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Ras Kwame and a panel of urban music aficionados gave an eventful Q&A titled Can Liverpool’s Urban Underground Scene Go Overground? in The Hard Day’s Night hotel at Liverpool’s Sound City festival.
The panel led by Ras Kwame (Radio 1) included Yaw Owusu (One Hundred Global, Urban &Youth Culture Management and Consultancy Company), Yinka Yesufu (The Music Development Agency), Jade Wright (Liverpool Echo) and DJ Spykatcha.
An outspoken crowd of urban artists and enthusiasts, along with the stock assortment of press, packed into the conference space for a heated debate on the issues facing urban music in Liverpool.
Everyone had their own opinion, but there was a general consensus in the room that Liverpool’s homegrown urban talent has been marginalised over the years, overlooked by local talent scouts for other more commercial genres. The bitterness and frustration in the room was tangible.
Specific blame was directed at the city council and the local media in particular for their reluctance to validate the scene with inches in the newspapers, or through funding at grassroots level.
Ras was authoritative, sharp and insightful throughout, advising those people who felt aggrieved to come together and present a unified voice to lobby for greater opportunities in the music business. To make that voice heard “Press is power†Ras asserted, and that means organisation, petitions, demonstrations and badgering those who have the muscle in the industry to alter the status quo, the lot.
One unfortunate official from the Echo (Jade Wright), who had been given the third degree throughout, got it in the neck when Ras asked her to pass on her email address and any other contact that may be useful for the new initiative. Cue the squirm and the stutter.