More about: Slowthai

Music’s worst kept secret is making headlines, again. In the hallowed annals of press recovery, we find words “allegedly”, “claims”, even “real victim” sewn into a fodder stew satiating and silencing that one conversation we all love to side-step when it comes to people we like. Surprise, surprise, it’s sexual assault. 

Slowthai, aka Tyron Frampton, is facing a wave of condemnation on social media following court proceedings where he was charged with rape.

Online media outlets, trustworthy to tabloid, broke the news on May 16th. Detailing the nature of the alleged crimes, the rapper was charged with two counts of rape, oral and vaginal, of a woman in Oxford in September 2021. Now placed on bail, he is scheduled to appear in Crown Court in June. 

When I first read these headlines, I rolled my eyes. I was not shocked. I was shocked that other people were shocked. Let's not forget the rapper's raucous run-in with Katherine Ryan at the NME Awards in 2020. Chasing an uncomfortable back and forth onstage, Slowthai was accused of sexually harassing Ryan when she tweeted her feelings of discomfort. 

He quickly apologised (on social media), received a rhetorical slap on the wrist then got nominated for a Grammy. 

The Northampton native spoke, to court on Tuesday via video link, only to confirm his name, date of birth and address. Albeit, he has taken to social media (again) to share his side of the story. Pinned it and all. 

Despite his tweeted convictions, Slowthai’s name has been wiped from festival line-ups across the U.K.

Innocent until proven guilty. And I completely agree. But at this point, I’m tired of being told what I can and cannot say when it comes to cases of sexual assault. I’m not talking about the victims and villains of this situation, I’m talking about these two insurmountable words embodying a history of caustic neglect and again I must repeat, I’m talking only and without circumstance about sexual assault. 

Before I go further, I want to clarify that I am completely impartial to Tyron Frampton’s current legal disposition. I don’t listen to Slowthai, I don’t care for celebrity gossip saturated in violent narratives, and I certainly don’t want to assign names to people in a context that is not my own. This trial, at this time, is a simple pivot to a much larger conversation. 

"Guilty or innocent, how can we harness a more progressive narrative around sexual assault cases if the last word wilts in court?"

Before the social media ship sinks, it will be hard to float when discussing things as weighted as sexual assault. Once accused (and usually acquitted) high profile names swallow up the traction of trending and carry on as normal. Not a consequence in sight, a simple blip in the deep pocketed matrix. We see it time and time again with people like Chris Brown and Johnny Depp brushing themselves off and bagging new brand deals. Meanwhile, women are plagued by conversations around false accustations or the ways men's lives are 'ruined' by people speaking out. Maybe those things do happen, but that male-oriented conversation screams over the voices of victims and perpetuates the systemic and social lack of justice for victims.

This erasure, however, of a traumatic experience for both the defendant and victim is more harmful than an unjust verdict. Guilty or innocent, how can we harness a more progressive narrative around sexual assault cases if the last word wilts in court? 

It’s as though the power dynamics abused in the first place are echoed by the gavel assuming ultimate power and decreeing “that’s enough.” 

Then two months later, Slowthai is accused of rape. 

To the industry magnates who wait just about enough time for the dust to almost ripen before replacing defendant with “HEADLINER” on bills, there is no right way to recover graciously from a PR scandal like sexual assault. But that’s not it. 

I will also never understand the pedestrian pride of acquitted artists. Is there pride of genuine innocence in a world that believes you capable of sexually assaulting another person after years of grinding only to be taken advantage of yourself. Maybe there is.  

Alas, you can’t fix a broken system from the top. Groundless power dynamics trickle right down to burial sites of (not so) cancelled musicians and their successors. It’s the stasis of music as we know it. Where would Reading and Leeds be without it?  

"It’s reductive to say an ego leads to sexual assault but abusing idol worship is a power play, no matter how far off the ground your stage is."

Gig culture is an easy place to start. Choking in sweat, hormones and the euphoria of strobe lights, boundaries are blurred, and hands reach unimaginable places.  It’s an echo chamber of congenial bad behaviour. Right place, right time, eh? But it’s usually the other way around as the story goes. 

And if the addled groping of a stranger on a sticky dancefloor isn’t enough, the smug strummers, 1-foot off the floor, who believe it is their divine right to conquer are certifiably nauseating. I respect musicians, I especially respect musicians who respect their audiences and fellow musicians. It’s the egos a spotlight can enchant in them. It’s reductive to say an ego leads to sexual assault but abusing idol worship is a power play, no matter how far off the ground your stage is. 

Forget the gigs, we’re moving onto bigger and darker things! As of August 2022, 1 in 3 women are sexually assaulted at music festivals. Sexual assault has long since transcended dress code, drunkenness and “you were asking for it”-s – now the crowds are thirsty and taut, practically  forcing randy headbangers upon the wanton head bobbers. I never thought overcapacity would ever play into half-cooked narratives of sexual offenders, but here we are. It’s the new normal, it’s fucking insane.

More sinister to come, the industry! I was a fresh 20-something trying to blag a career in music. Smitten in the lowest possible position (intern), I was soon corralled into working weird shifts, inappropriate conversations about sex and at the receiving end of nude photos sent by my universally loved boss. In a city where blacklisting breeds lists quicker than the time it takes to press delete, what does an impressionable young woman do? They don’t say a thing. 

Maybe you can fix it from the top. Maybe the big leagues need to do more, be bolder at weeding out the bad ones, speak up for the people lower down the ladder that can't.

On a broader landscape, 1 in 4 women are raped, 1 in 18 men are raped and the highest number of rapes recorded by the police ever was in 2022. So, why is being safe in the safeguarded world of music so hard? Sexual assault is not victimless. It’s easy to be convinced otherwise, next year’s headliners will let us know. 

At this point, I feel like a broken record. But in a broken system, let the music play, tainted and crooked as it is.  

There is support available for victims of sexual assault, listed below are charities here offer help. Don’t be afraid to speak out even when it feels like no one is listening. 

Find support:

https://rapecrisis.org.uk/ 
https://www.thesurvivorstrust.org/ 
https://safeline.org.uk/ 

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: Slowthai