Generation X

If one is to regard the last week or so as an epitome for the state of wider society, and at that humankind as a whole, it has been a rather morbid and haunting few days, especially with the critical rupturing of the second reactor at the Fukushima power plant.

Moreover, last Thursday, less than 24 hours before swathes of protestors took to the square mile once again to physically exert their disgust at public spending cuts on the window displays of Topshop and Fortnum and Masons, a 16 year old boy was stabbed 20 times in broad daylight by a group of over 10 youths in Brixton, South London. Thankfully, he was wearing a stab vest.

It is argued that Black gang violence has been brewing in the most diversely populated areas of London since the 1960s, when African and Afro-Caribbean émigrés, along with other minority constituents of the then migrant population were re-housed into the varying sarcophagi of concrete and steel that now haunt our city's skyline.

As an aficionado for all things Grime/other variants of the UK 'urban' music scene, over the last 3 years or so I have only been able to watch the extremity and, quite frankly, the brutality of gang violence permeate into the capital's urban music scene, with various factions of gangs uploading 'hood videos' onto Youtube, which, in reality, are showcases of how much credibility they think their gang deserves.



One of the major rules of the Grime scene by which all respected emcees managed to adhere by was that, it is important not to discuss explicit behaviour relating to guns/knives/drugs/violence if you were not hard enough to back it up. Nowadays, it seems that, through music, young men are doing quite the opposite. One of my most chilling discoveries was GAS Gang (an abbreviation for Grind and Stack) member John Wayne's 'Fresh Home'.

A showcase of how willing he is to use firearms against potential aggressors/assailants over a US-style hip-hop beat littered with reverberating gunshot sounds and samples of air raid sirens, and a sinister montage of council estate gun-toting.



As a natural ramification of my position as a student in Brighton, I had always naively presumed that the effigy of large groups of males cycling through London with blacked out clothes, masks and gloves was something that was purely confined to the realms of the Youtube accounts of immature gang members.



However, after 3 youths aged between just 14 and 17 jumped off of their mountain bikes to open fire on a Stockwell off licence where two rival gang members were believed to be taking refuge last week, this proved not to be the case. The first victim, a 34 year old man of Sri Lankan origin living above the shop was shot in the face.

Downstairs, London's escalating gang violence took it's youngest victim, a 5 year old girl also of Sri Lankan origin who was in the shop visiting relatives. Both are in critical condition.

Growing up in the UK's more deprived and over-populated areas therefore appears to be getting no easier. Moreover, with an increasingly marginalised and alienated younger generation faced with quickly evaporating prospects due to the forthcoming hike in tuition fees, it comes as no surprise that there were over 149 charges and over 200 arrests following the protest on Friday.

Whilst avoiding dissertation research today, I came across this.



Going by the name of Stubborn, clearly no older than 20 years of age, he delivers some poignant content with lyrics mirroring that of pre-Island records Devlin mixtapes (Tales From The Crypt/The Art Of Rolling), and a style that crawls over the beat in the same way as Kyza and a slightly more menacing Skinnyman.

It provides a well presented insight into the various issues, emotions and reflections of a misunderstood and urbanised generation facing an extremely uncertain future; and more importantly something that perhaps those in Westminster should mull over on their lunch breaks.