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Little Simz - Full Performance (Live on KEXP at Home)

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When we think of Hip Hop we get drawn to America, but when this exciting music first cross the Atlantic in 1979 an incredible British homegrown movement formed, which can be traced to Grime and UK-Drill movements of today. Neil Kulkarni writes about the UK movers and shakers that made Hip Hop a British thing.

Text by Neil Kulkarni, Cover Photo by Normski.

When hip hop exploded out of the New York boros in the mid-70s it touched down worldwide and transformed into new forms - the UK fell in love with rap music instantly and immediately started fracturing and bending its impact into new shapes, blending in uniquely British influences to create a music scene that was uniquely British, and that has found itself mutated into genres like jungle, breakbeat, drum'n'bass, grime and UK Drill.

This is a story that's still on-going but for the UK, the hip hop story starts with the release of Sugarhill Gang's 'Rapper's Delight' in 1979 - crashing into the UK Charts at number 3 it introduced a whole generation of future UK-rap fans to this new form of music. For many in the UK's black and Asian communities hip hop carried a dual sense of purpose and strength - its multiple musical influences, reggae, soul, blues, jazz, funk and spoken word gave hip hop a freedom that many fans were not finding in their own lives in Thatcherite Britain. Hip hop grew among the multicultural diasporic 2nd-generation youth of the big British cities, scenes starting up that are still producing fresh UK talent in London, Nottingham, Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester. From the off, hip hop in Britain was a cross-racial scene, united more by class than race because of the UK's lack of racial segregation in its inner cities. UK rap has always been underdog music, the voice of those marginalised by mainstream culture. It took time for it to both find, and fight for, that unique voice.

Initially much of the UK rap scene was dependent on American imports of both records and tapes but also the clothes (Wranglers, Kangols, Fila), the breakdancing and the graffiti-styles that formed such important pillars of hip hop in the US. If UK musicians used rap it was often in slavish imitation of American archetypes, as an effect of pop (Adam & The Ants 'Ant Rap'), or in novelty records like Morris Minor's 'Stutter Rap'. The growth of hard-core rap in the US with Run DMC and Def Jam records in the mid-80s gave UK rap the confidence to take the form back to its own streets and start telling its own stories in its own unique way. Fledgling pioneer British rappers and crews like Derek B, London Posse, the Cookie Crew and Monie Love, Sindecut, Demon Boyz, DJ Newtrament, and Ruthless Rap Assassins bought the pressures and tensions of the UK streets to the form of rap, often blending in a heavy reggae and dancehall influence from the soundsystem cultures of its mainly Afro-Caribbean audience.Rappers like Black Radical MKII took on the explosive lessons of Public Enemy and applied them ruthlessly to Britain's own colonial history. As the 80s turned into the 90s, an increasing amount of British rappers started firmly rejecting any attempt by UK rap to mimic its US counterpart. This new scene, dubbed 'Britcore' included crews like Hijack, Gunshot and artists like Silver Bullet and Son Of Noise - their raucous music was a million miles away from the more polished productions emerging from the American west-coast at the time, and featured lightspeed-fast rhyming heavily laced with Jamaican patois and influenced by early UK soundsystem toasters like Papa Levi and the Saxon Sound crew.

The explosion in breakbeat and rave in the late 80s and early 90s was not only influenced by UK rap but actually took many of the original UK rap artists away into more dance-based (and lucrative) forms like jungle, trip-hop and drum'n'bass. As the 90s dawned hip hop in the UK found a sharper political edge - events like the Broadwater Farm riots gave many UK rappers a flashpoint to fire their angst with police and an overtly racist society. Crucially late 80s rap in the UK was so vibrant and so fast moving it finally found itself embedded as a culture with its own unique networks and self-sustaining spaces. UK rap finally had its own clubs - from its centre-point in Ladbroke Grove and Soho clubs like the Wag and the Limelight, as well as major events like the UK Fresh festival, the culture found itself cropping up in Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds - anywhere, where disaffected youth in love with US hip hop wanted to hear a high-energy aggressive UK twist on the form. It had its own radio presence through pirate stations like Kiss and Rinse as well as DJs like Tim Westwood. It had its own dedicated record-shops like Mr Bongos.It had its own press with magazines like Hip Hop Connection and fanzines like Fat Lace. It finally was avoiding the temptations of major labels to create its own imprints like Music Of Life, Low Life, Kold Sweat, Vinyl Solution and Big Dada records. By the mid-90s, UK rap had firmly established itself as here to stay and the on-going explosion of artists, labels and scenes has continued to this day, exerting a huge influence on the grime and UK-drill scenes that now occupy that central space to young disaffected UK kids. By both interpreting and refuting the dictates of US hip hop, UK rap has found its own distinctive voice and unique sound.

Long may it rage.

Neil Kulkarni has been writing about hip hop music for a quarter of a century and is the author of 'The Periodic Table Of Hip Hop', 'Eastern Spring' and 'Bring The Noise: The Stories Behind Hip Hop's Biggest Songs', as well as being the Hip Hop editor at DJ Magazine.

This essay was curated by The Subcultures Network , which was formed in 2011 to facilitate research on youth cultures and social change, and commissioned as part of the National Lottery Heritage Funded project to build the online Museum of Youth Culture. Being developed by YOUTH CLUB, the Museum of Youth Culture is a new destination dedicated to celebrating 100 years of youth culture history through photographs, ephemera and stories.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund invests money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about - from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife.

It's a Shame, Monie Love, 1991
Ripping Up The Industry, Black Radical MKII, 1990
20 Seconds to Comply, Silver Bullet, 1990
Females (Get On Up), Cookie Crew, 1987
How's Life In London, London Posse, 1990

Wild Style, Charlie Ahearn, 1983
Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984

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When we think of Hip Hop we get drawn to America, but when this exciting music first cross the Atlantic in 1979 an incredible British homegrown movement formed, which can be traced to Grime and UK-Drill movements of today. Neil Kulkarni writes about the UK movers and shakers that made Hip Hop a British thing....

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From the sound system scene in the '80s to the rise of UK Drill in the '10s UK rap and have had a long journey. Here is a brief, but in-depth guide.

It's a complicated affair attempting to record the history of UK rap and hip-hop. Artists from outside of London have historically struggled to gain a foothold in music media. It reflects the wider attitude held towards regions of the UK beyond the Southeast. With the majority of Britain's Black working-class residing in the North and Midlands, many have been left out of important conversations regarding rap in the UK. Also, rap's history within the UK has never quite made it to the mainstream until very recently, save for a handful of artists over the years such as Roots Manuva, Rodney P, Skepta, and Giggs.

Throughout its history, UK rap has always cross-pollinated with other sounds such as garage, funky house, grime, and - more recently - afrobeats, trap, and drill. It's reflective of the nature of Black British-led sounds that dates back to when dancehall became heavily influenced by electronic sounds in the 1980s. It was never safe to label garage or grime as rap due to the heavy influence the traditions of toasting have had on both genres. Reggae is the tree from which hip-hop and grime both emerged as Sweetie Irie once said. Through the art of toasting, it's more accurate to say that both genres exist as genealogical cousins.

UK rap and British hip-hop are two different strands of the same artform. While the labeling doesn't suggest much difference between the two at first glance, each had their own unique cultures and practices, which made the distinction much more visible. As UK rap began to rise through the mid to late aughts, British hip-hop has been pushed further underground. However, its relationship with rap couldn't be more intrinsically linked despite those clear distinctions.
The 1980s: Sound systems and the birth of UK hip-hop
In the 1980s, a wave of descendants of the Windrush Generation found themselves leading the UK sound system scene. The l ikes of Peter King, Tippa Irie, Ragga Twins, and Smiley Culture spit using the traditional format of toasting but they did so utilizing electronic methods and sounds ushering a new era for dancehall, while signaling the birth of a rap style that would lead to garage, drum and bass, jungle and grime less than a decade later.

On the traditional hip-hop side, it's difficult to talk about the 1980s without recognizing the trailblazers: The Wild Bunch (who later became Massive Attack), London Posse, and Rodney P. Before the 1990s, most UK rappers were adopting American accents, with the hope that would help build their profiles. The late Derek B would be one of the first UK rappers to achieve chart success through hits such as "Goodgroves" and "Bad Young Brother," both released in 1988. There were a number of record labels also emerging that gave UK rappers a home, such as Positive Beat Records from Ladbroke Grove; Low Life Records based in Leeds; Music of Life which Derek B was signed to along with acts such as Demon Boyz, MC Duke, and, much later, Asher D.
The 1990s: The Bronze Age of UK Rap and Hip-Hop
There were a handful of prominent MCs such as Rodney P and Blak Twang - who released his debut single " What's Goin' On" in 1995 - but most of the scene would be comprised of local, regional acts such as Overlord X, Dominant Force, Demon Boyz, and Krispy 3. One of the reasons why these groups weren't able to break out of the underground was because hip-hop, in this style, was considered too American, with the industry and media considering it inauthentic. However, what the industry hadn't taken into consideration was just how easy it was for MCs to localize their style of hip-hop.

