or maybe it should be where was I?
I spent the majority of my teens submerged in the world of Hip Hop and before the UK scene got big Jungle and Drum n Bass. It was the nineties, everyone had heard of Besatie Boys, NWA and Grandmaster Flash from the eighties but this relatively new and exciting music was beginning to trickle through to me. I think it was Dre's The Chronic that got me hooked with Snoop featuring heavily I had a new musical style that seemed to be just for me (if i was born 10 years earlier I would have been a punk) and my parents wouldn't have a clue. I loved the Violence, vulgarity and the visceral voice of the west coasts disaffected and angry young black men. I know it sounds odd for a shy and nervous white teenager from London to identify with the characters these people rapped about and I suppose I did because they were doing the things I was too nervous to do ie: be rebellious, take chances and go out in to the world and male it on their own and NOT smoke blunts, drink 40s and smack bitches. I did have some principles.
I treated the songs as entertainment and understood the shock value of the content, the same way I watched movies that were violent or profane, I would never actually go out and do these things as would most right minded people. I remember vaguely the controversy that was caused by snoops appearance on British TV with Daily Mail and their readers leading the call to have this sort of music (if you can call it music, disgusted in Berkshire) banned. This enamored me to the music even more knowing that we have had just as shocking works in film, art and literature. I mean Johnny Cash with the quite disturbing Delia's gone or the drug use depicted in Velvet Underground songs, great artists with shocking content in some songs. Thinking about it whenever people complain about things like this it causes unrest in the people who like the "problem" thus sparking a row which could end up in violence, so I say if the complainers take a bit of time to think through what they want to complain about instead of being instantly upset or jumping on the bandwagon (see wossy and brand) maybe these things wouldn't escalate. I'm not saying people aren't affected by seeing or hearing things like this, some are but I think it's a very small minority and is probably more to do with those individuals than the music or film etc. Ooh, I seem to have digressed.
So, there I was this gangly ginger kid with his walkman on (still with orange earpieces (you know, to go with the hair)) snoop and the rest of the death row family blasting in to my skull. while everyone else was reading smash hits and greeting the emergence of boybands and girlbands and Lisa Stansfield. It really was the only thing I had that I felt was mine.
It wasn't just west coast gangsta rap (that was just the start) I discovered east coast MCs and later rappers from the south and Chicago and Detroit. There were "conscious" rappers who had a more positive outlook and talked about social injustice and the struggle of those living around the breadline as well as other socially aware commentaries who I felt just as passionate about if not more because of the message, so I was beginning to build a decent library of Hip Hop tunes for every mood and occasion
I also started listening to Jungle with the dancehall influences I didn't understand, the only thing I knew about Jamaica was Bob Marley, who knew there were these deejays talking fast along to rhythms evolved from reggae and ska and then some bloke goes and puts a mental drum loop that goes at 1000mph. For me at least I think this was the start of my discovery of UK Hip Hop including Grime and Garage that and the soundsystems from the eighties it took more from Jamaica than it did from the States (funnily enough I read recently the Jamaican scene took a lot back from the UK scene too so it weren't too one sided which id cool).
I don't remember much about UK hip hop in the 90s except that it did exist and I'd only really heard one group (Credit to the nation) and that I didn't think the accent fitted in properly so I left it until I was older and came back to it with a more broadminded sense of music in general, I'd grown in to liking Country, Punk and in a massive way Indie. The UK scene now though is huge and there is enough talent to shine through a lot if the dross (I won't go in to what is "hot or not" because this is just my opinion on what I find good). There are Pioneers Like Rodney P Roots Manuva etc and the newer school a lot of whom came from the grime scene (I'll class it all in the same way to keep it simple because artists continually crossover) like Kano The Streets Dizzee Rascal Klashnekoff etc. Obviously there are far too many too put here, those are just some of my favourites.
Anyway back to the 90s, East coast was beginning to establish itself in my hip hop collection wit Jay Z and Nas but then I heard Biggie and thought "fuck me this is amazing." This was the start of the end of my love affair with hip hop. I listened to both Big and 2pac and followed the news stories of their deaths closely. At the time I was quite saddened by what happened but I was still listening to new music and when Puff released No way out I thought it was really good but got bored of the biggie tribute quickly the rest of it was cool though, (I think that might have been the first time I heard Twista too). After that I didn't really think hip hop was that great anymore, now this could be me personally or maybe it was a bit pants, I just don't remember having the time to root through the crates as it were and began only seeing the commercially released chart type stuff that was never going to be the best.
I did get back in to it obviously with the UK scene getting big and Kanye west's rise to fame I went back to look at his old production jobs and the people he worked with like Jay Z Common and Twista.
I can't ever see it being as good as it was back then (maybe that's just nostalgia talking) but it's quite good now with Kid Cudi and Tinchy Strider etc and the acceptance of indie music in hip hop too like Alex Turner and Dizzee Rascal collaborating there are earlier ones like Lethal B Marvin JME Skepta etc working with The Rakes Babyshambles etc. It's looking up, I'm enjoying it and I think you should too!
