Dean Blunt recently participated in Boiler Room's Black Lives Matter UK roundtable and, as Tiny Mix Tapes has reported, the musician offered his own critique.
Blunt began (around 31:30 in the video above) with a statement of his own experiences with racism in the UK. "Racism has not changed, it's just morphed. I experience it in different ways, and in this country it's very passive-aggressive. It really messes with you in a psychological way, and if you speak up, you're an 'angry black man.'" He also said that the UK chapter of Black Lives Matter must tailor its mandate. "We talk about it because the Americans are talking about it, but our discussion is very different from the American's situation, I think we need to understand that."
Blunt does not agree with the premise that artists are obligated to speak on social issues. "I watch a lot of Breakfast Club, and you get a lot of rappers asked [about social issues] and they don't wanna do it, and I kind of agree, because they don't really understand the complexities of even why they're so hyper-masculine... they shouldn't really get involved with that, I think."
The former Hype Williams member also said (around 1:10:47) he believes the entire anti-racism discussion in the UK is framed incorrectly. "I think that the problem is not about police. The problem is the fear of the black body, and what happens when you're scared of something is you try and exterminate it. If you give a gun to someone, they shoot it... I don't think it's about police. I don't think marching [while] listening to Kendrick Lamar on Oxford Street is really going to solve it... I think that's part of it, but I think that also black [people] need to think as well, understanding what blackness is and the fear of blackness, and why these people are being shot... Why are we marching about American police? It's not going to stop anything."
He continued: "There's a lot of shit within being black that's messed up. We have to question everything we've been told about being black. There's a lot of homophobia, there's a lot of dominance in it. It's not cool."
Before abruptly leaving the panel just before closing statements, Blunt seemed dismayed by the entire discussion. "Can I say that this is totally pointless? An hour and a half talking about this shit is not how it works." When asked by an audience member why he's there, he said it was to see Darcus Howe and "the grime MCs" speak.
Watch the entire discussion above. Below, check out a new video from Dean Blunt's Babyfather project for "Skywalker Freestyle."