Tricky is another MC whose influence can be heard in today's rap scene and that was because of his avant-garde charisma and individualism in a scene full of crews. He is from Bristol and that meant he was often going to be left out of the conversations regarding the lasting impact of '90s UK rappers. Tricky was more trip-hop than rap and Bristol was the birthplace of that scene in the UK. And the scene originating from the west country isn't a coincidence either. The Southwest is culturally far from London but it meant that regional distinctions were beginning to develop across the country.

Roots Manuva would also emerge in the late '90s with his debut album Brand New Second Hand, released in 1999. However, it was " Witness," released in 2001, that brought the Stockwell rapper to national prominence with its wobbly production and south London twang that was attributed to the Caribbeans who resided in the area for decades.

Across garage, jungle, and drum and bass, rap wasn't so readily defined as that in those circles, it was just MCing or spitting. It began to create a clear divide between more traditional hip-hop sounds although artists in the differing scenes often embraced each other and performed on the same tours. Sticky, Glamma Kid, Heartless Crew, Pay As U Go Cartel, Ms Dynamite, General Levy, Riko Dan, and Stush were all but a few of the names leading those respective scenes in the '90s right through to the 2000s.
The early 2000s: Grime enters the fray
By the turn of the millennium, UK rap was intrinsically linked to garage. If you were to find straight rap, at this time, it would've been found in the form of UK hip-hop. When So Solid Crew emerged in the early 2000s, the DNA of rap would change as they began to flirt with slow-tempo sounds - particularly on 2003's 2nd Verse, the group's second album. Pay As U Go's " Know We," arguably one of the first grime tracks ushered in a new style of garage that was more ominous and bass-heavy than before. Over the following years, the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Roll Deep, Nasty Crew, Ruff Sqwad, and Boy Better Know would emerge at the tail-end of garage's height of prominence.

It was through grime that platforms such as Risky Roadz, Lord of the Mics, Grime Forum, Hyperfrank, Prancehall, and Butterz arose. Grime, compared to garage, had become a multimedia genre, capitalizing on the internet connectivity and DVDs which allowed the scene to thrive nationally. Although many of these platforms emerged in the mid-2000s, they were all apart of the underground media establishment that honestly and authentically captured the essence of grime at the time.

On the other side of the line, Ty, Jehst, Foreign Beggars, Skinnyman, and The Streets began to emerge, embracing the traditions of UK hip-hop. These rappers localized the themes of UK's sociopolitical climate at the time while maintaining a soulful sound of hip-hop. There was also a level of grittiness that suited the bleak, grey landscape of working-class Britain. The scene was underground but these were artists often supporting US rap acts such as Mos Def, Wu-Tang Clan, and Pharoahe Monch.
The mid-aughts: The Explosion of Road Rap
Grime was lively as ever and a firm scene was established by 2005. Beyond the pirate radio sets at Rinse FM and Deja Vu FM, MCs were beginning to release full-length projects. Dizzee's Boy In Da Corner, Ruff Sqwad's Guns N Roses, Wiley's Treddin' On Thin Ice, and Kano's Home Sweet Home each laid the blueprint for the quintessential grime album, dispelling myths that the scene was never made for full-length feature projects. And young MCs such as Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder, N-Dubz, and Griminal were all waiting in the wings biding their time.

In areas such as South London, road rap became the predominant sound. Sonically and thematically, it was the closest precursor to the drill and trap we hear today. Arguably the biggest and most successful acts to come out of the road rap scene were Krept & Konan and Giggs, who embraced slower yet more ominous tones. Although many had come before those acts, their signature sounds sparked a shift where future drill artists such as Croydon's SL cites Giggs as an early influence.

The road rap scene was made up largely of local legends such as North London's Young Spray and North Star; Gipset, which featured Krept & Konan; and S.A.S - the UK arm of Dipset. At times it was often difficult to distinguish the difference between rap and grime since a lot of MCs were beginning to cross over from roughly 2005.

MCs such as Sway and Klashnekoff left their distinctive imprints on hip-hop over the years. Sway embraced his Ghanaian heritage and Klashnekoff did so with his Jamaican roots. Both were gifted lyricists in his own right, capable of spinning every man they were on a track with. However, many of the hip-hop MCs would routine collaborate with artists from other scenes such as garage, jungle, rap, and drum & bass as a way of crossing over but also highlighting that due to these scenes being made up of predominantly descendants of Black immigrants, there was no one scene that ever stood completely on its own. It's this fluidity that has made the British scene so unique and innovative despite not necessarily having a buying market as sizeable as the US.
2010s and Beyond: The Golden Age, the birth of UK drill and the new rap frontier
It was this decade when UK rap went mainstream. However, it wasn't just one song that broke the floodgates such as Stormzy's " Shut Up Freestyle" or Dave and Fredo's " Funky Friday" which went to number one on the UK charts. It was a culmination of hits for the past nine years making the Top 40 that saw UK rap in a space it had never previously been. The grime veterans still have their roots firmly in the scene but Wretch 32, Skepta, Kano, D Double E, P Money, Ghetts, and many others have each released albums that not only sound much different to the underground releases of the Noughties but it also shows that these artists were able to adapt to younger audiences who were enamored with rap much more than grime.

In recent years, the UK rap tree has grown and expanded due to the social phenomenons that took place earlier in the decade. Access to platforms such as YouTube and streaming sites have given younger artists a broader and more diverse soundscape to take inspiration from. While d rill was born in Chicago - via the likes of Chief Keef, Lil Reese, and King Louie - it migrated to the UK and ultimately replaced grime as the sound of Black youth. Road, or street rap, was very much underground but it wouldn't be until the rise of south London crews such as 67 and Section Boyz when drill and trap came to major prominence in the UK. More recently, acts such as Skengdo & AM, SL, Unknown T, and K-Trap have been leading the current wave of drill artists rising to popularity.

UK rap is firmly in the mainstream now with the likes of Dave, J Hus, Stormzy, Mo Stack, Kojo Funds, and more repeatedly finding themselves in the charts. The triumvirate of Dave, J Hus and Stormzy have each released record-breaking albums that have signaled the beginning of a golden age.

It's become harder to define and separate these scenes because of the internet and the exposure to past sounds that younger artists now have, coupled with the nostalgia of youth and the DNA of Black British youth-led music. While there have been strict rules in defining what each of these scenes is - whether they are rap, hip-hop, jungle, grime or trap - those rules are beginning to disintegrate. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. It means that artists themselves don't have to pigeonhole themselves to one particular branch of that tree, allowing them to cross over much easier than their predecessors. If the past is anything to go by, the next 40 years show incredible amounts of promise for the Black British music scene.

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A Brief But In-Depth Dive Into the 40 Year History of UK Hip-Hop & Rap

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From the sound system scene in the '80s to the rise of UK Drill in the '10s UK rap and have had a long journey. Here is a brief, but in-depth guide. It's a complicated affair attempting to record the history of UK rap and hip-hop.

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Neil Kulkarni has been writing about hip hop music for a quarter of a century and is the author of 'The Periodic Table Of Hip Hop', 'Eastern Spring' and 'Bring The Noise: The Stories Behind Hip Hop's Biggest Songs', as well as being the Hip Hop editor at DJ Magazine.

This essay was curated by The Subcultures Network, which was formed in 2011 to facilitate research on youth cultures and social change, and commissioned as part of the National Lottery Heritage Funded project to build the online Museum of Youth Culture. Being developed by YOUTH CLUB, the Museum of Youth Culture is a new destination dedicated to celebrating 100 years of youth culture history through photographs, ephemera and stories.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund invests money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about - from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife.

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Feeling Fresh: UK Hip Hop - Google Arts & Culture

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Neil Kulkarni has been writing about hip hop music for a quarter of a century and is the author of 'The Periodic Table Of Hip Hop', 'Eastern Spring' and 'Bring The Noise: The Stories Behind Hip Hop's Biggest Songs', as well as being the Hip Hop editor at DJ Magazine.

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Beat Generation: Vogue Meets London’s Rising Music Stars

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From Loyle Carner and Nadia Rose to Section Boyz and Abra Cadabra, these are the names to know now

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8 breaking crews and hip-hop collectives pushing the UK scene forward

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Get to know the breaking pioneers and up-and-coming collectives making waves in 2019.

