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_______0’____C ____ RioLs, rap, Cameron, The Sweeney.. and “enBghtenineni”? HAS A FEW THINGS TO SAY... AND YOU NEED TO LISTEN V C w “I WENT INSANE.” WHAT FAME DID TO v, RUMER WIGWAM-BAM! IT’S THE RETURN OF ThLCULT WHOARETHE . AND• HOWARE THEY WRECKING MUSIC? RAP SNACKS?! WE’VE GOT.. ROCK AND ROLL’S GREATEST I MERCHANDISE • 3 ‘ MACCABEES RICK ROSS THE HORRORS RICHARD HAWLEY JOHN YDON SIGUR ROS Q MAGAZINE JUNE 2012 CIRCULATION 80,418 L!1 “ * 1I THE KI NG’S, SPEECH Volunteers for the position of Spokesman Of A Generation are thin on the ground in Popworld, 2012. Step forward, then,1with an interconnected single, album and feature film that all directly address the concerns of last summer’s urban rioters. Here the artist otherwise known as Benjamin Ballance-Drew talks to k’Ti about inner city blues, David ‘Cameron, universal enlightenment,, sex, drugs and Ray Winstone. His moment is now... P1Cr1JRE PEROt) Q MAGAZINE JUNE 2012 CIRCULATION 80=418 L!1 I I Plan B, making his paint: “Just remember you have a mind of your own.” Q MAGAZINE JUNE 2012 CIRCULATION 80,418 (1 Th HtT]CI T1 [!1 PLAN B he lIcks 2011 en Drew doesn’t really dojokes, not this sincere and erudite communicator almost are remembered yearanywsty, a pcrmanentragcbolllng impossible to interrupt, who deals with for two things: throughout his three-pronged ill Manors inteijections into his marathon soliloqtties Isy 1. Adele’s life- project: a single, album and film all doubllnghls vocal volunae and finishing liii defining wilfully contentious explorations of“the sentence atlyivay, Just as svell he’s infinitely worth peifortnance of detnonisationB ofthc underclass”. In 2012, he calls hearing. ‘roday, dressed down from his Strickland Someone Like himself’s polymath” (rapper, soul singer, film Bsmmka-shiny-sttit era in a white T-shirt and quilted You. 2. Riot director, script writer arid acclaimed actor), now isluejacket, he talks with rare conviction on no sleep Shields In Pop, single-handedly appointing himself the Voice Of whatsoever,bavingbeett stp all night re-editing the the dancer- AGeneration (as contemporary Number I artists ill Manors him, “it was full of holes, thin is the wielded prop never do), the kind of platform-using provocateur hardest tiling I’ve ever done”, a relentlessly grim curiously used by both lake That and Plan B during we thougltt had died otit in time ‘90s (“maybe,” lie sags of litter-connected lives (set in Drew’s East his medley performance ofShe Said/Prsyin’ from considcr, ecstasy did that”). Ills Intentions arc London nelgltbourhood, Forest Gate), bedevilled The Defamation OfStrickland Banks (which won heroic, his methods Ism-utal, ill Mattors, (lie aong, hyviolcncc, crack, guns, prison, pimps, care homes him Best British Male), culminating in ariotcop it hip-hop savagingwirh punk-rock sensibilities and heroin-addicted prostituses,with the central staggering across the 02 stage on lirt. Overnight, (“it’s been heavily irtflttenccd by punk”), ins message: “We’re all products ofottrenvironnictit.” kettling-pop was invented and six months later tnalevolcnt landscape ofdrugs, booze, blades and Nowalso a professional actor (speciality: Londonand beyond was ablaze in reality, the closed-down community centres, “Oi!”hlsres (lie haiti), lie lost two-snd-s-halIstone last asttutnti August riots erupting as a generation appeared chorus, “I said, Oil What yott looking at,you little via lowcarba ‘and weighs raitiing preparing for his L to set fire to its own head. rich boy!/We’re poor round here, -un home and lock role alongside Kay Winstone itt ‘lIme Sweeney “I read a Twitter comment saying: I bet you yotir door/Don’t conic round Itere no more, you (“an intelligent boy and a terrific actor”, notes feel guilty about your performance at ‘l’he lirits cottld get mbbed for real”. The video, meanwhile, Wlimstone), plsying Dcl Sgt George Csrtet: nowthe riots have kicked oft,” announces Plan B, all head-kicking kids, middle fitigers and ititercttt “The way I was looking bcfore,”alniost-aitiiles 28-year-old Ben Drew, chain-pulling snouts by ‘l’V footage front the riots is intended, notes Drew, Drew today, now forking intO batigcrs’n’maah an open window in a North London photo studio. its “satire” sitil doubt less ititerpreted by Daily Mail ins polystyrene box, “I doti’t think I could’ve “And I was like, That’s the problem with society. minds as “theglorification of sheer criminality”. been hying squad police.,” [ThrathksslyjThe riots have kicked olf,whyhaa Short on subtleties, though, did lie worry this happened, think, think,.,’Ah, Plait B done that he mighi be reinforcing stereotypes, reinforcing I! Who remembers Sham 69? Q does performance on The Bmits,with riots! ft must