London Fire Brigade gets serious about smoke alarms – step 1

We are grateful to London Fire Brigade for granting us permission to use this for Gapfillers.

There are thousands of accidental fires and around 50 fire deaths every year in London. Many fires, and the injuries and damage they cause, could have been avoided if people had been more aware of the risks. Londoners can call a freephone number and arrange for a free home fire-safety visit from local firefighters, who will chat to them about fire risks and fit free smoke alarms if they are needed.

Stephen-remell Coleman has certainly not given up his day job as a firefighter on Wimbledon Fire Station’s Red Watch, but in his free time he performs as a rapper under the name ‘Controversy‘. He approached London Fire Brigade managers about using his musical talents to get fire safety messages out to a young urban audience, and received the go-ahead soon afterwards. Within weeks his rap -"Got mine, got yours?" warning people not to be complacent about fire, and about how putting smoke alarms into your home can save lives had been shot at Wimbledon Fire Station featuring Stephen-remell and other London firefighters in action.

Rapping, or hip-hop, is a genre of poetry and music in which rhyming lyrics are chanted, with or without musical accompaniment. You will notice that the beat determines everything about the song, so that many lyrics have to be shortened to fit in with the rhythm, and much of the grammar is abbreviated and colloquial. You will also notice that punctuation has gone out of the window! (to go out of the window = to disappear, be abandoned). It makes the language creative and very flexible, because it can be played with.

Click here to listen to this rap and for an exercise based on it!