UK rapper and campaigner Lowkey has used footage of the charred remains of Grenfell Tower in an emotional music video for his song Ghosts Of Grenfell.
The video shows people of all ages in streets and shops around the west London area, mouthing lyrics also sung by Mai Khalil and Asheber.
The hard-hitting track pays tribute to victims of the devastating fire in June and lashes out at the “political class, so servile to corporate power”.
“People reaching form their windows, screaming for their lives/Pleading with their cries, trying to reason with the skies… every single person in that building was a hero.
“The street is like a graveyard, tombstone lurching over us… now it’s flowers for the dead, printing posters for the missing.”
The second half of the five-minute track becomes an appeal to “whom it may concern at the Queen’s Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea” for the whereabouts of people still missing after the devastating fire in June, with contributors holding up named images of residents who have not been found.
The song finishes: “The blood is on your hands, there’ll be ashes on your grave, like a phoenix we will rise.”
We have completed the music video for Ghosts of Grenfell thanks to the sweat of literally hundreds of people. Much love…
Posted by Lowkey on Saturday, August 5, 2017
“Much love and respect to all who participated in the process which was not easy or painless on any level.
“The video will be out very soon and we hope it will contribute in some small but meaningful way to the wider struggle for justice.
“In attempting to define the narrative and cultivate an ambience welcoming to radical societal shifts we have no choice but to confront the culture of power with the power of culture.”
