GLASGOW-BASED rapper Bemz describes winning the BBC Introducing Scottish Artist of the Year award a few weeks ago as a blessing but in some ways that blessing has been mixed. On the plus side it has thrust him into the spotlight but it has also cast him as a spokesman for Scottish hip hop, a role he very definitely does not want.
Ask him if he thinks of himself as a spokesman for a community and the response is an immediate: “Hell, no.” The rapper, who is appearing later today at Melting Pot and Heverlee’s Optimo 25 weekend festival at Queen’s Park Recreation Ground in the city, is very clear that such a role “is not my goal and not my ambition”.
