Urban Soul

TX: BBC 2

2004

75 minutes, Feature Documentary

Director: John Akomfrah

Producers: Lina Gopaul and David Lawson

Urban Soul is the feature length documentary on the biggest, sexiest and most glamorous form of pop music in the world: R&B.

Showered with Grammy Awards R&B sells more records than rap, rock, pop or dance and in the last fifteen years has become an unstoppable force, dominating and shaping the pop mainstream. Artists like Destiny’s Child and P. Diddy are no longer just participants in pop culture and the music industry, they shape, define and lead it.

Featuring the biggest selling music artists in the world, Urban Soul has a stellar cast of interviewees include; Beyonce, Wyclef Jean, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Rowland, Bobby Brown, Teddy Riley, L.A Reid, Clive Davis, Babyface, TLC, Andre Harrell, Jermine Dupri, Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds and Boyz II Men.

From the classic soul years of the seventies to the ground breaking innovations of the 80’s, 90’s and 21st century, Urban Soul traces the sounds and styles that have made R&B the definitive sound of international pop. And it does this through the accounts of the people who made the music happen, the label bosses, the producers, writers, and of course the artists.

Urban Soul tells the story of how this seemingly disposable, ephemeral music – once derided for its lack of substance – became the biggest and best loved form of pop in the world. The story of modern R&B has never been told until now and Urban Soul is the first and definitive document of the music’s history.