Kneecapped

Audio: Kneecap: Irish language rappers debut film at Sundance | BBC News

Just back from two days in Bristol. Perfection

Lost my phone on a bus just before I got the coach up, so apologies if you have tried to contact me, I'm unreachable til I get a new one. Soz.

I spent 2 days, checking out Bristol to see if I want to move there for a bit, like I did Glasgow courtesy of Shireen and Frankie Boyle in 2022. The latter let me stay in his empty house and the former arranged it.

This time however instead of writing I am gonna try and brush up my DJing skills and reintroduce AKA Mama Junk (my alter ego) back to the world! Whilst in Bristol I went to Education Sessions @ Cosies, an infamous Jungle and Drum and Bass venue. And there I met the best junglists and I'm inspired! It’s a challenge I can't wait for!

At Cosies I met a junglist who had DJ'd all round the world, including Bristol, Wales and London. He had recntly had 3 strokes so wasn’t doing too much DJing anymore or drinking. He left early I am glad to say. I couldn’t tell you what his DJ name was, as he said he’d had so many and taken so many drugs it’s all a bit hazy.

He told that pre 2003 he used to play at 160 bpm, post 2003 he couldn't play faster than 130 bpm. That is an investigation in itself. Drugs, I suspect Ketamine specifically changed the uK raving scene forever.. Who flooded the streets with it?

I also met another guy on Thursday night at Watershed’s live synth night. A mad genius if ever have seen one. He’s been live palaying synth since 2019 and made the rig below in 3 days.

He did a set and didn't drop the bass once. Was dancing in my seat throughout.

Spoke to him after and mentioned , "you never dropped the bass" he said, "nah, you just keep goin". A philosopher.

Then on Friday night after Joshua Idehen’s's gig I told him and his mate the above story and he told us that,

the only song that has never dropped the bass in the charts is Prince's When Doves Cry.

Honestly my ethnography senses were peaked these last few days!

So for the last four days I have been living my best life! Boat trip, Seabass dinner, Porn Star Martinis live music and Jungle.

I'm not sure why #SpyCops and whoever else don't realize that I am at my best when under threat and pressure. I thrive! Similar to others who have ADHD traits like Assed Baig and my ex Malcolm. That's why we make the best war and foreign correspondents.

I would say they are probably psychopathic traits as well. So would suggest all the working class white, black and brown informants, #SpyCops, undercover cops and spies put their psychopathy and narcissism to good use and become war or foreign correspondents ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Lots of people are smart, far fewer are brave and even less are competent.

The upside of this whole situation is that I no longer have to disguise my contempt for both MSM and Independent journalists and creatives in the UK both White, Black and Brown (expecting Nick Davies who is still the only white man I trust) who were silent as the grave as they saw me be hacked and surveilled.

There's a reason I have been tweeting about Orson Welles since the beginning of August.. ‘Throughout his career, Welles grappled with the abrasion inevitable in such a lofty position whether from the critics or filmmakers. Hence, he developed a thick skin & took great pleasure in criticising his peers with whom he couldn’t get along, either personally or artistically'.’

The (real) shitposters and the podcasters are the only thing keeping this country (barely) honest.

The latter should have a think about some of the guests they have on though. Not all of them are who they say they are. 

SO all that said I've decided to move to Bristol for a few months to learn how to DJ again. AKA Mama Junk is returning.  So Malcolm Webb I need those decks back.

I feel safer among (real) junglists than I do activists or journalists.  I've always found friends and common ground among ravers and musicians. 

My advice to spy cops and informants: if you can't be good people, be useful.

For example I lied to one of the pastors in my (still unfinished) film, when I first met him and told what sort of film I was planning to make with ‘Born Again in the United States of Uganda’.

He had just showed me a video of a man chopping the head of a captor. Apparently that exemplified Aljazeera English, which was the last outlet I had directed a film for.

I lied for a good reason and even HBO used some of my footage.

Turns out I would make a great spy. I can certainly lead people a merry dance. And I enjoy it too. But these people know I am not a spy for their rival groups or any other country. What I am, and the poet and others like us are subversives.

From my disappeared The Canary article:

'Two of the people named in the article who were asked questions by The Canary (but didn’t reply) have either long deleted their social media accounts or locked them down a few weeks ago.

Others who were named have not replied to emails and stopped posting on X/Twitter/Facebook Others who were not named stopped replying to SIgnal messages on Friday, left X/Twitter groups. They knew this day was coming.

And that’s just ONE more reason I was under surveillance.

As Albert Camus said:Some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

Imagine having to do that.'

Think I missed my calling as a poet though. Life would be very different, not necessarily better, but different.

I'm from the pro smoking lobby and I'm here to recruit you

-Samantha Asumadu

Sean BW Parker: Starmer was watching a Nirvana gig in 1992 from well outside the mosh-pit, got a puff of someone else's Lambert & Butler in the face, and said to himself: 'One day I'll outlaw that, you'll see, peasant'. Everything he's done since election screams the bullied-becomes-the-bully

Good to see near blanket derision in the media over Starmer's smoking putsch.

