Zero-of-the-Year

Zero-of-the-Year

‘slowthai wins ‘Hero of the Year’ NME Award then fucks his career immediately after’

Wednesday night saw the renowned return of The NME Awards held at the famous Brixton Academy. Big celebrities and musicians made their appearances such as Courtney Love, The Libertines, Mathew Horne and The 1975 bookended with the infamous, gold, middle finger statuettes. 

The night kicked off in true angst fashion with 25 year-old, Northampton rapper slowthai (real name, Tyron) and Mura Masa performing their song ‘Deal Wiv It’. slowthai came to the stage and shouted something almost in comprehendible but it sure sounded like he yelled, “I’m fucked!” (like the true poet he is). Whether or not he was implying he had drunk a lot of alcohol or was referring to the rapid demise of  his career after this particular night, both work perfectly. The politically charged rapper’s show came to an end with him getting his arse out – why? I don’t know. However, it was a shame how the night unfolded from slowthai’s arse one end... to the shit coming out of his mouth at the other. (For what it’s worth also, the performance was something I found quite spectacular and I did enjoy his music.)

The NME Awards throughout previous years has made some efforts to become less of a white boys’ club and this year saw female leadership from the get go. It saw women hosts (woo!) and had speeches from artists regarding festival line-up gender imbalances (Yes, I’m looking at you Reading and Leeds!). But female progress unfortunately can get ruined by any bellend at any time. And on this particular night, slowthai was that bellend.


Multiple attempts at comedy were made by the half-famous rapper, including when he got onstage uninvited and creepily said “you ain’t ever had anyone play with you like I’ll play with you” to comedian and host, Katherine Ryan whilst trying to lay his head on her breasts.

He later ironically won the fan-voted ‘Hero of the Year’ award and got on stage and lit a cigarette- how original. An audience member then proceeded to call him a “misogynist” before slowthai threw his microphone aggressively into the crowd and then drinks were thrown from both parties. Like the classy young man that slowthai is, he then jumped into the pit and tried to start a fight with the guy who called him out.


Katherine Ryan dealt with the situation like a pro and continued to oust him with sarcasm and made him look a fool- not that he needed any help. But what concerns me first, was the lack of security stopping him getting up multiple times to aggressively harass Ryan whilst she was doing her job. Only when it turned physical did security feel the need to get involved. What about when he had lock of Ryan asking her to “smell his cologne” (amidst his string of lewd comments)? Why was that acceptable?

In the past, slowthai has held a fake, severed head of Boris Johnston so, to be honest, the aggressive, immature behaviour at NME wasn’t too out of character for him. But NME’s and the securities attitude to just allow the ‘rock and roll’ behaviour to continue is worrying. What if there were no cameras? How far would that have gone? If it’s acceptable for that to happen ON stage, what hope is there for people being harassed at gigs?

Ryan managed to ‘deal wiv it’ incredibly well. Others can’t. I sometimes still freeze when wolf whistled by a man in the street but then get annoyed with myself for not having the confidence to tell that man to FUUUUCCCKKK OOOFFFF!


What’s equally as worrying, is a lot of publications inability to call out slowthai’s behaviour for what it was (see image to the left or read the full tweet HERE.) Harassment. It is ignored by big publications and this is disturbing as it highlights what we deem acceptable. 

There is also serious lack of ballsy tweets, articles and online thoughts about his behaviour. It seems a ‘forgive and forget’ stance has been taken by the majority including Ryan herself. She is entitled to react how she deems appropriate however, what people need to remember is that not every person is as strong as her and a lot of people wouldn’t be able to cope as well as she did.

slowthai has issued a well-worded, publicity stunt of an apology on Twitter (and to those who put money on the statement being issued on Twitter on the betting sites the evening of the awards- congratulations). He states that he wanted his award to be sent to Ryan as she is the “true hero”. 

If I was Ryan, I’d take that middle-finger-shaped-award and shove it up his hungover ass whilst telling him to be respectful of hers and other women’s jobs as they do them. I do hope his career takes a serious beating after his actions. This needs to happen as an example to show that it’s NOT acceptable and will NOT be tolerated in any line of work. Famous or not.





Top Image Credit: Getty Images – Getty