Is hip-hop George really a fan of gangsta rap?
GEORGE Osborne risked ridicule yesterday by revealing an unlikely passion for American gangsta rap group, N**gaz Wit Attitudes.
The Chancellor said the best concert he ever attended was at Brixton Academy in South London, where the hip hop band – famed for explicit songs such as ‘F*** Da Police’ – performed in the 1990s.
His own privileged background – which includes being educated at the prestigious St Paul’s School and Oxford University – could not be more different to that of the band, which hail from the gang-riven Compton neighbourhood in Los Angeles.
And his taste for the group, which was once dubbed the ‘nastiest’ in the world for its aggressive lyrics, is in stark contrast to that of his leader David Cameron. The Prime Minister is said to be a fan of the more radiofriendly 1970s rock group, Supertramp.
Mr Osborne admitted that his own teenage daughter Liberty also refused to let him accompany her to a Taylor Swift concert – because she considered him ‘really uncool’.
But despite the put down, he added that he has a fairly relaxed attitude to parenting. Unlike Mr Cameron, who strictly limits his children’s screen time, Mr Osborne said he was more flexible. ‘My view is that if they do their homework and are doing well at school, then their time is their own,’ he told the Mail on Sunday. ‘If they want to watch TV, an iPad or play a game, that is up to them... I don’t dictate how they spend their time.’
Mr Osborne is not the first politician go to public with his musical tastes.
As well as Supertramp, Mr Cameron is also known to be a fan of The Smiths. His admission was met with dismay by the band – who ‘forbade’ him from liking them.
And before becoming prime minister, Gordon Brown boasted that he liked the then trendy band, the Arctic Monkeys. But he was caught out during a 2006 interview when he failed to name a single one of their songs.