A few weeks back I discussed the new single from UK Grime MC Plan B 'Ill Manors'. In the original blog post I highlighted Plan B's discussion surrounding the word 'CHAV' (Council Housed And Violent) and the subsequent effects on English society. After a few weeks of hype Plan B released the long awaited video for Ill Manors which vividly accompanies the social tension and class divide highlighted in the single:

In an interesting comparison, a single featured on last week's episode of The Jam Session highlights similar social themes via the beautiful country of Spain. 'Paso (The NiNi Anthem)' by Sak Noel features a fun, dance club anthem aimed at the youth of Spanish culture. The descriptive term "NiNi" stands for "Ni estudian Ni Trabajan", a pejorative slang term used to describe youth typically between age fifteen and thirty years old who neither work nor attend university or high school.

Both Nini and CHAV are terms used by middle and upper classes to describe particular feelings of distaste and contempt towards the lower class youth. What is interesting about this comparison is that while England's take on their youth seems to harbor deep feelings of social anomie and disdain, Spanish culture seems to have a more forgiving take on their rebellious youth. The differences between the two songs highlights this difference, as Ill Manors is rough, violent and shocking, whereas Paso is a fun loving embrace of neglecting responsibility.
What is yet to be seen is a companion term used here in the United States. With the Occupy movement taking hold across the country and unemployment rising for recent college graduates, what kind of slang will emerge in U.S. culture? One thing is certain, the youth of America are becoming increasingly alienated and hopeless as the bleak frontier of American politics continues to neglect those desperately seeking opportunity. Let's just hope things improve before we end up with something like this: The D.O.T "Searchin"

Back in 2004, Mike Skinner a.k.a. The Streets started his own record label with his manager Ted Mayhem under the moniker The Beats. Sadly the project only last three years and came to a sad and abrupt end in 2007:

In those three years, The Beats signed four new artists: The Mitchell Brothers, Professor Green, Example and Neon Hitch. Most notably, Professor Green and Example both went on to forge successful careers despite the labels demise in 2007. With the success of these two former Beats artists, it seemed that both The Mitchell Brothers and Neon Hitch had quietly drifted off to music career heaven.

Luckily for the latter, Neon Hitch was discovered again via the now archaic Myspace by Benny Blanco, who flew the young starlet out to New York to begin work on new material. This stroke of luck scored Neon Hitch a publishing deal with EMI and a record deal with Warner Bros. Records. After a few singles released in 2010 & 2011 (which barely made a blip on the music radar) we are blessed with Neon's latest single F U Betta.

Filled with images of gratuitous sex and oozing with raw sensuality, the video for F U Betta is sure to appease all your dirtiest thoughts:

DUBSTEP...it's a hot word right now. Some of you may be tired of hearing this term; the sound of it bringing up all kinds of twisted emotions in your gut. Others hear this term and want to break out in song and dance along the city streets. No matter which camp you reside, one thing is certain: DUBSTEP is a word you will never forget!

With dubstep slowly becoming a household name, it seems that everyone not only has an opinion, but also everyone seems to think they know where it came from and who "started" it. I beg you all to discard everything you think you may know about this genre of music and read the following words from Plasticain.

The following is a re-post from DJ Plastician's Facebook page from March 7th, 2012. After dubstep aficionado SKREAM went on a long facebook rant, trying desperately to explain to fans the complex origins of dubstep, Plastician posted the following message:

I agree with Skream that this right here was the track Neil Joliffe was referring to when he used the term "Dubstep" for the first time to describe the fusion of dark 2 step garage with dub reggae.

We may have had people doing stuff before it - that was perhaps the seed being planted by the likes of Zed Bias, El-B, Steve Gurley, M Dubs, Dem 2, DND etc.... Then we had Horsepower productions making this sound which inspired people like Skream to go on and make the stuff he was making in 2000 / 2001.

Alongside this sound, influences were drawn from the dark, breakier side of UK garage produced by people like Zinc and Oris Jay / Darqwan. As well as the emerging, stripped down and at the time what was often described as "juvenile" sound of grime, this is what pretty much made up the early influence which was taken on board by a group of producers in Croydon - most notably Skream and Benga.

Hatcha would play a lot of it - particularly the more tribal influenced sounds. The stuff I was making at the time probably took a lot more influence from grime. Skream was doing full on tribal dubby stuff close to the Horsepower sound, Benga sat neatly in the middle with the deeper basses of the dubby stuff mixed in with catchy sounds and riffs often noted in grime productions. Outside of Hatcha's radio show, not a lot of people were taking any interest in what we were doing. Most people into dark garage at the time were beginning to move onto grime and were focusing on stuff being played by DJ's like Slimzee. We (the croydon producers) also used to send our stuff to Slimzee, but he didn't pick up on too much of it. He eventually started playing some of my own productions which prompted Hatcha to play a few of my early stuff too. Not long after, Slimzee was also spinning the odd bit of early dubstep being produced by Skream and Benga.

