British Grime Rapper Jailed for Imprisoning, Torturing, Raping Women

Andy Anokye, a Grime musician who performed as Solo 45, was convicted in March following a
Avon & Somerset Police
Victoria Friedman

British grime artist Solo 45 has been jailed for 24 years after imprisoning, torturing, and raping four women.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court had found Solo 45 — real name Andy Anokye, aged 33 — guilty in March of 30 charges including 21 charges of rape, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two counts of assault by penetration, and five counts of false imprisonment.

The BBC reported at the time that his sentencing was adjourned while the judge ordered a psychiatric assessment to be carried out on Anokye.

Anokye was sentenced on Thursday to 24 years in prison. He will serve a minimum of 16 years before being considered for parole. Once released, he will remain on licence — subject to recall to jail if parole terms are breached — for five years.

The prosecutions were as a result of one victim coming forward, with the three other victims identified after Anokye’s electronic devices had been seized and analysed, as the grime artist had filmed many of his attacks. A fifth woman had provided “valuable supporting evidence”, but her own allegations could not be prosecuted “as it happened abroad”, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Thursday.

District Crown Prosecutor for CPS South West Jill Macnamara said: “Today’s sentence reflects the severity of Anokye’s crimes and the risk he poses to women. I hope that it goes some way in providing all of these women with a sense that justice has been achieved.”

Ms MacNamara said at the time of conviction: “We were able to prove that Anokye was a violent, controlling narcissist and bully who took pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering upon his victims.”

Between February 2015 and March 2017, Anokye had met the women at gigs and developed relationships with them before he subjected them to violent abuse.

The jury had heard how Anokye had claimed that his violent rapes and torture of the women were part of a “consensual role-play”, admitting however that he would “terrorise” the women during “rough sex”. The jury heard the musician speak of his sexual arousal from tears, and that he would play “Catch me, Rape me” with his victims. He made one woman lie in a bath of freezing water, held a shotgun to the head of another, and water-boarded his victims during the rape and assault ordeals, according to The Mirror.

Solo 45, originally from London but has property in Bristol, was signed to Island Records and was part of the grime collective Boy Better Know. He had appeared with the group at the major festivals Reading and Leeds in 2016.

Grime music originated in London at the turn of the millennium and is described as being a fusion of jungle, garage, and hip hop.

Solo 45 is not the only grime artist to be imprisoned. In 2011 Taurean Taylor, known as Kyze, was jailed for shooting a man in the shoulder in south London. In 2019, Asco, real name Asfa Allen, was jailed for running an organised crime ‘County Lines’ hard drugs ring. Later that same year, female grime artist Lady Fury (Coelle Holly Beaupierre) was jailed for attacking her girlfriend. Lady Fury had worked with Wiley, described by the Metro as one of the “pioneers of grime”, who is now at the centre of a controversy over his antisemitic social media posts.

Birmingham rappers Young Smokes (Maher Ali), Killa Kam (Cameron Wright), and Lynch (Reial Phillips) have been jailed over drugs and weapons charges, with the prosecutor in one case saying: “The music apparently promotes gun culture.”

While at the beginning of this year, British drill rapper Headie One, who is described by The Guardian as having “chart success” with grime artist Stormzy, was jailed for carrying a knife.

Drill, another modern urban music with its roots in hip hop, originating from Chicago, has come under fire in the UK. Known for its dark lyrics, judges and police said drill glamourised violence and blamed it for inspiring 2018’s rise in youth stabbings and murders in London and other major cities.

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