There seems to be a bit of confusion as to the name of this group. Peel referred to them as B.R.O.T.H.E.R when cueing up GhettoGeddon on this programme, but they have also been referred to as B.R.O.T.H.E.R Movement or B.R.O.T.H.E.R Congress. I am going by the name that was applied to the sleeve of the record.
B.R.O.T.H.E.R - short for Black Rhyme Organisation To Help Equal Rights - was formed in 1989 by members of the UK ragga-rap group, Gatecrash, who in combination with politicians like Bernie Grant, brought together a number of hip-hop, rap and reggae artists to record an anti-apartheid single called Beyond the 16th Parallel, the proceeds of which went to The African National Congress. Despite being put together with the intention to, as the publicity notes stated, enable people to hear a true black person’s view rather than a white person’s interpretation of a black person’s view, the movement took another 3 years before putting out another record.
GhettoGeddon, like its predecessor, donated its royalties to a secondary source, in this instance Garth Crooks’s sickle cell anemia relief charity. Its focus was on issues that, depressingly, continue to resonate nearly 30 years after the record was put out: gun violence, knife crime, black-on-black violence, inner-city deprivation, the uselessness of the police and the dangers presented by blue-on-black incidents. There’s a particularly ingenious line on what the 999 emergency telephone line means if you’re a young black man phoning the police.
The proposed solutions range from the laudable (education) to the, from a white perspective, alarming (joining the Nation of Islam*). It’s impeccably performed and played with a funk-toned backing track which does a great job of dialling up the sense of urban dread that the various players including Gunshot, Standing Ovation, Katch 22, Son of Noise and others conjure up.
Peel was happy to play the record, not least because it contained a number of artists from what had been his favourite UK hip-hop label, Kold Sweat. However, storm clouds were forming as he reported that he had passed over several recent Kold Sweat releases because they had started to veer into issuing material that seemed to be far more sexist than they had previously done. He had even contacted the label to tell them how unimpressed he was by this.
*If I’ve misinterpreted this please correct me in the comments box and I will amend.
Video courtesy of UndergroundUnitedDE
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