t new didn’t phase me, but to be apart of it and write new pieces about new subjects affecting us was truly eye opening as it allowed me to gain a wider understanding of life for other people, not just myself. I feel that as a young person I am incredible accepting of others and I feel that because of my indepth research I have definitely matured throughout this process.

Jumping hurdles is all what makes projects and life exciting, nothing ever goes to plain and improvisation is everything. I found myself confronted with a few hiccups along the way. The main hiccup being that when I tried burning the film to the DVD’s it wouldn’t work, no matter what I’d do. It’d play in laptops, but not DVD players and I was worried it was an anti pirate creatio to stop homemade dvd’s playing. But upon later investigation and by the help of a teacher with great patiences we were able to find a way of burning the film that worked. The feeling I had when it played and worked made me feel like maybe all of my hard work will pay off. When I started setting up my work I soon realised that I wouldn’t have the room to display my work so I got creative a wrapped my own work around the standing the TV was on and my goodness I’m happy I did as it looks great. So that really was a silver poo. Another hiccup occured which was that of the headphone jack. I bought a tv not paying attention to its lack of audio jack and the fact that by not having one I could use headphones. Not only did I buy a headphone jack splitter but also 3 sets of headphones. I felt like such a fool and so ordered an adapter for the old type sockets. The adapted soon came days before the actual exhibition and up on trying it out it didn’t work. I soon realised that the tv only have inputs, not outputs. Nothing could be taken from the tv, such as visual film or audio, you could only play stuff into it. Regardless of this I just ensured that when the exhibition was on it was on loud enough volume to hear well enough.  

From start to finish it hasn’t been as planned, but surprises are everything. Not only surprises but mature decisions are important in order to create something worthy of appreciation. I set out to create 5 tracks, but changed that to 4 on later investigation into why maybe I shouldn’t talk about something that doesn’t affect me. I’m happy I made that decision as it allowed me to focus on the other pieces of work that bit more. Besides that I achieved everything, if not more than what I set out to do.

Throughout the project I have not only revisited old skills I forgot I had, but also learnt new ones. When I was younger I’d always create short films as windows movie maker was everything to me. I was amazed by how easy it was to create your own piece of film and it really interested. Come first 2 years of college it’s not something I really made an effort with as everything I ever done was performance based, so i’m glad I had the chance to revisit something I use to love doing as its actually encouraged me to go ahead and attempt to use it more next year for my future course. Learning new skills consisted of me learning how to make beats and when it’s the right time to place certain parts where. I’ve gained a real understanding of the basics and it’s a skill I wish to develop in the future as it’s incredibly fun. Personally I feel that as a person I have developed. Maturity wise this part of the course has tested me and made me realise a lot about the world and how childish yet mature it is as the same mind boggling time. Expanding my english skills has also been thrilling because I’m not at a point in life where I can think of fancy words without trying, I can think a lot more on my toes when being descriptive and I’ve found a new sense of confidence I only ever had on stage.

By keeping track of my events throughout this project has made me realise how far I’ve come from nothing to something. Looking back and seeing decisions I once thought were good but now question, shows my overall personal development.

In regards to the explorations of possible work consists of potential subjects I could have chosen. The selection I had from the spider diagram is certainly something. By narrowing it down to only the few best ones made me really get creative with playing on words and finding words that worked well together. Inspiration for my final piece comes from the likes of rizzle kicks for their quirky feel in their own music videos as well as the likes of De la Soul - Say No Go. Although my work isn’t a full on copy, they were inspiration. Personally I feel that my final piece is incredible. If you asked me at the start of the year what I would have done I wouldn’t have said this. My progression and overall development in creativity has really come out these past couple months and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. I even had people asking if making music is a serious road I wish to go down as even one of the teachers said I should look into political activism as if not my talent would be wasted and that truly was a heart touching comment. Given the chance to do this again I would probably do a wider range of subjects and maybe focus on something that isn’t so much from a left wing stance. Personally I do disagree with right wing rhetoric, but maybe in order to understand perhaps I could look at problems they feel are important. Evening if it is making sure no one goes around “stealing” jobs.

[artworkandstuff]

[artworkandstuff]

My EP cover

[artworkandstuff]

Outrage elaborated fully

Outrage is an album influenced by current affairs, the media and politics. Its existence will be to shine the light on issues typically unaddressed to young audiences. Its inspiration has come from my love of knowledge and my wish to share this information with others. Particular events such as Brexit, Grenfell and the General Election fuelled my curiosity to discover the world of politics and all its dirty ways.

My EP - OUTRAGE

Track 1 - Police Brutality  

My first track is called Police Brutality which is straight up about police brutality. Not only is it about Police Brutality, it’s also about Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter is much more than just a hashtag on twitter, it’s a worldwide activist movement. Black Lives Matter is a campaign against racial injustice against black people internationally. This subject ties in directly with Police Brutality as majority of victims of Police Brutality are black, especially in America. Now although the argument against that is that more white people are killed by the police in America than black, its the fact that the black community are such a small percentage in America as opposed to white. Bringing it back overseas to the UK we don’t have deaths that frequently because of the police, but we do have stop and searches often. Here shows a graph displaying those who have been stopped and searched in groups of ethnicity.

https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-and-the-law/policing/stop-and-search/latest

You can clearly see how much more the black community is victimised down to simply being black. The whole police system is racially rigged, no argument against it and this clearly shows that.

