The Black Music Records

Home

Click To Nominate Your Favourite Records For
The British Black Music List 2005

The Genre Off-debate Contributions

When I decided to call it the Urban Music Seminar, I used ‘urban’ as a reaction to the way the word had moved so far from the music and black culture to the extent that it was being used to advertise cars and all sorts of things. My idea was to bring it back to the music. Urban music is complicated to explain, but of course it has its roots in black music. There’s no question about that. Kwame Kwaten, head of Roc Urban Music Seminar, Sept. 18-19 2004.

My name is Fred Wisdom. I am a black male jazz singer. Even though jazz is black music, black people in Britain laugh at it. Is it only white people that enjoy jazz?

I hope you respect that whilst I do not support the label ‘urban’, I simply do not feel comfortable supporting the label 'black', just as you would not feel comfortable supporting the label 'coloured' or 'negro'. In fact to do so, would make me a hypocrite and go against much of what Ligali stands for and what I stand for as a proud African man.

I cannot be with you for this debate because I live in Paris. But I’ll just mail you my opinion. Although it is pertinent, because 90% of urban music is done by black people, you still can find an Eminem, for instance, doing urban music. I also think the term black music is inappropriate as black music is not only urban music. Anyway, I don't really know the context as to why Lisa Maffia said so, and I might be wrong in my intervention, but I felt like saying something about it - Laurent Blot.

I am very pleased to note that younger people like Lisa Maffia are aware of
the insidious nature of the word ‘urban’. Urban to me means terrorism. See news clippings of the 70's referring to IRA, Red Brigade. ETA, Baader Meinhoff etc. It is on par with ‘ethnic’. One never hears of the English, French, Germans, etc as ethnic – it’s mainly people of colour, hmmmmm?? Black music it is. Remember James Brown’s chant "Say it loud....’? The ph man.

Willber and Jade, respectively programme and marketing executives on Radio 1Xtra, were adamant that theirs was a "black music" station, and didn't use of "urban music" to promote their station. (When participants were asked whether they thought 1Xtra was a black music or urban music station - most of this typical 1Xtra demographic representation said they did not listen to the station. Of those that listened to it, most thought it was an urban music station.)

See Mykaell Riley's feedback to the BMC on the One Voice debate on black vs urban conference.

Back