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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Stormzy AIBU

548 replies

MissChananderlerbong · 29/06/2019 09:40

Prepared to be told I'm being old and boring.
I enjoyed Stormzy's set, he's obviously a progressive liberal guy, and he seems like a good human.
So why the sexist lyrics?
"Finish on her face to top it off (ay)"
"If her friend is a dead ting, take one for the bredren"
"2 peng tings at the entrance" (just feels wrong calling women 'things')
If he was just another artist then fine, but he seems so principled in so many other ways. So I find this odd.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
HillRunner · 01/07/2019 13:33

In fact in the songs where there’s questionable words (slut, pengting etc) he’s usually praising his mum or other woman within the same song.

This is the Madonna / Whore complex. It's not an indicator of respecting women.

I think a lot of trendy left-wing artists produce work which is pretty mysognist, so Stormzy isn't unique.

These artists usually think carefully about the words they use and the messages they send when they sing/rap about race, LGBT etc, so why can't we hold them to the same standards when it's about women?

Pa1oma · 01/07/2019 13:39

Well I didn’t like “the Cure” in the 80s, so not sure why I’d be watching them now, but DH is ME and that sounds offensive yes, in the current climate particularly. Why don’t you start a thread though and let us know about it? Nothing stopping you.

But again, nobody is saying there aren’t other acts that may offend in other ways, This is very odd, childish logic. Deal with the matter at hand. If there’s a thread about Madonna or Beyoncé then people discuss them in light of whatever the AIBU is. They don’t need to go scrambling in circles deflecting about other people. Isn’t that what MN calls “gaslighting?”

pepperpot99 · 01/07/2019 13:39

What does 'vossi bop' mean? (genuine ignorance here).

Feelbad1 · 01/07/2019 13:39

So they are excused because it's 'high minded' ?
How about excusing Stomzy then for his high 'mindedness' by sending poor kids to Uni.

Feelbad1 · 01/07/2019 13:42

Pa1oma,
OP said they started the thread because Stomzy was headlining, I am just highlighting he was not the only one with bad lyrics etc. on that headline list, so why single him out.

Pa1oma · 01/07/2019 14:01

Well why single anyone out? I don’t know - I’m no media moghul. There seems to have been a lot of hype around Stormzy. I’ve become aware of him through general media which seems to hail him as some kind of god of social justice, but then my 11 year old told me he has a rude song about men who pee in girls faces. So that’s why I watched his actehrn it happened to come on. I didn’t mention what DD said to DH because he can tend to overreact. He was working in his laptop while I was watching Stormzy’s set, but when the “facials” lyric started being chanted repeatedly to the crowd, he momentarily glanced up, mumbled “tosser” and switched to Netflix.

The Cure must be in their 60s now? Maybe there’s not been so much hype around their set because they’re less current? I don’t know?

There was a thread about Kylie after her performance. Didn’t sound like she did anything controversial?

As for Eminem - well he was strongly criticised for decades, so not sure what the point is there.

Stormzy looks like he’s had JayZ behind him, so not surprising they know how to build up the hype and work the media.

If BJ makes some stupid statement tonight, there will be a thread about him. These people put themselves out there and people will react if they are deemed controversial. They’re probably controversial on purpose.

ReapersHowler · 01/07/2019 14:17

Talk about oppression olympics here.

Earlywalker · 01/07/2019 14:59

Vossi Bop is a dance move pepper

FloydWasACat · 01/07/2019 17:54

Juells apologies if this has already been said but that YouTube link you put up is, I am pretty sure, Shakin' Steven's...from the 1980s

FloydWasACat · 01/07/2019 17:57

Oh, but I do agree with you though. Bloody awful lyrics

LadyOfTheCanyon · 01/07/2019 19:13

I don't think The Cure play Killing an Arab any more; I know they changed the lyrics to Kissing an Arab a long time ago and I think RS has spoken of regret about the song. Whilst I am not excusing him, 1979 when the song was written was 40 years ago, and there were a lot of regrettable things written and sung about. It's depressing that in 2019 however, misogynistic lyrics are still very much commonplace.

Juells · 01/07/2019 19:39

FloydWasACat
Juells apologies if this has already been said but that YouTube link you put up is, I am pretty sure, Shakin' Steven's...from the 1980s

I know, I was saying that there are a lot of very iffy lyrics around, and always were. Now we have more opportunity to talk about them because of t'internet. In the past if you thought lyrics were offensive there wasn't anywhere you could make your feelings known Grin

BlackWomanHere · 01/07/2019 22:08

Alex from Glasto is getting all positive news today ....

Mayday19 · 01/07/2019 22:27

The Cure responded to criticism of that song by stickering the album it was on (to say did not condone racism etc), asking radio stations not to play it and altering the words when they did perform it live, which I don't think is very often.
I look forward to hearing of Stormzy's similar actions.

Mnetter19831983 · 01/07/2019 22:40

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IAmAlwaysLikeThis · 01/07/2019 22:44

mnetter it's not that simple.

Black people are held to higher standards than white people. They are criticised more for smaller actions.

Mnetter19831983 · 01/07/2019 22:47

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SmiledWithTheRisingSun · 01/07/2019 22:48

Completely agree with you OP.

SmiledWithTheRisingSun · 01/07/2019 22:49

Lol @ ponoka Yes, lets be grateful he doesn't think fat sluts are unshagable.
Quite 🤷🏻‍♀️

IAmAlwaysLikeThis · 01/07/2019 23:07

Stormzy is English.

Who are "they"?

Redruby25 · 01/07/2019 23:16

This is where it all went wrong, when I was going through Secondary School, you had great bands like Take That at the peak of their career. And in terms of black artists, you had Jodeci, Blackstreet etc, real soulful music, nice wording(in some of the songs anyhow)

happinessischocolate · 01/07/2019 23:41

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Mnetter19831983 · 02/07/2019 05:44

Look I'm not going to get into a debate about Stormzy and where he comes from or his skin colour. I just think it's ridiculous that this thread was made with absolutely no racial intentions and about his misogynistic song lyrics, and yet as usual race comes in to it when there was no racial intent at all meant. I think people need to be careful before throwing his ethnicity around and racial discrimination.

Pikapikachooo · 02/07/2019 06:24

He is clever guy and does do good

Maybe someone needs to gently point out to him via social Media that his next project is no explore using less sexist imagery on his lyrics

Not all rappers do

If he is clever as he appears he might listen
He Might not

Oblomov19 · 02/07/2019 06:24

I don't mind where he comes from or what his skin colour is.
His lyrics are offensive and I don't like them.