British rapper Stormzy stole the show at the Brit Awards last night, bringing home two awards and going after UK Prime Minister Theresa May for her handling of the Grenfell Tower fire last summer.
At around midnight on June 14th 2017, Grenfell Tower, which housed mostly lower-income families, caught fire and burned for 24 hours.
The fire displaced residents and took the lives of 71. The resulting investigation into the fire revealed certain government oversight allowed the tower to be built with flammable materials and the building wasn’t up to safety standards.
Fingers were pointed at Theresa May’s handling of the situation, both before and after the fire.
Stormzy spoke up for the victims of the fire, calling Theresa May and her government “criminals.”
“What, you thought we just forgot about Grenfell? You criminals, and you’ve got the cheek to call us savages, you should do some jail time, you should pay some damages, you should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.”
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Stormzy went on:
“MPs sniff coke, we just smoke a bit of cannabis, they’ll get me for this so be woke.”
Downing Street has responded to Stormzy’s comments (perhaps demonstrating the power of the rapper’s voice), saying that Theresa May is “absolutely committed” to helping victims of the Grenfell fire. May’s spokesperson released a statement:
“[May is] determined that the public inquiry will discover not just what went wrong but why the voices of the people of Grenfell were ignored over so many years. In terms of support for the people affected by this tragedy, more than £58m has been committed.”
Elsewhere in British politics, Stormzy was praised in the Commons today for his performance. MP Valerie Vaz called the rapper’s performance a “tour de force” and was happy to see Stormzy encouraging young Britons to become involved politically.
“(Stormzy) encouraged everyone to vote, pray and speak out about mental health issues.”
Stormzy took home two awards last night for Best Male Solo Artist and Best British British Album for last year’s Gang Signs & Prayer.
Shoutout Stormzy for using his platform to give a voice to the voiceless.