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Michael Gove professes to enjoy chap-hop – how peculiar Michael Gove professes to enjoy chap-hop – how peculiar
(about 3 hours later)
My name is Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer. I am a performer of, and I would humbly suggest the inventor of, chap-hop.My name is Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer. I am a performer of, and I would humbly suggest the inventor of, chap-hop.
Yesterday I discovered that one of my followers was none other than Michael Gove, the education secretary. He declared his love for my work in the Daily Mail's Event magazine. This has left me feeling somewhat peculiar. Yesterday I discovered that one of my followers was none other than Michael Gove, the education secretary. He declared his love for my work in the Mail on Sunday's Event magazine. This has left me feeling somewhat peculiar.
First, I ought to explain to the many of you who may be unaware of this musical form just what chap-hop is. If you were to follow hip-hop's lineage through its numerous golden ages, back past Jay-Z and Kanye, Eminem, Biggie and Tupac , Cypress Hill, the Pharcyde, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Run DMC, the Sugarhill Gang, all the way to DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa's block parties in the Bronx in the mid-1970s, as most scholars of the genre do, but then continue that line further until you reach Dame Edith Sitwell and Noel Coward, you will begin to understand where chap-hop is coming from. Were Chuck D, George Formby, Grand Wizard Theodore and Ronald Frankau ever to get drunk together and decide to form a band, this is the music they would make.First, I ought to explain to the many of you who may be unaware of this musical form just what chap-hop is. If you were to follow hip-hop's lineage through its numerous golden ages, back past Jay-Z and Kanye, Eminem, Biggie and Tupac , Cypress Hill, the Pharcyde, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Run DMC, the Sugarhill Gang, all the way to DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa's block parties in the Bronx in the mid-1970s, as most scholars of the genre do, but then continue that line further until you reach Dame Edith Sitwell and Noel Coward, you will begin to understand where chap-hop is coming from. Were Chuck D, George Formby, Grand Wizard Theodore and Ronald Frankau ever to get drunk together and decide to form a band, this is the music they would make.
I can recall an interview with Kirstie Allsop last summer in which she mentioned Gove doing some "gentleman rapping" at a dinner party – apparently in praise of Toby Young's free school – but I was dashing off to do a show in the US so ignored it. To be awoken on Sunday morning with these first-hand revelations left me in need of a very strong cup of tea (with two sugars).I can recall an interview with Kirstie Allsop last summer in which she mentioned Gove doing some "gentleman rapping" at a dinner party – apparently in praise of Toby Young's free school – but I was dashing off to do a show in the US so ignored it. To be awoken on Sunday morning with these first-hand revelations left me in need of a very strong cup of tea (with two sugars).
Look (as Gove appears to start every sentence he utters), a chap of any political persuasion is entitled to extol the virtues of the music he likes, or indeed any music his press officer tells him to (we all remember the Gordon Brown/Arctic Monkeys debacle), but I just can't imagine why he would find chap-hop to his taste.Look (as Gove appears to start every sentence he utters), a chap of any political persuasion is entitled to extol the virtues of the music he likes, or indeed any music his press officer tells him to (we all remember the Gordon Brown/Arctic Monkeys debacle), but I just can't imagine why he would find chap-hop to his taste.
I don't profess to know all the finer details of his education policy. I am largely known as a gentleman with a large moustache who sings songs about cricket, pipe smoking, crack cocaine and pornography accompanied by a banjolele, but my chums who are either teachers or have children of school age see Gove as pretty much the devil incarnate. Being neither a teacher nor having any children, I see him more like the boy at school upon whom you might take pity on and befriend because he is bullied, only to discover that he was in fact a little git all along. I don't profess to know all the finer details of his education policy. I am largely known as a gentleman with a large moustache who sings songs about cricket, pipe smoking, crack cocaine and pornography accompanied by a banjolele, but my chums who are either teachers or have children of school age see Gove as pretty much the devil incarnate. Being neither a teacher nor having any children, I see him more like the boy at school upon whom you might take pity and befriend because he is bullied, only to discover that he was in fact a little git all along.
That said, I have sung songs such as They Don't Allow Rappers In The Bullingdon Club and Bullingdon Breakdown, which do rather deride the government and its Eton-based cronyism. Perhaps this is the very reason Gove appreciates my work. As a non-Etonian and thus an outcast within the cabinet, this is perhaps a little snook cocked at his colleagues. That said, I have sung songs such as They Don't Allow Rappers In the Bullingdon Club and Bullingdon Breakdown, which do rather deride the government and its Eton-based cronyism. Perhaps this is the very reason Gove appreciates my work. As a non-Etonian and thus an outcast within the cabinet, this is perhaps a little snook cocked at his colleagues.
In his interview with the Daily Mail, Gove not only mentioned me but also a few of my contemporaries in the world of chap-hop and beyond. Rather amusingly, some of these other artists are in fact old Etonians themselves. It seems his means of annoying his fellow party members may be as well researched as his "all schools should be like public school" schtick. In his interview with the Mail, Gove not only mentioned me but also a few of my contemporaries in the world of chap-hop and beyond. Rather amusingly, some of these other artists are in fact old Etonians themselves. It seems his means of annoying his fellow party members may be as well researched as his "all schools should be like public schools" schtick.
Either that or he's just one of those people who never listens to lyrics. Perhaps Gove, in the words of dear old Kurt Cobain, "likes to sing along … but he knows not what it means".Either that or he's just one of those people who never listens to lyrics. Perhaps Gove, in the words of dear old Kurt Cobain, "likes to sing along … but he knows not what it means".