"In the opening track, the 36-year-old musician intersperses his own words Coffee in his hand and he dashed it in my face / Five seconds later, right hook to my socket with voice notes his cousin, the actor and writer Michaela Coel, left him in the days after the attack. The record immediately became one of his most streamed, with listeners drawn not only to his frank recounting of the attack but also to his thoughts on youth violence and gentrification, and his grief at the death of his father in 2017."
"Starting his career making gospel-influenced rap during the early 00s explosion of grime music, Borquaye has long been an introspective outlier in a genre better known for its bravado and excess. While Wiley's 2008 party-focused Wearing My Rolex saw grime enter the mainstream and reach No 2 in the UK Charts, Borquaye released Pray As You Go the same year, exhorting listeners to give praise to the Lord every day."
Guvna B, a British rapper, was attacked in a racist incident at a London coffee shop in 2021 that left him temporarily blind in one eye. This traumatic experience inspired his 2023 album The Village Is on Fire, which became one of his most streamed records. The album features his firsthand account of the attack interspersed with voice notes from his cousin Michaela Coel, alongside reflections on structural racism, youth violence, gentrification, and his father's death in 2017. Throughout his career since the early 2000s grime explosion, Borquaye has maintained an introspective, faith-based approach to rap, winning multiple Mobo awards for gospel music. His confessional style and grounded public persona as a man of faith contrasts sharply with the genre's typical bravado.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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