Ten years after his debut album Home Sweet Home, Kano’s Made in the Manor re-established the MC one of grime’s leading proponents – an album that was as much a celebration of his East London roots as it is a snapshot of modern Britishness. On it, he addresses his childhood, his estranged family, lost friends, unresolved arguments and the warped perceptions of fame; the realities of his real life.
“I’m always working out how people perceive me, and that’s a hard thing to navigate sometimes,” he told the Guardian recently. “I’ve got a friend who went to jail in 2004 just before my first album came out. I’m on TV, and they’re inside, looking at me like I’m 50 Cent. They think I’m killing it, earning mad dough every day. I’m sending him trainers and that, but it’s not enough, because he thinks I should be doing more. You fall out with a lot of people like that.”
To support the release of the album, a documentary of Kano has been made, in which he revisits his roots – from his cousin’s barbershop, to his childhood home and behind-the-scenes footage of the MC in the studio. Watch the full film below.
