Hold Tight: An Interview With Jeffrey Boakye
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HOLD TIGHT: INTERVIEW WITH JEFFREY BOAKYE
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Arts & Culture
Words By: Luc Hinson
Photography: Press Shots
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Luc Hinson sat down with Jeffrey Boakye, author of Hold tight: Black masculinity, Millennials & the meaning of Grime. The two discussed black masculinity, the internet, political figureheads within grime and the Windrush scandal. The full Q&A interview is available below, and If you haven't read his book already grab it here:
https://www.influxpress.com/hold-tight/
Read our full Q&A discussion below:
Q: Tell us a bit about ‘Hold tight’, where did the inspiration and desire to write the book come from?
I never planned to write a book about grime. It was a shock to me when I realised I knew enough about the genre to have an opinion on it, and an iPod full of tracks going back to its early days and beyond. It was probably around 2015 when I realised that grime was a part of the cultural furniture of this country, and I thought ‘yeah, there's a LOT to say about this stuff’. That was the spark. It was always about heritage too - i didn’t want grime to be documented by people who didn’t see it as a black British artefact, so sort of took it upon myself to start making sense of the narrative. I’ve always loved critical analysis, music, pop culture and discussions social politics, so a book was the next logical step. Actually, scratch that, I started with just a song here or there, a few hundred words at a time. The original plan was to publish on my blog, but after a few days I realised, nah, this is too much to put out there on WordPress. So, I started looking for a publisher.
Q: Do you think young Black men have a different experience of masculinity in Britain?
Absolutely. I mean, go back a generation and the main attitude thrown at black men is mistrust. The whole concept of ‘mugging’ was popularised around the presence of black men in the ‘70s, so yeah, we’ve been demonised. And of course, all men are subject to the same toxic pressures which ask you to put up a front and be macho and successful and all that. For black men, starting from a position of marginalisation, it can turn into a weird kind of insecurity. That’s one of the things I find do intriguing about grime, the nervous bravado and quirky, introverted extroversion. I still feel like black men get treated as default tough, which is a pressurised perception to have, because it doesn’t really permit basic vulnerability. And everyone is vulnerable. It’s human. Man, this is getting deep.
Q: How big an impact do you feel music, and grime in particular has on young people growing up?
Music is socialisation and culture and heritage and expression and venting and creation of self - all those things that young people are swirling around before ‘adulthood’ hits. It’s everything. It’s identity. I treat music like a household utility. Grime in particular? Well for one it’s the first major millennial black British cultural artefact, which is of more significance than I can fit in this sentence. It spans the pre and post digitally ages too, which makes it uniquely placed to reflect an analogue world and digital communities at the same time. It’s adolescent itself, which is reflected in the energy it has. All of this makes grime Something Worth Talking About, yep.
Q: Having grown up in London in the 1980s and now teaching in London yourself, how different is ‘growing up’ for the kids you’re teaching today?
Internet. I can’t imagine what it must be like to grow up fully connected and online all the time. Kids are expert consumers of the digital age, but so much of what is out there is flimsy and pretty much just selling something to you. That, combined with the pressure to have a certain image or live up to certain expectations must make it so difficult to navigate. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that young people today, like preteen and adolescent, take so many of their risks online. It’s genuinely worrying. When I was growing up being out on road was the risky stuff, and it still is, but kids who don't even go out can find themselves sucked into dangerous spaces online. That said, the shared reference points, big moments, all that stuff, it still happens, just on social media rather than, say, physical album releases and the like.
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Pictured: Recently featured musician Awate with Hold Tight.
Photogapher: Hubert Klusky
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Pictured: Jeffery Boakye
Photography: Press Shots
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Q: We’ve seen Novelist, JME and AJ Tracey amongst many others endorsing Jeremy Corbyn, how powerful a tool do you think grime can be for increasing youth engagement in politics?
It’s not so much the music as the spokespeople the genre has created. I have a lot to say about Stormzy for example. He’s emerged as a fully-fledged millennial statesman. When he talks, people listen, and he has an agenda. His work - and I really think it is work - surrounding Grenfell is really important. He’s campaigning. All of this is fostering youth engagement in political discourse. Last year was obviously big for grime and politics with the Labour endorsements and all that, but the legacy will be in key figures continuing to fuel the conversation. Big shout out to Novelist and his new album Novelist Guy here; he puts out a proper manifesto for kids in the ends on this one. It’s never capital P Political, but it has a solid political (and moral) stance.
Q: Tell us about yourself Jeffrey, what would you describe the biggest contributor to your identity?
That’s a huge question! Ok, real talk, it’s probably my people-pleaser streak. I’m a big fan of getting people together and I essentially want people to like me. It’s generally good, but a hair’s width away from seeking approval, which will trip me up if I’m not careful. You can see it in HOLD TIGHT. I’ve written it like a party, like I’m the DJ, so it’s a crowd pleaser. But a lot of the stuff is deep and heavy and difficult. I think that’s why it’s resonated - it’s accessible, but lowkey serious. Maybe that’s my style summarised in half a sentence. In all of that, growing up black in increasingly white spaces has given me a level of objectivity that gives me a sharp critical edge. I look at everything from outside the margin, because I’m used to living in that realm, if that makes sense.
Q: What does Britishness mean to you in the 21st Century?
Britishness is trying to make sense of itself, that’s the thing. We’re (who’s ‘we’?) living in this postcolonial age, with echoes of the empire ringing loud into the 21st century, and that’s the tension. You can see it in the recent Windrush scandal. A whole generation of black British Caribbean’s thought they were unquestionably British, but the slimier side of racial ideology slid through and told them to go ‘back home’. Britishness is struggling to work out what it is in a context of post-post colonialism. Again, grime is interesting here - very British and very antagonistic to old Britain at the same time.
Q: As a teacher, what do you think is the biggest obstacle facing this generation of young people?
Screen time. Empty promises. Lack of passion. Panicky schools. Donald Trump. Bad hip-hop. Toxic masculinity.
Q: What are your hopes for 2018 Jeffrey?
I’ve got two boys and a wonderful wife, so family first. Other than that, I’ve got book number 2 due in Spring 2019. It’s called Black, Listed and it’s coming together nicely, so getting that sorted is a priority. I’ve got a few other projects in the pipeline too and I don’t really stop thinking so I’m brewing new ideas right now. I also hope that the slow burn on HOLD TIGHT will keep bringing new readers in. It feels like an important conversation is underway.
Jeffrey Boakye is the author of Hold Tight: Black Masculinity, Millennials and the Meaning of Grime (Influx Press, 2017) and Black, Listed (Dialogue Books, 2019)
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Words By: Luc Hinson, 16th April 2018
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