This blog represents a significant crossroad for me. Before Christmas, I was made redundant from my long-term job; running a chain of bars and nightclubs in the east of England. Rather than focus on the obvious negatives, I’m harnessing the opportunity as a chance to put my ambition to work in comedy into practice; stand-up, pod casting and ultimately writing.

So here I am. My first article. I've been set a trial by the illustrious Ms. Chantelle Fiddy. The test? To write 500 words on ‘how grime could help to end world poverty’, with the understanding that if I impress her with my charming (rude) insight (diatribe), I might be allowed to pen more realistic and publishable pieces, which will ultimately fertilise the nepotism I crave to further my music and comedy careers.

My ultimate problem with this blog is that I'm straight away breaking the rules by changing ‘grime’ to encompass all UK urban music to save pointless anti-critique from genre-fiends, and change world poverty to UK poverty. To hell with it.

It is claimed that nearly one fifth of the UK is living in poverty and whilst the definition of poverty here has less resonance to that of say Africa, or South America, it is a manner of poverty nonetheless. Looking around inner city estates, it's not hard to view those living below the bread line. And this is my first point - poverty breeds poverty and the cycle is destined to encapsulate future generations exponentially if not interjected.

Fortunately we live in a welfare state where concerted efforts are made, by the haves, to look after the have-nots (either through tax contributions and/or altruistic acts). Likewise, there are opportunities available for young people to break their own individual poverty cycle. However, with children being born into younger families, teachers being stretched harder and further across more pupils, these positive opportunities are not always understood or welcomed.

Children are influenced by society and culture. Athletes, fashion designers, art, marketing, technology, celebrities, television, film, the internet and music. We’re in the age of undiluted, unfiltered and infinite information where you can use any internet connection to see a sea diver perform fellatio on a dolphin or homeless folk fight with weapons to win $5. But sifting through this barrage of information, where is the positive? Where are the role models we can relate to? Where are the people who are going to make us change the UK and the world for the better? This brings me to UK urban music which has seen an incomparable rise in success over the last decade or so and for the first time ever, it’s now cool for children to show off their iPods in the playground filled with UK music rather than the offerings from our transatlantic neighbours. What this has created is a culture that anything's possible. Anyone can make a success of themselves if they just find their gift and work at it. But will we really see any significant improvements within society given the values and trends portrayed and promoted within this same music?

Take one of last years biggest underground tracks, ‘Next Hype’ by Tempa T. It’s filled with energy and talks about rage, violence, weapons, revenge and gritty street life. It’s had a giant cult following amongst young people. Conversely consider a soon-to-be-released song from Doctor, ‘Tek Your Time’, which essentially promotes a positive message of street-awareness even though it’s a little over heavy on the scare mongering side. I suppose you could argue tentatively that there are positive and negative messages to be extracted by the younger generation from UK music but the balance of positive messages from artists like Sway, Akala and to a lesser extent JME is fair outweighed by often negative workings from the Lethal B, Tempa T and Plan B’s of the scene.

My conclusion is this; artists need to consider that their actions and lyrics have a wider ranging and more poignant reverberation than perhaps they currently comprehend. We live in a country where the England football captain is a serial adulterer and single parent families are becoming the norm. If you have an audience, you have a responsibility. If you have a youth audience, you have a responsibility greater than lip service. If your music doesn't speak volumes why not look to use your celebrity in a way that can make a difference? Volunteering for Ctrl.Alt.Shift might be a start.

Words: DJ Hotpoint