The U.K. Underground (Hip Hop) (Vol.1)

1. Al the Native - The System 0:00 2. Illinformed (feat. Split Prophets) - The Platoon 3:10 3. Jungle Brown - In The City 6:23 4. FlowTecs - Progression (feat. Ray Vendetta) 9:52 5. J Field & Leaf Dog - Style Unstable 12:52 6. Elz - Hip-Hop Saviors (feat. Coops) 17:23 7. Juga-Naut - Duppy Feedback (feat. Cappo & Vandal Savage) 20:25 8. King Grubb - Stay Put (No Picnics) 23:36 9. Dubbul O & Pro P - Gimme Dat 27:02 10. Coops - More Time 31:05 11. Dirty Dike, Pete Buchanan & James Walton - Woah (feat. Lee Scott) 35:31 12. Dead Players - Cherry Turbo 39:28 13. Cappo & Remulak - Slum Village 42:51 14. Black Josh - Know About It 46:13 15. Cappo - Grand Final 49:30 16. Chester P - The Wiccaman Theory 53:18 17. Coops - Chillin' 57:00 18. Coops - So Cold (feat. Benny Banks & Sophie Faith) 1:01:18 19. Cyrus Malach - Castle Of Glass 1:04:52 20. Stinkin Slumrok, Tony Broke, King Grubb, Salar, Bill Shakes, Lee Scott, Bisk, Black Josh, Sleazy F Baby - Cult Of The Damned 1:08:10 21. Delusionists - The Evil 1:14:24 22. Bisk - Koyote 1:18:44 23. Cappo, Cyrus Malachi, Dj Drinks, Cappo, Cyrus Malachi - True Spill 1:21:01 American hip hop was exported to the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although the origins of hip hop in New York are extremely well documented, there is still no formal history or recording of the early scene in the UK apart from varying personal accounts of participants at the time. The Sugarhill Gang record ‘Rappers Delight’ reached number three in the UK singles chart in 1979, garnering listeners and fans. Hip hop also seeped into England through various other channels including national radio shows, local pirate stations and mixtapes from New York, as well as imported 12 inch vinyl from independent record labels (Webb, 2007). When the American hip hop films Wild Style (1983) and the graffiti documentary Beat Street (1984) reached Britain, the culture really germinated and became popular in underground music circles. Similarly to the US, the beginning of UK hip hop was largely based on live shows and parties, with little thought of what was evolving. The historical, social and economic elements that produced hip hop, in addition to the multiple musical influences such as reggae, soul, blues, jazz, funk and spoken word, means that hip hop provided various malleable and hybrid forms of raw materials to work with, allowing transmission, absorption and transformation within very different sites (Wood, 2009). The cultural resources that hip hop offered were attractive to a new generation of diasporic youth who were seeking a sense of identity and representation. Many of the migrants who came to Britain had colonial ties or came through labour recruitment agreements and wanted to enjoy the post-war economic boom (Geddes, 2003). Hip hop grew and developed with the burgeoning multi-ethnic youthful population in London. The city offered various networks for making and distributing music both in formal ways such as the music industry, but also informally, through DIY channels such as pirate radio, home-made mix tapes and specialist record shops (Huq, 2007). From the beginning, hip hop in Britain was a cross-racial scene. Unlike cities like New York, various ethnic groups in London tended not to live in segregated neighbourhoods meaning there were opportunities for cultural exchange between white, Caribbean, African and Asian youth. Initially, British hip hop was largely based on American models by enthusiastically importing African-American attitudes, style and music (Hesmondhalgh, 2001). A few acts emerged in London, mostly concentrated in multiracial and creative pockets of musical activity, such as Brixton, Ladbroke Grove and Peckham. Groups and artists to surface in the mid 1980s include London Posse, the Cookie Crew and Monie Love, Sindecut, DJ Newtrament, and Ruthless Rap Assassins. British hip hop started out very much as ‘borrowed culture’, with British artists imitating their American counterparts, but it rapidly developed its own distinctive variations. Originally British artists mimicked American MCs in terms of the content of songs and even adopting American accents, greatly tarnishing their credibility. However, hip hop in the UK developed its own unique sound through artists inscribing their own meaning, musical influences and local sound into the music. Wood argues (2009) during the 1980s in British hip hop, there was a period of intense creativity and innovation that has rarely been documented, yet is central to positioning black British culture in the authenticity debate as opposed to simply mimicking American hip hop. #uk #ukhiphop #ukrap