UK rap
UK rap, also known as British hip-hop or UK hip-hop or British rap, is a music genre and culture that covers a variety of styles of hip-hop made in the United Kingdom. The development of UK rap was shaped by a distinct set of regional influences, slang, and grassroots movements that differentiated it from American hip-hop.
It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of R&B/hip-hop.
British hip-hop can also be referred to as Brit-hop, a term coined and popularised mainly by British Vogue magazine and the BBC. British hip-hop was originally influenced by the dub/toasting introduced to the United Kingdom by Jamaican migrants in the 1950s–70s, who eventually developed uniquely influenced rapping in order to match the rhythm of the ever-increasing pace and aggression of Jamaican-influenced dub in the UK.
Toasting and soundsystem cultures were also influential in genres outside of hip-hop that still included rapping – such as grime, jungle, and UK garage.
In 2003, The Times described British hip-hop's broad-ranging approach:
..."UK hip-hop" is a broad sonic church, encompassing anything made in Britain by musicians informed or inspired by hip-hop's possibilities, whose music is a response to the same stimuli that gave birth to rap in New York in the mid-Seventies.Although the underground scene was well established by the late 1980s, UK rap music saw little commercial success for several decades. Outside of a few exceptions such as Derek B and later the birth of trip-hop, from the 1980s until the early 2010s UK rap made up a small percentage of album sales in the domestic market. Performers saw wider success in the 2020s, including Stormzy headlining Glastonbury Festival, Dave releasing back-to-back UK number one albums with Psychodrama followed by We're All Alone in This Together, and Little Simz winning the Mercury Prize.
History
Origins
As in the US, British hip-hop emerged as a scene from graffiti and breakdancing, and then through to DJing and rapping live at parties and club nights, with its supporters predominantly listening to and influenced by US hip-hop. Unlike in the US, the British hip-hop scene was cross-racial from the beginning, as diverse ethnic groups in Britain tend not to live in segregated areas, even in areas with a high percentage of non-white individuals. Such places allow youth to share culture with one another, including musical genres such as hip-hop.Cross pollination through migrating West Indians helped develop a community interested in the music. The integration of sound systems represent a distinct British Caribbean influence. Sound systems allowed for powerful syncopated bass runs and the ability to bring this sound to other venues creating a club culture. There were, however, British tunes starting to appear. There are an abundance of records that are often credited with being the first British hip-hop release, "Christmas Rapping" by Dizzy Heights, is often credited as such, as well as the slightly later released "London Bridge" by Newtrament. Dizzy Heights was the first MC to be signed to a major label. Two singles from 1980 precede both of these however, namely Allen & Blewitt's novelty record "Chip Shop Wrapping", released in 1980, a parody of The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", and Bo Kool's "Money ". The instrumental for "Money " was produced by Funk Masters member Tony Williams, and would turn out to be an influential release in its own right, going on to inspire DJ's from New York to employ influences from dub music.
In Scotland, actor and stand-up comedian Johnny Beattie released "The Glasgow Rap" in 1983, receiving some chart success at the time. He later claimed to be "Scotland's first rap star". This was one of several British novelty or comedy hip-hop singles which hit the UK charts during the 1980s, including "Wikka Wrap" by the Evasions, "Snot Rap" by Kenny Everett, "'Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?" by Alexei Sayle, "Rat Rappin'" by Roland Rat, and later in the decade, "Stutter Rap " by Morris Minor and the Majors and "Loadsamoney" by Harry Enfield.
There were also early pop records which dabbled with rap – such as Adam and the Ants' "Ant Rap" and Wham!'s "Wham Rap! " — but these are often considered pop appropriations of US rap. Punk band the Clash had earlier dabbled with rap on the single "The Magnificent Seven" from their album Sandinista!, and a later single "This Is Radio Clash". Even earlier than this, in 1979, Ian Dury and the Blockheads released "Reasons to Be Cheerful ", another record with influences from hip-hop.
Then Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren's "Buffalo Gals", featuring the New York hip-hop group World's Famous Supreme Team, was the breakthrough hit that introduced the genre to the United Kingdom — McLaren's Duck Rock album as a whole experimented with many musical styles from around the world. "Buffalo Gals" and another track from the album, "World's Famous" which also featured the group, used techniques which have been established in hip-hop in the United States, such as sampling and scratching. McLaren even included a song referencing the 'Double Dutch' dance that was popular among breakdancing crews in New York at the time.
Over the next few years, more UK hip-hop and electro music was released: Street Sounds Electro UK, which was produced by Greg Wilson and featured an early appearance from MC Kermit, who later went on to form the Wilson produced Ruthless Rap Assassins; The Rapologists' "Kids Rap/Party Rap" and Grandmaster Richie Rich's "Don't Be Flash". Releases were still few and far between, and the scene remained predominantly underground.File:Tim Westwood 2012.jpg|thumb|right|Westwood's official YouTube channel, Tim Westwood TV, has currently over 617 million video views and over 1.41 million subscribers. The channel has videos of freestyles & interviews from some of the most successful hip-hop artists including Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas and Lil Wayne.
