MOBO Award-winning rapper Abra Cadabra released the first track from the official ‘Trapping’ Movie Soundtrack – ‘Street View’ with accompanying video today.
Directed by the film’s producers and British directors, actors and Grime pioneers, Femi Oyeniran and Nicky ‘Slimting’ Walker, the music video for ‘Street View’ was filmed on Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham and features clips from the upcoming movie.
Produced by FaNaTix, MageTheProducer and Juggy Beatz, the full official ‘Trapping’ Soundtrack by Abra Cadabra will feature Popcaan and is set for release today, at the same time as the film is made available on new streaming service ‘The Drop’.
Abra Cadabra is cast in his first ever acting role in ‘Trapping’ and plays leading county line gang member Magic in the film.
Hailing from Broadwater Farm estate himself, Abra Cadabra weaves his lived personal experience into his debut acting role and the film’s soundtrack to deliver a powerful and authentic performance.
This is a semi-autobiographical project for Abra, exemplified by ‘Street View’s raw, hard-hitting lyrics that align with the themes of the film.
As he says: “The EP is inspired by my experience of working on the film as well as my personal experience of growing up in
Tottenham. What I’m playing as Magic, in the film, I’ve really seen. I’m merging my reality with Magic’s reality.”
A collaboration between Fan Studios (Femi Oyeniran and Nicky ‘Slimting’ Walker) and multiple award-winning, two-times BAFTA and GRAMMY® nominated filmmaker Penny Woolcock, ‘Trapping’ a brutally honest portrayal of the distressing reality of county lines in the UK.
The film follows the story of a likeable and relatable London-based teenager called Daz, who sees dealing drugs as a route to cash to help his struggling family but becomes trapped in a hopeless situation.
Abra adds: “The movie speaks for itself, it’s got a message behind it, it’s an insight into what you could be getting yourself into trying to go down that road. Don’t go for it. It shouldn’t be for anyone’.
The red-carpet film premier of ‘Trapping’ took place earlier this week at Outernet London.
Taking an innovative approach to premieres set to become synonymous with new platform ‘The Drop’, it will bring the film to life with an immersive music infused event.
Recreating a scene from the movie, the stage hosted an installation of the ‘Traphouse’ featured in the film, with live performances from the cast intersected with preview clips from the movie.
To further shine a light on the incredibly important topics featured in the film and in an effort to push political leaders to do more to tackle county lines, Abra Cadabra and executive producer Femi Oyeniran hosted a debate with a panel on September 14 at the Houses of Parliament.
Discussing topics highlighted by the film, such as county lines, gang violence, drug use and structural inequality the debate showcased expertise from a variety of speakers ranging from Labour MP for Streatham Bell Riberio-Addy, policy expert to CEO of Enact Equality L’Myah Sherae, founder of Power The Fight, Ben Lindsay OBE and youth coach and campaigner Amani Simpson.
Held in Committee Room 14 in front of a packed audience of politicians, campaigners, funders and policy makers, the discussion was followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Setting the tone for the evening, Ribeiro-Addy said: “We are seeing hundreds of extremely vulnerable children who are at risk of being recruited by criminal gangs thrown out of schools in county lines hotspots.
“With over 1200 exclusions and suspensions of children assessed by social services to be grooming targets in England’s four largest drug exporting regions alone between 2021 and 2023.
“There was a Prison’s Commissioners report which actually said, if you exclude a child from school, you might as well give them a time and date to report for sentencing’, because it’s a clear pipeline to ending up in prison…. We already know that pupil referral units for children who have been excluded are targeted. Special education provisions are also massively targeted.”
On playing leading county line member Magic in the movie, Abra Cadabra said: “I grew up in a poor area of North London and have seen the effect county lines has had on some of my friends.
“When I read the script, I just felt that you don’t really see the realness of that type of stuff – and if you do see it, it’s probably just the glamourised parts of it – the money, the cars.
“As long as I could be involved in a way that showed everyone the realness of growing up in certain parts of London, I wanted to be involved. The film’s a good learning curve for kids.”
Watch Trapping here
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