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Lady Leshurr Style, Clothes, Outfits and Fashion 

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At the height of the economic boom a decade ago, while futures, champagne and bad debt swilled around Canary Wharf, the sounds emanating from tower blocks barely a mile away served notice that there was more than one east London. Long before the Sun ever talked about " The Brrrap Pack" and Tinchy Stryder scored two No 1 singles, his fellow teenage producers, MCs and DJs from Bow E3 - mostly school-friends - created a sound that has stood the test of time.

Grime sounded as if it had crash-landed in the present with no past, and no future. It was never supposed to be about nostalgia. But after over a year of trawling through old hard-drives and piles of vinyl, the two main producers from Ruff Sqwad, Rapid and Dirty Danger, are re-releasing the tracks that established the reputation of arguably the genre's greatest-ever crew.

"These," Rapid explains, as we settle down in a council flat near Canary Wharf, "are the anthems. The tunes people remember us by. The ones people have been asking for ever since."

Grime fans have never been able to get hold of these tracks at full quality, even though they know every bar inside out: from dancing to them in clubs, from mix CDs, or from pirate radio - sure, they're all there on YouTube, scuzzed in tinny digitalia, encoded at a bitrate lower than the temperature of a London winter; or you can pay exorbitant amounts of money to a secondhand vinyl seller, as many desperate DJs have done. But now these lost Ruff Sqwad instrumentals are being made available - and it's a glorious reminder of one of the most creative moments in modern British music.

It's a sign of how precocious they were, that asked when they first starting making beats, Rapid and Dirty can only place it by school year: "I think I would have been year eight or nine," Rapid says, eventually agreeing to tie this to a calendar year (2002). "We had a parents' evening, and my teacher said: 'He needs a PC, to be doing his homework, and research and stuff,' and my dad was sort of embarrassed, so a week later he went out and bought me a Packard Bell, which came with all these programmes."

Dirty had a similar experience, pressuring his dad to buy him a PC, so he could play games. "Then one of my brother's older friends had a copy of FruityLoops 3, so we just started messing about with it." They pulled in their school mates, including the emerging core of Slix, Rapid, Dirty Danger, Tinchy Stryder and Shifty Rydos, but it was never supposed to be serious. "We were just a bunch of boys from the ends. We went under the name Ruff Sqwad for a joke thing really."

Listening to garage crews such as Heartless Crew and Pay AsU Go, and practising in local youth clubs and the playground, they soon realised they were lacking grime's greatest currency: exclusive ("white label") tracks. "We thought this is the way forward, we need our own dubplates." Rapid recalls. " Tings in Boots was the first one: I liked it, Stryder liked it, Slix liked it; we came up with a little hook, and went down Locomotion's house. Locomotion's dad was the person who owned Music House [an infamous grime studio], the person who actually cut the dubs in there. So we bunked school one day, the three of us."

"I was supposed to be on that track too," Dirty interjects, laughing - "but I didn't dare bunk school." From there the, dubplate of Tings In Boots was sent out to the grime scene's biggest DJs, and started becoming a fixture on London pirate radio. "That was when Stryder first got eyes on him. People were saying: 'Who's this little boy with a small voice, spitting hot verses?'" It was a strange experience, leaving their small part of east London - their geographical horizons as narrow as the musical ones were broad. It was no small thing for a group of east London teenagers to travel to parts of north London or Essex ("even Dagenham!" Dirty exlaims) to get their records played on radio, or visit a vinyl-cutting studio.

"In a sense, you're risking your life," Rapid says, "because we used to come out of our area, where we're comfortable, taking buses and trains to Tottenham, or walking deep into areas in Hackney from the bus stop. We'd have people asking: 'Where are you from? What are you doing here?' and see people pulling out guns at the radio stations, dogs, whatever.

"But it felt so special. You'd make a beat in your bedroom, go to some tiny room, put it on the decks, and hundreds of people would be listening. That energy was just a next feeling, like you were on top of the world." Their status grew even while they were still practising lyrics during their school lunchbreaks, or making beats in their bedrooms. It was a balancing act, as Rapid recalls: "I'd be in college and get a call fromWiley and he'd be like: 'Come to the studio right now.'"

Before a stint at Rinse FM in the mid 2000s, they moved from pirate to pirate: having crew shows on Heat, Flava, Mystic, and finally Deja Vu FM, which was "like going into a different league". On Deja Vu they would share a line up with Meridian (featuring the likes of Skepta and JME), the legendary Nasty Crew, and Wiley's crew, Roll Deep. "All in one day!" remembers Rapid. "One crazy day of radio." They soon became known outside Bow, for chilling, dark beats; tracks such as Pied Piper, Tings in Boots, and Raw to the Core. "Those early ones were dark, but with a melodic theme," explains Dirty. "No one else knew how to put melodies in such dark music." Those first tracks sound gloriously unvarnished: Pied Piper's squelch-whip noises sound like desperate electronic yelps trying to escape from the machine - the instrumental equivalent of a teenage voice yet to break. During the white-hot period of 2003-5 this already uniquely Ruff Sqwad sound expanded into something much more grandiose: palatial synth melodies, sweeping clifftop strings, and stirring military brass - instrumentals big, bold and detailed enough to stand up on their own, even while their functional purpose was a backdrop for live or radio MC-ing.

On one old Deja Vu FM set from 2004 ( available on the free MP3 archive at grimetapes.com), one of the MCs exclaims: "Listen to the instruments singing!"- it's a triumphant example of golden-age pirate radio. "That's how it used to feel to us," Dirty says. "Like the music was actually singing to us."

Even among White Label Classics' varied catalogue of brilliance, one track sings loudest of all: Functions on the Low is quite simply one of the greatest tracks in the history of British electronic music. It was the only song that its creator, XTC, ever completed. In fact, he was barely even in Ruff Sqwad; he was just another mate (and MC Fuda Guy's older brother) who thought he'd give music a go for a bit - and happened to create a masterpiece. (What he did next remains a mystery, although there are rumours he's about to return with more music.) It's a breathtaking five minutes of longing, a fleeting glimpse of the love of your life disappearing into the night - neon lights seen through a torrent of tears. It's so heartbreaking, and yet so addictive, so humane, that the moment it stops, you're desperate to have it back.

"Most of our songs, even though they're grime, were just really heartfelt," says Dirty, trying to fathom where that tendency came from, now he's a relaxed, balanced adult. "Times must have been really hard."

It's not the only track that refutes the myth that grime production is aggressive, boisterous, or cluttered. Your Love Feels has a sinister bassline and catchy cymbal-swoosh, but these elements are only there to support the main event: heartrending vocal samples deliriously mangled into an emotional soup. Using FruityLoops the group would chop up rock and classical hooks, draw on film soundtracks such as Rocky, or pop-plundering hip-hop producers such as Dipset and Just Blaze - and on the sublime Together, even make deft use of the Police's Message in a Bottle. Unlike the tongue-in-cheek cheese-sampling mania of some dance music and hip-hop, Ruff Sqwad's chipmunked vocal samples were always executed with the brutal sincerity of adolescents. There are no knowing winks here, and it sounds all the better for it - their reworking of Cutting Crew's Died In Your Arms Tonight makes you feel like somebody has actually just done so; not like it's karaoke night in the Dog and Duck.

"A lot of people think grime is one thing, but something like Died In Your Arms is basically a love song," Dirty says. Like Together, it's a song whose vocal version would have been a Top-10 hit if there was any justice in the world - had it not been tucked away away on a semi-official mix CD. I remind them of the first time Ruff Sqwad played the Died In Your Arms instrumental on the radio: as soon as the whomping drum claps come in, whoever was holding the mic at that point exclaimed: "Clap your hands!"

Rapid chuckles. "That was what we were imagining, some stadium-rock thing; all these people clapping." This unabashed teenage dreaming goes some way to explaining the extraordinary grandeur of other long-lost instrumental classics such as Anna and Lethal Injection. The former's trumpet volleys seem to herald the onset of a great empire from days of old; while the latter's crushing sci-fi synths describe the first great empire in space (and give a clue where Hudson Mohawke got his best ideas).

Ruff Sqwad are still making music together, when Tinchy's schedule allows - mostly singles in the vein of January's lighthearted Mario Balotelli - and a long-awaited third mix CD may yet materialise; but they're fully aware "the game has changed". And as to where their astounding vision came from? Dirty thinks back. "Our minds were so wide open at the time," he says wistfully, "so ambitious - that's how we felt."

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A history of grime, by the people who created it

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At the height of the economic boom a decade ago, while futures, champagne and bad debt swilled around Canary Wharf, the sounds emanating from tower blocks barely a mile away served notice that there was more than one east London.

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The Black Women's Movement - Google Arts & Culture

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A look at the Black Women's movement and its role within British feminism

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The late 90s and early 00s saw a continuation and evolution of the UK's grassroots rave culture. Club MCs were the norm and pirate radio stations ruled the underground. And no matter which club or warehouse you were in, you'd likely be getting down to the undeniably danceable sounds of UK garage (the best genre ever).

