Louder Than The Music

The MOBO Award winning Christian rapper Guvna B, who lives and grew up in London, has written a song titled 'Hometown Riots' which voices his feelings about the current troubled scenes happening on the streets of London, and elsewhere around the UK. "Young people stop rioting, stop looting. Innocent people are suffering. This ain't the way for your voice to be heard, it's gone way too far" sings Guvna B in his song which has already been viewed 9,000 times in the 24 hours since it was uploaded to YouTube.

Guvna B, an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, met British Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street in April (pictured, right) to warn him about the frustrations of young people in Britain's deprived communities. When Guvna B won the MOBO Award for Best Gospel Act in October 2010, he dedicated the award to youngsters whose lives are blighted by gang crime. The 21-year-old said: "I grew up in east London with lots of violence and lost a couple of friends to knife and gun crime. I reached a crossroads with a choice of right or wrong and took the correct route - I became a Christian. And four years down the line I have a Mobo. I want to dedicate this award to all the kids who find themselves in the situation I was in."

The rapper's response to the current riots, which have caused devastation on the streets of London and other English cities for the past four nights and have been shown on TV news bulletins around the world, was picked up by British broadcasters Channel 4 News. Discussing his song in an interview with Channel 4, Guvna B said "The way I can contribute is communicate with the youth. I really don't think the people we see on the news are people that the youth can relate to. They are not listening to the politicians, to the commentators, so I hope they will listen to this."

On the subject of the young people seen on the streets of London this week, Guvna B who has been performing at the UK's Soul Survivor youth festival this week, added "I think the behaviour is unacceptable, but it's very naive to say it's just based on just sheer criminality. This is about a lack of investment in youth and mistrust between authority and the youth. The Government have to start taking the youth seriously and relate to them, if we're to avoid this chaos in the future. These kids are looting because they are bombarded with consumerism on MTV - for example, flash cars, flash girls. There are no jobs in London so they see something for momentary pleasure and they grab it. Some people have no work ethic after years of hopelessness. Added to the poverty, they don't believe the authorities care about them, and their parents don’t seem to be caring too much either. They also have a lot to answer for. These kids need to be properly guided. These kids have no ambitions - sometimes it has been knocked out of them. Then the Government tell them they have to give nine grand to go to university. We need positive role models, positive people on television, telling young kids they can do something great with their lives."