Giggs: Police need to work better with grime acts

Giggs has only played a handful of shows since releasing his album including 1Xtra Live and Reading & Leeds

Giggs is calling for police to work more closely with grime acts to stop shows from being cancelled.

He's waited three months since putting out his latest album, Landlord, to play a headline show.

Several of his previous shows have been blocked over safety concerns.

"They need to work with us. If they think there's a threat then help us - put some police out there and work with us rather than just shutting us down," he's told Newsbeat.

"That's what needs to change. We're ready, it's down to them."

Giggs was sentenced to two years in prison for carrying a firearm in 2003. He was arrested on suspicion of the same thing in 2013 but was never charged.

He claims he still faces "so much nonsense" to book gigs.

The National Police Chiefs Council says no music genre is being targeted.

A spokesman told Newsbeat: "The safety of all attendees at any event is of paramount importance.

"A detailed threat assessment is undertaken for all events to ensure that it does not pose a risk to the public or attendees.

"The decision to cancel events is never taken lightly, and police forces will continue to provide support to event organisers on security measures in their force area."

A potential obstacle facing rappers, particularly those performing in London, is form 696 - a risk assessment used by the Metropolitan Police.

It asks for the names, stage names, addresses and phone numbers of all promoters and artists at the event - particularly if a night "predominantly features DJs or MCs performing to a backing track".

The form used to ask which genre would be played and which ethnic group was likely to attend a show, but those questions were removed in 2008.

The Met told Newsbeat that form 696 isn't designed to stop people having a good time.

A spokesperson said: "To help in managing events of this type... we will look at a number of factors including security, intelligence and whether there are any other events taking place in the area on the same night.

"Officers with specialist knowledge work closely with promoters so events can take place safely."

'We all come up against the same walls'

Fekky, who has worked with Giggs in the past, claims acts like them "have to keep proving ourselves".

"We're from the same walks of life. We all come up against the same walls.

"If I've done 20 shows and nothing's happened you can't block my show. When I first started they were blocking all my shows."

He suggests he would only get 10 minute's notice before finding out he couldn't perform, but things have improved recently.

"At the end of the day, we can't deny that where we're from is a battlefield.

"We came up having problems, fights with other schools and stuff, we can't deny that.

"But I had to master what I'm doing - we have to show everyone, 'Look we've done that and this is what we're doing now.'"

'They didn't want us before'

Skepta is among the grime acts playing at some of the biggest venues in the UK

Some of the more established names in grime are playing bigger shows than ever.

Mercury Prize winner Skepta will play to a sold out Alexandra Palace in December, while fellow Mercury nominee Kano played a sold out UK tour earlier this year.

But Kano says acts like them haven't always been welcome.

"I remember doing a lot of that sort of stuff back in the day with other people, supporting The Streets, supporting Nas at Brixton Academy. But these were places that we couldn't do ourselves.

"They didn't want us in there before.

"I remember seeing signs saying, 'Don't play Pow [a Lethal Bizzle track].'

"If you played Pow the club would get shut down, artists weren't allowed to go to certain places and we definitely weren't getting booked at festivals.

Kano's recent tour included a sold out show at Brixton Academy

Speaking after headlining the second stage at this year's Boardmasters festival, he suggests grime acts are now being more widely respected.

"The only people I used to see back in the day on the festival circuit was me, Dizzee [Rascal] and Lethal [Bizzle] sometimes.

"Now there are so many of us and there are sometimes whole stages dedicated to the music we make.

"Every year it's been getting bigger and bigger. It's just amazing."

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