It's a genre that has never truly had its righteous comeback, except in the form of its offspring genres like grime, dubstep, UK funky and bassline for which it laid the foundation. But all UK garage tunes released between 1995 to 2005 bring forth deeply nostalgic memories for the ultimate bygone rave era.

Let's go back for a minute. The year is 1995 and DJs begin to move away from sampling and playing US records, the UK becomes heavily influenced by slightly faster, tougher bassline focused sounds. Import prices soar and the want for US records falls so UK producers begin to make their own garage records with a peerless British sauce. UK garage is birthed like a newborn golden child, into the eager arms of the country.

This gave heed to a new generation of electronic music, one that seemed to perfectly fuse dance and urban bass-driven sounds. UK music culture became a melting pot for all sorts of intertwined production levels and styles, moods and energies that seemed to never stop evolving.

Although relatively short-lived, UK garage is without a doubt one of the best genres of music to exist and in celebration of it, we present our list of 40 of the best tracks released from 1995 to 2005:

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UK garage: the 40 best tracks of 1995 to 2005

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The late 90s and early 00s saw a continuation and evolution of the UK's grassroots rave culture. Club MCs were the norm and pirate radio stations ruled the underground. And no matter which club or warehouse you were in, you'd likely be getting down to the undeniably danceable sounds of UK garage (the best genre ever).

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The 10 Best UK Rap Films, according to Jords

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Shining a light on inner-city living while being soundtracked by some of the best rap music going, the British rap film is a genre beloved by the UK. While classics like 2006’s Kidulthood and its sequels have stood the test of time, more recently the Kano and Dave-starring Top Boy has earned itself…

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Standing on a windy rooftop in London's Soho, rapper Ms Banks is telling me about the film she just watched. 'Oh my gosh, it was an emotional rollercoaster!'

The movie in question? Cult indie flick Patti Cake$, which set Sundance Film Festival alight and which centres around aspiring hip-hop artist Patricia Dombrowski - a 23-year-old who's determined to escape the humdrum of her narrow New Jersey existence by achieving rap star status. (Stream it on NOW TV.)

In an era of Stormzys and Drakes and following years of male-orientated hip-hop biopics - Straight Outta Compton, All Eyez on Me, 8 Mile - watching a rags-to-riches rap story with a woman at the helm is refreshing. And clearly overdue. The film got a 10-minute standing ovation at Cannes last year.

But while Australian actress Danielle Macdonald successfully conveys the struggles of not being taken seriously (she's mocked, called 'Dumbo' and her mum is the town drunk), off-screen, what's it really like to be a female MC trying to break into the mainstream?

We tracked down three rising UK-based artists to find out the reality, compared to the big screen.

South London rapper Ms Banks (real name Tyra Banks - yep, really) first showcased her lyrical talents at an open mic night aged 18. She's since amassed over 100,000 Instagram followers and earned herself a fanbase that includes the likes of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, whom she toured with last year.

When did you first discover you could rap?

'I come from a really musical family. Both of my uncles were rappers and when I was 11, they encouraged me to give it a go. I was really into poetry as a kid, so I already knew I could write rhymes - all I needed to do was add a beat.'

What inspires your lyrics?

'I saw a lot growing up in south-east London. I first started writing lyrics to express myself and to stop myself from acting out in other ways, so I rap about the things I've been through, the things I've seen, the stories I hear from my friends... that's my inspiration.'

In Patti Cake$, we see Patti struggling with pre-stage nerves. Do you ever get nervous before performing?

'I do get nervous, but as soon as I'm on stage, I know that I deserve to be there. I love how Patti gives herself positive affirmations that she's a boss b**** before she performs. I can relate to that. I remind myself daily that I am a queen and that I am strong, ambitious and caring. Some rappers can be egotistical, but I think it's cool to be considerate and kind.'

What's the most common misconception about women who rap?

'A lot of people think that female rappers are boisterous, or that if we show a little skin, we're trying to be overtly sexy. Whether I'm in a dress or a tracksuit, I can go as hard as any guy. I don't rap because I want to fit in with the boys - I rap because I love rapping. Through my music, I want to speak for the girls and spread the message that we can make it in any industry.'

- Listen to Ms Banks on SoundCloud
Funmi Ohiosumah, aka Flohio, has been touted by Naomi Campbell as a woman 'changing our future'. She's quickly gaining buzz for her energetic style and unapologetic, sharp-witted bars. Having spent the first eight years of her life living in Nigeria, she moved to Bermondsey in London as a pre-teen and let the culture shock inspire her music.

Describe the first time you performed?

'It was at my local youth club and I was very young, around 14 years old. I remember standing completely still, with everyone staring at me, and I rapped standing in the same spot the whole time. I didn't move. That night, I went home and watched a video of Lil Wayne performing. By the time my next show rolled around, I was jumping around, standing on benches, you name it. I couldn't stay still.'

How do you stand out in a crowded industry?

'What's key is remembering that it doesn't matter where you've come from - everyone is unique in their own way. That's why I don't see other artists as 'competition.' If 10 people are saying one thing and you're saying something different, then who are you competing with? There's space for everyone in this game, as long as you stay fresh and relevant.'

'I rap about anything and everything, but I would never want to put anyone down with my lyrics. I want my music to be inclusive. I rap to encourage people to stand up for themselves and to inspire self-belief.'

What's your advice to other aspiring rappers?

'Enjoy it! And don't stress too much. Have fun with it and keep striving to make this industry - and the art - better. If you do that, you can't lose.'

With Glastonbury and the 2018 Commonwealth Games (where she represented her city) ticked off, Birmingham-born Sherelle Robbins is on a mission. She's garnering attention for her intelligent rhymes and thought-provoking lyrics and cites Lauryn Hill, Lady Leshurr and Ms Dynamite as her inspirations.

Who's your coolest Instagram follow?

'Missy Elliot. I went to do a show in Australia, got off the plane and saw that she was following me. I had to check for the double blue tick to believe it was really her!'

What are the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry?

'Sometimes when I go to events that have a predominantly male line-up, they won't even pass me the mic - I have to literally grab it from them. On the plus side, you do tend to get more attention as a female rapper as we're still a rarity. It has its pros and its cons.'

Patti counts her nan and best friend Hareesh as her biggest fans. Who's your biggest supporter?

'My mum, my sister and my nieces. They always listen to my music and they're very understanding of what I do. I'm so grateful to have them as not everyone has that support system and that must be tough.'

Where do you want to see the rap industry go in the next five years?

'I definitely want to see more women rapping or even working behind-the-scenes, be it as producers or sound engineers. A lot of the time, we're just not seen.'
Listen to Lady Sanity on SoundCloud To watch another talented female rapper in action, stream Patti Cake$ on NOW TV or choose from over 1000 other movies.

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Inside The Fascinating World Of Female UK Rappers

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Standing on a windy rooftop in London's Soho, rapper Ms Banks is telling me about the film she just watched. 'Oh my gosh, it was an emotional rollercoaster!' The movie in question?

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The UN's Global Goals aim to achieve gender equality by 2030, as part of the goal of ending extreme poverty. To achieve true equality, representation and inspiration are essential - and art is a perfect tool in that effort. Join the movement by taking action here to empower women and girls around the world.
As you might have already heard, this year marks the centenary of the first women in the UK winning the right to vote.

It's been a year of women's marches, statue unveilings, celebration, and honouring those powerful individuals who laid the foundations for feminism today.

And now, as 2018 draws to a close, feminist murals are appearing all over London in celebration of inspirational women the world over.
Take Action: Stand With Every Women, Every Child: Ask World Leaders to End Preventable Deaths
The project is the creation of Scarlett Curtis, author of Feminists Don't Wear Pink, and Alice Wroe, founder of feminist art organisation Herstory - both of whom use art to further the political goals of the feminist movement.

It's a huge project, with 50 artworks scattered all across the capital city; many in east London, but also in Camden, Clapham, Elephant and Castle, Finsbury Park, and elsewhere.

"We wanted to include a mix of feminist icons and women who should be feminist icons but whose stories are less well known," Curtis told the Independent.

"Women like Elizabeth I, [abolitionist and women's rights activist] Sojourner Truth, [suffragette leader] Emmeline Pankhurst, and [nurse and suffragette] Sophia Duleep Singh overcame oppression at a time when everything in the world stood against women being powerful, and we owe so much to them," she continued.

Malala Yousafzai and activist and Ms. magazine co-founder Gloria Steinem are also among the women featured in the artworks, along with writer and activist bell hooks, philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, writer and activist Audre Lorde, and writer Virginia Woolf.

The artworks are striking, painted in black and white but with a single pink item of clothing or accessory, as an homage to Curtis' book - published in partnership with the UN's Girl Up, which works to empower girls and women globally in getting into leadership positions.

