The singer has described his tough working class childhood and the environmental factors that caused youngsters from a similar background to be involved in the widespread violence seven years ago.
BRIT Award winning musician Plan B – real name Ben Drew – has opened up about his experiences growing up in London’s East End and offered his opinion on the causes of the 2011 London Riot that saw mass outbreaks of looting and arson across the country’s capital.
Areas close to Drew’s hometown of Forest Gate were a focal point for violence, which saw thousands of people taking to the streets after 29-year-old Mark Duggan was shot and fatally wounded by police in Tottenham, North London.
But speaking about the causes of the causes of the violence on Unfiltered with James O’Brien, the musician – who rose to prominence in 2006 with his critically acclaimed debut album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words – said the riots were ultimately the product of consumerism rather than a protest against police brutality.
“With the riots, it hit boiling point. And everyone’s focusing on the fact that the riots were not about Mark Dugham. Essentially, they was about opportunists looting,” he said.
“And I’m like, yeah. Because we live in a society that bombards young people with advertising saying, ‘You need these shoes, otherwise you ain’t relevant. You need this computer, otherwise you have no value and you ain’t cutting-edge. And you need this really expensive jacket and all these products here. And if you don’t have it, you ain’t got no status within this society.’
“None of these advertisements are telling these kids how to attain these things, in a legal way, or that they even need to attain it in a legal way. They’re just saying, ‘You’ve gotta have ‘em.’ So these kids that have an opportunity to get these things that society is telling them will give them value, then they will get it, and they will get it by any means. And the riots was their opportunity to do that.”
The singer performing at a gig in London in 2011 (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty)Drew also spoke candidly about his life growing up as a white working class man and his difficult home life that, in turn, led to him getting into trouble at school.
He said: “The aggression and violence that I experienced at home basically put me into a position where I wasn’t gonna take shit from people at school. Which means that I wasn’t gonna be bullied, but then I couldn’t learn because I was forever getting suspended or kicked out of the class, because I would stand up and fight people in the class.
“It was like, ‘You’re threatening me. There’s no way that you’re gonna beat me the way that I get beat at home. That’s not happening. ”
It was through music that Plan B was able to overcome his challenging childhood. His latest album Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose, released on May 4, follows on from his success with hip-hop debut Who Needs Actions When You Got Words and number-1 selling soul follow up The Defamation of Strickland Banks.
However, Drew revealed that he didn’t always know he would end up making a career out of his music. “I was never a trained singer. So I would write songs, and I’d have to get my friends to tune the guitar, and some of them would tune it by ear,” he said.
“So the key of the guitar would drop from standard tuning, and it would drop down to like Eb, D, depending on who came round. They’d play the first note, and they’d tune it by ear. So I’d write a song, and then, y’know, I’d be singing it comfortably, and then someone’d come round with a proper guitar tuner, and properly tune the guitar to E.
“And I’d go ‘Right, I can finally play you this song I’ve written.’ I’d play the song and I wouldn’t be able to sing it, it’d be really hard on my throat. I’m like, ‘I’m obviously not cut out for this’.”
Eventually, though, Ben’s drummer advised him to tune his guitar lower, a chance that would change his life forever. “I got the tuner out. And I dropped it one tone, and they [the band] were like, ‘Is that better?’ And I said, ‘Yeah that’s better, but can we go lower?’ And they were like ‘Yeah, of course you can mate!’ So I dropped it down one more, and all of a sudden this voice came out of me. I couldn’t believe it. This had been my problem the whole time.”
