Music to revolt by – Lowkey’s Soundtrack to the Struggle
UK rapper Lowkey has never been afraid to go against the grain. While other rappers were lauding the “audacity of hope” that is the Obama phenomenon, Lowkey was already cutting through the rhetoric to say it how it really is. The song Obama Nation on Lowkey’s upcoming Soundtrack to the Struggle album, is one of the most powerful and hard hitting assessments of US foreign policy ever put down by a lyricist.
“It surprised a lot of people because hip hop had been so vocal in its support of Obama,” Lowkey told the City Hub ahead of his Australian tour next week. He believes that the hype around Obama stems from not understanding the true function of United States in the world.
“It is a country that has an estimated thousand military bases worldwide. Anyone who knows that can never attach too much hope on Obama. Is this man going to come in and dismantle these military bases? Because that is what is I’d want, that’s anyone who genuinely believes in equality and is an anti-imperialist would want.”
Lowkey has come a long way since releasing his three volume Key to the Struggle mixtapes in 2004-5. His voice has deepened for the new rhymes on his 2009 Dear Listener album, and so too has his lyrical content. As a 17-year-old he was already rhyming about war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Palestinian struggle, and life in London, mixed with a fair dose of obligatory MC ego spitting. In the intervening years the boasts of sexual conquests have faded into the background to be replaced by more soul searching, if just as intense lyrical substance.
Despite the reality of 21st century life offering such gloomy subject matter, Lowkey is adept at uplifting his listeners with the strength that consciousness brings, and the force of being defiant. “I don’t think there’s anything more worthwhile I could do with my life than try and change things for the better,” Lowkey says. “We don’t have a choice really because the majority of the rest of humanity doesn’t have that option, and we can get enjoyment from trying to change the world as well.”
As Lowkey’s rhymes have become more politically focused, his fan base has continued to grow, proving the internet’s power to bypass the gatekeepers of taste. “The exploitative scumbags in the music industry that I’ve come across, their constant mantra that they cling to is that political music is boring, it can’t be glamorous, it can’t be cool,” Lowkey says. “I’ve never seen it or understood it or cared really what they have to say.”
If he is getting less mainstream airplay, he is certainly finding channels to reach to a growing audience of people who are hungry for music that talks about the real issues in our lives. “Music is not really reflecting the struggle but people are out there struggling,” Lowkey says, mentioning his DJ who was punched in the face by police in a London protest last month. His lyrics are unrepentantly intelligent and uncompromising. “While we’re listening to tunes made by ignorant fools, Israel blocked the UN from delivering food, They’ll bring in the troops and you won’t even glimpse at the news, They make money of the products that we are quick to consume,” he rhymes.
Lowkey’s rising popularity can be pinned to his authenticity. He raps about changing the corrupt system, but he also puts his body on the front line of the struggle. He is not the first MC to rap about revolution, but with Lowkey, we get a sense that he means what he says. He has been one the streets in the ongoing student protests in Britain against rising college tuition fees. “Many men say they’re revolutionary, But they don’t really know what revolution would mean, It would mean blood, and it would mean pain, But it could be us, who bring that change,” is one of his unreleased rhymes.
His biggest selling single, “Free Palestine” was a response to Israel’s attack on Gaza during Operation Cast Lead just more than two years ago. Lowkey took part in the convoy lead by UK parliamentarian George Galloway to break the siege in Gaza and travelled to the West Bank in 2009 to do five fundraising shows.
Lowkey’s Sydney show is a fundraising event, with all profits to be donated to humanitarian and development projects in Gaza and Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. For a taste of Lowkey’s lyrical dexterity, check out Alphabet Assassin. “I’m an anarchist, and an angry academic activist, axe and assassinate the alphabet in an ambulance.”
Lowkey is playing at the Factory Theatre in Marrickville on Saturday January 29, supported by comedy duo Fear of a Brown Planet with Lady Lash, Cuzco, B-Boy 2ezy and DJ Mathmatics. Tickets are on sale through the Factory Theatre.
BY LIZ CUSH
liz@alternativemediagroup.com
