A VOICE FROM THE NORTH: THIS IS 2020
Jake is a multi-disciplinary creative that represents the UK and especially the North inside the Sabukaru Network.
On a regular basis, Jake writes a personal column as he investigates influences that hit home and ultimately topics that he is passionate about.
Over to Jake.
A VOICE FROM THE NORTH: THIS IS 2020
Alright, I'm here.
It's your boy, The Salford Soprano, aka Andre 3000 cigarettes a day. I'll be completely honest with you all, I wrote a whole different column to this one for this month, was about the weird feeling of being patriotic during the pandemic and how proud I was of my country coming together to support the NHS, the heroes we live among and not falling for the governments terrible handling of the pandemic.
However, on the 25th May 2020, a black man called George Floyd was murdered by the American police force, Derek Chauvin a member of the Minneapolis Police Force. He knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes while George Floyd protested he couldn't breathe and was clearly in distress, Chauvin carried on doing this for 3 minutes after George Floyd died. This was murder, plain and simple. Three officers by the names of Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas K. Lane either participated to or looked on to this murder. Again, this was murder. It's fucking sickening, read that paragraph back again, get angry, get upset. Because you should be, George Floyd is, unfortunately, another member of the Black community that has become a statistic because of institutionalised racism.
Not just in America either, it'll be happening in whatever country you live in. This isn't just America's problem, this is the world's problem. If any of us are silent, we're complicit in the racism fueled killing of the Black community.
Ultimately, this column is about culture. All cultures, cultures I've been involved in, cultures that have inspired me, however, most of the communities I've been involved in during my life have so many roots in Black culture, to ignore the influence of Black culture throughout history and in everything but especially Streetwear would be an incredibly blind and ridiculous thing to do. So I'm going to use my small place on this platform I've been given by Sabukaru to highlight some of the Black fuelled culture I've been a part of or have influenced me growing up. From clothing, food, music or vernacular my life has been saturated with these influences and I'll be forever grateful for them shaping who I am and where I am today.
I just want to say, I'm not doing this because I see Black culture as some sort of commodity that is there to serve and influence me, but because I want to highlight the importance Black culture and the Black community, because if the deaths of the Black community doesn't infuriate you because you're some sort of heartless weirdo then at least you can reflect on how much it's influenced your life so you can get out of bed and support the communities that have given you so much and have asked for so little in return.
Northern Soul
I'm gonna take you way back to 2007 when a young 14-year-old Jake was getting well into indie music, dressing really good and developing my own music taste. I can't remember what it was that fully drew me towards Northern Soul, but it was most likely the music. Motown or Motown inspired records were the inspiration and driving force behind Northern Soul, every weekend in the 60s, 1000s of youths would get together in small towns like Wigan, Blackpool and Blackburn to spend all night celebrating and dancing, fuelled by amphetamines, to this fucking incredible music created by Black soul musicians using dance forms taken from Disco and Break Dancing among others.
Something about this music created by soul musicians resonated with British small-town youths in the 60s and then me in the 2000s. Enough for me to copy the dressing style, my tapered school pants, my Fred Perry polos and shitty white pumps from the vintage store in Afflecks Palace. Enough to make me want to put on The Supremes or The Fascinations anytime I need cheering up still to this day in 2020.
'Lo-Lifes
I lost myself somewhere between starting university and getting bang into smoking weed at some point towards the end of the teens, proper didn't have a personality I was a mess, but that's a column for a different time (it's planned out) but I discovered menswear and started noticing the clothes around me more. One of the first things was Raekwon's Snow Beach in the 'Can it be so simple' music video, so fucking iconic. But you already know how iconic that coat is, we could smoke 500 Sterling Duals (RIP) and drink a boatload of Asahi's talking about that coat. But it made me learn about these lads from NY in the 80s, who would be 25 deep racking every piece of 'Lo in department stores and running out with them. Wearing Ralph ski jackets nicknamed the 'suicide' jacket cos you were putting your life into your hands wearing them on the streets. Willing to lose your life to make sure you're the hottest motherfucker on the block with the best jawns?
I respect that, it opened my eyes to how you can learn style from outside sources and start to recognise the influences you take. Still to this day when I'm wearing a big down jacket and my best Ralph rugby shirt you best know I'm feeling the fucking best. That's the power of clothes, that what the Lo-Lifes taught me.
HipHop & the power of vernacular
The reason why I joke that 'I'm your favourite writers least favourite writer' is cos I write as if I've just come off the pages of Kes or a Shelagh Delaney play is cos I embrace my culture and the language around me. I got bullied a bit when I was a kid cos we moved to a posher area and everyone spoke proper and that whereas I didn't. I tried to hide that for a long time, especially in University. I wasn't embarrassed of where I came from but I wasn't proud either.
But as I started listening to the lyrics in Hip Hop and realising they were embracing their language, their slang and their background it was like that first sip of orange Lucozade when you're hungover, it was like getting life back. I embraced my influences, I found a voice for myself, and it was thanks to the power of hip hop artists having the bravery to embrace their culture and use the language that might not appeal to all but it appeals to the audience they want to appeal to. Having a voice is important but your target audience knowing you're on their level? Powerful.
Streetwear
Fat laces, snapbacks, Louis Vuitton backpacks, all logo everything, Wallabees, the vernacular, Kimora Lee Simmons, Kanye, Dapper Dan, Tyler, The Creator, Jerry Lorenzo, Rihanna, Nija Battle. Streetwear is absolutely dripping in inspiration, drive and influence from Black Culture, whether that is Jamaican dancehall culture influencing the wearing of Clarks Originals like Desert Boots and Wallabees or Tyler, The Creator bringing Supreme into the mainstream. We could go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about how Black culture and streetwear are interlinked, but we really shouldn't have to. If you're a disciple, a voyeur or even an ex streetwear head, you've got Black culture to thank for helping grow a movement that was the catalyst to a 1000 other lifestyle movements.
I can guarantee any fashion trend, culture or community you do subscribe to has its roots in Streetwear and because of that your whole identity has been shaped by Black culture either knowingly or not. Without that influence you wouldn't be anywhere near the person you are today, I definitely wouldn't be.
Again, this isn't me making a commodity out of Black culture this is me shining a light on how Black culture has influenced, changed and improved my life by allowing me to be a part of these cultures that they've had such a hand to shape. We should always be extremely grateful for being a part of a multicultural world but right now we need to express our, thanks, support and fight for Black culture because they need us to be allies to change the world to make it safe and inclusive.
So please, reflect on your life then allow yourself to get angry, to protest, to campaign, to donate, to get educated.
There’s numerous ways you can help, but start here https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ and then listen to what your black friends are saying and sharing, support them.
Also, I wanna start including some playlists in these columns. This is a good time to start doing that, I’ve put together a playlist of some important protest songs by Black artists.
