What I'm watching this week on YouTube: hood tours

Spanian

Recently the mysterious YouTube algorithm somehow presented me with the the videos of Australian rapper and ex-criminal Spanian.

Spanian grew up in the public housing areas of Sydney and spent some time in prison before becoming a successful rap musician.

Now he is travelling the world, reviewing food and travel experiences, but of most interest to me, he is touring the "hoods" of the world.

I first saw his video walking around the streets of Campbelltown, south-west of Sydney.

In later videos, he tours other notorious parts of Australia and also travels to the worst parts of cities around the world.

Sometimes he walks the streets alone, sometimes he has a local guide. When he is in Australia, it seems everybody in these areas knows him. They stop him to say hello or take a photo, and he often ends up with a group of people following him.

When overseas he is rarely recognised, so he faces genuine danger walking through these types of neighbourhoods with a camera in hand. But so far, aside from a few awkward moments and some angry locals, he hasn't had any serious encounters.

Into the hood playlist

Kurt Caz

After YouTube saw my interest in this type of videos, I was next presented with a somewhat similar style of videos from Kurt Caz, a travel vlogger with over 2.5 million subscribers.

South-African born Kurt travels the world and often deliberately ventures into dangerous areas – even when locals repeatedly warn him to turn around.

According to his bio, Kurt's father was a street fighter and taught boxing, and Kurt himself has trained in mixed martial arts, which explains his willingness to travel alone into the areas that tourists are warned against.

Although he does go to some cities that are popular with tourists, many of his videos are about places that tourists rarely visit.

His videos are an interesting and entertaining mix of travel, food and danger. There are also travel tips and advice about negotiating and avoiding scams. Kurt also likes to get a hair cut in most episodes.

You can't go wrong watching any of his videos, but one I saw recently really stands out. In a trip across Cuba, he travels in the back of a truck to a small town where he meets a motorcycle taxi rider who had lost both his arms in the Angolan Civil War, where he fought against South Africa. The rider helps Kurt in his quest to see and experience the farming and manufacturing of Cuba's famous cigars. This is truly a special episode.