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Ok, so a quick preamble. This is my first post in Music, and one of my very, very sporadic posts on Brabbelith generally, so if it's not quite up to scratch I apologise!
What I don't want to do in this thread is give you a history of UK Hip Hop. If you're interested, see here. What I want to do is present you with how I got into it, why I love it and why you should!
Although hip hop and rap are discreet styles I'm going to refer to them both as UKHH from now on. The difference is a lot smaller in the UK than in the US, a point I will come to later.
So, UK hip hop then: it's a genre of music very close to my heart. I first got into it through the fantastic Ninja Tunes label, and Roots Manuva specifically. This was ten years ago and when I first heard Mr Manuvas seminal track Movements on the Xen Cuts compilation album I was blown away. I'd always loved hip-hop and rap but there was little in American hip-hop that I could identify with, so to hear someone spitting in an english accent was a revelation.
Flash forward a few years, I still had a copy of Xen Cuts on constant rotation but I had spent the last few years exploring Electronica and wasn't really interested in UKHH, I'd read bits and bobs about acts like Estelle or Shystie in NME but really paid them no mind. Then, on a whim (I liked the album art and that it featured a certain Roderick Manuva), I picked up an album by DJ Skitz named Countryman and was amazed by the range and talent of the artists featured on it. From Roots manuva and Rodney P's patois toasting inspired rap to the fantastic all female tune Domestic Science or the SUPER-fast cordless Mics at 20 Paces which features one the greatest UK rap acts, Phi-Life Cypher.
That album really made me realise that not only could a resident of the UK rap, they also were and damn well too. I was hooked. From that album (with the added bonus of having recently got a computer and internet access) I discovered tons of other acts, too many in fact to discuss any one in great detail, but if any of the above info has got you interested you might want to check out such artists as:
Jehst - possibly one of the best wordsmiths, well, ever. His range, speed and imagination are unparalleled. Check out Return of the Drifter, arguably his best album, and also the Nukeproof suit ep. Solid, well produced stuff.
Braintax - A lot of people hate on braintax, but I really rate him, a bit more light-weight than say Rodney P or what have you but fun, enjoyable and pretty skilled on the mic to boot. Biro Funk is his first album and was released through his own label, Low Life. Don't Drag Me In is an excellent tune and introduced me to the next guy I will mention
Mystro - Mischevious, funny and irreverant, this guy kills it on the mic. Check out Awkward Thief. He spins stories and does it well, but he never takes himself or his music too seriously.
Skinnyman -
"I dont wanna blow up throughout every era I’ve been here/
so far the digital revolution has been fair.
The home of hip-hop can you say you have been there?/
If home is where the heart is, then hip-hop lives right here."
Just. awesome. Get Council Estate of Mind for a grim, authentic and unremittingly bleak view of British ghettos and ghetto youth.
Plan B - This guy is, well, stomach churning. Rakin' The Dead is a classic. Plan B is interesting because he plays acoustic guitar and spits over the top, not your average rapper in content or deliverance.
But I'll stop before I turn this into a list thread! One more thing you should check out though is Jump Off TV they do a uk version you should be able to view from that page (I can't check youtube at work so I'm not sure), but basically they are street level freestyle battles. The quality isn't as good as a lot of US freestyling and there's a hell of a lot more filler (words and phrases used to cover the fact that a rapper is thinking of his next punchline), but it's interesting nonetheless.
So, where are we today? Well, I've lost touch a little in the last year or so what with not being single and having a job I've a lot less time to go out and buy and listen to new music.
However, there are a few issues that I want to discuss:
Firstly, Grime and Eski (grimes precursor). Now I don't know that much about Grime and would be happy to be educated. I DO know that there's a lot of cross over with this genre with producers such as Wiley and artists like Dizzee Rascal straddling the boundaries. Although Grime seems a lot more prevalent and visible than UKHH, which is a shame, but cross-pollination is good.
Secondly, in the UK rap and hip-hop seem to be pretty much the same thing, whereas in the US it's definitely more discreet, why do people think this is? I have my own ideas but I would like to know what you guys think.
Thirdly, the quality of freestyle battles is a lot lower, I think this might have something to do with the fact that hip-hop just hasn't penetrated youth culture to the same degree as in the US.
What d'ya reckon? |
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