I’ve been listening to Ill Manors tonight. I read an excellent breakdown of the video on the Guardian’s music blog here, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
It’s probably one of the best protest songs I’ve heard in a few years, and considering the biggest musical protest we’ve had in recent years was when Killing In The Name Of took Christmas number one, I think it’s great.
In terms of visual language, the first ten seconds of the video are sublime – Plan B literally orchestrating the burning cityscape to the sound of those menacing strings.
So watch the video, and afterwards listen to the Radio 1Extra interview with Plan B, which especially interesting at the point in which he talks about the relationship between rap and pop and political music (“when I sing, there’s no threat. Those people that bought my previous record and that have been singing my praises all this time, they can’t just turn and switch on me after hearing this”).
Oh and there’s a film out this year, also called Ill Manors. Don’t know anything else about it yet.