Although record labels began to take note of the underground scene throughout the 1980s and 1990s, radio play and publicity were still a difficulty in helping the fledgling scene to grow, and the scene only managed to survive through word of mouth and the patronage of pirate radio stations around the country. Mainstream radio did play British hip-hop on occasion, supported by such well-known DJs as Dave Pearce, Tim Westwood, Steve Barker and John Peel.A significant development in early UK rap was the nationwide Def Jam ’87 Tour, which featured LL Cool J, Eric B. & Rakim, and a then-emerging Public Enemy. In an interview for What Do You Call It? From Grassroots to the Golden Era of UK Rap, DJ, photographer, and broadcaster Normski described the experience to David Kane: “You’ve never heard anything so loud. We heard the records, but we’ve never seen it with so much ferocity in the flesh. By the end of the night, everyone was so pumped. That would have inspired everyone to go and do something badass.”
British hip-hop in the 1980s was not just confined to music and break-dancing, but also involved the spread of New York City-style graffiti – another integral element of US hip hop culture — to London and other UK inner-city areas, both on walls and trains. The most direct influence was, however, on graffiti painted in London Underground trains. Teenagers from inner London and other European cities who were into electro-hip-hop and had family and other links to New York City had by the mid-1980s taken up some of the traditions of subway graffiti and exported them home, although legendary New York writers like Brim, Bio, and Futura had themselves played a significant role in establishing such links when they visited London in the early-to-mid-1980s and 'put up pieces' on or near the west London end of the Metropolitan Line. Almost as significantly, just when subway graffiti was on the decline in New York City, some British teenagers who had spent time with family in Queens and the Bronx returned to London with a "mission" to Americanise the London Underground through painting New York City-style graffiti on trains. These small groups of London 'train writers' adopted many of the styles and lifestyles of their New York City forebears, painting graffiti train pieces and in general 'bombing' the system, but favouring only a few selected underground lines seen as most suitable for train graffiti. Although on a substantially smaller scale than what had existed in New York City, graffiti on London Underground trains became seen as enough of a problem by the mid-1980s to provoke the British Transport Police to establish its own graffiti squad modelled directly on and in consultation with that of the New York City MTA. At the same time, graffiti art on London Underground trains generated some interest in the media and arts, leading to several art galleries putting on exhibitions of some of the art work of a few London train writers as well as TV documentaries on London hip-hop culture like the BBC's Bad Meaning Good, which included a section featuring interviews with London train writers and a few examples of their pieces.
While many early rappers from the UK, such as Derek B, imitated the styles and accents of their US heroes, there were many who realised that to merely transpose US forms would rob UK hip-hop of the ability to speak for a disenfranchised British constituency in the way that US hip-hop so successfully spoke to, and for, its audience. Attempts were made by UK rappers to develop styles more obviously rooted in British semantics, syntax and dialectical linguistic praxis and practices — Rodney P of the London Posse deliberately chose a London accent – although many succeeded only in adopting a slurred hybrid that located the rap "somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean".
Development: Late 1980s–early 1990s
The first record label devoted to releasing UK hip-hop acts was founded in 1986. Simon Harris' Music of Life label was home to rapper Derek B, the first UK rapper to achieve chart success. He even collaborated with Public Enemy on his album Bullet from a Gun and was the first British rapper to appear on Top of the Pops.Building on Derek B's success, Music of Life went on to sign groups such as Hijack, the Demon Boyz, Hardnoise and MC Duke. Their Hard as Hell series mixed homegrown talent like Thrashpack and the She Rockers with US artists such as Professor Griff. Music of Life was swiftly followed by other labels such as Mango Records and Kold Sweat. Another successful British hip-hop artist that emerged from Music of Life was Asher D, whose Jamaican origins showed through in his vocal style. In 1988, in collaboration with Daddy Freddy, Asher D released one of the first hip-hop dancehall fusion albums, Ragamuffin Hip-Hop.
Moving away from its US roots, British hip-hop started to develop its own sounds: acts like Hijack, II Tone Committee, Eastborm, Killa Instinct, Hardnoise, and Silver Bullet developed a fast and hardcore style, while many other acts took influences from elsewhere. Britcore acts were amongst the first to receive wide-spread attention across continental Europe. Caveman and Outlaw Posse developed a jazz influenced style, whilst MC Mell'O' mixed jazz and hardcore. London Posse, Black Radical Mk II and DJ Ruf Cut And Tuf C were more influenced by reggae and disco whilst the Wee Papa Girl Rappers, Cookie Crew and Monie Love achieved chart success with more radio-friendly hip-hop. However, despite the chart success of some British-born hip-hop artists – for example Monie Love, Slick Rick, Young MC and MF Doom, who all moved to the US – the majority of the scene was still underground and small scale.
Kinetic Effect joined the scene in the early 1980s and was part of rap outfit 2 the Top as D-Koy; later, in 1991, he teamed with Insane Macbeth to record "Borderin' Insanity" and in 1995, he recorded "Man Bites Dog"/"The Effect of Fear" Their song "The Rhythm I Give 'Em" made the UK Top 10 Hip-hop chart.
