Aki Nawaz, of Fun-Da-Mental, has been winding up his record company and boosting his own profile by putting out a record entitled All Is War (The Benefits of G-Had). Two executives at the outfit which runs his label have threatened to resign if the record is released. So the press release says.
Nawaz himself confidently expects to be prosecuted for glorifying terrorism. But he’s not scared:
“I’ve already told all the lyricists don’t worry if we get into trouble, I’ll take all the blame. If they’re going to lock anyone up they’ll lock me up. I’m not scared, I’ve got a lot of anger and frustration at where we have arrived at. I’ll take the heat. And I’ve told my kids, I’ve told my wife that if anything goes wrong with me I want you outside Paddington Green and I want you staying there day and night.”
…
“If it means taking the rap and promoting the album from Belmarsh prison, I’ll do it”
Fight the power.
The Guardian explains what all the fuss is about:
The album, All is War (The Benefits of G-had), contains one track which uses the words of Bin Laden issuing “a statement of reason and explanation of impending conflict” and equates him with Che Guevara. Another forensically recreates a suicide bomber at work. The opening song is a rejection of what Nawaz sees as the hypocrisy and immorality of the west. One supposedly dream-like track predicts the demise of America at the hands of Islam.
Nawaz is at pains to point out that he deplores the killing of innocent people, and that although he knows “how suicide bombers feel”, he’d encourage them to take action against military targets only.
Aki joins a long line of artists who have made silly political statements. Eric Clapton famously encouraged his fans to support Enoch Powell to “prevent Britain becoming a black colony“. David Bowie described Hitler as “one of the first rock stars” and – possibly – once gave a Nazi salute. But he was taking an awful lot of cocaine at the time, and had reportedly convinced himself of the necessity of hoarding his urine in bottles to prevent Jimmy Hendrix putting a ‘voodoo curse’ on him.
Their careers both recovered.
That said, bands which have used their music to promote extremist politics tend to have fared less well. The future for Skrewdriver looked bright before they sacked Mark Radcliffe and got all controversial. And Prussian Blue have the makings of a promising girl band: were it not for their dodgy worldview.
Hey ho.
…………
Lamb and Lynx (14 years old) from Prussian Blue…………………….Aki Nawaz from Fun-Da-Mental
