Behind The Meme: Black Rapper Who Found Himself Amidst Anti-Migrant Protesters In Valletta Speaks Out
You might have missed it, but among the small group of racists who picketed the Black Lives Matter demonstration in Valletta last Monday, was a black guy lamenting all of 2020. This is his story.
Creative and controversial signs were the order of the day on the evening which saw both Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter representatives congregate in front of Parliament. But one of the most shared images quickly became the snap of a cheeky black demonstrator who momentarily found himself on the wrong side of the crowd, with a sign bearing the phrase, “Fuck 2020, Life 4 Real My Nigga XD”.
Now, the man behind the meme has spoken out about the famous slogan, and how the viral photo came to be.
A black Polish rapper who has not shied away from being vocal on social media, Paweł August Chomontowski was on his way to the Valletta protest like many others. Then, in a split second, he recognised the perfect photo op.
“I got a helmet from home and wrote a slogan on the bottom of a painting my friend had given me,” Paweł said of the moment he decided to join the protest and design his own sign. “I liked the material and format. And luckily, I had a fat marker.”
“I came for Black Lives Matter from the Triton fountain, through the nationalists,” he told people on one of the many Facebook posts tagging him and dubbing him ‘one of 2020’s legends’. “But while trying to figure out who these people were, and as a police officer came to escort me to the right side, I saw a photographer. Most of them were focused on the clash.”
“I went exactly at the rise of tension between both groups and realised in the last second that this would be the perfect moment to troll,” he continued, smiling. “I had one moment of synchronicity with a guy with a camera who focused on me [that’s Mark Zammit Cardona for The Times]. The rest is history. It was a one-shot moment, and I could’ve missed it if I was a second too early or too late.”
Paweł said the sign itself was a “performance”, and admitted he had put thought behind the innocuous phrase.
“I wanted a sarcastic artistic performance against the systems of power in general and this whole year, with all the respect for BLM and the victims,” he explained. “But honestly, I didn’t expect shit would kick off like this.”
“I wanted to make people think,” he continued. “At school, I was always a clown. And I had come up with an idea that wherever there are people uniting against abuse and fear, there must also be love and laughter. I also happened to be that guy from the last seat in the class with a full understanding of what he was doing.”
From managing to find himself amidst anti-migrant protesters to being helped out of the situation by the police, the whole experience seems to have left Paweł pleasantly confused.
“To be honest, I was really surprised the policeman helped me,” he said, no doubt referencing the fact that all these worldwide protests have literally been triggered by a case of police brutality on a black man in America. “And even though I was confused for a moment, I got over it by time.”
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When he’s not finding himself in the right place at the right time during a simmering protest, Paweł makes hip hop music in his native Polish.
Going by the stagename H35, Paweł has a slew of songs and music videos to his name… the latest of which features him walking down the streets of Sliema and St. Julian’s during a faux-Instagram livestream that featured some 4,000 people.
And they’re no absolute unknown tracks either; a somewhat popular name in Warsaw’s underground hip-hop scene, Paweł has worked with a number of talented producers, such as Chris Carson, Zbylu, NWS and Johnny Beats. One particular song from a couple of years ago – Prolog from the album Szczerze Wątpię (Honestly Doubt) – is sitting on over 13,000 views on YouTube.
Paweł’s artistic stunt seems to have already garnered him new followers from Malta… and some are already hailing him a national hero.
“This guy is an absolute legend,” one comment read under the now-iconic photo. “He’s my new hero for 2020.”
“I’m sorry, but this man deserves the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika 2020,” another chimed in, with many agreeing with the statement.
“The fact that he wrote XD instead of XXX is proof that the troll level is high,” one nuanced commentator observed, absolutely nailing it.
Meanwhile, Paweł’s sign has proven to be ripe for memes, with satirical page Malta GIFs+ superimposing his iconic anti-2020 slogan onto that Owen Bonnici video.
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