Urban adventures with VEE-TV
VEE-TV goes out on the street to find out about urban culture. They discover exciting creative communities flourishing in the busy, dirty hectic streets of our cities.
All across London the team meet rappers, graffiti artists, architects and musicians who all use an urban landscape as the inspiration for their work.
Eyesore or exciting?
Many people hate what artist 8ball creates and describe it as vandalism. He's a graffiti artist who creates multi-layered images using stencils and spray-paints on walls around London. His work is illegal and he would be arrested if caught - for that reason, he is hidden from view while being interviewed by VEE-TV reporter Isabel. The city of London spends £100 million to remove graffiti every year but these days some graffiti artists display their work in galleries as well as on city buildings.
What do you think? Is graffiti a nuisance or art. Tell us what you think on our forum.
Nikki meets female MC Shystie, who is a tough, super-fast-talking hip-hop rapper in a man's world. She tells how she creates her art by focussing on her own life experiences growing up in Hackney in East London. She is one of the new faces of 'grime' and can rap her lyrics at the speed of 12.5 syllables aa second.
Shystie says:"I don't promote 'Go and take crack' or 'Go and pick up a gun and start shooting people.' I just talk about what I've seen and where I've grown-up and people around me. I just talk about what I've been through and don't promote anything violent or negative."
Reporter Lydia really gets to grips with the streets by learning some of the basics of the new sport of parkour or free running. Free running began in the inner cities of Paris, with groups of lads using their local environment as places of adventure. Rather than head to the country to try climbing - they would see if they could climb brick walls on their housing estate or jump across fences and buildings.
The sport has blossomed around the world and some of the feats are breath-taking and often, very dangerous. Lydia is taught some of the basic moves of jumping over a wall and how to land on a wall. The free-runners make it look easy - Lydia shows it's not. This is not a sport to try without some training, injuries can be extremely serious.
From the exciting to the almost ridiculous, reporter Jason tries his hand at urban golf. It's the newest sporting trend in cities around the world - golfers take their clubs and head for the city streets when they are quiet and deserted to tee off. Balls are soft and squidgy, so that windows are not broken and the aim is to get the ball in a hole - like a bin, a drain hole or a man-hole. Londoner Jeremy Feakes started playing urban golf after carrying his golf bag on the tube and getting some funny looks. It made him wonder if he really could play in the city. Now he has developed the sport to create a new thing to do in Shoreditch on Sunday mornings but similar rules have sprung up around America and Asia.
For some people life in the city can feel depressing with just urban cityscapes surrounding them. VEE-TV has discovered that by using your imagination, the city can be the starting point for art, music, sport and adventure.
Websites
Find out more about some of the subjects covered in out urban culture week by checking out these websites.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third party websites
Parkour
www.3run.co.uk
Find out more about the basics of free running. With lots of links to free-running sites and information about the martial art of Wushu.
www.urbanfreeflow.com
Lots of information about parkour around the world.
Urban Golf
www.urbanopen.info/
Find out more about Jeremy Feakes urban golf club in Shoreditch.
Jonzi D
www.jonzi-d.com/
Jonzi D's own site with lots of information about his current projects.
Shystie
www.shystie.co.uk
Listen to the UK's fastest female rapper and find out more about her music.
VEE-TV goes out on the street to find out about urban culture. They discover exciting creative communities flourishing in the busy, dirty hectic streets of our cities.
All across London the team meet rappers, graffiti artists, architects and musicians who all use an urban landscape as the inspiration for their work.
Eyesore or exciting?
Many people hate what artist 8ball creates and describe it as vandalism. He's a graffiti artist who creates multi-layered images using stencils and spray-paints on walls around London. His work is illegal and he would be arrested if caught - for that reason, he is hidden from view while being interviewed by VEE-TV reporter Isabel. The city of London spends £100 million to remove graffiti every year but these days some graffiti artists display their work in galleries as well as on city buildings.
What do you think? Is graffiti a nuisance or art. Tell us what you think on our forum.
Nikki meets female MC Shystie, who is a tough, super-fast-talking hip-hop rapper in a man's world. She tells how she creates her art by focussing on her own life experiences growing up in Hackney in East London. She is one of the new faces of 'grime' and can rap her lyrics at the speed of 12.5 syllables aa second.
Shystie says:"I don't promote 'Go and take crack' or 'Go and pick up a gun and start shooting people.' I just talk about what I've seen and where I've grown-up and people around me. I just talk about what I've been through and don't promote anything violent or negative."
Reporter Lydia really gets to grips with the streets by learning some of the basics of the new sport of parkour or free running. Free running began in the inner cities of Paris, with groups of lads using their local environment as places of adventure. Rather than head to the country to try climbing - they would see if they could climb brick walls on their housing estate or jump across fences and buildings.
The sport has blossomed around the world and some of the feats are breath-taking and often, very dangerous. Lydia is taught some of the basic moves of jumping over a wall and how to land on a wall. The free-runners make it look easy - Lydia shows it's not. This is not a sport to try without some training, injuries can be extremely serious.
From the exciting to the almost ridiculous, reporter Jason tries his hand at urban golf. It's the newest sporting trend in cities around the world - golfers take their clubs and head for the city streets when they are quiet and deserted to tee off. Balls are soft and squidgy, so that windows are not broken and the aim is to get the ball in a hole - like a bin, a drain hole or a man-hole. Londoner Jeremy Feakes started playing urban golf after carrying his golf bag on the tube and getting some funny looks. It made him wonder if he really could play in the city. Now he has developed the sport to create a new thing to do in Shoreditch on Sunday mornings but similar rules have sprung up around America and Asia.
For some people life in the city can feel depressing with just urban cityscapes surrounding them. VEE-TV has discovered that by using your imagination, the city can be the starting point for art, music, sport and adventure.
Websites
Find out more about some of the subjects covered in out urban culture week by checking out these websites.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third party websites
Parkour
www.3run.co.uk
Find out more about the basics of free running. With lots of links to free-running sites and information about the martial art of Wushu.
www.urbanfreeflow.com
Lots of information about parkour around the world.
Urban Golf
www.urbanopen.info/
Find out more about Jeremy Feakes urban golf club in Shoreditch.
Jonzi D
www.jonzi-d.com/
Jonzi D's own site with lots of information about his current projects.
Shystie
www.shystie.co.uk
Listen to the UK's fastest female rapper and find out more about her music.