In 1987, Positive Beat Records came out of the hotbed of early UK hip-hop, Ladbroke Grove in London with two releases. The label followed up the single "It's Getting Rough" by Rocky X and D-D Dance with the Various Artists' Known 2 Be Down album. This featured Sir Drew, MC Flex, She Rockers, Rapski and more of West London's finest rap talents.
Other notable labels at the time included Liberty Grooves in Tooting, South London. The label itself started in late 1989 with the first release in 1990 by Whirlwind D & Johnny F of Solid n Mind. Other artists included Gutter Snypes, True Style and DJ Noize. Liberty Grooves was also a shop and many notable artists such as MC Mell O and Braintax would perform there.
In 1988, Rapski released "The Connection" on 12". The track was taken from Known 2 Be Down and was an early example of mixing hip-hop and reggae in a style. More was to come in the early 1990s in the form of MC Reason with "Symbolise"/"HouseQuake" and Jonie D with "Which Base"/"Ride On" which was performed live on ITV in 1991.
A mindset began to develop – typified by the Gunshot tune "No Sell Out", or Son of Noise's "Poor But Hardcore" — that distrusted successful artists who did not utilise the hardcore style most associated with the scene. Silver Bullet's chart success was applauded due to an uncompromisingly rapid delivery, whereas Derek B and Rebel MC were scorned when their more pop influenced styles earned them success. Such artists were often branded "sell outs". As the scene grew, it became less common for British rappers to imitate US accents and British rap became more assured of its identity.
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 such as Blade, Black Radical Mk II, Bushkiller and Overlord X, who cut a Discomix with Jah Shaka — but many distinct scenes developed nationally. Jah Shaka recorded a crossover dubplate discomix tune with Overlord X entitled "Come And Get Me", which was a retake of a tune from Shaka’s conscious roots "Dub Symphony album" which was eventually released on the Island Records' subsidiary label Mango.
Birmingham and the West Midlands gave rise to Credit to the Nation, whose MC Fusion would espouse conscious anti-racist, sexist and homophobic lyrics. The band would also find some brief mainstream success with their indie rock crossover sound. Leeds spawned Braintax and Breaking the Illusion as well as Nightmares on Wax. Greater Manchester gave birth to the Ruthless Rap Assassins, Krispy 3, the Kaliphz, Jeep Beat Collective and MC Tunes.
Bristol's scene has a long history going right back to the early 1980s where links were made with outfits from New York. The Fearless Four came over in 1984 along with graffiti legends the Tats Cru and Rock Steady Crew. Bristol produced The Wild Bunch, and Nellee Hooper who went on to produce for Soul II Soul, as well as cutting dubplate discomixes with roots reggae artists, Horace Andy and Mad Professor. The city later became the home of trip hop with artists like Tricky and Portishead.
Caveman signed to a major label — Profile Records, the label home of Run–D.M.C. — and Kold Sweat came into their own, discovering groups like SL Troopers, Dynametrix, 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 on Ice-T's recently formed Rhyme Syndicate label. The first single, "The Badman Is Robbin'", was a top 40 hit and they went on sell more than 30,000 albums.
British hip-hop was affected by the record industry clamping down on sampling, beginning to charge for the use of samples and prosecuting those who used them without permission. Larger US acts could afford to license samples and still turn a profit for their labels, a luxury not available to many smaller UK artists. One such victim of this was Milton Keynes group the Criminal Minds. Their first two releases, the 1990 mini-album Guilty as Charged and a 1991 EP Tales from the Wasteland were bogged down by potential sample clearance problems and thus were only ever made available in small numbers. As breakbeat hardcore music started to become very popular in the UK in the early 1990s, the Criminal Minds turned their attention to making this type of music instead.
The UK hip-hop boom never achieved its predicted commercial success. Hijack's The Horns of Jericho was never released in the US, whilst record companies dropped artists, citing poor sales and lack of interest. Mango Records closed down, and the British public began to turn their affections to Jungle music, a fusion of breakbeat hardcore, dub, dancehall, ragga, hip-hop and reggae, profoundly influenced by the rhythmic dynamics of King Tubby's and Scientist discomixes and the spatial reverberations of Jah Shaka and Lloyd Coxsone sound systems, both of whom attracted followers with an almost religious sense of awe and devotion to sound, specifically, to bass tones and frequencies. Other acts and styles developed from the hip-hop scene, resulting in new genres to describe them – for example Massive Attack with trip hop, or Galliano, Us3 and Urban Species with acid jazz.
In the period between 1992 and 1995, the only groups to make much impact were Gunshot and the Brotherhood.
Gunshot's 1992 album Patriot Games was a landmark with tracks such as "Mind of a Razor" and "World War 3" becoming British hardcore classics. Formed in the '80s, the Brotherhood released their first record, simply called Brotherhood EP, as a white label in 1991. They went on to release Wayz of the Wize in 1992, then Untitled 93 and XXIII in 1993, and Hip Hop N' Rap in 1994, all on the Bite It! label. None of the records sold in huge numbers but they managed to gain airplay on the Tim Westwood show and DJ 279's show on Choice FM, gaining them a solid following across the UK. Bite It! also released tracks from artists such as Pauly Ryan and the Scientists of Sound.