According to Curtis, she was inspired by the lack of women honoured in public places across the UK. While there are 828 statues of important people in Britain, she told the Independent, just 80 of these are named women.

"It's so important that women and girls get to see themselves reflected in positions of power and honour, and that was one of the main reasons we wanted to do this project," Curtis added.

The first women in the UK - propertied women over 30 - were able to vote for the first time in a general election in 1918, after they were granted the right to vote by the Representation of the People Act 1918.

"For me, practising women's history is a political act," Wroe told Refinery29. "My project is guided by the maxim: 'If you can't see it, how can you be it?' I believe there's a profound link between looking back and seeing the women who have come before and looking forward into our own feminist futures."

Wroe added: "There's a strong feminist history of changing public spaces to cause rupture, so this felt like an empowering and exciting way to continue it."

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Feminist Murals Are Popping Up All Over London and They're Amazing

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The UN's Global Goals aim to achieve gender equality by 2030, as part of the goal of ending extreme poverty. To achieve true equality, representation and inspiration are essential - and art is a perfect tool in that effort. Join the movement by taking action here to empower women and girls around the world.

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History of Street Art in the UK | Widewalls

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History of street art in the UK shows that it wasn't far behind the group that started it all in New York, as the fever soon covered the isles of Britain

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UK Capital

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Meghan Markle is half black. She is biracial. Her father is white, and her mother is black. I wrote it out and then hit send. This was my response to nearly all of the texts from friends about Prince Harry's new black fiancée. With some black friends who I knew needed this celebration of a black woman's beauty being internationally recognized, I feigned joy: So cool! A dead giveaway of a lie-I rarely ever use the word cool to describe a cultural event other than modern art shows, and those will only be reduced to cool if they are hard to recognize as art but trendy enough to acquire likes on Instagram. Tweets continued to scroll by on my feed reflecting a hue of the black American response: "A real black princess!," "Secure the palace, sis!," "BlackInBuckingham," "Get ready for the black royal wedding, y'all." I took a bite out of my breakfast sandwich that was buttery in the middle but crisp at the ends. With one hand free to type I wrote out to a friend: Meghan Markle is the type of black that the majority of right-leaning white America wishes we all could be, if there were to be blackness at all.

Markle looks like some of the mixed-race girls who I went to high school with in my suburban town. When the Internet was still new, I used a few of their pictures to catfish white boys so I could hear them say that they loved me, even if it was only digitally and not really me. Instinctually, I knew that white men had more dexterity with romance when it came to dating ambiguously looking black women rather than ones that couldn't be mistaken as anything else: dark skin, big nose, big lips, big eyes, big hair. Ambiguous blackness could be forgotten, at the very least easily forgiven, when introduced to white families, to white friends, to white neighbors. On my basketball team, we would sometimes take bus trips to schools that were in towns like the one in Los Angeles where Markle grew up and which she has described as "a neighborhood that was leafy and affordable. What it was not, however, was diverse." The black girls at those basketball meets, like the passably white ones in my high school, seemed to exist in a world above the blackness that I knew. They had a familiarity with whiteness. It showed in the way they held themselves, how they rested their heads on the shoulders of their white friends without fear of dirtying them with brown makeup, how they yelled their friends' names across the court without anticipation for anything other than a wave, and constantly pursed their lips as though suspended by both the power and fear which they possessed: to be anyone that you wanted them to be, without the foresight of knowing which you would choose.

I have a passably white friend who is 34 percent black, a percentage that we have made good business out of identifying. For as long as I can remember, she has been grabbed at the arm by strangers while entering a room and almost immediately asked to identify her race. Her eyes are blue and tiny freckles mark her face. For a long time, it felt as though I was her only good black friend. When we talk on the phone these days, it still seems to be the case: She excuses every white transgression that I try to highlight. Our lines of communication are always held taut by her privilege. She has only dated white men, tried to catch up to groups of white girls in high school even as her backpack fell off her shoulder, and did things that fully black girls were too afraid to do at 17: lines of coke, sleepovers at her boyfriends' house for full weekends. When I told my older cousin that I thought she was being abused by her first boyfriend, my cousin responded, "It'll happen when girls like her try to fit in with white people." I listened to my friend's stories of being thrown to the ground and pushed up against walls with my cousin's words in the back of my mind. There was no sympathy for a mixed girl who was trying to draw bridges off her identity, aligning with whiteness.

You can tell with some ease that my mixed-race cousins have black in them. Their hair has kinks, their nose bridge widens, and their lips are enviously full. Markle has had the opposite experience, recalling in a personal essay for Elle in 2015 that in grade school, her teacher urged her to check the Caucasian box while filling out the census, because that was how she appeared. "I put down my pen. Not as an act of defiance, but rather a symptom of my confusion. I couldn't bring myself to do that, to picture the pit-in-her-belly sadness my mother would feel if she were to find out. So I didn't pick a box," wrote Markle. (Her father later advised her to draw her own.) As kids, my cousins too had trouble identifying themselves with either race. When they attended playdates with white students in their class, they were always made to sit at the edge of the bed, to search for others in a room where they would never find anyone, to wait for the phone call on the following day saying their friend had a great time and would like to have them over again that never came. So their mothers would encourage their black friendships, which seemed to come easier. Their black friends would praise their hair for being silkier than theirs, call them funny even when their jokes were indulgent, and make room for them at the table even if it was full. At a family gathering, my fully black cousin hung onto my shoulder and said, "I wish I had hair like her." She was referring to my mixed cousin.

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The Problem With Calling Meghan Markle the "First Black Princess"

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Meghan Markle is half black. She is biracial. Her father is white, and her mother is black. I wrote it out and then hit send. This was my response to nearly all of the texts from friends about Prince Harry's new black fiancée.

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To conclude our three-part introduction to the UK grime scene, we've taken a magnifying glass to its aesthetics. Exploring the fashions of grime, here's a brief history topped with 5 essential grime pieces. Get to know.
Anyone seeking a look that's 100% grime need check Dizzee Rascal on the cover of his breakout debut, Boy In Da Corner. There he is, just sitting there - all-black tracksuit, black Nikes, black gloves, hood up. The complete package. And it's not just his clothes, either; his pose, his expression and his gaze all read total grime. This much-celebrated album would go on to collect the Mercury Music Prize in 2003 - a prize not just for Dizzee, but the whole grime scene he'd helped nurture and grow - and there he is, hunched against a wall, in nothing but a shop-bought Nike two-piece. He's not showing off a Rolex, a Maserati, a trophy woman, or his six-pack. It's just him; that's what makes this total grime.

Whereas US hip-hop spent the early part of the Twenty-First Century dedicated to the vulgar excess of sports cars, video girls, bejewelled pimp cups, and perpetual one-upmanship, grime was about eschewing luxury for a visual aesthetic that, like grime itself, was about the authentic day-to-day experience of inner-city London. That's why Dizzee isn't announcing himself as some huge star born and ready to make his money. He's just sitting there, waiting.

And, when you pop his CD in the deck, you won't hear him name check the designer labels he's shopping or the chains he's wearing. The opening track sets it down, with the line, "benefit claims and checks in false names/no sign of positive change." Early grime was never about urban excess, but about being honest about the daily struggle. As such, its sense of style was born from a feeling of disenfranchisement from the cultures that came before.

Youth culture can often be best understood as a reaction to its direct precedents. Grime is, in many ways, a direct rejection of UK garage, whose own emphasis on sex and ecstatic indulgence were an antidote to the dearth of fashion that came via the big rave and drum and bass scenes. The sharp dress sense in UK garage clubs was a 180-degree departure from the spirit of pluralism and comfort espoused by the rave movement, whose uniform was effortless and unmistakably sloppy.

With rave, the sense of empathy afforded by massive crowds dancing all night on ecstasy made looking better than the person next to you seem ostentatious and a million miles away from the free-loving energy the movement was founded on. And, since everyone was just there to dance, punters simply showed up in comfortable trainers and baggy trousers that were suitable for the marathon dancefloor session. If said dancefloor happened to be in the middle of a muddy rural field, you certainly weren't about to wear your best shirt and shoes.

In response, UK garage turned around the baggy look that dominated both the "Second Summer of Love" in '88-'89 and, arguably, most of the early jungle and drum & bass years. Clubbers didn't listen to garage among thousands of ravers in fields off the motorway, or in dingy warehouses on the outskirts of the city. Though nightclubs had always been a part of UK nightlife, by the time garage was number one, massive pop-up raves were a thing of the past and going out was done exclusively in clubs where the punter was encouraged to dress up for the occasion.

