ill Manors

This is a song by British rapper and singer-songwriter Ben Drew, who performs under the name of Plan B. The tune is the title track of the soundtrack to the British film, Ill Manors, which Drew wrote and directed. It was premiered by Zane Lowe on February 27, 2012 on his BBC Radio 1 show and was officially released as a single on March 23, 2012.

The song samples "Alles neu" a track from German Hip-Hop musician Peter Fox's 2008 album Stadtaffe. Fox's tune uses elements from the fourth movement of Dimitri Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony.

The song's music video was filmed on February 17, 2012 and was directed by Yann Demange, whose resume also includes directorial credits on various British TV dramas including Criminal Justice and Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The clip shows staged violent scenes intercut with footage of the August 2011 London riots. In a statement issued via his website, Drew defended the depiction of violence in the video calling it "satire" before adding: "The world, and this country especially, is full of contradictions. I'm just highlighting them, I'm not condoning anything. I aired my feelings about the riots very publicly when they happened and I still feel the same way."

He added: "The point being made in my song 'Ill Manors' is that society needs to take some responsibility for the cause of these riots. Why are there so many kids in this country that don't feel they have a future, or care about having a criminal record?"

Providing his own theory on this, Drew continued: "I think one of the reasons is that there is a very public prejudice in this country towards the underclass. These kids are ridiculed in the press as they aren't as educated as others, because they talk and dress in a certain way... but they're not as stupid as people think ... These kids have been beaten into apathy. They don't care about society because society has made it very clear that it doesn't care about them."

Drew concluded: "If you're born into a family that's has enough money to educate you properly, you are privileged. You're not better than anyone else you're just lucky. Certain sectors of middle England, not all of them, but the ignorant ones need to wake up and realise that ...and stop ridiculing the poor and less fortunate. That is what this song is about."