ShadowCV
by Pete Clemons
What does a guy, who is in his mid 60s, know about Rap Music and Grime?. Well, in the case of this one, absolutely nothing. Dont get me wrong, I was not completely unaware of those genre's. I have heard them performed. But I couldn't tell you anything about the who's, why's and wherefore's along with other fundamentals.
However, like many, I enjoy a positive and uplifting story and that was the reason which drew me towards this particular news item and to try and delve a tad more into rap and grime.
In order to give me a bit more insight, and for the purposes of this article, I did try to research the subject a little. In all honesty I hardly scratched the surface. However I found the following description of rap: 'an insistent, recurring beat pattern that provides a background and counterpoint for rapid, slangy, and often boastful rhyming patter intoned by a vocalist or vocalists'. As for Grime, I then discovered that it, is a form of electronic music.
I also stumbled across the name ShadowCV who is an up and coming exponent of these forms of art. Furthermore ShadowCV is, it seems, one of two Coventry based artists involved in creating a music video called 'Depzman – Life Cut Short'.
'Depzman' has been created as part of an anti knife crime campaign. As such, the positivity I mentioned - and which attracted my attention initially, has been created out of incredibly tragic circumstances.
A little background to it all. Joshua Ribera Aka Depzman was a rapper and grime artist from Birmingham. His art was well known in his city and his work had already began to spread across the country. Tragically Joshua was robbed of a bright future after being stabbed to death in 2013. Since that time Joshua's mother, Alison Cope, has visited various fraternities such as schools, colleges denouncing the senselessness of knife crime and all that surrounds it.
Shadow CV, had already been making a name for himself by way of his own art. His work also touches on the subject of knife crime. And his endeavours includes 'Pray For Peace' a piece designed to spread awareness of the issue and broadcast a message of peace, hope, positivity and unity across the whole country. And 'Pray For Peace' has attracted an awful lot of attention.
There was a certain inevitability, I guess, that ShadowCV was approached about a video idea for the Joshua Ribera foundation. Shadow CVs' involvement in the 'Depzman' project was a natural fit.
McCann London, who bring stories to life and tell them to the world in a way that impacts culture, had been in talks with Alison Cope about a video idea for the Joshua Ribera foundation - 'to bring Depzman back to life using deepfake A.I technology'. ShadowCV agreed to write the lyrics for the song. And those lyrics were performed by Birmingham rapper T.Roads in order to sound as close to Depzman's voice as possible. The work was produced by Phaze FX. The goal of the project is to keep Depzman’s memory alive while, at the same time, delivering a powerful anti knife crime message at a time where it is needed more than ever.
The video was released on 24th October. Since then it has received millions of views across multiple platforms with news of its release being covered by ITV news, BBC News and many more outlets.
The video has also been shared by U.K. artists such as Skepta, Jaykae and is currently in the pipeline to be featured on national TV programmes like BBC The One show and ITVs Loose Women.
Using and condensing ShadowCV's own words: 'I was born and raised in Coventry City, the city of peace and reconciliation. My plan is deliver projects like this all over the country to spread maximum awareness and inspire as many people as possible'.
The scourge of knife crime has become endemic in many areas. It is far reaching and impacts on so much more than the obvious effects. I say, good luck to the lad, the project and all they do. Positiveness is power.
No comments:
Post a Comment