British rapper slowthai sparked fury at the Mercury Prize ceremony last night by holding up an effigy of Boris Johnson’s severed head.
The award-nominated artist, who wore a ‘F*** Boris’ T-shirt decorated with lewd images of the Prime Minister, held up the provocative mask on stage at the Eventim Apollo in London.
After stripping to the waist during an energetic act he shouted: ‘F*** Boris Johnson. F*** everything’.
Slowthai was nominated for his album Nothing Great About Britain, which casts a critical eye over life in the modern UK, and was one of the favourites for the Mercury Prize but missed out to London rapper Dave.
The BBC live feed cut away from the rapper as he held up the effigy, but the audience responded with rapturous applause as slowthai (who spells his stage name with a lower-case S) left the stage.
But there was anger online with one viewer saying ‘someone’s probably going to end up getting killed because of this move’.
‘This is really dumb, embarrassing and dangerous,’ they said.
Another Twitter user said: ‘I don’t know which cause he thinks this is helping, but the answer is none. Horrible.’
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