London rapper Plan B has released the video for his latest single, 'ill Manors', part of a wider project of the same name, including a forthcoming film, designed to explore and address the issues surrounding poverty and alienation in contemporary Britain.
In particular, Plan B examines the Summer Riots of 2011 (PunkNews coverage here, here, and here) and the controversial term 'chav'; a common British colloquialism with very negative connotations, which he perceives as malignant and classist, a view he shares with several public intellectuals, most notably the author and social commentator Owen Jones. The track also aims at the preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
In a recent interview with BBC Radio 1Xtra, Plan B explained some of the thinking behind the work, and the themes it explores:
"I'm not trying to condone what happened during the riots, it disgusted me. It made me sick. It saddened me more than anything, because those kids that was rioting and looting, they've just made life ten times harder for themselves. They've just played into the hands of what certain sectors of middle England think about them.And we have a big issue of prejudice in this country, from certain sectors of ignorant, middle class people, towards the underclass. An example of this is the word 'chav', which; in the video I state; stands for 'Council House And Violent'. This is a derogatory term, used, again, by certain sectors of middle England, to define people from poor and unfortunate backgrounds; that have less money than them, that haven't had as good an education. And for me, that term is no different from similar terms used to be derogatory towards race and sex. The only difference being that the word 'chav' is used very publicly, in the press, and if similar terms to do with race or sex was used that publicly, in the papers, there'd be a public outcry, and rightly so.
I just wanna make people aware of the hypocrisy of it. Just because you were lucky enough to be born into a family that can afford to give you a good education, doesn't make you better than anyone. It just makes you lucky, and certain sectors of middle England need to wake up and realise that, and stop ridiculing the poor and less fortunate. When you attack someone because of the way they talk, the way they dress, the music they listen to, or their lack of education, and you do it publicly, and it's acceptable to do that, you make them feel alienated. They don't feel like a part of society, so anyone beaten into that apathy won't care about society, because they feel, in their eyes, society has made it very clear they don't care about them.'
You can check out the interview in full on YouTube. The video for 'ill Manors' is embedded below.