the-fear-of-the-kids? atid has brotight for Drew’s perusal be that! I mean, conic lheJimck vim. Obviously they “No, because people have always becn the lyrics to the ten-ace-punk hobo’s live in a world so fir from reality that anything frightened; the skinhesds were detnonised more 1-Icy Little Rich Boy, B-side to rite that happens must — must be! — based on an artist tItan 30 years ago,” lie balks, “Sn, what, am I adding jubilant boot-tapper Borstal or a rapper that’s iniluenced these kids, lkgins to to it?No, It’s always been there, You push young 1’ QBreakout btmck in 1978: “I-Icy, little ricltboy, takes turn p1nkaround the neck]Even people saying the people away and ridicitle ‘emit and tell ‘em they’re good look atnie/l don’t need a flash car to take me ncwill Manors video is gonna incite and influence animals, they’regoitna act like imtiinaals, lfpeople around/I cmmn get the bus to the other side of town.., — kitls to riot what kids arc they talking about? ‘iliese watch the iii Manors video aird go, I disagree with it, I didn’t get no OCE/It makes you think ott can’t kids aren’t inflttcmmced by hip-hop, they’re tii’higir, good, you altould disagree with it. You sltoitld talk to me..,.Why should I let in. worry me?/l’il never living in the slik!” disagiccivith kids believeyou’rcbester than me,” ft’s an unexpected otttbtirat,otte protnptedby “THESE rioting. Yost tltuulti ‘lust is interesting,” nods l)rew and we talk Q’s comedyconteittion that the riots were all his disagree with the about the dilTereticc in atlititde, 34 years later, Isles, and demonstratesjuat how seriously Ben KIDS word chav being between thIs amid ill Manors: a cocky ivorking-class Drew takes his message —one lone quip igniting throwti about like pride replaced byihe ntgingself-loathimigoftlie a tirade tctday on the censorship of sri - AREN’T it’s tioi a prejudiced, tindcrclass today. Must’ve been amltmoyitlg, though, wlten ‘fake INFLUENCED tlcrogatory term, Yott “Well, they’me not workittg aas cos tltey don’t That appeared first!? shottid disagree that work,” lie scoffs, lighting up another stiout, “Con didti’t reallygive a shit. Strickland there’s kids “1 I knew BY HIP-HOP, going, thcyget itgivctl offthe govcrtlmgnt. There is no Banks was unique,” Yott fucking little sense ofpride. Listen, when I hirstsigned my record THEY’RE rich boy, I’m gonna deal the only places I could afford to buy was in rob you, you shottld! rough council estates, I was like, Pin not gonna buy Li LIVING IT, It’s all prejudice, a councIl flat next door, right, to abttndi of people l”uck me, Illttfl, I was getting theirs LIVING IN for free when I ltave to womk like a a niinoritywhite kid cttnt, yeah, for the same. It’s easier for kids toget a THE SHIT!” ins niajority black girl pregnant. It’s easierfors I5-ycar-oldgirltogo, and Asian school, Ptick it, I get pregnant, lean gets flat.” I used to get it every day This butt, then, what liberals nsight be r’xpectitig Chased Isv the black kids. — a boldly off-message testament no his non Just con I’m white: Gitunic pstisanview (Drew has ncvervotcd),whicli says your cigarettes, gimtne the welfi mit stare, too, cotitributes to (lie problem, your money. Y’know? Bttt “Everything contribtttcs,” lie nods. “[Iowa I didn’t turn round and joiti 15-year-old girl can prioritise having a flatoflier the I1NP, I tried my hardest own but losing any flicking prospects shecan Itave, to understand wily thc’ means she doesn’t think she’s got army prospects were that way. I’d see where anyway. Y’know? She doesn’t value her future, my nmates was living in the She doesn’t feel like there Liajobout there or an coitticil lists and howbroken ambition sIte can fulfil. So you’ve got kids raising -Plan takes oi a 9E theirfanmilies were and you kids, thinking, Might as well get what society tells toupo dancers kind of timideistood,” ne is most important, which is myown hottse, Idretsed asriqt police ‘ — Bcn Drew is one intense, a widescreen TV and a microwave. All this shit tTheBrlts,2ç11 ‘ - - dotgcd dude,a fotimiidahle, that’s bombarded. Consumerism. ‘l’his is abottt JUNE2012 Q 85 k Q MAGAZiNE JUNE 2012 CIRCULATION 80,418 Q MAGAZThTE JUNE 2012 CIRCULATION 80,418 ________ ‘I S I PLAN B - Alongside showbia I w Florence Welch (lc) at the Q Awards, 20 nd Elton .Ioliç!Pl ‘5 ‘rho’s it. Simple. We don’t need the flicking press. ‘these are the dresins, of course, ols romantic, —--—--j, an idealist, sotneotic svlio’d scentitigly jettison all nt’wspaper)otimnalisln for the view outside otiross’ts irn and teach”, materialism, windows and who adds, today (unlike his highly ‘there was no brains I politicised hip-hop forebears) politics doesn’t instinct, lddsgoing 01 work”aiid deems legislation “bollocks! Some red tape is gonna fuck ii up”.