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Guardian Article
There is a longstanding grumble
among the small community of British
hip hop artists. They feel that their work is
overlooked in favour of their US counterparts
as a result of the snobbery of journalists and fans.
While no one would deny British rappers frequently
appear poor relations of their US counterparts, the
reasons are probably more complex.
Hip hop is an American genre, born out of the
New York ghettos in the late 1970s. For decades,
British Urban Music has lacked the cultural import
it has in the US.
On a more prosaic level, the handful
of British rappers who made the charts simply weren't
very good: British Urban Music is haunted by memories
of embarrassing rappers such as Derek B.
The victory of Ms Dynamite's debut
album, A Little Deeper, at this year's
Mercury music prize therefore is a success against
the odds. It was certainly not the most musically
adventurous of the short listed entries. Nevertheless,
the panel's suggestion that it marks "an important
moment in British Urban Music" is unquestionable.
A Little Deeper may be the first occasion British
Urban Music has attempted to mimic the sound of an
American hip hop artist and succeeded.
Naomi Daley, 21, born in Archway, north London, was
originally an MC on the burgeoning UK garage scene.
Her first hit, Boo!, was recorded with UK garage producer
Sticky. After signing with a major
label, Polydor, she moved away from garage and was
remodeled as a socially conscious rapper.
Other artists from the UK garage scene, such as So
Solid Crew, have begun glamorising the violent
lifestyle of life on London's deprived estates in
their lyrics. Tracks such as Ms Dynamite's breakthrough
single It Takes More provided an antidote, dismissing
the tales of bullets and bravado in favour of an Afro
centric spirituality.
Is A Little Deeper the best album released in the
last 12 months? Probably not. But it represents a
quantum leap forward for British Urban Music; it has
crossed over into the pop charts while retaining its
underground credibility.
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