One poor guy who is no longer with us who suffered the full force of the British Police is Rashan Charles. I made the song in memory of him and reference to his unjustified death. “Let me spend this moment and spit something for Rashan for was wrongly strangled by the blue man, forcely accused of swallowing a package, when the 50 fucked him and turned him into bagage”. I wanted to reference him as evidence to show my frustration at Police brutality but also to show how needed “black live matters” is. On top of that I reference stop and search by saying “Rest in peace brother only so young what does it take for the feds to see what they done, a joke a mess that’s basically their ego, touching up young men like some peado”. I wanted to make a hard point that it’s just a joke, why are people being victimized for the way they look then suffering because of it. Its pathetic.  

I do understand that the lack of funding to the police force by the Conservatives austerity has hit the force hard, but it’s not an excuse for imbecilic behaviour.  I mention this in my piece by saying “Under funding and stretched supplies, but you still interested in taking lives, but not taking knives, jheeze you hurt inside. Not nice. Not nice.“. I talk about the subject of knives as in Britain we have a knife crime epidemic. Knives are easy to obtain and conceal and can easily cause a death. Due to the lack of police officers on the street and the closure of youth centres down to the Conservative government there simply aren’t the resources available to bring these criminals to justice and the support for young people just doesn’t exist anymore.

The Tory government went as far to blame other reasons for the rise in knife crime and not them cutting police numbers and closing youth centres. Amber Rudd the home secretary blamed numerous matters, such as music and videos posted online on youtube. She said that the use of violent words and actions has had a dramatic affect on young people’s minds. By posting these music videos online apparently “glamourise” the lifestyle of a “thug”. On top of that the illegal creation and importation of crack cocaine has created the perfect environment for gangs to unleash terror on neighbouring gangs due to disputes over unpaid money. The third reason Rudd claimed to have contributed to the rise in knife crime is Alcohol consumption. Once consumed alcohol can greatly affect one’s decision making and can alter your physical ambition. Additionally Rudd claims that crowded pubs can assign people to inappropriate behaviour, even though there is little evidence to support this. People’s “age” and “character” is just as much of a contribution to, according to Rudd. The way people socialise and communicate affects their character which leads to knife crime. Personally I feel that these accusations are rather bland and have little to no evidence to support them. Furthermore Rudd claims there are more contributing factors, which I personally feel I are pathetically hilarious. For instance she had suggested that knife crime has always been an issue and because of better police records they can document more, leading to knife crime appearing to have grown. The last contributing factor is apparently wider problems across society. The statement Rudd made was rather bland as she accuses lack of communication because parents, police and youth workers from fighting knife crime together.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/two-uk-top-cops-warn-12449585

Track 2 - Our Freedom, Our Future

Our freedom, our future is a track I created based upon poverty, Brexit and the austerity of the Conservative government. Since the Tories came into government back in 2010 the country has changed dramatically. David cameron’s choice to introduce Brexit and a national vote on the matter has led to the term “immigrants” being used as a term for race. Since the vote in 2016, hate crime has risen. I wanted to show this in the rap and I start it off by saying “I’m not defending my race or culture, but I’m defending that fallen soldier, to fight was not his wish, but to serve was his life, sad thing is that no one cares cause he’s not white”. I’m not talking directly about a soldier, but I’m just simply talking about strong people dying for no need, such as a result of gang crime and knife crime, but little is truly being done about it because they’re not white. Towards the end of the piece I continue to talk about brexit as well to highlight its controversy and I say “cause opportunity will give us a life, but instead you vote for the rich arsehole party every time, the same party that is happy to walk away without a deal, then in that case just have it repealed”. Food banks have increased with up to 1 million people using them weekly. Dominic Raab, Conservative MP claims that people who use food banks aren’t actually in poverty, but those with a cash flow and management problem. This tory MP then went on to say that he is thankful for them. As great as food banks are, it’s a shame that they exist in the sense that it’d be a dream for poverty not to exist. Yet with Tories in control of the government, they don’t seem bothered by these figures.

Alongside food banks, children’s school dinners seem to be getting the axe, much like children’s milk did back in the 80’s with Margaret Thatcher in charge of government, claiming that there simply isn’t the money. To highlight this matter I said “Free school meals sound like a dream, but you don’t want rich people paying for those in need”. The rich people are the government. Majority of MP’s send their children to private schools as opposed state funded schools. Because they don’t experience poverty and lack of money, they are so unintouch with the country and it’s true needs. So by cutting school dinners you’re leading to children falling hungry.

Police numbers have been cut by more than 20,000 and they wonder why anti social behaviour and violent crime are on the raise. Police claim that violent crime has risen by more than 20% since the tories came into government, however the government have found from their own individual research that it’s only 14%. Regardless, the percentage has risen. The ignorant among us would claim it’s “all the immigrants” being allowed into this country causing the problem, when in reality it’s a lack of care to society by the Conservative government. Such as cutting funds to school clubs, youth centres and even the beloved library. Shamefully up to 15% of mental nurses have been cut since 2010. We have pay caps for the public sector, we have benefits being cut to those who depend on them. One of the lines from my rap is “Cutting benefits to those who need it, but givng rich arseholes more tax cuts, can you believe this”. I’m outing the complete carelessness of the Conservative party. The NHS is crippinling to pieces and we have a man running it who has written a book called “ Direct Democracy: An Agenda For A New Model Party “. The book talks about the “denationalisation” of the NHS, to replace it with an insurance system. It’s a book co written by Tory mp’s, one of which is Health and social care secretary Jeremy Hunt. The cabinet reshuffle in January saw Jeremy Hunt move from “Health care secretary” to “Health and social care secretary”. By doing so Hunt will merge both healthcare and social care together, shared funding. It’s the worst thing. You’ll have people taking up hospital beds who simply need help going to the toilet and taking medication. That simply isn’t right. It’s more than clear that the tories are trying to tear the NHS apart in order to find an excuse to privatise it. This is already being done by selling off property on hospital land for investment by other companies such “Virgin Care”.

