Examination of Witnesses (Questions 418
- 419)
TUESDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2007
MR ROGER
DRAKES AKA
DJ DODGE, MR
BOB TYLER
AND MR
ANDY PARFITT
Q418 Chairman: Good afternoon, and
thank you very much for coming to this session which we have as
part of our inquiry into young black people and crime to explore
any possible relationship between that and rap and hip hop music.
Perhaps I could ask each of you to introduce yourselves, for the
record, to the Committee and then I will say a few things and
then begin the questioning.
Mr Parfitt: My name is Andy Parfitt.
I am the Controller of BBC Radio 1 and its sister station 1Xtra.
Mr Tyler: I am Bob Tyler. I am
Head of Compliance at VITV/Channel U, a station which shows primarily
hip hop and British urban videos.
Mr Drakes: I am Roger Drakes,
club DJ and record producer who also speaks at schools and colleges
about music and music-related subjects.
Q419 Chairman: In opening can I say
that when we started doing our inquiry, which is looking primarily
at possible reasons why there is an overrepresentation of young
black people in the criminal justice system, we had not planned
to have a discussion on contemporary urban music. But a significant
number of the witnesses that we had from within the black community,
and those working with young black people, pointed the finger
at music as one of the issues we should be concerned about. Very
much in the questions that we will be asking as a Committee this
afternoon we will be reflecting to you things that have been put
to us by other witnesses, particularly witnesses from within the
black community and those working with black people in the community,
rather than our own views. I wonder if I could start by asking
you briefly a bit about the role in which rap, hip hop or contemporary
urban, whatever is the right expression, plays in the lives of
young black people in this country at the moment and if you think
there is anything qualitatively different between this music and
the relationship with this audience and all the other forms of
contemporary music that young people have been used to over the
years.
Mr Drakes: Basically, as a life-long
fan of music and rap music, soul, jazz and all kinds of black
music, I have to say yes; music does play a part in young people's
lives. Like any teenager, when you are young, music is a big deal
to you no matter what the genre, but to say that it makes people
go and act out certain things I would say definitely no. Music
is so far from the root cause of what the problems are. Negative
rap lyrics have been around for 20 years plus. I myself grew up
listening to plenty of negative rap music, along with all the
other genres of music, and it has not affected me in any way.
Music is not the cause of the person I am.
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