Jamie T

[gumdrops]

Why is it that despite having huge amounts of young black creativity in the UK is there only enough "space" in the industry to support 1-2 artists at appreciable levels of success at any one time...? The answer, I believe, is obvious... And I'm not just some afrocentric hipster (hipster perhaps) as large swathes of music I listen to is whiter-than-white...

british black music hasnt been something the majors have really been interested in in a long time. yeah you have your lemars, beverly knights etc but theyre working in already accepted genres and playing established roles. but i wouldnt say lilly allen, jamie t, arctics etc were white replacements for grime artists - for one thing theyre singers. theyre not making hip hop or rap music even though yeah, their music is of course informed by it. grime would just be far too hard for the pop charts. and if there are black singers talking about 'urban' subject matter in the uk who lilly, jamie t and co are standing in for, i dont think ive heard them.

 

[crackerjack]

Yeah, Mick Hucknall used to always win "best soul singer" and then it was jamiroquai, same with mobo when that came out, totally blatant racism.

i just checked jamie t's website, i managed to put up wth his stupid voice for about 5 seconds. truly unbearable.

i think we should have a thread about class if there isn't one already, Im gonna go an have a look....

Edward, your paranoia is getting the better of you here. The Brits never had a Best Soul category that i can see. They introduced Best Urban in 2003, and it's been won by Ms dynamite, lemar and (ahem) Joss Stone. They did bring in a Best Dance act in 1993, and for many years it was won by the multiracial likes of Massive Attack, Prodigy and M People. You can find all the facts here.
http://brits.co.uk/winners/2007/

The MOBOs started with good intentions, but fucked themselves through their desperate desire to be recognised as a major award. The sad fact is you probably get more column inches if Beyonce and Jay-Z win (for doing next to nothing in Jigga's case) than by giving the gongs to Dizzee Rascal. Shame they never bother turning up.

 

[mms]

Piers Martin? Writes a really good column on electronic/clubby kinda stuff for Vice UK. One of the few worthwhile things about that mag. Good for him for not succumbing to a bullshit estuary accent.

why in the world would he do that?

 

[mms]

I suppose working class people can go home and recieve care and attention from their folks if needs be. Or are you actually talking about bankrolling creative projects and pricey rehab healthcare?

i dunno about rehab i was thinking about 200 quid to sort out a debt, or a spare room and some food that sort of thing.

lot of people don't have that.

 

[mms]

i think we should have a thread about class if there isn't one already, Im gonna go an have a look....

every bloody single thread on this site is totally obsessed with class and at the end of the day you can't choose what you're born into, or what circumstances your family life develop into.
it all comes down to whether you're a cunt or not really.

 

[swears]

i dunno about rehab i was thinking about 200 quid to sort out a debt, or a spare room and some food that sort of thing.

lot of people don't have that.

Wouldn't say being in that situation made you middle class. By "fuck up" I thought you meant get into serious trouble.

 

[swears]

why in the world would he do that?

Crackerjack says he talks like the incredibly RP art critic Brian Sewell, I'd say that was very rare for people under 40 nowadays.

 

[mistersloane]

british black music hasnt been something the majors have really been interested in in a long time. yeah you have your lemars, beverly knights etc but theyre working in already accepted genres and playing established roles. but i wouldnt say lilly allen, jamie t, arctics etc were white replacements for grime artists - for one thing theyre singers. theyre not making hip hop or rap music even though yeah, their music is of course informed by it. grime would just be far too hard for the pop charts. and if there are black singers talking about 'urban' subject matter in the uk who lilly, jamie t and co are standing in for, i dont think ive heard them.

So Solid were on a major though, weren't they? is it cos of So Solid fallout that the majors aren't signing now?

 

[crackerjack]

Crackerjack says he talks like the incredibly RP art critic Brian Sewell, I'd say that was very rare for people under 40 nowadays.

Don't take it too literally, it was just the first posh person that came to mind. And it wasn't meant as criticism of PM. If he doesn't parrot Vice's faux-street party line then there's no problem.

 

[swears]

mistersloane:

I think it's because grime or whatever doesn't sell enough CDs. Genres like MOR and indie are good for flogging albums. It's demographics, you can't sell grime to fortysomething dads and teenage girls. Whereas, with a band like Keane, you might be able to do that.

 

[crackerjack]

mistersloane:

I think it's because grime or whatever doesn't sell enough CDs. Genres like MOR and indie are good for flogging albums. It's demographics, you can't sell grime to fortysomething dads and teenage girls. Whereas, with a band like Keane, you might be able to do that.

Exactly. And it's not as if they haven't tried. Shystie, Kano, Roll Deep, Lethal B - all on majors.

 

[swears]

Crackerjack:

Ok, I was just making the point that I sort of admire people who keep a posh accent, you can get a lot of shit for it. People think you're soft.

 

[mistersloane]

Exactly. And it's not as if they haven't tried. Shystie, Kano, Roll Deep, Lethal B - all on majors.

I guess yeah. It took hiphop 20 years or so before it properly became a commercial phenomenon though, there were always odd singles, but up until Walk This Way and then Puff Daddy doing Mary J Blige and Biggie, i don't remember any massive hiphop albums per se before Raising Hell certainly. Guess we have to dig our heels in and wait for the Diddy of grime. Oh go on Logan you know you want to lol.

 

[Edward]

OK maybe I was being paranoid about awards stuff but Smelly (Hucknall) has won a MOBO which makes no sense to me.......

MMS - I know everyone's obsessed with class on here, that's why i wanted to do a thread.....

at the end of the day you can't choose what you're born into, or what circumstances your family life develop into.
it all comes down to whether you're a cunt or not really.

well the first part is right but.... it would be nice if the second part was. i'm sure that's how you judge people but it's not how everyone does it. of course we are judged on our accent, dress etc. before we get the chance to prove our cunthood or otherwise.

 

[mms]

Crackerjack says he talks like the incredibly RP art critic Brian Sewell, I'd say that was very rare for people under 40 nowadays.

he doesn't. He has a fairly queens english accent, he's not representative of the people that work at vice tho, so it's not really something you can really use to attack them.

hucknall - ''smelly' - hahaha. forgot about that ed.

 

[swears]

Whatevs, just making the point that it's nothing to hide.

 

[don_quixote]

i love that plummy accent. completely shameless.

 

[blunt]

David Bowie. Middle class as they come. I'd always thought he was one of the great touchstones of late 20th century pop music, but now I've read this thread I realise that he was, in fact, total shit by virtue of his social origins.

 

[sodiumnightlife]

people aren't attacking anyone for being middle class. They are however attacking people who are middle class but pretend otherwise. I don't think David Bowie ever said he was ghetto did he?

 

[swears]

It just touches a nerve with me because you'd get upper middle class kids at school with fucking everything, huge rooms, loads of expensive clothes, never had to work a summer job, their own car at 17, every games console that came out, everything. But they still wanted to be considered hard or street or whatever, so they'd adopt these really awful exagerrated scouse accents, glossy eyed arrogance and gormless, languid body language. It's like having your cake and eating it, street cred being another possession they had to aquire. The way Jamie T sings and acts in his videos, it's just like them.