Track 3 Conflict catalyst -  

Conflict catalyst is a track that talks about the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia under a conservative government. We are second in the world when it comes to arms trading. There is an international law that states if you sell your weapons to one country, they can’t use them on you, so they can’t attack you, even if you’re not really an “ally”. This is perfect, however its rather bad as well. Countries who thrive off of war use them, Saudi Arabia love war and so there for thrive off of them. They are in war with Yemen at the moment and it’s all rather ironic. Not only are we selling arms to Saudi Arabia who have links to ISIS, we are giving foreign aid to Yemen, the country they are bombing. How on earth does this make sense, it’s almost comical.

Saudi Arabia is one of the wealthiest places in the world, but also one of the number one human rights abusers. Sharia law is in place within the country which is an incredibly ancient Islamic law as its over 1400 years old. How on earth you are able to apply ancient laws to a modern society. You can’t. As a part of the law there are crimes classed as “Hudud” which include Baggery, Adultery and theft as well as many more. These crimes are punishable by public demonstration via lashing, stoning, removal of body parts and beheading and somehow in a modern day world they still exist. Out of anger I created the bar “Happily cut a next man for liking a man, happily stone a girl for having a baby that ain’t planned, intimacy in public is illegal, the heck they doing beating their own people”. I didn’t even need to changed anything it was practically freestyle and I’ve kept it to use in my work because sometimes thinking on the spot fuels your creativity.

We openly sell weapons to this country and with our knowledge of their breach of human rights, our conservative government doesn’t care. Money over morals. The fact that they have more of our own weapons then we do is ironic.

Track 4 Political Correctness:

Political Correctness is something that has taken the world by storm in the past 10 years. The point of it is to ensure people aren’t discriminated against but because of this people who have never fell victim to not being represented feel that it is not needed. Not only that but some people who fall victim to discrimination find themselves just as frustrated as for now they are being wrongly represented. An example is a term called “emoji blackface” which is people using an emoji of another race when they are a different race. I have heard of it before but recently two rather well known people had bought it up. Comedian Darren Harriott bought it up as part of his set and made a mockery of it saying how its political correctness gone mad. I can completely agree, he said why couldn’t emoji’s just of stayed yellow and there’d be no problem. A rapper known as Big narstie also bought it up in a live stream while having his hair cut. He said how it’s all been taken way too seriously and emoji’s as a whole are more of a joke than a second language. Especially with new emoji’s being released often it’s almost a way to dull subject matters down and for the subject to make more sense to a wider audience, such as hyroglifics.

There are far more subject matters that I have put into my work as I feel that everyone is born the way they are and everything should accept that. No one should be put in a box as at the end of the day someone else’s life and routine of life won’t ever affect yours. Within the piece I explain how political correctness does more good than bad as it allows people to no only feel accepted but also to push unwanted language and descriptions to the side.

Within the piece I reference Animal Farm, a book by George Orwell. One of the quotes is “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Animal farm is a book based about war and the movement of politics throughout history. I am using this quote in my work to show that no human is no better than another, no money, ethnicity, job, sex life can change that.

[artworkandstuff]

Journal of reflection

Having read the brief for the final major project I was able to construct a project proposal which I felt clearly reflected my work throughout the course. The course has certainly been challenging for myself as I am from a performing arts background, however I have thoroughly enjoyed the course as I haven’t let my lack of experience in art hold me back, if anything I have been able to apply my previous abilities into my most recent work. Not only that but I have gained many skills which will stay with me forever.

Reading through the brief has given me many ideas, and routes to go down. Of course I have chosen politics as its a subject I love and it’s one that’s always changing which would lead to me adding more or changing my work throughout the course of the its development. Haven been given a sheet that suggests possible outcomes as well has helped me to explore possible areas I could work in with my chosen subject. One of my first ideas was to go down the route of podcasts as it’d be classed as communication which is one of the routes suggested. I have briefly research podcasts and particular recordings to see where I could take them as I could incorporate much more into the podcasts then just them as they are. For example for each interview I could create a piece of art inspired by that interview, the subjects that were spoken about, the agreements and disagreements. This could be anything from a painting to a video or even a small installation. Realistically though, as a means of work for a final major piece, I’d feel that I would be limiting myself with a podcast as it only consists of audio. Not the best thing you could have in a gallery with each podcast up to an hour long, no one will sit through it and listen.

A second idea I had was to create rap. Not your standard “bad man” - “money and drugs” - “cars and tits” kind of rap, but rap with context and some form of educational message. Something that someone who doesn’t usually listen to, would have them entertained and informed. Rap goes back to poetry and the skill of putting words with words. Sounds straightforward, though by placing particular words with words you can create a “beat”. This happens by the rhyming and pronunciation of words leading to a rhythmic pattern forming. Inspiration would be taken from the likes of Artists such as “Dave” and “Akala”. Both artists have pieces that you would consider common rap, however they both step away from that to create their own, meaningful and educational material. I feel that as I come from a performing arts background, and I wish to go forward into technical theatre management and producing, to create my own performance piece would suit me down to the ground. Not only that but it’d allow me to test my English skills. If I was to go ahead with this idea I’d really need to gain an understanding of my audience I’d be aiming it at as for many it may just go right over their heads.

