B Franklin on Spare Change and homelessness

“I feel like I need to be the voice of a generation and I won’t stop until I can be,” B Franklin says as we sit down for a chat in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. “But then, loads of other people feel that way too.”

There's a characteristic duality at the heart of his output. Discovered by chance when a friend sent his work to SB.TV founder Jamal Edwards, the 26-year-old rapper launched his career with The Season’s Changing, an acutely observed undoing of a man’s life. Accompanied by a video that is both cinematic in execution and ominously familiar, conjuring up the grander narratives of loneliness and alienation present in today’s society, it aims to be unashamedly powerful and succeeds.

“One of my closest friends that I grew up with went through all that,” B Franklin explains. “Seeing him come out of it made me think, 'If I can get in his head and write his life then maybe someone else won’t have such a hard time.' Then I just thought, 'I wanna make a video for this,' but I didn’t know which path I wanted to follow yet. The way I write is as an intricate rapper, but because I didn’t stick to my tempo on the beat it passed as spoken word. To be honest though, I don’t even think about that song anymore. Obviously it’s well important as it got me all the opportunities and it gave me a little fanbase but it feels like ages ago.”

The story behind Spare Change

Since the video’s premiere last January, the Manchester-born artist has released two more videos with a strong sense of storytelling, the latest being Spare Change, a track which aims to tackle the ever-growing issue of homelessness. “Back in April I was coming into the city a lot and seeing there were more and more homeless people,” he recounts. “It made me realise that people are blind to it. They try to distract themselves from the fact it’s right on their doorstep.

“Like last night I was on the way to work and got talking to this guy. It turns out he’d only been homeless for two weeks. He said, ‘I don’t know how to be homeless,’ that he used to walk past people on the street and now he’s on the street, and I’ve been telling people this myself. Unfortunate events happen in your life and you’re fucked. And once you’re at that point no one gives a fuck about you.”

B Franklin, photo: James Killeen

The track’s motive is simple: see life through the eyes of a homeless person. The video takes this quite literally, with B Franklin spending a weekend shooting with a camera strapped to his head as he navigates his way around Manchester city centre alongside Karma, his canine companion. He came up with the concept in collaboration with filmographer James Killeen, who he describes as being “a mad integral part of what I'm doing.” It was James’ idea to include the dog storyline. “You see a lot of homeless people with dogs, but we also wanted to do that ’cause we knew people have an emotional bond with animals,” B Franklin explains. “We actually only got Karma last minute. We saw a girl in James’ building walking past and we said, ‘Can we use your dog?’ and she just said yeah.”

Although he wrote it months ago, B Franklin was never quite happy with the track. “I struggled with performing it,” he admits. “It never sounded right so I ended up re-recording it five times. Then I met Matt Wilde who executive-produced the track and straight away me and him just clicked. It was the same with Soham De (who provides additional vocals). We got in the studio and banged it out in a couple of hours.” Now, he plans to release it with proceeds going to Shelter, but it’s changing perceptions that’s most important to him. “I want to try and get people that have the power to do something to actually do something.”

Keeping the faith and touring with George the Poet

Perhaps B Franklin’s unique way of appraising difficult situations from the point of view of an insider, while retaining the distance required to convey misery with intelligence and humour, comes from the decision to meticulously study his idols before attempting to launch himself into the pit. But this approach meant a prolonged period of sacrifice that caused him to lose faith at times.

“I was on the bus on the way home from being sacked from a bar job and I was so pissed off,” he recounts. “I was literally talking to myself, like, ‘Am I chasing this music thing, am I wasting my time?’ Then I got this text from George the Poet’s manager saying, 'We saw your video (The Season’s Changing) and we might have an opportunity for you.' So I just got off the bus and I was like, ‘Why have I done that?’ I just got off. I guess I was excited. I knew he was on tour so I thought it might be to support him on his Manchester date, but then they asked me to support him on all the dates.”

Making his live debut at last year’s Sounds From The Other City festival in Salford, B Franklin admits he was unprepared for the undertaking of a national tour, but it was a formative experience. “I learned about stage presence, how to interact with the crowd. I studied how George was performing, how important it is to be more than just an internet artist.”

When pressed what that ‘more’ means to him, he says, “I think it’s being in a room with the best lyricist and feeling comfortable. It’s getting to a place where you can rub shoulders with the best and know that you’re ready.” With a forthcoming project with George the Poet on the way, it seems B Franklin definitely is.