Much like US hip-hop, going out to a garage night was a celebration of excess. It was commonplace to see a man dancing on the floor with a magnum of champagne in hand, his thumb sealed over the mouth of the bottle. A key facet of garage culture was blowing all your money in one night - whether on girls, cocaine or champagne - and clothes were a big part of this consumerist rush. People went out to look their best, to impress and, since garage re-introduced both sexiness and an off-kilter swing to London's dancefloors following the macho rush of drum & bass, nights out were about impressing those of the opposite sex by any and every means possible.

This high-rolling look was also enforced at the nightclub door. Many UK garage clubs in the late '90s banned items of streetwear like trainers, jeans, and baseball caps. These forbidden items would go on to become the chief pieces of grime fashion. Grime was born out of a frustration with garage's ritzy elitism, but its style wasn't just a rebellion against what came before in order to make room for something new. It was an aesthetic adopted because it more truly reflected its wearers' identities. As Skepta spat on grime anthem That's Not Me, "I used to wear Gucci, put it all in the bin cause that's not me." And so it was: Versace out, Nike in. Silk shirts out, tracksuits in.

"The street culture to London, grime's the soundtrack to that," once said seminal grime DJ Logan Sama. "It runs in parallel: the dress code, the music, they're all reflection of that." So, grime fashion is the look of the everyman on the street, but has to be kept fresh and clean. Though it's about sometimes wearing trackies and trainers, your tracksuit better be crisp and your trainers (sneakers) better not be scuffed. And though grime isn't about labels worthy of Vanity Fair, grime MCs still engage in a fair bit of brand worship of their own.

The hottest grime threads came from Avirex, Akademiks or, of course, Nike. The Nike Air Max holds one of the true monopolies on the grime wardrobe. Though you could wear any number of different tracksuits, there was really only one brand for sneakers. Watch one of the early editions of Lord of the Mics - a straight-to-DVD release of grime MCs battling and freestyling against each other - and they're all wearing Air Max. You could just about get away with wearing the Air Force 1, too, but the Air Max was practically a requirement for any MC. The shoes were often called the "110," in reference to their £110 price tag.

The Avirex leather jacket - an expensive holdover from the garage days - meanwhile, was a dangerous piece. Men got jumped on the street just for their Avirex jackets, so wearing one became a symbol of pride and audacity. "Jump me," it dared, "just try it." In summer, the jacket would come off, but the cap would stay on, and the only cap to wear was the New Era fitted 59Fifty, pulled down to your brows so people could see you still had the gold sticker on i.e. it was brand new.

As such, though dressing grime was about eschewing luxury for realness, you still had to look like you just came fresh from the shop. It's here that grime fashion begins to walk a fine line between expense and authenticity. On the one one had, you have to rep a pristine collection of the relatively expensive Air Max - but we're still just talking Nike here, not crocodile Gucci loafers. Ultimately, dressing grime is about keeping real to yourself, while still looking good. You could say dressing grime is about looking like the best version of yourself, even if that does mean laying out a couple dozen more for your shoes.

These days, grime is the everyman look for everyone. Designers like Nasir Mazhar have even been bringing grime to the runway (Skepta walked in his Spring/Summer '15 grime-influenced menswear collection) and, though many other designers have made twenty-first century athletic wear into high fashion, this certainly wasn't always the case. At one time, the world thought that dressing grime meant you were trouble and it kept you out of the clubs. These days, the doors are wide open.
Written by Taylor Hodges for Highsnobiety.com
Further your grime education with our previous features A Beginner's Guide to Grime and 5 Things You Need To Know About Grime.

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Further your grime education with the Highsnobiety schooling on grime style and fashions.

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be a person with knowledge not just opinions

A few weeks ago, I tried my hand at answering one of The Guardian's Book Q&A questions and one of the more memorable Qs was which book have you read do you wish you'd written? At the time, I answered predictably and generically but now I would like to emphatically change my answer because, THIS, this is the book I wish I'd written.

It is also the book I wish I'd read when it came out. A book I wish would never end. And literally the best...more

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be a person with knowledge not just opinions A few weeks ago, I tried my hand at answering one of The Guardian's Book Q&A questions and one of the more memorable Qs was which book have you read do you wish you'd written?

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M.I.A. Slams MTV VMAs For 'Racism Sexism Classism Elitism'

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M.I.A. is not happy with the MTV Video Music Awards excluding her music video about migrant crisis.

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M.I.A. - Matangi Tour (Live at Primavera Fauna Festival - Chile) Full Concert

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M.I.A. - Bring The Noize (Matangi Street Edition)

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M.I.A.’s journey to becoming a political pop star

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11 British Feminists To Follow On International Women’s Day For Some Everyday Inspiration On Your Feed

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While social media can often be an ugly place, it’s also a platform that has given those striving to make a change the opportunity to extend messages of equality, empowerment, body positivity, and inclusivity. Thanks to the instantaneous nature of…

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British hip hop, also known as UK hip hop or UK rap, is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of urban music. 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 (or speed-toasting) 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 rap" 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.

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 (Polydor, 1982), is often credited as such, as well as the slightly later released "London Bridge" by Newtrament (Jive Records, 1983). 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 (No Love)". The instrumental for "Money (No Love)" 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".

There were also early pop records which dabbled with rap - such as Adam and the Ants' " Ant Rap" (CBS, 1981) and Wham!'s " Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" (Inner Vision, 1982) - 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! (CBS, 1980), and a later single " This Is Radio Clash" (1981). Even earlier than this, in 1979, Ian Dury and the Blockheads released " Reasons to Be Cheerful (Part 3)", another record with influences from hip hop.

Then Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren's " Buffalo Gals" (Charisma, 1982), 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 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 (Street Sounds, 1984), 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" (Billy Boy, 1984) and Grandmaster Richie Rich's "Don't Be Flash" (Spin Offs, 1985). Releases were still few and far between, and the scene remained predominantly underground.

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[citation needed ] and John Peel.

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 (on canvass) 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 linguistic 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 (later Son of Noise) 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.

Moving away from its US roots, British hip hop started to develop its own sounds: acts like Hijack, II Tone Committee, Hardnoise, and Silver Bullet developed a fast and hardcore style, while many other acts took influences from elsewhere. 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" (released in 1993) 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 (of KREW and Newtrament), 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 (London) style. More was to come in the early 1990s in the form of MC Reason (a.k.a. Voice of 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" (1991), or Son of Noise's "Poor But Hardcore" (1992) - 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 (those who did were often ridiculed) 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, Overlord X and Bushkiller (including Sirus) - but many distinct scenes developed nationally.

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 (who together founded Low Life Records) as well as Nightmares on Wax. Greater Manchester gave birth to the Ruthless Rap Assassins, Krispy 3 (later Krispy), 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 (specifically the St. Pauls area) produced The Wild Bunch (later better known as Massive Attack), Nellee Hooper who went on to produce for Soul II Soul. 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 (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 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, yet rate amongst some of the finest pieces of UK hip hop recorded. 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, while 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, a fusion of breakbeat hardcore, hip hop and reggae. 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.

New generation: Late 1990s-early 2000s

Following an initial flurry of interest from major record labels in the 1980s, by the early 1990s the scene had moved underground after record companies pulled back. In the mid-1990s hip hop in the UK started to experiment and diversify - often mutating into diverse genres entirely, such as trip hop and began making inroads into the US market.

As the old rappers left the scene, a new generation, raised on hip hop and electronica, was 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 previously released the single "Next Type of Motion" (Sound of Money, 1995).

Record labels that attempted to merge British hip hop style and sensibilities with modern dance music began to emerge, like Mark Rae's Grand Central (home to Aim, Rae & Christian, and Fingathing, among others) or DJ Vadim's Jazz Fudge. Increasingly, these artists managed to avoid the issues surrounding sampling by making music themselves (bands such as the Stereo MCs began playing instruments and sampling their own tunes) or searching out more obscure records where a most cost effective licensing deal could be arranged.

British hip hop began to go through a renaissance, its style shifting from the hardcore template of its youth and moving into more melodic territory.

The Brotherhood managed to broker a major deal with Virgin Records in 1995. Continuing their relationship with Trevor Jackson as their producer, they released 3 singles 'Alphabetical Response', 'One Shot', 'Punk Funk' and their album Elementalz, all in 1996. Their work was met with critical acclaim and they toured solidly with American artists including Cypress Hill, The Roots and WuTang, but big record sales seemed to be very elusive and they parted ways with Virgin in 1998.

In late 1996, Will Ashon started up his new Ninja Tune backed label Big Dada and planned a roster of performers. Bandit of Birmingham's MSI/Asylum crew informed Will of Juice Aleem that he was contemplating who could truly represent the ethos of the new label. Ashon was impressed with the demo and agreed to have Aleem on board. The results of this were the first release of the now famous record label: in 1997 Juice featured on Big Dada record label's first ever release[2], "Misanthropic", under the pseudonym "Alpha Prhyme", a collaboration between himself and Luke Vibert.