My third and final idea I had was to create my own clothing with a spin off of popular brands. It’d include fake branded pieces, such “labour” created in the style of “lacoste”. As of the 2017 general election, fake branded pieces of clothing started to gain popularity. One rather popular piece was of the NIKE logo on a white T in red with the slogan “corbyn” as opposed to “just do it”. This particular item really helped spread the love of corbynism, but also the idea that fashion can be used to give across a message. A company who have taken hold of this trend is “bowl cut garms” who take well known brands and change them. Such as “reebok” to “rasclart”. If I chose this idea I’d have to look into printing companies and attempt to work with an editing platform again, such as photoshop, which is something I’ve struggled with in the past. As much as I want to push myself with work, I don’t want to go attempting something that could push me back as oppose to push me forward in progress.

If I was to take music, I would relate each song to a subject within politics, weather that be a news article, a law, a politician, a political party or even an ideology. On top of that I’d have to create a name for myself as a rapper. I have a few names in mind, but they’d have to relate back to my work and have meaning. One rather important subject I would love to write and rap about is equality and representation. With the political party incharge of government a lot of things I’d consider important are either missed or not given the work they need in order for issues to be resolved correctly and fairly. Even subjects such as police brutality and organised fat cat tax crime, such as tax havens.

If I was to take the idea of clothes I’d focus on well known brands and make an effort to copy them to the names of the political parties, or even to particular laws as well. A few ideas I have in the works is to copy the famous fashion designer brand YSL logo and change it to SNP (scottish national party). The font would be the same, however the name would change to mean something else.  The item of clothing would have to have the logo embroidered onto it so I’d have to get on with a sewing machine and have a go. The clothing itself would just be cheap, plan items from the internet.

If I went ahead with the podcast choice I’d have to go about getting the materials, such as multiple mics, a way to record the pieces as well as a sensibile location. I’d definitely attempt to get the principle onboard and have a chat with him about the political climate. A mixture of friends and family too so I had a wide opinion range. Perhaps I could even put out invitations for people, whoever they are within college to express their own views on certain subjects, that’d definitely be cool.

Having thought about my possible routes and talking to my teachers as to where to go and where each idea could take me, it only seems appropriate to go down the route of creating my own music as its something I know I can do, but also its something that’ll push me creatively to achieve something I never have. Having said that I did actually create a song last summer and a video to accompany it. There was no reason for the creation of it, simply out of boredom and nice weather. It was really fun as I use to do a lot with video editing and it’s something I want to get back into. The enjoyment of editing and tying many clips together to create one whole piece is really rewarding when you watch it back, especially if it comes across professional. Physically making beats and making music is something I’ve always wanted to explore. Last summer I had my musically talented brother give me a hand with the basics of creating a beat which has definitely enlightened an interest in music in me.

I’ve decided on music and I’m excited for it as its a chance to explore my skill set that bit more. Choosing subjects is difficult and so I done a huge spider diagram to narrow down potential ideas and just put everything in my head of paper. After a short while of reading back the spider diagram I chose a few subjects to elaborate on in the means of lyrics or “bars”. I didn’t really think too much into it, I just wrote them on my notes in my phone and just went with the flow, nothing overly thought out and by doing so allowed me to not confine my thoughts to anything, I could just write. I posted them on the blog to show lyric development.

Choosing subjects to rap about are actually really cool as you have to think about the words associated with them and how well you can play on them or how well they sound together. Not only that but it’s important to gain an understanding of a subject before you go ahead and write about it. I know initially I wanted to write 5 songs however I have dropped that to four as I don’t feel that I can actually write about something that isn’t affecting me. By ethnicity I am middle eastern and european though my appearance is primarily white. Because of this I have never been discriminated against because I am more european looking and as I have never experienced racism I don’t feel that its my place to say something I’ve never been affected by. Of course I should use my privileged appearance as a way to talk about subjects others wouldn’t be heard for, however I just don’t feel comfortable having thought about it as it’s like asking a man to decide a woman’s abortion rights.

Having started to form a basic idea of my pieces and how I want them to be portrayed I started to think about beats to go with them and how I can create each track so that it is easily distinguishable. My plan for the beats to go with the lyrics are to find a few free copyright free tracks and edit them. This is a lot more of an easier process as I’ll use a simple beat and simply add to it but put in new edits, as well other instruments and new tuning. This will then make it mine as trying to create a solid beat can take weeks.

Today I started to record my work on some software. The actual software is a friends but he’s more than happy for me to use his equipment. He sat in the room with me but on his phone while I had a free for all and went mad. It was extremely fun, the software is kind of easy to use but it’s a little too flashy for me so I did have to keep asking how to do certain things, but besides that it was a real learning curve.

- With majority of the tracks now in the bag it’s important for me to think about presentation as that’s important in order for me to prepare myself for the audience as how else would they see it. Simply showing it on a computer isn’t really that shocking. I think back to the modern Tate museum when I saw a piece about black lives matter and they had 5 old television screens playing videos and facts and it’s something that I feel if I were able to do, it’d look good. The mix of all videos playing at once with my music would look awesome.

-Upon later evaluation with my previous idea for my presentation, it has flaws. If I’ve gone to the effort to create 4 tracks, with videos and I play them all at once over the top of one another, it’ll ruin the whole piece and what they are about. It’d be different if I needed to layer them as part of layering it would help bring my piece together, by to be honest, layering would completely ruin my work, I wasn’t even thinking logically last time, I think I just got excited. So to combat this idea I intend to only have one telly and I’ll have to play the videos in a series so you’d have to watch one after another, after another and keep it on look. It shouldn’t be a problem, I just need to source a TV and DVD combi.

