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British Hip Hop - The Early Years
British
hip hop is a musical genre and culture that covers
a variety of styles of rap music made in the UK. The
early scene was very much influenced by the hip hop
scene in New York city, at first being very much in
awe of the American innovators (with
British hip hop rappers often adopting cod American
accents in the early years) before gaining the confidence
to adopt and adapt American styles for their own uses.
British hip hop never achieved the same kind of cultural
impact as it did in the US, with homegrown UK acts
struggling to reach the levels of success that even
imported American acts managed in the UK. The British
hip hop scene began to make a virtue out of this,
equating commercial success with "selling
out" and championing the ideal of the
British hip hop underdog struggling financially but
staying true to the dream. Following an initial flurry
of interest from major record labels in the 1980s,
by the early 1990s the British hip hop scene had moved
underground after the record companies pulled back
from the genre, disappointed by its inability to cross-over
to make vital sales in the US market. However, in
the mid-1990s a new generation of British rappers
were beginning to emerge who had the ability and the
confidence to take on the American superstars. British
hip hop started to experiment and diversify - often
mutating into different genres entirely, such as trip
hop, Garage or Drum and Bass - and crucially
(from the record companies' point of view) starting
to make inroads into the US market.
Nowadays, British hip hop is enjoying its second coming
- managing to be popular without "selling out"
and innovative without being off-putting. Although
still not as popular worldwide as its American forebearer,
the UK scene's popularity is growing at home and UK
rappers and DJs are earning respect from American
artists and fans.
Much of British hip hop is underground,
involving unsigned or newly signed artists, making
music and sharing it with their peers. Much of this
happens on the internet in forums such as UKHHF.
These internet forums are heralding a new stronger
offering to the world of UK hip hop and letting the
underground be heard by a much larger audience. They
enable British hip hop to gain success and a wider
following without "selling out" and having
to be a clone of American artists.
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