‘Road, Road, Road, Road, yeah I came up on the Road, Road, Road, Road…’
Old Friends, the new video and track from Bury New Road grime icon, Bugzy Malone, has racked up almost one million views in just four days since its release. The video, shot outside HMP Manchester in Strangeways, on Cheetham Hill and on the Waterloo Estate in between Cheetham Hill and Bury New Road, sees the rapper, film star and fashionista, recalling a past life…
‘HMP for Her Majesty’s poor guys
‘Bang your door’ that’s the war cry
…This one’s for my old friends
The ones I left behind, yeah
In fact this one’s for my old base
The Waterloo Estate back in 06
…I went to school in Prestwich
I was an outcast
…Some real deep memories when I drive through the manor
…I’m from a place where ambition get you shut down
Starting at the bottom don’t make you a peasant
…The sky is the limit
Be inspired is the mindset…’
The track is a taster for the new album The Great British Dream which Bugzy promises is a ‘blueprint for hope’…
“I’ve called the album The Great British Dream because I’m smacking life and I’m very proud of that but I’m also very proud of where I’m from” he says on Instagram “I’m trying to explain to people who come from where I come from…You feel hopeless and I’m trying to share the fact that there’s hope…
“Not only hope, I’m also trying to share a blueprint and a tutorial of the little details. The government can’t tell us, no therapist can tell you…people can’t speak our language and understand what you have to go through as someone who comes from poverty and someone that struggles. I, however, know the language and I’ve managed to do good. The Great British Dream is the blueprint…”
The Great British Dream is out on 10th May – see here for details
While Bugzy raps about HMP Manchester, when the Bury New Road project worked on art workshops with long term prisoners inside the jail, of all the Bury New Road icons it was he who struck the most potent chord.
The artworks were subsequently chained to the railings outside HMP Manchester on Bury New Road.
For the full story – click here
See also the Bury New Road project archive on Bugzy Malone – click here to begin
