Monday, January 23, 2006
The English Patient #1
Alrighty then, I get a lot of people asking me about old skool UK Hip Hop, which is kinda referred to as Britcore these days. The name Britcore throws up images of 150pm hardcore beats, nasty-ass rhyming and the likes of DJ Supreme scratching his records until the needle wore out. The reality of UK rap in the late 80's/early 90's was that only a handful of acts adopted a hardcore stance along the lines of Hijack, Silver Bullet and so on. There were plenty of other styles that were being persued at the time. You had a selection of underground emcee's rhyming over tight soul & funk breaks such as MC Duke, Overlord X, Bello B & Mc Mell'O'. Then there were crews adopting a more ragga hip hop feel like London Posse, Demon Boyz, Asher D & Daddy Freddy. In addition you had the likes of Derek B, Wee Papa Girl Rappers & Cookie Crew attempting top 40 chart assaults, with a commercial edge to their music. Over and above that you had the likes of Blade, Katch 22, Gunshot, Stereo MC's and the Ruthless Rap Assassins experimenting with new concepts, in order to push the legacy further forward.
Unfortunately the major record labels of the day didn't see a sustainable future in UK Hip Hop, as they sought to jump onto the next bandwagon. Independant labels came and went as the recession of the early 1990s began to bite. "If it aint hurting, it aint working" was the Tory Party line way back then. It was beginning to feel like 1981 all over again; no money, no decent jobs and no fucking decent music. Fortunately UK Hip Hop was given an opportunity to start over in the late 1990's, allowing 'The Patient' to recover and spawn a new generation of artists that we know and love today.
Props to
B.R.O.T.H.E.R. - Beyond The 16th Parallel (video)
Hijack - Hijack Airwave(live video)
# posted by clawdada @ 9:41 pm 