Thinking of ideas for the videos to accompany the tracks has been really difficult till last night when I had a brainwave. I was laying down in bed and couldn’t sleep, it must of been 3AM and out of nowhere all of these ideas came for what I could do. It was incredible. I grabbed a notepad and started to write these ideas down as I didn’t want to forget them. I thought of one for each track and it’s really a weight of my shoulders as I know what I want to do.

For police brutality I’m thinking of having police brutality videos play in the background on a projector as I rap in front of them. I want the video to be raw and honest. With political correctness i’m thinking of collecting loads of videos of all sorts of people from different ethnicities and backgrounds, and ages, and sizes to show how vast and varied everyone is. For Conflict catalyst I have in my head the idea of playing with toy soldiers and burning them with a petrol can to show how soldiers are treated like toys and them being burnt my petrol is the oil we fight over. The last video idea I had in mind was for Our Freedom, Our future and that’s an idea I thought about the other day but never realised how to operate it. Behind my gym there is actually a load of cargo containers and someone has fly tipped   some old arm chairs. I drove past them when I was exiting the car park and thought how cool it’d be for a music video and then last night it clicked. I could use it and say how that if Tory austerity continues the way it is then we’ll all end up in poverty. The industrial feel of the cargo containers would be to show a very basic and sad future ahead. To show that the future is no more evolved than now.

Finally after weeks of searching I have found a TV DVD combi, I won an Ebay bid for £5.50 and everything works. On top of this, this week I have finally filmed all of my work. Everything you ever plan, is only ever a plan and never set in stone and that seems to be the way for me. My videos aren’t what I originally planned, but by jumping hurdles I have made them better. My our freedom our future video was the only one that went how I planned it, and I’m happy I kept it simple and I know once edited it’ll look good.

The other videos which include conflict catalyst, police brutality and political correctness all changed as I came to filming each other. Conflict catalyst didn’t change much more than how I envisioned it, I just burned the toy soldiers somewhere else to where I originally planned. Not only that but to use petrol would be too expensive and dangerous so I used lighter fluid and that done the job perfectly. One edited I’ll really be able to put it together as i feel that my description doesn’t do the videos justice as some of the shots look really powerful.

Police brutality developed to become a lot more deep than I first imagined. I chose in the end to play the CCTV footage of Rashan Charles being murdered who is someone I reference in the piece. He was wrongly accused of swallowing a package and strangled to death by a police officer who was attempting to “restrain” him. Upon filming the piece I had to play it on the projector and I sat there and watched it and it was really painful to watch and to help break that sense of pain down, by taking so many shots once edited you’ll be able to see it in the background, but it won’t be ongoing it’ll be a stop and start sort of feel as I just ignore it and played it on loop while I rapped.

Political correctness was a real flop but also a lesson for myself. So I filmed as planned with many peoples faces however I could only use a handful of people as everyone was so busy. How I first imagined it fell apart which is a real shame as I wanted to show diversity. It came to my attention that when viewing the videos they weren’t  going to fit with the music. There wasn’t enough material, but also the two pieces didn’t fit together, the music was a little too aggressive for what I thought would once work. I had a couple of days to think about it and had a great brainwave. I thought about the theatre at college as its a space I have performed in before. I thought about the idea that the empty chairs could represent people and they would be watching a performance. The performance would be myself walking over the media, by having newspapers on the floor. There’d be shots of my stamping on them, rapping in front of them, walking over big headlines, it just seemed to fill me with hope that it’d work. Much to my luck yesterday I filmed it and from watching the videos back it looks really powerful. I have my back to the audience chairs as I perform to the camera in front of me. Once I’ve edited with the music it’ll look incredible, i know it.

Editing videos can sometimes be tideos but once finished the wait is worth it. Being able to create something from nothing is always a great feeling. Going about editing the videos wasn’t too complicated, only trouble being my own editing software crashed after editing Our Freedom, Our Future and so I had to use the one at college. But I’m not complaining as that one is much more advanced, it was just easier to do it all at home at mine but making the extra effort paid off as the editing software at college allows you to really dissect the clips and cut very sharply leading to a crisp cut. Showing the videos to my teachers gave me strength knowing I was going along the right path as they were pleased with the progress I had made.

Presentation ideas for my work have evolved from 4 televisions to one, to now a television in a wooden box and art installation pieces alongside it. The reason for putting the television in the box is so that I can add hooks and hang headphones in order for people to hear my work. Not only that but as the TV is a box TV I wanted to make the most of its size and write the most powerful bars from my pieces all over it. I feel that this would really tie the whole piece together. Making the box was rather straightforward, I salvaged the wood from a skip and cut all to size, nothing fancy, just chipboard.

After much thought I have also chosen to have art installations alongside my work as opposed to just a TV with lyrics on its box. I want my piece to be interesting and to ask questions. I have thought about finding an item that I could associate with each song and write my own lyrics on it. Not only would this intrigue people but it’d also be an add on to my work itself. For Our Freedom, Our Future I want to have UK flag and write “ I’m not defending my race or culture, but i’m defending that fallen soldier”. For Conflict Catalyst I want to find an old military jacket and write “Why we selling arms to a country that doesn’t follow human rights safely”. For Police Brutality I want to write on a pair of tracksuit bottoms “They after me cause i look a certain way, they after me because of how I behave”. Though finally for Political Correctness I want to use an old book of animal farm and write “Everyone comes from the same place, weather you’re reading from a Bible, Qu’ran or looking at the start of our own race”.

