US vs UK.. Hip Hop scene.

Once, twice or thrice a week we'll have a "Versus" article based on random subjects that attract our attention. Here's the first "Versus" article in which we will examine the US and UK Hip Hop scene.

So it all started back in the 70’s in New York city when the hip hop culture emerged through the elements of rapping, djing, scratching, beat boxing and sampling. The genre was associated with other musical styles such as Disco, RnB and jazz and it is generally accepted that the term hip hop was discovered randomly by a rapper named Keith Cowboy who was a member of Grandmaster Flash’s band, named Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Flash is considered to be one of the pioneers of the Hip Hop movement and along with dj Kool Herc and Grand Wizard Theodore (who is considered the founder of scratching and turntablism in general) are the people who started the whole thing almost 30 years ago. As years went by Hip Hop began getting recognition outside the United States becoming a part of the music culture in numerous countries across the world. Starting from the 80’s with artists such as Grandmaster Flash and Russell Simmons to early LL Cool J and Run DMC commonly referred to as “oldschool” hip hop, to the Golden Age (early 90’s) with its strong jazz influences including names such as De La Soul, Public Enemy and Big Daddy Kane, to gangsta rap, to the big players of the mid and late 90’s such as Tupac, Biggie Smalls and Snoop Dogg, all the way to up to contemporary artists such as Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Jay Z just to name a few.

On the other side of the sea in the UK, by the early 1990’s Hip Hop started to blend with other musical styles that were popular at the time such as Trip Hop and Drum n Bass and made an attempt to invade US soil. For someone who was not aware of what was going on at the time, it seemed like anything that came outside the US and had any resemblance to Hip Hop was just an attempt to copy the American way. That was what forced British artists such as Rodney P and the London Posse to develop a personal style that was rooted in British linguistic practices, such as using a strong accent, in order to differentiate their style from the one that was already coming from the US. The first ever British hip hop tune released on record was "London Bridge" by Newtrament and it that was released on Jive records in 1984. The first UK record label which was built up in order to promote strictly UK hip hop acts was founded in 1986. That was Music of Life label and was home to rapper Derek B who was the first UK rapper ever to achieve chart success. Music of Life later on recruited acts such as MC Duke and the Demon Boyz. Moving slowly away from its US roots, British hip hop started to develop its own sound. Some of its artists were heavily influenced by jazz, whereas others such as the London Posse were more influenced by reggae. After a long period of spreading the word around, including more record labels popping up and a Hip Hop Magazine launched (Hip Hop Connection), bands and artists such as the Herbaliser, Dj Skitz and Roots Manuva of the so called new generation emerged  blending Hip Hop with Electronica through record labels such as the legendary Ninja Tune and Jazz Fudge. In 1996 Will Ashon started up Big Dadda which was initially backed by Ninja Tune, housing acts of different musical backgrounds which all had Hip Hop as their main influence including New York City based Antipop Consortium. From the early 00’s new acts including Foreign Beggars and Jehst have been gaining in popularity and  Hip Hop as well as UK garage moved on to influence a new style of electronic music which was dubbed grime. There is also a small number of Hip Hop producers and musicians such as Fugative who have also contributed to the scene.

Written by Alexis Seitanidis.