In 1998, Mark B and Blade released "Hitmen for Hire EP", which featured guest appearances from Lewis Parker and Mr Thing (of the Scratch Perverts). The EP was a success, and led to the successful 2001 album The Unknown, which despite never charting in the UK top 75, was still a top 100 success and an even bigger success within its genre. Also, the album spawned the 2001 top 40 single "Ya Don't See the Signs", which was a remix by Feeder frontman Grant Nicholas, after the title track was a top 75 hit and Blade with Mark B supported Feeder. The same year, Bristol's Hombré label released the "2012 EP" from Aspects, a benchmark release within the movement. Roots Manuva, Blak Twang, Mud Family, Ti2bs, Task Force, Phi Life Cypher, MSI & Asylum, Jeep Beat Collective and Ty all came to the public's attention, while veteran acts Rodney P, Mike J, and MC Mell'O' returned to the scene. In 1999, MF Doom released his debut studio album Operation: Doomsday which has since been ranked as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time.

Underground to mainstream: 2000s to 2010s

A new generation of artists emerged following the turn of the century, including Jehst, Skinnyman, Nicky Spesh, Foreign Beggars and Usmaan. At the same time, a new style of electronic music emerged in the early 2000s, derivative of UK garage and jungle, with influences from dancehall, drum and bass and hip hop; this new genre was dubbed " grime" (sometimes called eskibeat or sublow) and effectively superseded UK hip hop in both popularity and the mainstream conscious. Grime is generally considered to be distinct from hip-hop due to its roots primarily being genres such as UK garage and jungle. In 2001, Roots Manuva claimed that British hip hop "is more healthy" than American hip-hop, and is more about making the music than is it about exploiting wealth or hitting it rich.

Success followed The Streets' 2002 album Original Pirate Material, and he became one of the first of the new breed of British hip hop artists to gain respectable sales, though his verbal style resulted in him being shunned by many artists in the scene. Such success has caused a surge in media exposure of other British hip hop acts. Welsh rap group Goldie Lookin Chain also achieved chart success with their tongue-in-cheek take on hip-hop. Key records such as Skinnyman's Council Estate of Mind, and Klashnekoff's The Sagas Of... were released, cementing the reputations of the artists and opening up the floor for new artists to emerge. Labels Low Life Records, run by prominent political rapper Braintax, and Young N' Restless started and became the starting point for many. At the same time, just as garage was losing momentum, grime was creating interest. Wiley's Treddin' on Thin Ice was a cornerstone of the genre, and one-time friend Dizzee Rascal won a Mercury Music Prize for his debut Boy in da Corner. From then on, grime artists were the only MC's for interested record labels, and UK Hip-Hop's momentum dried up.

A new generation of young socially conscious hip-hop musicians emerged as a counter to the grime scene that many in the UK Hip Hop scene perceived as commercial. These rappers strived to bring attention to both positivity and lyricism as well as the injustices of war, gentrification and racism, following in the tradition of conscious rappers such as Nas, Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Amongst this new generation included artists such as Klashnekoff, Akala, Lowkey and the Poisonous Poets.

The mid-2000s saw the emergence of road rap, a genre that took influences from American gangsta rap and focused on crime, gang, or violent themes. Road rap was pioneered by artists and groups such as PDC and Giggs' SN1 crew.

By the late 2000s, grime music had entered into a period of stagnation. This led to an emergence of acts that, while influenced by or initially started out making grime, were moving into a more commercialised, hip-hop influenced form of music. Artists from this new wave included N-Dubz, Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah, and Chipmunk (later known as Chip) who emerged in the late 2000s to great commercial success. Tinchy Stryder scored two number ones with songs " Number 1" and " Never Leave You" and became the best-selling British solo artist of 2009. The following year continued the success of the previous, with acts like Professor Green and Tinie Tempah breaking through to even bigger commercial success and also critical appreciation. The debut album from Tinie Tempah called went to number one in the UK Albums Chart and was certified platinum on 1 March 2011. He also won a Brit Award for his number one single " Pass Out". Rapper Plan B found success with his 2010 Hip Hop and Soul fusion album The Defamation of Strickland Banks, followed by the soundtrack album in 2012, both of which peaked at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart. In 2014, Scottish alternative hip-hop trio Young Fathers won the Mercury Music Prize for their album Dead. The album entered the UK chart at 35 after they won the award. Riz Ahmed, also known as Riz MC, was featured in the song " Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)" in The Hamilton Mixtape, which topped the Billboard 200 chart in 2016. At the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), "Immigrants" won the award for Best Fight Against the System.

2010 and onwards

The early 2010s saw the emergence of UK afrobeats, led by artists such as Mista Silva, Kwamz, Fuse ODG, and Timbo. Around the same time, artists such as Sneakbo and Timbo were incorporating melodic rap and Caribbean influences into their music. The foundation set by these artists would later be a major influence on Afroswing, a genre that emerged around 2014 derivative of UK afrobeats while carrying influences from grime, dancehall, hip hop, and R&B.

UK drill is a subgenre of drill music and road rap that originated in the South London district of Brixton from 2012 onwards. Borrowing heavily from the style of Chicago drill music, UK drill artists often rap about violent and hedonistic criminal lifestyles. Typically, those who create this style of music are affiliated with gangs or come from socioeconomically-deprived neighbourhoods where crime is a way of life for many. UK drill music is closely related to road rap, a British style of gangsta rap that became popular in the years prior to the existence of drill. Musically, UK drill often exhibits violent language and provocative lyrics.

The early 2010s also saw the emergence of an underground UK hip hop scene emulating the earlier wave of 2000s rappers such as Jehst, Task Force, King Kashmere, MysDiggi and Skinnyman. With complex lyrics and rhyme schemes and '90s New York boom bap influenced production, High Focus Records was instrumental in bringing this sound to a wider audience. The label was founded in 2010 by London rapper Fliptrix and key members of the larger High Focus crew have included The Four Owls, Dirty Dike, Ocean Wisdom, Jam Baxter and Dabbla.

Artists from the label have managed to build a sizeable following despite remaining underground, having performed to crowds of 25,000+ across Europe, played the famous Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK and seen many tracks reaching multiple millions of views on YouTube. In 2015, The Four Owls collaborated with highly respected US producer DJ Premier for their track Think Twice . BRIT Award winning singer-songwriter Rag'n'Bone Man also released two albums on the label in 2011 and 2014 - "Put That Soul on Me" (a collaboration with Dirty Dike) and "Dog n Bone" with Four Owls member and rapper/producer Leaf Dog. These albums are what eventually led to his signing with major label Columbia Records, however Rag'n'Bone Man has continued to feature on High Focus records releases such as the track "Mask" from Jam Baxter's album Touching Scenes in 2019.

Blah Records is also highly influential. The label was founded by Lee Scott (rapper) and Molotov in 2006 and currently managed and owned by Lee Scott and Salar. Key members of the Blah family include Lee Scott, Salar, Black Josh, Milkavelli, Jam Baxter and Cult of The Damned.

The mid-2010s saw the emergence of Abstract Orchestra, a British hip hop Orchestra that "explore the shared territory between jazz and hip hop by taking modern classics such as Madvillain and J Dilla's back catalogue and filtering them through classic arrangement techniques." The group is influenced by the style of hip hip associated with Detroit in the US and have recorded with Illa J and Slum Village. They perform with UK MC's Micall Parknsun, Joker Starr and Yungun.

By 2014, grime music was also experiencing a resurgence. While hip hop did not immediately benefit from this, the rise of grime has been credited for re-opening the doors for competing genres such as hip hop and afroswing that were also on the rise. Acts that would rise within the hip hop scene within the following years include Dave, Kojey Radical, Slowthai, Little Simz, and Loyle Carner. Dave released a "Blackbox freestyle" in 2015 which helped him rise to prominence. The following year, Dave was noticed by Canadian rapper Drake, who later featured on a remix of his song "Wanna Know".

Stormzy, an artist that came up out of the grime scene, released his debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer, on 24 February 2017. The album was a mixture of grime, hip-hop, and R&B, and was the first 'grime' album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart. In February 2018, Gang Signs & Prayer won British Album of the Year at the 2018 Brit Awards. He has reached number one on the UK Singles Chart a total of two times; firstly as part of "Artists for Grenfell" on 23 June 2017 with song " Bridge Over Troubled Water", and secondly with his own solo single " Vossi Bop", which debuted at number-one upon its entry, ahead of " Me!" by Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie by some 500 combined sales.

