Author Topic: Tower Block Dreams (UK) (Read 369 times)

Dj Eskimo · « **on:** January 04, 2004, 03:07:31 AM »

BBC3 Thursday 9pm

Tower Block Dreams

On every council estate in every town there is a vibrant underground music scene. It’s fuelled by pirate radio stations and dreams of trying to escape the grime, rapping to beats made on anything from Coke cans to computers. Crime is the only way some can pay to keep their hopes alive, but it can also shatter dreams.

Tower Block Dreams takes an honest look at modern inner city life, through the stories of the young musicians trying to make better lives for themselves. Some are successful and find fame and fortune, but for most it remains a distant fantasy.

This is a world where 9-5 really is a foreign language and the motto "Get rich or die trying" rolls off many tongues. Mc’ing, club culture, pirate radio and music generally play a big part of everyday life as do drugs and robbery which are seen as a means of getting out of the ghetto. And for the unlucky, it inevitably leads to prison.

Episode One - Spittin' & Shottin'

The two main characters in this episode - Sloth and Skinnyman - are both aspiring MCs/rappers with criminal pasts. Both have been in prison before; Skinny has just been released and is on parole after being found guilty of dealing marijuana. Sloth is on remand facing a variety of charges from attempted aggravated burglary to driving without insurance. The film follows their efforts to make a career out of music, which both hope will save them from doing more crime and more time.

Skinnyman was once the great white hope of UK hip hop, but since his latest prison sentence he has lost his record deal and is desperate to get it back. When the major record labels show little interest in signing him up, he decides to make and release his own records. In the meantime there is the need to earn money, both to live and to keep recording his music. But his criminal past is difficult to leave behind and, by the end of the film he’s back behind bars.

Sloth is another white MC who grew up on the notorious Summer’s Town estate in North London. He was first arrested when he was 11 years old and has been in trouble with the law ever since. Now he’s decided to leave the "ghetto life" behind him. "This year is my year for music. I’ve been a good boy this year anyway - worn gloves on all the jobs. Haha!" he proclaims. It’s not just the threat of spending more time in prison that’s lead him to this decision - he has received death threats and is severely stabbed when masked men kick down his door looking for money and drugs.

Like Skinnyman he struggles to lay the ghosts of his past to rest. For both characters the promise of success and the threat of going back to prison seem to go hand in hand…

(The title ‘Spittin & Shottin’ is slang for rapping and dealing.)

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apparently the camera crew knew nothing about Hiphop, but I'm well interested in how this turns out. Skinny is a geezer and him getting any shine is good shit to me, he won his court case and has an album on the way!
UKHH doing big things if that man stays out of prison, TRUST me