Our Prime Minister Is A Real Racist – Nigerian-British Rapper Dave
Dave during his performance at the Brit awards| Photograph: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
David Orobosa Omoregie but better known by his stage name Dave has criticised the Prime Minister of Uk Boris Johnson as racist.
The South London rapper who was born to Nigerian parents called Johnson ‘real racist’ in politically charged performance at the 2020 Brit Awards.
Although the rapper took home the night’s main award for his provocative, personal album Psychodrama, which also won last year’s Mercury Prize, it was his fire performance of the single “Black” that became the hot topic of the night.
The 21-year-old rapper is now only the second act to win the best album at the Brits and the Mercury Prize for the same record.
Dave | MyLondon
Performing Black, a freestyle track that charts the difficulties of black Britons and celebrates black excellence, he added a newly written final verse that began:
“It is racist, whether or not it feels racist, the truth is our prime minister’s a real racist / They say – ‘you should be grateful, we’re the least racist’ / I say the least racist is still racist.”
Reacting to Johnson being called racist, Home Secretary Priti Patel told BBC Breakfast:
“I don’t know how much [Dave] knows about the prime minister and whether he actually has met the prime minister or knows the prime minister.
“I work with the prime minister, I know Boris Johnson very well, no way is he a racist, so I think that is a completely wrong comment and it’s the wrong assertion to make against our prime minister.”
Patel said it was “utter nonsense” and Johnson was “absolutely not a racist”. In a round of media interviews on Wednesday morning, she added: “Artists and entertainers say all sorts of things.”
It wasn’t only the Johnson that Dave had a word for as he also criticised the British press’s treatment of Meghan Markle and paid tribute to London Bridge terror attack victim Jack Merritt.
, who won album of the year for Psychodrama, also called for support for the Windrush generation and castigated the media over their coverage of Meghan Markle
Part of his new freestyle featured a tribute to Jack Merritt, the prison rehabilitation worker killed in the terror attack at London Bridge in November 2019. Dave had paid tribute to Merritt in the immediate aftermath of the attack, acknowledging that the pair had met.
“Rest in peace Jack Merritt, you’re my brother in arms,” he said. “There’s tears in our eyes and love in our hearts / We never had the same background, culture, colour or past but you devoted your life to give others a chance / And for that, I’m so taken aback because he gave us all a voice.”
He argued against stringent punishment and appealed for rehabilitation:
“As a young black man who’s seen paper and crack / Give them tougher sentences? That’s just papering cracks / All he would want is unity, funding for communities / Equal opportunities, people under scrutiny / No more immunity, way less hatred … we want rehabilitation, that would be amazing.”
Dave concluded his new freestyle by rapping: “Grenfell victims still need accommodation / and we still need support for the Windrush generation/reparations for the time our people spent on plantations.”
The reference to Grenfell was reminiscent of the 2018 awards when Stormzy castigated then prime minister Theresa May over her handling of the disaster.
This year’s ceremony attracted an average of 3.8 million viewers to ITV – the lowest ever for the Brit Awards.
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