Lots of you must have seen The Music of Black Origin Awards on Wednesday evening, held at the Royal Albert Hall and screened live on the BBC.
Events such as these are often watched by millions hoping for a ‘costume malfunction’ or a Britney Spears-style dance and lip-sync disaster.
But the Mobo’s big unrehearsed moment was far more profound.
It came from a non-musical winner: The Boyhood to Manhood Foundation from Peckham, south London, which scooped the BeMobo Award for outstanding services to the community.
In a spine-tingling acceptance speech unlike any other I have witnessed at a glitzy bash of this kind, Decima Francis, one of the Foundation's leaders laid into the sexist message of so much rap, grime and hip hop.
She denounced rappers who refer to women as ‘ho’s and bitches. Her passion was visible, her choice of words totally uncompromising. Her advice to the artists concerned was ‘get out of music, don’t make music’.
She reminded them that they had mothers, who for nine months had to put up with them in the womb. This was a woman not suffering from being star-struck.
I don’t know if any ho and bitch lyricists were in the house but if so, they must have felt distinctly uncomfortable. I even felt vaguely uncomfortable at home in my living room despite never knowingly having rapped.
Decima spoke with the power that only someone totally dedicated to turning round the lives of young people and helping them gain the strength to avoid bad influences could summon.
50 Cent had cancelled at the last moment (according to the press because Kanye West had beaten him to number 1). I’m not familiar with his lyrics but as Public Enemy have been critical of his rhymes for promoting violence and sexism then maybe it’s a shame he couldn’t witness Decima’s blast of reality.
Boyhood to Manhood Foundation aims to provide black children with role-models. Also see
http://www.usatfbmf.com/
http://www.usatfbmf.com/TheFromBoyhoodToManhoodFoundation1.php
http://www.london.gov.uk/gangs/projects/southwark/project-01.jsp
There is a Government Office for London evaluation of the project.