Fury as rapper waves Boris’s ‘severed head’ at Mercury awards
‘Is it survival of the fittest?’
A BrITISH rapper sparked anger at the Mercury Prize ceremony after he held up an effigy of Boris Johnson’s severed head.
The award-nominated artist, who dubs himself slowthai, held the mask while wearing a ‘F*** Boris’ T-shirt featuring lewd images of the Prime Minister.
After stripping to the waist, the 24-year-old – whose real name is Tyron Frampton – shouted: ‘F*** Boris Johnson. F*** everything.’
The audience responded with rapturous applause as he left the stage at london’s eventim Apollo.
The BBC live feed cut away from the rapper, with host lauren laverne saying: ‘slowthai, with his own views there.’
The artist was nominated for his album Nothing Great About Britain, and was one of the favourites for the prize – but missed out to fellow rapper dave, whose full name is david orobosa omoregie.
After the performance slowthai, from Northampton, promoted a £25 ‘F*** Boris’ T-shirt online, along with another lewd picture of the Prime Minister.
Among the prize judges was Stormzy, who criticised then prime minister Theresa May during his set at last year’s Brit Awards. There was anger online following slowthai’s actions, with one viewer saying: ‘I don’t know which cause he thinks this is helping but the answer is none. Horrible.’
Meanwhile, the mother of a teenager fatally stabbed by the brother of rapper dave condemned the musician yesterday for paying tribute to his sibling at the ceremony.
Christopher omoregie was a ringleader of a teenage gang who hacked the schoolboy to death at Victoria station in 2010. omoregie, now 26, was jailed for life for his part in the ‘ferocious and merciless’ murder of 15-year-old Sofyen Belamouadden.
Sofyen, a promising footballer, was stabbed nine times in the lungs and chest in the attack.
omoregie was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years for his part in the killing after a judge said he had failed to ‘show any kind of remorse’. Seven others were also jailed.
dave’s debut album Psychodrama features a recording of his brother’s voice.
In the final track, called simply drama, dave raps about being physically sick on the day that his brother was sentenced.
The rapper, from Streatham, in South london, also appears to question the verdict with lyrics that include: ‘Is it survival of the fittest or is he a killer?’
He goes on to describe his brother as ‘my hero’.
In his speech at the ceremony on Thursday, he said: ‘I wanna thank my brother Christopher that inspired this album.’
dave, whose other brother Benjamin has served a prison sentence for fraud, received a £25,000 prize.
last night, Sofyen’s mother Naina Ghailan told Sky News: ‘It’s disgusting how his brother is on that [song] from prison and [dave] still got an award... no one in their right mind [would] listen to them sort of songs.’