Meanwhile… across the pond…

I’ve highlighted some video discussions from Jump TV UK – an online urban sports/entertainment/lifestyle magazine. I enjoyed watching/listening to this episode in which the panel of guests discuss the 4-part Channel 4 thriller titled Top Boy, which stars Ashley Walters (it’s currently on Netflix by the way, so check it out, although its familiar *urban* themes of drugs, gangs and violence (but in a different setting) may turn off some Stateside.

In the discussion that transpires in the 13-minute video below, comparisons are made to The Wire, as they question Top Boy’s *positive* and/or *negative* messages about black youth as well as the authenticity of its representations (as you’ll recall, these are similar questions The Wire faced – a combo of the “burden of representation” and “the danger of the single story”). 

The young panel also tackled an issue that’s come up quite a lot on this side of the pond – specifically on this site; and that is, the “rappers versus actors” debate.

The point of it all being that these topics we constantly debate here in the USA aren’t strictly black American concerns, and it’s always worthwhile to hear what others from the Diaspora have to say on these “universally black” matters.

Watch below, and feel free to subscribe to the Jump TV UK YouTube channel HERE.