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The Creators
A major milestone in the history
of British
hip hop was the creation of the first UK record
label devoted to releasing UK hip hop acts in 1986.
Simon Harris' Music of Life record
label brought the underground scene into the light,
primarily through the success of rapper Derek
B - the first UK
rapper to achieve chart success.
Building on Derek B's success, Music of Life
went on to discover and sign legendary British hip
hop groups, such as Hijack, the
Demon Boyz, Hardnoise (later
Son of Noise) and MC Duke. Their
Hard as Hell series fast became essential listening
for the discerning British hip hop fan, mixing homegrown
talent like Thrashpack and the She
Rockers with attention getting US artists
such as Professor Griff. Music of
Life laid the foundations for other UK hip hop record
labels to be founded, such as Mango Records
and Kold Sweat.
Moving away from its US roots, British hip hop started
to develop its own sounds: pioneers like Hijack, Hardnoise,
and Silver Bullet developed the fast and hardcore
style that is primarily associated with the scene,
but many other rappers and groups didn't feel comfortable
within this style and took their influences from elsewhere.
Caveman and Outlaw Posse
developed a jazz influenced style, whilst MC
Mell'O' rested comfortably inbetween jazz
and hardcore. London Posse and Black
Radical Mk II were more influence by Reggae,
whilst the Wee Papa Girl Rappers,
Cookie Crew and Monie Love
produced more radio friendly hip hop, and achieved
chart success with it. Other groups developed from
the hip hop scene, bringing their own influences to
it so successfully that they were considered so different
to hip hop that new genres sprang up to describe them
- Massive Attack with trip hop, or Galliano with Acid
Jazz for example.
False dawn
Despite the chart success of some
British hip hop artists - for example London born
Slick Rick, who moved to the US at
an early age - the majority of the scene was still
underground and small scale. A mindset began to develop
- best typified by the Gunshot tune "No
Sell Out" (Vinyl Solution, 1991) or
Son of Noise's tune "Poor But
Hardcore" from The Mighty Son of Noise (Kold
Sweat, 1992) - that distrusted artists who achieved
chart success without utilising the hardcore style
most associated with the scene. Silver Bullet's chart
success was applauded because of an uncompromisingly
rapid delivery, whereas Derek B and
Rebel MC were scorned when their
more pop influenced, unchallenging lyrics earned them
success. Divisions like this within the community
made it more difficult for British artists to achieve
success for fear of being branded "sell outs".
However, things did look promising: Hip Hop
Connection - the first major British hip
hop magazine - was founded in 1989 and by the early
1990s, the British hip hop scene seemed to be thriving.
Not only was there a firm base of rappers in London
- legends such as Blade, Black
Radical Mk II and Overlord X
- but outside of the capital many cities were developing
their own distinct scenes. Bristol's scene (specifically,
the St. Pauls area) produced The Wild Bunch
(later better known as Massive Attack), and major
crews like the Scratch Perverts and
Smith & Mighty, and later became
the home of trip hop. Nottingham was the birthplace
of the Stereo MCs, whilst Leeds gave
us Braintax and Breaking
the Illusion (who between them revolutionized
the scene by founding Low Life Records)
as well as Nightmares on Wax. Greater
Manchester gave birth to the Ruthless Rap
Assassins, Krispy 3 (later
Krispy), the Kaliphz and MC
Tunes. As the scene grew, it became less
and less common for British rappers to imitate American
accents (those that did were often ridiculed) and
British rap became much more assured of its own identity.
Caveman signed to a major label - Profile Records,
the label home of Run DMC - and Kold Sweat came into
their own, discovering groups like The SL
Troopers, Unanimous Decision
and Katch 22, whose "Diary of
a Blackman" was banned by Radio 1 for using a
sound clip from the National Front. In 1991, Hijack
released The Horns of Jericho (Rhyme Syndicate Records,
1991) on Ice-T's recently formed Rhyme Syndicate label.
The first single, "The Badman is Robbin'",
was a top 40 hit and the crew went on sell more than
30,000 albums.
