Tricky: Hip-Hop To Blame For Violent Britain

Published: Thursday 29th May 2008 by Sam
British musician Tricky (no I don’t know who he is either) blames Hip-Hop for rising crime in the UK, insisting ‘it has created a generation of angry and violent young men’. Check out the report via Contact Music below:

The artist, who mixes rock, hip-hop and pop in his music, claims parts of Britain are now more dangerous than New York, and the popular hip-hop culture must be held responsible.

Tricky – who has performed with Massive Attack – says, “I love hip-hop, but it has to take some responsibility for the gun culture we’ve got over here. We’re getting super-violent. You can walk around the Bronx for days on end and nobody bothers you. “In England, you can say the wrong thing in a pub and, before you know it, you’ve got a bottle over your head or a bullet in your brain. English people have got quicker tempers.”

His genuine opinion? Maybe. A publicity stunt? A possibility. Stupid? Hell yes! Granted the crime rate here in the UK has risen in recent years (and is a hot topic in the media at present), it’s very unoriginal to take aim at Hip-Hop. To say the mainstream UK Hip-Hop movement is lacking would be an understatement, so I’m assuming he means US Hip-Hop (the only kind we’re exposed to on mass). Yet, he’s contradicting himself in his ‘parts of England are tougher than the Bronx’ statement, as it’s largely the same thing we’re listening to around the globe. What’s more, without generalising, it’s highly unlikely that you’d find your average Hip-Hop listener in a ‘pub’. For someone who claims to ‘love Hip-Hop’, he sure did little to show it.

In a broader context, I wanted to know if you feel Hip-Hop is responsible for violence/crime in your own locality/country? If so, why? If not, why?

Your thoughts?

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  1. Anonymous May 29, 2008

    Rap/ Hip Hop has some impact on the situations that are happing all over the globe. Through the industry, violence is seen as a graet way to make a video or to sell records. (Out everyone in the business protrays this)but it’s in our face everyday. But you can’t just blame hip hop, things start in the home front. Some people don’t have real parents to take care of them and talk to their kids about topics that are affecting them in thier lives. So people need to stop and think! It’s not just music, it’s tv, music, movies, people in our lives. Violoence come from everywhere. ‘Just because we see it,don’t mean we have to contribute to it neither.”

  2. Richard May 29, 2008

    Well, he’s not totally putting the blame on hip-hop, he even says he likes it. He’s saying, it needs to take some of the responsibility, and it does. It is an influence, and Parent’s are doing the things they used to do. I’m an 80s baby, and we can all pretty much agree the 80s are pretty violent, TV, movies, etc but you know, I was taught that whats on TV Shows, and movies, are not real, that is not something that I should go out and do. Kids nowadays don’t get that. They aren’t taught that. They think they should do those things they see in videos and the like.

    But anyway, yeah, Hip-Hop should take some responsibility in whats going on, because they do influence people to a degree

  3. Ryan May 29, 2008

    i think if you knew who trick is then you would be able to understand the context of this quote. for some 13 yrs tricky has been rapping about guns and violence. While his work has slowly gotten worse over the years, His arly stuff like “Nearly God” and “Maxineque” are very impotant pieces of british music.

  4. Anonymous May 29, 2008

    @Ryan

    Much agreed.

    @GrapeJuice

    You may remember him in 5th Element, he played one of the bad guys.

  5. BabyDoll May 29, 2008

    Um, I just know him as Lynn’s boyfriend on girlfriends when she sang with his “trip hop” band. LOL!

  6. Anonymous May 29, 2008

    Blaming music, entertainers, the media etc is all b*******. The blame should rest with the parents who raise utter tossers. Some people should be steralised.

  7. MisssNecie May 29, 2008

    I think he had a small role in The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis & Mila Givovich?sp?… I can put his face (without the poodle hair on top) with the British accent.

  8. Anonymous May 29, 2008

    The muppet.

    But you know, lets not pretend we’re surprised. All the problems in the world are down to two things, either Islam, or people who aren’t white.

    Tell me, do the likes of Amy Whinehouse or Doherty get treated with such scorn with their drug-taking antics? No. They’re treated like f*cking heroes

  9. La La Lemonn May 29, 2008

    While there is a kernel of truth to blaming hip-hop for a violent cukture, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY SUPERCEDES MUSIC’S IMPACT ON THE WORLD. when are people going to start blaming the violent people instead of the intangible music they hate so much? no, hip-hop is not perfect, but no music genre is. heavy metal/rock regularly celebrates violence, s******, drug abuse, and is never out in the news for being the background noise for mialbox bashings, random bullying incidents and the like. tricky is desperate to become noticed and decided to take a page from 50 cents “get famous or die tryin” attitude- if i p*** people off, they’ll talk about me and eventually buy my crap-tastic music! it looks like part one is well under way- let’s go back to ignoring this tricky individual….life was more fun without him.

  10. Anonymous May 30, 2008

    i think he is right

    with hip hop being such a large part of the media (50 cent etc) and all they talk about is b****** and h*** ass etc they it will have a direct effect on the country because the media does

    i think most black hip hop singers are afrid of being seen as “gay” because they all have half nakid women in their videos

  11. Anonymous May 30, 2008

    I’m 43 years old, so I was around for the start of the hip-hop movement. Even before “Rappers Delight” was put on wax, I saw that evey neagtive personality type [ felons/drug users and sellers/pimps/gang members, etc. ] was somehow drawn to the rap/street culture, while those who tried to live positive lives shyed away from it [ in the 70’s, the other options were either punk or disco ]. Here it is 2008, and hip-hop and negative behavior are STILL connected. Just accept that the two are meant to be together and decide what you and your family should emulate. Don’t call your kids gay just because they want to emulate positivity, and not everything that the streets say you should copy.

  12. Anonymous May 30, 2008

    I agree with what everyone has to say. and yea maybe he’s just trying to get his voice out there again. I also think he was on a couple of episodes of girlfriends when Lynn was in the band with him

  13. Anonymous May 31, 2008

    isn’t that the lil ugly ass dude that lynn was working with on GFs?

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