(AllHipHop News) British TV watchdog OFCOM has rejected viewer complaints alleging rapper Dave’s performance at the Brit Awards last month was racist against white people.
Quadruple nominee Dave, who took home the British Album of the Year prize for Psychodrama at the ceremony, changed the lyrics to his hit, “Black,” to call U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson a “racist.”
“The truth is our Prime Minister’s a real racist,” he rapped, before criticizing the way mixed-race royal Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is treated by the U.K. media, and name-checking the Grenfell Tower fire and the Windrush scandal – government failures that caused outrage among Britain’s black community.
While 309 complaints were registered with the media organization, following the awards’ broadcast on the ITV network, the watchdog said it was “likely to be within most viewers’ expectations of this well-established awards ceremony.”
They also determined it was “not uncommon for artists to express personal political views during their performances.”
Dave wasn’t the only act to make a political statement during the ceremony – Tyler, the Creator thanked former Prime Minister Theresa May for banning him from the U.K. during his acceptance speech for the International Male Solo Artist prize.
“I wanna give a special shout out to someone who I hold dear to my heart, who made it so I couldn’t come to this country five years ago. I know she’s at home p##sed off. Thank you to Theresa May,” he said, referring to May’s 2015 complaints that his music “encourages violence and intolerance of homosexuality.”