Skepta, who also emerged from the grime scene, began collaborating with American hip hop group ASAP Mob. He featured with ASAP Rocky on the song " Praise the Lord (Da Shine)", the second single from his third studio album on 26 June 2018. It was the third collaboration between both artists, following Skepta's appearance on Cozy Tapes Vol. 1: Friends and ASAP Rocky's appearance on Skepta's Vicious EP in 2017, which also featured ASAP Nast, Lil B, and Section Boys. The song was successful in a number of countries, peaking at number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 18 on the UK Singles Chart. It was later certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Skepta also collaborated with American rapper Playboi Carti on the single "Lean 4 Real" from his debut studio album Die Lit, also released in 2018.

In 2017, Dave did a freestyle on American radio station Power 106 Los Angeles which has accumulated over 1,000,000 views on YouTube. In 2018, Dave achieved his first UK number-one hit with " Funky Friday" which featured British rapper Fredo. Dave's debut album, Psychodrama (2019), debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and became the most-streamed first-week British rap album in the UK with a total of 23.6 million streams. The album was highly acclaimed and won Dave a Mercury Prize.

Slowthai released his debut studio album, Nothing Great About Britain, in 2019. The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize. He performed at the 2019 Mercury Prize ceremony, where he controversially held a fake severed head of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on stage. Little Simz also released in 2019 to much acclaim.

Road rap (also known as British gangsta rap or simply UK rap) is a genre of music pioneered in South London, primarily in Brixton and Peckham. The genre was pioneered by groups such as PDC, SMS, SN1, North Star, MashTown and U.S.G. and artists such as Giggs and K Koke and later Nines and Sneakbo. The genre came to the fore as a backlash against the perceived commercialisation of grime in the mid-late 2000s in London. The genre came to prominence around 2007 with the rise of Giggs. Road rap retained the explicit depictions of violence and British gang culture found in some early grime music and combines it with a musical style more similar to American gangsta rap than the sound system influenced music of grime, dubstep, UK garage, jungle, reggae and dub.

Gangs played a large part in the genre, with gangs such as the Peckham Boys (with its various sets such as SN1, PYG, and OPB), based in Peckham and GAS Gang, based in Brixton, with members becoming notable in the road rap scene during the 2000s.

The road rap scene centres around mixtape releases and YouTube videos with some of the genres more popular acts getting mainstream recognition. The genre has been criticised for the relentless nihilism and violence in its lyrics as well as its links to gangs and gun crime with many rappers serving prison sentences. In keeping with grime, road rap has suffered from pre-emptive policing with Giggs claiming that the Metropolitan Police have set out to deny him the opportunity to make a living from music having banned him from touring. In 2011, Stigs was served the first ever gang injunction that banned him from rapping about anything that may encourage violence.

In the early 2010s, the American genre drill began to emerge in the UK, pushed by groups such as 150, 67, and Section Boyz. UK drill has been referred to as subgenre of road rap due to the influence it's had on the genre. Road rap also went on to influence afroswing, which emerged in the mid-2010s.

In several interviews, M Huncho has described his more tone-down, melodic style and moderately humbler approach when it comes to lyrics as his own derivative take on UK trap music, in a genre he has personally dubbed as "Trap Wave". Wolverhampton artist Scarlxrd implements an energetic aesthetic and tone with explosively brazen screaming vocals, and dark yet reflectively intense and meaningful lyricism in an essentially self-pioneered style known as " trap-metal" or "ragecore"; a fusion of trap music and screaming vocals. Scarlxrd has cited some of his main inspirations and influences as including the likes of Eminem, Bring Me the Horizon, Limp Bizkit, DMX, Slipknot, Travis Scott and Linkin Park, among others.

Since grime's post-millennial boom period coincided with UK hip-hop's, the eagerly anticipated commercial breakout of the latter did not happen. Instead, acts such as Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah, N-Dubz and Chip were signed to major labels and their traditional sound tweaked to fit a pop sensibility. However the lineage of these, and many UK rappers, is unquestionably grime rather than UK hip-hop.

There is a common belief within the underground hip hop community that true hip hop is music relevant primarily to the disenfranchised listeners, rather than the mass market. Because of the belief that mainstream acts are paid large sums of money by the major labels to make music tailored to the current mass market, these artists often face a backlash and accusations of 'selling out' from the underground community.

The growth of British hip hop was given a boost when in 2002, the BBC launched a digital radio station 1Xtra devoted to "new black music" including hip hop, R&B, soul, UK garage, dancehall, grime and drum and bass, however 1Xtra does not play exclusively British hip hop. The cable and satellite channel, Channel AKA (formerly Channel U, now known as Now 70s) also had the profile of British hip hop and grime. YouTube was also a very important outlet for upcoming and significant artists. Channels include Link Up TV, GRM Daily, SB.TV, Pressplay Media and Mixtape Madness.

Women have contributed to hip hop's evolution in Britain from the beginning. Female British rappers include Alesha Dixon, Baby Blue, Estelle, Lady Leshurr, Lady Sovereign, Little Simz, M.I.A., Monie Love, Nadia Rose, Shystie, NoLay, Stefflon Don, Mercury prize winners Ms. Dynamite and Speech Debelle and music producer Mizz Beats. Other British female rappers have included Cookie Crew, She Rockers, Wee Papa Girl Rappers, C-Mone and Envy.

Neneh Cherry, born in Stockholm, moved to England when she was 14 years old, and contributed to early British hip hop. Raw Like Sushi (1989) was solely produced by British producers and was a massive hit in both the UK and US. Cherry continues to produce and release music today.

Women in hip hop often confront a large amount of sexist stereotyping; however some female British rappers such as Lady Sovereign and M.I.A. have achieved success both in the UK and US. Artists such as Ms Dynamite, M.I.A. and Speech Debelle have also become known for political and social commentary in their music. Singer, songwriter and rapper Estelle said of the difficult position of female rappers: "I think they get a tough ride because some of them don't see themselves above and beyond the bullshit and no one's really given them that break."

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British hip hop, also known as UK hip hop or UK rap, is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of urban music.

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Lil’ Kim, Monie Love, Rapsody, & MC Lyte Perform A Medley Of Queen Latifah Hits | BET Awards 2021

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Black History Month: 7 Black British foodies shifting the UK's food culture

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The British culinary scene is overflowing with talent, and we've rounded up a list of our favourite Black British foodies who are influencing the way we eat, cook and enjoy food.
Cultural diversity has had an undeniable impact on the way we consume food in the UK. As far back as the 1920s, when the first Caribbean establishments in the UK started trading, complex structural issues such as racism, gender inequality and socioeconomic barriers often determined who got in, who stayed and whose words were deemed valuable - almost always erasing the contribution of these cooks and chefs.

But as years have gone by, we've seen a plethora of Caribbean and West African restaurants, takeaways and pop-ups become a mainstay on British high streets, offering mouth-watering cuisine full of flavour that goes beyond what we determine as standard British dishes, such as fish and chips, chicken tikka masala and cottage pie. There's now an exciting array of Black British chefs bringing a vast selection of flavourful dishes that encourage us to extend our palate.

Here are 7 Black British foodies who constantly raise the bar higher when it comes to what we put on our plates. Get your tastebuds ready and meet the brilliant culinary stars who continue to influence the way we eat, cook and enjoy food. Bon appétit!

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Black History Month: 7 Black British foodies shifting the UK's food culture | Sainsbury`s Magazine

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The British culinary scene is overflowing with talent, and we've rounded up a list of our favourite Black British foodies who are influencing the way we eat, cook and enjoy food. Cultural diversity has had an undeniable impact on the way we consume food in the UK.

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Yarah Bravo | Live at Music Apartment | Complete Showcase

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Monie Love On Mending Her Marriage, 2Pac Rumors, Jay-Z, Jeezy + More

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Lady Leshurr at (1Xtra Live 2019)   |  FLASHING IMAGES

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Love Monie (@darealmonielove) on Instagram

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Intl OG BGirl🇯🇲🇬🇧
Grammy Nominated Artist Bookings: dalmgnt@gmail.com
Ikonic Ent Group
Monat Skincare

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Time out for spiritual maintenance🌻
Thank you for all the LOVE. Yarah will be back in 2022 with new music. Sending Healing positive uplifting vibes ♥️

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Lady Leshurr (@imladyleshurr) on Instagram

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CO-OWNER OF @KAMOVODKA 🥂 #RIPCARMEN 💔 @carmensworldforever 💜 WATCH NEW VIDEO ON RAMADAN 👇🏾

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DLTLLY // Don't Let The Label Label You!

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Le premier média dédié aux femmes et aux LGBT+ dans le hip hop

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Playlist #14 - Lockdown - 30 British female rappers - Le premier média dédié aux femmes et aux LGBT+ dans le hip hop

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Check out our lockdown playlist #7 with 30 British female rappers! With: Lady Leshurr Kate Tempest M.I.A. IAMDDB Paigey Cakey Lady Sovereign Monie Love