And yet the predicted UK hip hop boom never quite
arrived. The Horns of Jericho (Rhyme Syndicate Records,
1991) was never released in the US, and record companies
were dropping artists from their lists, citing poor
sales and lack on interest. Mango Records
was closed down, leaving more UK hip hop artists labelless,
and to make matters worse the British public began
to turn their affections to drum n bass (jungle),
a fusion of hip hop and ragga. British hip hop was
also hard hit by the record industry waking up to
the implications of sampling, and beginning to charge
for the use of samples and prosecute those who used
them without permission. The larger US acts could
afford to licence a few choice samples and still turn
a profit for their labels: the smaller UK artists
were barely satisfying their labels' desire for profits
as it was, without incurring additional costs from
licensing samples.
Between the mid-1990s and the start of 2000, many
of the old guard of British hip hop laid down their
microphones and got jobs in the real world, and the
scene that threatened to become mainstream at any
moment remained firmly underground.
The next generation
But as the old rappers left the
scene, the second generation - raised on hip hop and
electronica - were coming of age: The Herbaliser
released Remedies (Ninja Tune, 1995), Mr Scruff
released the "Frolic EP Pt 1" (Pleasure
Music, 1995), Mark B released "Any
More Questions?" (Jazz Fudge, 1995) and DJ
Skitz released "Where My Mind Is At/Blessed
Be The Manor" (Ronin Records, 1996) featuring
a young rapper called Roots Manuva
on guest vocals who had impressed the year previously
with his single "Next Type of Motion" (Sound
of Money, 1995). New record labels that attempted
to merge British hip hop style and sensibilities with
modern dance music began to crop up and get noticed,
like Mark Rae's Grand Central
or DJ Vadim's Jazz Fudge. Increasingly,
these artists managed to avoid the issues surrounding
the use of samples by making music themselves (bands
such as the Stereo MCs began playing instruments,
and then sampling their own tunes for their records)
or searching out more obscure records where a most
cost effective licensing deal could be arranged (or
the sample could be used with a high degree of certainty
that the original artist would never hear about it).
British hip hop began to go through a renaissance,
its style shifting from the previous fast hardcore
template of its early years and moving into more melodic
territory. Mark B and Blade teamed up to record the
"Hitmen for Hire EP" (Jazz Fudge, 1998),
which featured guest appearances from rising stars
Lewis Parker and Mr Thing
(of the Scratch Perverts). The EP was a success, and
lead to the album The Unknown (Word
Play, 2001) and chart success. Roots Manuva,
Blak Twang, Mud Family, Taskforce, Phi Life Cypher
and Ty all came to the public's attention,
and oldschool legends Rodney P, Mike J and
MC Mell'O' returned to the microphone.
The new generation
Further new generation artists emerged
following the turn of the century, including
Foreign Beggars and Jehst.
But at the same time British hip hop also blossomed
in new directions, with a new style of electronic
music emerging in the early 2000s, influenced heavily
by hip hop and UK Garage. The new genre was dubbed
grime, but is sometimes called eskibeat
or sublow. Notable artists in this first wave include
Dizzee Rascal, J-Dawg, Wiley, Sway DaSafo,
Lady Sovereign and Kano. There is some controversy
over whether grime is just a subgenre of British hip
hop or a genre in its own right. Controversy over
grime itself such as the regular references to gun
culture. Early records such as Pow (Forward Riddim)
by grime artist, Lethal Bizzle (and
other artists) made numerous references to guns and
was subsequently banned from all air play.
Further success followed as The Streets
released his album Original Pirate Material (679 Records,
2002), and became one of the first of the new breed
of British hip hop artists to combine credibility
and respectable sales, both in the UK and the US.
Mike Skinner of The Streets has used this success
to launch his own label (The Beats), to which he has
signed The Mitchell Brothers and
Professor Green. The Streets' success
has once again got major record labels looking for
the next big thing in British hip hop, and television
and radio giving airplay to British hip hop artists
like Skinnyman as well as their American
counterparts. Artists like Goldie Lookin'
Chain also use hip hop and rap in their own
way to achieve chart success.
In November 2005, the BBC News website [1] picked
up on the growing success of what it called Brithop,
a term used to describe the growing number of urban,
hip-hop and grime acts emerging in the 21st century.
The BBC article followed the success of rapper
Sway at the MOBO awards. Touch Magazine
also had a leader article on the UK hip-hop scene
in November 2005. It included articles about Kano,
Klashnekoff and Lethal Bizzle.
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