Grime music expert slams 'lazy' and 'ignorant' Leeds councillor who blamed genre for Norman Bar violence

Chairing a Leeds City Council meeting on Wednesday, Councillor Al Garthwaite said the genre was "associated with trouble" as a discussion was held over the future of Norman Bar. The venue was forced to close temporarily last month after a brawl in which revellers were sprayed with fire extinguishers led to its licence being revoked. Coun Garthwaite told the meeting: "I know that grime is associated with trouble." Now a leading specialist in the field has criticised the comments, branding them "lazy" and "ignorant" with "racial undertones". Dr Monique Charles, who has researched the genre made famous by Stormzy and Lethal Bizzle, said the assumption that the music incited violence stemmed from previous racial stereotypes over black people, and that politicians should be looking at the deeper underlying social reasons for violence. "Historically, black music and expressionism has been policed. In the past it has been blamed for people having knives. "What politicians need to be doing is looking at the deeper underlying social reasons that breed crime, not the music itself." Dr Charles added there were "racial undertones" to the assumption Grime caused "trouble". "There are certainly racial undertones to what she said, whether they were were conscious or not. "I think it's a bit of both snobbery and misunderstanding; you clearly don't understand but have the arrogance to simplify the problem down to something such as a genre of music." Responding to the claims, Coun Garthwaite said there was "absolutely no intention of causing offence or disregard" in her comments She said: "I had seen in the documents that the music had caused a problem, or contributed to the problem, in the past. There was no intention of causing offence, I was concerned because there were these comments in the document. "It was certainly not meant to be a whole disregard for a whole genre."