After many charity shop visits I found some suitable tracksuit bottoms and an actual UK military jacket that was clearly from one of the military surplus stores. I also ordered a UK flag last week and found my Animal farm book, I was then able to paint on all of them what I wanted.

On top of this I have also created my album cover which reflects why I’ve chosen music. Music is a powerful way to interact with others, it can bring a lot of emotions with it and change people forever. To show the power of music I also bought an old radio and smashed it up but took pictures of it to show the power of music and how certain pieces of work can either rip people apart or keep them intact. I’m intending to use the smashed up piece as part of my installation work. I chose to call the EP outrage as it seems that many people, especially within news and politics become outraged by anything but it disappears after 5 minutes and then no one cares, such as Grenfell, complete outrage but nothing’s really been done. The name “DENT” is my stage name and it reflects me denting and smashing up the radio, but also because I want my music to leave a dent in people’s minds and I hope it does.

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Sketches for inspiration

The first photo shows Theresa May running through a field of wheat referencing how comment last year. Written on the wheat is “Benefits” to show how Theresa treats benefits, she simply doesn’t care. In the background there is a tree with “£” signs on them to show its a magic money tree referencing her coalition with the DUP for £1B.

The second picture shows a reverend with brightly coloured glasses on and a rainbow coloured hem to the bottom of his scarf. This is to show that you should expect the unexpected and accept everyone for who they are. I was trying to create an pro LGBT reverend.

The third pictures shows Boris Johnson eating a cake with the UK flag on. This is in relation to his comment made about Brexit saying we will “have a cake and eat it”, meaning Britian will create the laws they want, ignoring the EU’s remarks. On the table in front of him is a cake with the EU on to show how he doesn’t like the EU as he hasn’t eaten it.

The final picture at the bottom is to show how bodies within crime, when someone is murdered via police or gangs, how the body is treated like waste. No one cares, its just another body.

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Political Correctness

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Conflict Catalyst

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Our Freedom, Our Future

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POLICE BRUTALITY (UK)

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Subject ideas and lyrical development

Just a rough outline on where each subject could go and how it could be written in order to give me a feel for it as I’m only going to do a handful of tracks and want to use a subject that challenges me but also interests me.

I created a mind map to help me explore all of the possible subjects and I’ve since chosen the ones which I felt I could write about.

Trump:

A bad man is trump he should go in the bin

Talking about shit

Who the fuck does he think he is

Stealing from the people who voted from him, even if their intellect is simply dim

Vote for who you want, yeah fair enough

But you fucked yourselves over and you’ll have to live with your mum

Selling your house to pay for a broken leg, is this the 21 first century,  oh yeah you can’t stop the fertilisation of your own eggs

Terror attacks carried out by white citizens, look at them getting away as if innocent.

Bang bang is a noise you like, though we know your favourite police officer is white

They’re bad, they’re rapist i need them gone, bringing drugs and gang violence which is totally wrong.

Listening to yourself and take a step back, you sound like you’ve been smoking dope with that chat

America was once a land of peace and love, till Columbus rolled up and said “that’s enough”

Affanculo non voglio qui ,

yeah that’s what he said thinking he’s the g

Exploiting minorities and vulnerable​ people, oh look it’s like he’s been reincarnated by default.

Error error is what i can see, I’m even fed up of trump thinking he’s better than me

Call it a joke, whatever you like

I’m just ready for this badass impeachment I’m siked

Police Brutality:

Police Brutality is never ending,

All over social media like it’s trending

People like for prayers and comment for good will

But that ain’t helping the victims heal

Sit on their arses and ignore it

But don’t make an effort to avoid it

When in reality their ignorance makes them a prick

Because it ain’t helping the victims getting hit

Rashan was a brother who was taken by force,

For police wanting him and all of his sauce.

Wrongly accused of swallowing a package

When the porky pricks turned him into bagagge.

BLM :

Imma take my privilege and use it for better, imma spit these bars out saying black lives matter

Ain’t no life a joke, but their are some more important lives at risk, there’s some important lives at risk, ain’t no life a joke, ain’t no life a joke

Surrounded by ignorant conservative whites, not understanding they’re not always right, not understanding they’ve always had it good, never understanding cause they’re not from the hoods

Now I ain’t spitting to get more views, I’m spitting this shit cause all of its true. It’s needed out, cause it’s important, we need this now, cause it’s important

I call a movement of peace and love, yet there are bares chatting there’s already been enough. Civil rights makes up for it all, apparently that’s all that’s needed, nothing more.

Pfft, I’m spitting this bares out to white folk born in the same position as me, but I’m saying this now so you open your eyes and see, realise that the system is corrupt the government ain’t free, that the world we want is in sights, it’s a need.

Social media and government control :

Living on social media in the depths of a dark room, so much fucked up screen on your pc screen oi you better run soon.