Sam: I miss Lambert and Butlers AND Richmonds... rollies with menthol filters are ok but still don't compare to the minty freshness of a long Richmond... I'm from the pro smoking lobby and I'm here to recruit you

Roddy: If people wanna smoke, let em smoke. If people wanna do drugs, let em do drugs and support em like they do in Portugal.

I used to smoke JPS and No6. I don’t miss smoking, but I’m gonna miss my right of choice.

Sam:; Indeed! I would add people should pay for seeing music AND if it's their thing, drugs too. We live in a capitalist society, so you'll be paying one way or another. Better it be paper or coin than your blood or your soul.

Roddy: I used to smoke in defiance of those who held oppressive authority over me. Once the oppressors lost the authority, I gave up smoking! I was 16 when I gave up.

Sam: love you Roddy! Come visit me in Bristol when I get set up x

Roddy: I will. Gotta love Bristol and love the people of and within Bristol. When you get settled, try to make zum time ta visit the varestors and its beautiful countryside just across the river.

Sam: I am taking you to Cosies for some drum and bass! but yes to countryside too. 🙏🏾

My Nigerian brother from another Mother Joshua Idehen took me to church on Friday night and then some. He even healed my knee which I hurt dabbing to jungle on Thursday night in Bristol. An ecclesiastical and cleansing revelation.

But so too were supporting artists @alialowers and @yungyusuf_ who's howls of "Free Free Palestine" were a scream of righteousness that reverberated throughout the high ceilings and old stone walls of @stmartininthefields crypt.

I look forward to hearing more from both.

I took a short trip down memory lane between acts and headed to my old stomping ground The Players Bar_ which my good friends Christian.Emmerson, Sefton and Mullins know well. You were missed!

Excuse my terrible quality photos, AS I said I am without a decent phone at the moment.

Word up. You are the protagonist of your own story, not any one else's.
Act accordingly.

-Samantha Asumadu

Friday night I met Lowkey's son. He isn't his son of course, too close in age but could perhaps be his nephew, son of an older sister perhaps.

BUT it does sometimes have amazing artists. 

Joshua it turns out was headlining. I didn't know he was headlining until 3 bands had played and my knees were hurting. 

I had travelled back to London to see Joshua and send some emails. I lost my phone on a bus just before I got the coach to Bristol on  Wednesday, so coordinating my visit was difficult.

I had been playing Goodbye Stranger by Supertramp when I lost it, so I don't know what happened there.

Hopefully whoever found it enjoyed my Iconoblast spotify playlist. 

I went by myself to the Crypt as I always meet people when I am out, whether I am with people or not so sometimes when I have my ethnographer/journalist hat on its just easier to go on my own.

Anyway Josh was headlining so I decided to get some food before he came on but before I left, I went over to Yusuf who had just done the electrifying set where he sang something I hadn't ever heard in the heart of Babylon. 

His set was electric, the crowd varied from apathetic to ecstatic. He and his dance partner descended into the crowds at one moment, masks on feeding each other to do a delicate dance 

Perfectly in tune with one another.. 

Righteous rap plus liquid breakdance but with one eye masked. One black, one white. Or so big thought.

I limped to the merchant table to find out if he had ever listened to Soundtrack to the Struggle.  Yusuf said,

“of course. I supported Lowkey a long time back but I didn't really know my own my identity back then.”

I asked was he Palestinian

he said yes.

I said, okay because of course people think Lowkey is Palestinian but he's actually Iraqi.  I honestly don't know how many people know that. It's the same with Malia Bouttia. People assume she is Palestinian but she's Algerian.  How many people know that? I only know, because I knew them back in 2011-13,14,15.

Last time I remember seeing Malia was the day that Paul Walker died in a car crash. She'd invited me along to speak at an NUS black students event.  That's where this photo was taken:

Back to the Crypt. In my opinion people should pay for music and for drugs if that's your thing too. You'll be paying somehow ,so better it be paper or coin than your  blood or your soul. 

This is exactly what I had felt as I watched Kneecap on Thursday afternoon at Watershed in Bristol.

It was the story of the North of Ireland, but it was also the story of Lowkey in 2010/11.

Here’s my take: for me apathy set in around age 15. My mum wanted me to be a scientist or a soldier.  So she got me a science tutor. I don’t know what the equivalent would have been for a soldier of war.

My tutor would come every week and duly I would fall asleep half way through.  I was comfortable around him I suppose.  The first black teacher I ever had and my last, thinking about it until Media Diversified. 

Watching Kneecap, from writer-director Rich Peppiatt, a fictionalised biopic of a Gaelic hip-hop group from the North of Ireland I was electrified and energised and in stiches.

Merging Irish with English, satire with socially conscious lyrics, and reality with absurdity, [Kneecap’s] is a voice which comes screaming from the too-often deprived areas of the North of Ireland, speaking in a language which is too-often ignored, and it makes for suitably electrifying stuff.

Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (Mo Chara), Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap) and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí) are fine actors, more so probably because they are not actors, they are the real Kneecap!

Irish, also known as Gaelic, was the first language until the 19th century when it was suppressed by British rule. In 1920, it became the official language in the Republic of Ireland, but declined in what became Northern Ireland in 1921, as part of the United Kingdom.