At the same time as this, I think the only DJ's supporting the croydon side of the dark garage evolution were DJ's on Delight FM based in South London - notably N Type and Walsh. They'd support the usual dark garage stuff being played across the board on all pirate stations, but also used to play a lot of exclusives from me and producers like Skream, Benga, Random Trio, Artwork, Horsepower and the likes all coming thru the Big Apple records shop on the weekends to swap new music.

Labels started to emerge. Tempa were already releasing stuff by Horsepower and Kode 9. The Ammunition Promotions company also ran other labels such as Vehicle, Soulja, R.O.A.D. and Bingo and were starting to release more of the new darker styles coming out of the garage movement.

At this time people were still not calling the sound dubstep. It was still garage to all of us, we never really thought it would evolve into anything more than a spin off strain of garage.

Around 2003 / 2004 the scene began to draw in more interest from other people involved in the garage scene in other pockets of the sound. It was around this time that Coki, Loefah and Mala began making stuff along the lines of what was beginning to mould into a small movement of croydon producers and DJ's spinning what we were now beginning to call dubstep. Outside of FWD on a monthly basis we now had a couple of new events. I remember Thriller Funk ran by Slaughter Mob down at Herbal, and Filthy Dub ran by myself and my mate Dave down in Croydon. We were trying desperately to help build the sound and branch out to new ears but the events predominantly attracted the same crowd you'd see at FWD - people were just willing to travel out to wherever the sound was being pushed. It was a real community. Nights began to pop up in Bristol soon after.

The DMZ boys (Mala, Coki and Loefah) began running their event at 3rd Bass in Brixton. After Filthy Dub and Thriller Funk stopped we didn't really have anywhere else to play regularly so it really came at a good time. By this time there was also a healthy movement gathering pace in Bristol, centred around Pinch's Subloaded event which would promote acts from London in line with all of the new blood coming thru from Bristol. The crowds began to pick up, and the sound began to gain support on mainstream radio stations.

John Peel on Radio 1 was the first to pick up on it - he played stuff by Digital Mystikz, Mark One, Distance, Hot Flush recordings and also my own stuff. This was also around the same time Maryanne Hobbs was introduced to me at a DMZ event still in it's early days. She became a huge supporter of the sound. She played music from all corners of the sound which at the time was not as vast as it is now in 2012, but was still varied enough for her to be able to showcase the many styles without turning her electronic music show into a straight up dubstep broadcast!

Maryanne Hobbs' interest and support of the sound was the main catalyst for it being recognised as a legitimate genre as opposed to a small movement centred in south london. She showcased a handful of producers and MC's on her "Dubstep Warz" broadcast in the lead up to the DMZ birthday event. In the lead up to the event there was a definite buzz about it but nothing any of us expected to see was the sight of around 800 people queuing to get in before the doors opened.

It's important for me to mention that prior to this birthday event, most dubstep events would be half empty. At best, the busier events would only attract around 400 people as the venues in use were small to medium in size. For us to see the surge of people in such a short space of time was actually unbelievable. I remember thinking just 6 months prior to the DMZ event that I might have to give up making music to focus more on a career as opposed to doing my part time work to fund my attempt at making a living from music. I was earning just enough money to pay for the dubplates I was spinning to be cut, and being paid to DJ in these events usually depended on how many people came thru the door - but this was all agreed in advance anyhow. It was only when you picked up the occasional booking outside of your circle of mates that you'd pick up any money, and this was never substantial enough to be considered "a living".

But... after that event, everything seemed to fall into place and all of a sudden it began to gather speed amongst people interested in new music. Events began to pop up, university events were bringing in dubstep acts to provide something new for their punters. We were slowly being bled into the room 2's of drum and bass events and all of a sudden, we were being respected.

The rest, as they say, is history!

This week saw the debut, world premier of Plan B's latest single ILL MANORS on BBC Radio 1 with Zane Lowe. The title track of Ben 'Plan B' Drew's third LP, Ill Manors is also the soundtrack for his directorial debut of a film under the same name. Slated for a May 4th release, the album and film highlight the life of four east London youths struggling to survive on the streets of England. Laden with heavy tones inspired by the current political-social environment, Ill Manors provides an inside look at the events which seem to fuel the class divide

In an interview today on BBC 1Xtra with Mista Jam, Plan B discussed the new single, it's heavy social significance and also discussed the use of the word CHAV. An acronym for "Council Housed and Violent", this term used often by the media and middle/upper class London to describe those of low socio-economic standing. Drew described this term and its associated stereotype as part of the social environment in England which not only leads to the alienation of poor youth but also inspired the horrific rioting which occurred in August 2011.: "I'm not trying to condone what happened in the riots...it saddened me more than anything...We have a big issue & prejudice in this country from certain ignorant sectors of middle class people towards the younger class...For me that term [CHAV] is no different than 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 were used in the papers there would be public outcry. I just want to make people aware of the hypocrisy of it...."

It is no doubt that Ill Manors is set to be one of the most hyped releases of 2012. Ill Manors marks Plan B's return to the hip hop genre after the highly successful neo-soul release The Defamation of Strickland Banks. Fans of the last album may be shocked at first by the vivid imagery displayed by Ill Manors, but Ben Drew promises to deliver an album and film unlike no other. Plan B fans have been waiting a long time for a new single and Ill Manors does not disappoint!