It’s scary, the deep dark web is bad, all that weird shit got you going really bloody mad

Do you need to look 24/7, you probably trying creep on your bredren, you call them a don, when you haven’t had a chat in days, they moved on got a new crew, ain’t fased

Temporary is now the new permanent, it’s part of the government’s plan to make us all scared of them

CCTV on every corner, 100 guards at ever border, searches whenever they want, get you done in for a little pot, hardly a world to love, hardly a world to feel loved, feel warmth, feel positive not even trying so imperative, fearless, ain’t part of that crew, rise up, stay strong, we can get through we need to kick arse, that’s what we need to do

Conflict catalyst:

Nothing more than a need, nothing more than expectation

Cutting people’s benefits, we know you’re the real pagan

No placement

Got a PM we didn’t really vote for,

Got a PM who is no more than irresponsible

Irresponsible running to field of wheats, constantly talking like a robot on repeat

But believe me, she a conflict catalyst, and imma shout it, cause she a conflict catalyst

Brexit:

We gunna be the corpse and the EU gonna be the vulture,

Why we tryna rid them when they’re part of our culture

No one cares, no, not for that soldier

He ain’t white so racists heart grow colder

Seen to be people, but not cared for by others

But racists go church everyday calling guys brothers

Mad me thinks, yeah i agree,

After the best, we need to impede

Create a movement and rid Britain of this virus,

Rid britain of this narrow mindness

Political Correctness

Political correctness is more than just a need

Political correctness will change your mind about weed

Change your mind about migrants music and girl dem, because it’s defending every single fucking one of them

That next man be like go home you’re too black

That next man can’t even understand and face the facts

People of melanin and minority are welcome in this world, stop being an ignorant arsehole and degrading young girls

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Artist Research

Majority of my Artistic influences aren’t politically based, I love not only their respectful choice of subjects, but also their flow. They make work talking about the important things, the subjects people tend to miss and not make an effort to talk about. The fact that their are people who do write about the overlooked important subjects are important and although all of these artists, alongside myself don’t all talk about the same thing, we all share the same values when it comes to society. Be respectful, be thankful, no one is no more important than another, listen, stay understanding and always be open to learning someone else’s story.

George the poet

As an artist who grew up surrounded by wealth, George the poet is one of few who understand and sympathise with those who weren’t as fortunate as him. So often is it that money allows people to become ignorant as they become selfish, however George is selfless and one willing to share. George grew up in North-West London and started writing rap and grime at the age 15. After school George went on to study at Cambridge University which is one of the most intellectually based Universities in all of the world. While studying his outlook on music changed as he realised that he had something to give to the community, which was his poetry, however he altered his style of work more so to spoken word to appear to a wider audience. He explained that he didn’t want to come across as if he was creating his work for wealth, he wanted to make it clear that his work is to inspire others and create great experiences for them.

Giving back to the community is always something people are praised for, rarely is it that people share things as majority of people are un-admittedly selfish. While at University George won a social enterprise prize of £16,000 and actually used this money to help fund a poetry workshop for less fortunate children in order for them to make the most of their education.  

Moving on from typical rap and current grime trends George’s choice of subjects when it comes to creating material has evolved. As opposed to rapping about stereotypical things, his new work expresses emotions, relationships and long term goals. One of his most popular tracks “Cat D” talks about cars and how although they may appear in good condition, all cars haven’t passed an MOT at one time in their existence. Some cars have been in crashes and are repaired, some are still usable but the body work in damaged. It’s one huge metaphor for people. Anyone can cover up problems, some worse than others. What he was trying to push across to the audience is that treat everyone with love like a car and it’ll look after you and just because you can’t see someones problem(s) doesn’t mean they don’t exist. The most powerful line which gives me shivers is “So you don’t know what they been through, and it’s hard to get the facts, yeah but they might look good, but any car can get a wax”. It seems that whenever us humans apply ourselves to physical objects, it allows us to understand them a lot more. Say if I said “ You don’t know what anyone has lived through, anyone can put on a brave face”. Now although it makes sense, it doesn’t hit you, as you don’t have to think about it, But when its put in another form, say a car, you have to think about it to apply it back to us and then it hits you because you’ve had to think about it. Powerful stuff.

One other piece which shows George’s work at its best is a track he has other artists featured on. These artists include Jorja Smith and Maverick Sabre. The piece is called “Follow the leader” and it talks about how self love and learning from your mistakes is important to following your dreams and aspirations. This bar really sums up the piece for me, “Chat about progress, they say it’s a process, but I want it right now” he goes on to say “So I gotta…live this way to play the boss you gotta pay the cost and that cost may come as a major loss”. Alongside some soulful backing from the other artists it gives the feel of self respect and self love.

Suli breaks

Suli is very much a typical poet, his work ignores beats, and the words come from the heart. You gain a real sense of honesty through the words he uses. As a son of immigrant parents Suli was brought up surrounded in rich culture which highly valued education. Suli attended a grammar school in his childhood before attending Sheffield University to study law. As a well educated young man, Suli was approached by NCS (National Citizen Service) to be a representative for them in order to encourage teenagers ages 15-17 to join. NCS is an experience created by the government in order for young people to not only learn new things and make friends, but also as a way to mature over the summer holidays. From learning how to work in teams to creating fundraisers for charity, NCS is incredible in developing young people and preparing them for life. By Suli pairing up with them shows he cares about others and it’s not just all words in his work, he does actually have a heart.

Suli has had two viral videos which has help earn him his name. I can remember when I first saw them and because of them they inspired me to write my own material, this is going back 5-6 years now and I’m thankful for them as it wouldn’t of fuelled my creativity to make my own work. Suli’s first viral piece was called “Why I Hate School, But Love Education”. It attracted millions of views all across social network sites and touched the hearts of many struggling school children. The piece was created to rip apart the education system and for Suli to explain how its unfair. Even from his own words “Education is about inspiring one’s mind, not just filling one’s head”. Since its upload it has reached nearly 9 Million views on Youtube and for someone who didn’t promote it or have it produced professionally, that’s incredible.

