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British rapper who held up effigy of Boris Johnson’s severed head during awards ceremony says his act was a metaphor and he does not condone violence

The Northampton rapper repeatedly cursed the Prime Minister on television - WireImage
The Northampton rapper repeatedly cursed the Prime Minister on television - WireImage

A British rapper who held up an effigy of Boris Johnson’s severed head, and shouted "f*** Boris" during an awards ceremony says that his act was a metaphor and he does not condone violence.

Tyron Frampton, better known by his stage name ‘slowthai’ screamed the obscenities while clutching the life-like head before his Mercury Prize performance, shown on BBC Four and still available on the iPlayer service.

The 24-year-old, who also wore a t-shirt emblazoned with ‘F*** Boris’ says that he was “holding a mirror up to the country,” and that “some people don’t like the reflection.”

At the end of his medley, with the cameras still trained on him, the rapper picked up the fake severed head from the side of the stage and held it aloft for a second time.

Having stripped to the waist he again shouted: "F*** Boris Johnson. F*** everything".

rapper slowthai - Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage
The Northampton rapper repeatedly cursed the Prime Minister on television Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage

But yesterday, a BBC spokesperson defended the performance, saying: "We applaud the expression of music and we maintained the integrity of slowthai's performance, but we did have to make some visual edits in order to minimise offence."

But just three years after the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox on the streets of Britain, commentators were quick to criticise the depiction of a murdered politician.

Online, the reaction was heated, with one social media user saying: “Shameful and disgusting behaviour.”

Another started an online petition demanding an apology from the Mercury Awards calling them “highly irresponsible”.

In response to the backlash, Northampton-born Frampton wrote on social media yesterday: “The people in power who are trying to isolate and divide us aren’t the ones who will feel its effects the hardest.

“They’re not the ones queuing at food banks, not the ones navigating universal credit and not the ones having to deal with systematic fear and oppression and hate crimes at the hands of privileged politicians who say what they want without fear and consequence.

“We are not being looked after and our best interests are not being served by those in government. This is their job and they’re not doing it well enough.

“This act was a metaphor for what this government is doing to our country, except what I did was present it in sight.

“No Boris Johnson’s were hurt in the making of this slowthai performance. I don’t condone violence in any form.”

slowthai was nominated for his album Nothing Great About Britain, which casts a critical eye over life in the modern UK.

He is one of 12 acts whose work was shortlisted for the 2019 Mercury Prize, but lost out to grime artist Dave.