A police officer has accused a Grime rapper of being racist for asking him not to touch his jacket while attempting to restrain him during a confrontation at Notting Hill Carnival.
Rapper NOT3S appeared to film the incident between himself and the MET Police officer at the carnival on Sunday and later posted it to his Instagram account.
The 20-year-old, whose real name is Lukman Odunaike, repeatedly asked the officer not to touch him, later clarifying it was because he had ‘dirty hands from the rain’.
But the policeman took offence and called the singer racist for his request.
The officer was seen gripping onto NOT3S’ jacket, prompting the musician to ask him to stop grabbing him – launching the racist comment row.
A police officer accused a Grime rapper of being racist for asking him not to touch his jacket while attempting to restrain him at Notting Hill Carnival over the weekend
Rapper NOT3S, 20, appeared to film the incident between himself and the MET Police officer at the carnival on Sunday and posted it to his Instagram account. He later deleted the video
The rapper seemed to grow frustrated when the police officer claimed he was being racist, though he stayed calm.
NOT3S replied back at the officer: ‘What you are doing is racist now man.’
Reassuring his friends and the other officers that he wasn’t going to become physical, he repeated: ‘I’m calm, I’m calm. I just don’t want you to touch me.’
It is not clear why the officer was attempting to restrain NOT3S in the first place, but the Scotland Yard imposed a Section 60 order across the carnival, which gave officers powers to stop and search anyone they suspected could be carrying a weapon.
NOT3S, who is from Hackney, posted the video to his Instagram with the caption ‘First time I’ve touched carni. F**k these carnival pigs.’
The post has since been deleted, but not before other people took screenshots of it and circulated the video on social media.
It is not clear why the officer was attempting to restrain NOT3S in the first place, but the Scotland Yard imposed a Section 60 order across the carnival, which gave officers powers to stop and search anyone they suspected could be carrying a weapon
NOT3S, who is from Hackney, posted the video to his Instagram with the caption ‘First time I’ve touched carni. F**k these carnival pigs’
A spokesman for the Met Police declined to comment on the video.
Management for NOT3S also declined to comment on the incident.
NOT3S is influential on the rap scene and has had two UK top 20 songs, My Lover and Fine Line, both of which are collaborations with the musician Mabel.
He shot to fame with his breakthrough song Addison Lee, which became an instant viral hit.
The song was such a success that the London taxi firm, from where the song takes its name, invited him to perform at their Christmas party last year.
He was also recently nominated for the BBC Sound of 2018, which aims to find the most promising new British musical talent.
NOT3S is influential on the rap scene and has had two UK top 20 songs, My Lover and Fine Line, both of which are collaborations with the musician Mabel
The altercation comes as arrests at this year’s carnival have gone up by a third.
By late on Monday evening, the police are said to have arrested 373 people over the two-day event.
According to Scotland Yard, one person was injured in a stabbing while 30 police officers were hurt.
One person suffered non-life-threatening injuries in an incident shortly after 8pm on Monday.
This year surpassed last years event in arrests but was still less than the 454 arrests made in 2016.