The second viral video was to be a year later, despite him realising other tracks since his last viral video. This piece is called “I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate||Spoken Word”. It’s about how by simply writing outside of the box your given in an exam can fail you. It’s about how that by remembering facts for an exam and then forgetting them afterwards still leads to you being graded as smart. The whole piece is practically an elaboration on his first viral video. He powerfly goes on to say “How many equations, subjects, dates did you memories just before an exam, to never use again”. It’s all true. There are people out there with qualifications who are technically not worthy of them as they have forgotten the knowledge. I’m guilty of that. What stands out the most to me is when he says “Test us with tests, but the finals are never final. Because they never test us for the biggest test which is survival “. This is too true, we get taught the cells in a leaf but not how to apply for a mortgage or how to get a good credit score. We’re taught posh words for weather in geography but not how politics work. That’s the thing I admire about Suli’s work and so do others and its that he speaks to the audience with understanding of having been in their shoes and when it comes to creating powerful work that connects with people emotionally, this is important.

DAVE

From rags to riches, DAVE  is one of the most up and coming artists of the UK rap scene. From collaborating with Drake to featuring in the London Nike advert alongside Grime King Skepta, DAVE is certainly doing well. The pure sense of raw in DAVE’s work gives him the edge among others, as only at 19 he has experienced a lot and has had to grow really rather quickly. Losing a brother to murder and living paycheck to paycheck has allowed DAVE to channel his emotions into his work and that’s what brings the audience in. Majority of his work is very much a play on words, the use of well known references help him to appear to a wider audience, but also add fun to his work, no matter the subject matter. Subject matters range from money to politics and politics to murder, the true extent of DAVE’s own life experiences are enough to leave you blown away. Pieces such as “How I met my ex” are more about the words than the beat. “And as months went by we both got into it, and intimate. And I'ma spare you the details ‘cause both of our parents are probably listening. But really we were into it. Into us, into this”. It’s not your typical type of rap, its respectful and somewhat toned down to common rap stereotypes. That’s what I personally love about DAVE, the way he favours words over beats allows you to appreciate his creations.

He’s very much a storyteller when it comes to his bars. They make sense, you go along this emotional journey alongside him. Another piece called “Hangman” is more so about how only yourself can truly look after yourself. One bar that really hits me is “When we were young we had dreams of being bosses. Ballers, doctors, lawyers in an office. So how did that turn into dropping out of college. Snaps in a prison cell, bodies in a coffin”. The way there is a beat created by the rhythm of the words and the simplicity of the actual story telling to the point it actually makes sense allows you to feel it. Despite these subjects being rather common in music, DAVE stepped out of the room of people assuming his work and he created a piece called “Question time”. Question time was created out of unanswered questions and suppressed anger at the Tory Government. DAVE maintains a constant sense of literal anger in his words, such as “I mean you never gave a fuck about the youth and that’s the truth, there’s no sympathy for you or your cabinet. I really wish I could see how you were scrambling, when you lost the referendum that you had to win”. The rawness of the words helps DAVE express how every other young person is feeling. He’s not being rude, he’s simply saying it how it is and that’s something that’s really helped inspire me with my work.

Akala

Akala is by far one of the most respected artist about, though having said that he hasn’t blown up like many other rappers as a lot of his work is historically and politically based. You’ll never see him rapping about guns or money, but as someone who is mixed race and experience a rather interesting life you’ll always see him talking about institutional racism and broken empires. I’m not exaggerating when I say that he’s work is worthy of being classed as audio books. The amount of knowledge the man has, and which he puts into his work is incredible.

Akala first started to create music in 2003 and has been consistent ever since. Not only is he a rapper/poet, he is also an author, radio host and political activist. His own book “Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire” talks about life as a British black man. It’s a great read. One of his early tracks called “ Find No Enemy” is something you have to listen to on repeat in order to appreciate it as you start to notice new things each time. The piece is morealess a broad breakdown of everything wrong with modern man. Having listened to it on repeat myself I can always find myself enjoying the bar “Tired of everyday filling up my car, and knowing that i’m paying for those bombs in Iraq”. This track was back in 2011 when we were still had conflict in Iraq. Now we have conflict in Syria which is something DAVE addresses in “Question Time”. The amount of information squeezed into Akala’s work is incredible. Not only that but the fact that the man is commonly a guest on political panel shows and news shows for his intellect is by far a huge achievement.

Bibliography:

Online video, George The Poet - Cat D, 2015

Youtube, Online video website, Uploaded on 16/02/15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJY1XYHaiEY

Online video, George The Poet, Maverick Sabre - Follow The Leader ft. Jorja Smith, 2018

Youtube, Online video website, Uploaded on 23/02/18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy3GNY8yMYo

Online video, Suli Breaks - Why I Hate School, But Love Education [Official Spoken Word Video], 2012

Youtube, Online video website, Uploaded on 02/12/12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ZmM7zPLyI

Online video, I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate||Spoken Word, 2013

Youtube, Online video website, Uploaded on 14/04/13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-eVF_G_p-Y

Online audio, Dave- How I Met My Ex , 2017

Soundcloud, Online audio website, Uploaded on 01/12/17

https://soundcloud.com/user-841695344/dave-how-i-met-my-ex

Online video, Dave - Hangman, 2018

Youtube, Online video website, Uploaded on 27/02/18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAS8zQt6Wik

Online video, Dave - Question Time, 2017

Youtube, Online video website, Uploaded on 09/10/17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ff6CjYBhoI

Online shopping, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, 2018

Amazon, Online shopping website, Written 17/05/18

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natives-Class-Empire-Sunday-Bestseller/dp/1473661218/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1528831076&sr=1-1&keywords=ruins+of+the+empire

Online video, AKALA - FIND NO ENEMY (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO), 2011

Youtube, Online video website, Uploaded 31/03/11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=173&v=LjvUMr1-AAU