‘Death to the IDF’ Grime Artists Bob Vylan Paid Tribute to Sadiq Khan in Song Lyrics – Guido Fawkes

EXC: ‘Death to the IDF’ Grime Artists Bob Vylan Paid Tribute to Sadiq Khan in Song Lyrics

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After Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury scandal over the weekend, Guido took a look at the political connections of the grime act. Surprise surprise, one particular Labour politician is at the centre…

Many co-conspirators noticed that Sadiq Khan follows Bob Vylan on X. Their relationship goes back a long way…

The grime act first encountered Sadiq Khan in person back in 2022 at the Bandlab NME Awards at the O2 Academy, Brixton. Nice night out for the London mayor…

At that event Vylan took a jovial swipe at Khan over tube strikes – the awards took place during yet another period of TfL industrial action: “sort them trains out. You have to keep this city moving bro, because people need to get to work. Come on, we’ve gotta do better.”

Bob Vylan swiftly walked back their criticism of Khan in a magazine interview just days later: “Today Bobby says he has no interest in tearing Sadiq down. ‘Is there work he should be doing? Yes. Is he the biggest crook in government? Not even close. Do I think he genuinely cares about this city? Absolutely. I’ve been chatting shit with my friends my whole life and nobody cared what I had to say. Now, it might end up in a rag that I despise. Luckily Sadiq seemed cool about it and it’s probably not the worst fucking thing someone has said about him.’”

Whether Sadiq (who “seemed cool about it“) met directly with the band after the event is unclear, but just last year the artists mentioned the London Mayor by name in the lyrics of their new song Humble as The Sun:

Ghetts told me I’m electric like I’m lighting in this place (Yo, the vibe was, the vibe was electric, dawg)

Seconds after talking to Sadiq about strikes up in this place

“How you feelin’? How you feelin’?

In an interview around the release of the track – the lyrics of which include the Irish Republican motto “tiocfaidh ar la” – Bobby Vylan reflected: “‘Humble As The Sun’ is empowering for me, personally. I talk about interacting with people like Sadiq Khan, my interaction with Ghetts, winning the MOBO. I just had to immortalise those things on record – sometimes you gotta puff your chest out a little bit. You gotta shine.” With friends like these…