2021 UK census: around 6000 people in Northern Ireland claim to use Irish as their main home language, with another 71,900 claiming the ability to speak the language. In December 2022, the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act was passed, giving the Irish language recognition as an official language in the UK. This was a historic milestone in a long political and cultural battle to recognise Irish identity and its language in Northern Ireland.

From The Conversation: Kneecap: raucous Irish-language comedy reveals lingering effects of the Troubles in West Belfast

According to Wikipedia and this podcast I hosted ‘Kneecapping’ is considered a "trademark" of the IRA, although it became less popular over time because the disability and mortality incurred was unpopular with the community. It was replaced with low-velocity shots aimed at the soft tissue in the lower limbs. The podcast also shows that The far right in the North of Ireland is embedded in the permanent state. It's an exclusive interview with Gerry Carroll, MLA for the People Before Profit Party.

During the course of the film you meet a police woman with a hard on for Republicans who beats bloody one of the rappers. Over the course of the film we find that the State believes rap and music culture and the Irish language are more dangerous than bullets, because they can’t control it.

It felt a little spooky to be watching Kneecap it in the midst of what Spies or at least the scriptwriters of Homeland call ‘crashing’, i.e getting rid of anything that ties you to a past life and buying everything new.

Homeland S05E11 Still - H 2015

I highly recommend Kneecap - it may just start you on a journey to your own liberation.

“Sometimes you are at the front of the protest, sometimes you are barely standing.”

- Joshua Idehen

The poet asked my words be fairer to him in his last poem. Here’s me being fair:

We made each other better. He taught me not to judge too quickly, when often I could see the splinter in someone else's eye and not the log in my own according to an old saying of my mum.  And I taught him to be a bit kinder to his friends, a little less selfish and what a liberal was.

However he is a fucking capitalist and a gatekeeper, so that kind of erases any good.

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Went on to Reel Politik last week to talk about #TheTrashies. Fucking loved it! The most fun I've had recently in media terms. I talk A LOT and various people get mentioned by me and the boys.. including Paul Mason, @seumasmilne @owenjonesjourno David Aaronovitch, @zarahsultanamp @draussenistfeindlich Grace Dent, @aaronjohnbastani @nelsabbey @adam.barrett.9279 Emma Barnett, Tom Watson, Jess Phillips, Ed Balls and more!

We discuss the #IPPscandal and @Trapped_Pod from 1 hour 3 minutes in with and then #SpyCops straight after.

Listen here:

SHOW NOTES Jack and Geraint are joined by journalist Samantha Asumadu to talk about The Trashies, the UK's premier awards for bad journalism, which she's been running via Media Diversified since 2014, and are returning this year after a short absence. We go through some of the worst dogshit printed by the British press in recent memory.

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Sorry, I am having trouble with the Media Diversified website at the moment, a few articles won't load.

Bear with us 🙏🏿Read our latest articles by Dr Asim @cageinternational @afrozefz @DanielYorkLoh and Jon Wooders in the meantime

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We - Media Diversified/I had an issue:

All respect to@blmuk We have worked successfully together since 2022, but why would you give your address over the internet for anti-raids type groups?What if you get hacked god forbid? Maybe simplify the form?

AND

We resolved it!

This is what cooperation across radical groups looks like 🙏🏾

Here's the New Socialist magazine's link on how to set up your own anti-raids group

We highly recommend their website and when Media Diversified closes our doors (again) next week, they may well be our last digital defense editors@newsocialist.org.uk

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Sometimes people just have bad vibes. Act accordingly.

-Samantha Asumadu

Thank you so much to the top readers of latest newsletter, especially my brother and the Ministry of Justice - never miss an article!

I swear to never start charging people to read my newsletter. I get paid enough for my other work and don't need it currently. Will warn in advance if that changes.

The 5th and final part of my The Canary series on the ‘permanent state’ is no longer available. Hopefully I will be told why.l one day. So I was considering asking The Canary UK to take down the other 4 pieces l, as what the hell?

If you can't stand by one, why should you get the honour of platforming the others?

I sought advice from my wisers and betters before pulling the trigger.. And I got some GREAT advice from Rob Berkley who used to be the head of @RunnymedeTrust years ago. I'm sharing it as it may be useful for others::: “You know better than I that the truth you write is likely to be more enduring than the channel on which it is posted . Where is your writing archived? Do you control it? The Canary will look after themselves, as long as they pay on time, and you didn't sign away secondary publishing rights, it's out of your hands. Unless the meaning of the other 4 articles are undermined by the removal of the fifth, let them stay up. Even better, signpost folk to your site for part 5.”

Here's an extended excerpt of part 5 of my 'permanent state,/ (un) civil series: I Demand a #SpyCops Public Inquiry Fit For Purpose.

And so should you.

'This intrusion into my life has had terrifying implications but it has been worse for others.'

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Seen a rogue policeman? Read a report on police misbehaviour? Add to the hashtag #PoliceCrimeDaily

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P.S I know there is going to be some non-black women and /or middle class women who try to take my experiences and use them as their own. Trust me, I will hunt you down if you do and you will catch these hands