quote:
Originally posted by Binokular
anyone remember the slightly embarrasing early days of UK Hip Hop before it found its own unique identity in grime/garage (Dizzee Rascal, Lady Sovereign, Roll Deep, The Streets etc)?
I'm sorry but the early days of UK Hip Hop (Roots Manuva, The Nextmen, The Creators, Mark B, Blade, Braintax, Fleapit, Rodney P, Skinnyman, Skitz, TY, Jehst, Aspects, Blak Twang, DJ Format, Fallacy and Fusion, Funky DL, The P Brothers, Phi Life Cypher, The Headcase Ladz, The Herbaliser, Killa Kela, Aim, New Flesh For Old) piss all over the style mag endorsed likes of Lady Sovereign and Roll Deep.
The Ballymun trio in question are most likely Urban Intelligence. I haven't heard them so I can't comment. Out of all the Irish MCs on the current scene my favourite is Doobious who used to be in the Cork crew Metabollix. The last I'd heard the Headcase Ladz were making beats for him (The Headcase Ladz are one of the best hip-hop crews in the UK, they're signed to Zebra Traffic, a subsidary of Tru Thoughts records. Tru Thoughts is home to Quantic, Quantic Soul Orchestra, Nostalgia 77, Natural Self, TM Juke, Flevans, Diesler etc. and has previously put out releases for Mr. Scruff, Jon Kennedy and Bonobo). Popular opinion would dictate that the best MC in the country is Ri-Ra who was formely a member of Scary Eire. Incidently their Dole-Q single is one of the best Irish records of the last fifteen years. Other Scary Eire members include DJ Mek who produced several tunes on the last Ian Brown album.
Another Irish guy to watch is DJ Flip. He's the first Irishman to win a world scratching title and his last release on All City records featured the vocal talents of US Crew Foreign Legion. Apparently his next release will feature Slug from Atmosphere.