I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the music of Giggs for some time now, having stumbled across his frankly terrifying no-budget video for Talking The Hardest whilst procrastinating on Youtube. What sets him apart from other ‘urban’ acts like Chip Monk and Dizzy Rascal is his hypnotically slow vocal delivery, and overt gangsta style that has more in common with American hip hop than UK garage or grime.

It’s with some amusement that I’ve witnessed people getting their knickers in a twist over what is being seen as Giggs’ glorification of violence and criminality. His proposed UK tour has been scrapped after police contacted the venues he was set to play and warned them off, whilst Trident even went so far as to ring up XL Records in a bid to stop the company signing him. All a bit over the top, eh?

Now maybe I’m both naïve and jaded, but I hear absolutely nothing shocking, controversial or offensive in Giggs’ music. His frequent dropping of the N-bomb, references to drug dealing and guns are simply a slice of life for someone who has grown up on the wrong side of the tracks. It’s not a pretty depiction of British inner city subsistence but it is an honest one, and the very fact that the authorities have so blatantly tried to scupper a young artists career speaks of an institutional contempt for those seeking to express these social realities.

Through his music Giggs is doing something positive and although his lyrical content may be shocking or unpleasant for the kind of people who live on tenterhooks just waiting to take offence at anything that challenges their perception of reality, it’s about time we took our collective hats off to artists like Giggs who refuse to pander to the outraged minority.