Channel 4 has finally woken up to what most major channels have been missing for ages, give us some programming that we actually want to watch! Following on from their brilliant documentary about Jamal Edwards and SB:TV, they bring us their ‘Street Summer’ which they describe as ‘channel 4 celebrating Britains vibrant urban culture’ – a bit like peppergrain really!
The series kicks off with How Hip-Hop Changed The World, a documentary fronted by Idris ‘Stringer Bell/Luther’ Elba talking to various players in the scene from Debbie Harry to Rakim, N-Dubz to Nas about how hip-hop has gone from underground New York in the 70’s to the powerful platform it is today. The two-hour film is followed by Music on 4 meets Street Summer, a night where the channels 4real section that focuses on urban music, wil bring you a night dedicated to the sounds of the UK streets presented by DJ Shyflow and MC Struggling aka Shadrack and Abendigo aka comedians KG and Marston. Tonight, theres even a chance to see the latest episode of Dine Daily, the cooking competition featuring your favourite UK musicians, exclusive to Grime Daily.
Street Summer continues over the weekend with shows focusing on urban dance, street art – incuding a film by Banksy about anarchy and eccentricity called The Antics Roadshow, an urban sports program and Life of Rhyme exploring hip-hop and poetry/spoken word with Akala. Channel 4 have gone all out to make this an interactive experience too, you can download graffiti apps, enter street art competitions, even join their ‘rap beatbox choir’. This weekend, sit down, relax and take a look at a few of these shows, or at least set the Sky Plus, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
What do you think of Channel 4’s Street Summer? Are the range of programs good or still not enough? Do you prefer Idris Elba as Luther or Stringer? Let us know in the comments!
Monica Rahman
