Grime music is often seen as negative and glamorising gun and knife crime. But not all grime artists are the same. Tinnie Tempah chose to take a stand by releasing the single 'Put the Guns and Knives Down'. So we thought he would be a good person to interview. As young people from similar environments we can relate to him. We caught up with Tinnie Tempah backstage at a youth music event at the Ministry of Sound in London. He was joined by East London grime artist Bruza.
What do you think about gun crime in the UK?
Tinnie Tempah: It's a fast, fast rising problem. At the end of the day we're products of our environment, so obviously it's what we see and it's what we're around daily. But it's got to a position where it's just ridiculous and something needs to be done. I don't think in terms of law and police enforcement and stuff, the problem lies in the homes. It's more of a social problem.
Bruza: Gun crime seems like the new fashion nowadays, you can't really blame the kids for it. You have to blame a lot of other things like media, what they're seeing, what they're hearing, their friends influencing them. Kids ain't got no heroes that ain't talking about guns and carrying guns. People that are doing law, people that are being doctors, they ain't classed as heroes. They're classed as someone that's being boring but they should be looked up to. People that are doing positive music need to be the heroes. There ain't enough of them right now and gun crime's gonna keep going unless that starts changing.
Do you think certain music plays a part, like people from the ends [inner-city] talking about "I'm gonna draw for the nine and catch you"?
Bruza: I reckon it does, in a slight way, because people just think it's cool. It shouldn't. People should be stronger and able to make up their own mind but as Tinnie said earlier, you're a product of your environment. It's a shame and it shouldn't be that way but unfortunately it is.
Tinnie Tempah: At the end of the day music is a form of entertainment so it's down to the artist what they wanna say. As long as you've been given that platform you really don't have to say anything specific or be a positive role model. Little kids are being deluded by what they're seeing and they're thinking it's all real. To an extent it's contributing to the violence but we have to acknowledge other avenues such as films and stuff which kids have been seeing since they were three. So music isn't the biggest problem, but yeah, definitely it is a problem.
What do you think when people say Garage and Grime music promote gun crime?
Bruza: Well as I said before gun crime isn't a problem that the kids have caused. How are kids getting guns? Where do they come from? So the problem's a lot deeper than what people actually think. It's not the kids, its bigger things than that. It's a bigger war. There are people giving us guns to kill each other. We've got to stand up and say why are we using these guns to kill our own people?
Tinnie Tempah: I don't think Grime music is portraying gun crime. It really all depends on the context and who's saying it as well.
Our opinion is that Grime and Garage are somehow contributing to gun crime but it isn't the only factor. Other issues like home life, violent films and peer pressure also contribute to it. What about young people who carry weapons because their scared? Though as young people, who also rap, we do need to take some responsibility.
We were impressed by Bruza and Tinnie Tempah's mature attitude towards these problems and think that these attitudes should be shared by more rappers and Grime artists.
About this article
This story is one of a series about gun crime in London. It was produced by Antonio Akue, 14, Ghizlan Akerbousse, 15 and Cherish Shonowo, 15. It was published on the BBC London website.
