London Style & Fashion (an early 90s UKHH compilation)

Out of Eddie's collection emerges a healthy amount of early 90s UK artists on rap radio. Freestyles and live recordings taken from Richie Rich's Rap Academy and Max & Dave's show on Kiss FM, and Westwood. Rather than drip feed them I thought I'd gather them up in one big zipfile for you. It's mostly names you'll recognise if you're familiar with that scene although there is a couple of lesser known artists. This era is kind of a niche sub-genre of hip hop and in terms of the history of the UK scene its often overlooked in favour of the 80's golden era (London Posse, Monie Love, MC Duke etc) and the early 00s generation (Jehst, Klashnekoff, Task Force). 

Essentially the dance music explosion of the 90s sidelined hip hop for most of the decade in England. I was going to go into more detail but this article covers a lot and is worth a read if you want to know more. 

As for the comp, I've posted the two MC D freestyles before, and I think the Caveman one is from somewhere else (?) but the rest is brand new. Enjoy. 

DOWNLOAD

Blade - Kiss FM Rap Academy (April 91)

Brotherhood - Radio 1 Rap Show (June 95)

Cash Crew - live in London (Dec 90)

Caveman - Capital Rap Show

Deadly D, Def K & DJ Cel - Kiss FM Rap Academy

Gunshot - Lightning 90.8FM (Nov 90)

Guttersnypes - Choice FM freestyle (Dec 93)

Hardnoise - Live To London (Aug 90)

Honey B & Culture Shock - live (Sept 91)

Katch 22 - Kiss FM Rap Academy (Feb 92)

MC D - DJ 279 special (July 93)

MC D - Kiss FM freestyle (July 93)

Sir Drew - Capital Rap Show promo

SL Troopers - Kiss FM Rap Academy (Feb 92)

Son Of Noise - Freestyle (July 91)

Have to big up Eddie once again for these. If you're sitting on a box of tapes get in touch and let's free the gems!

If you're in the mood for some more classic UKHH then GM B-Eazy just dropped a new mix...

Cutmaster Swift ft Guru, MC Storm & Jeopardy - Choice FM exclusive (1991)

Thought I'd found another early 90s Gang Starr radio freestyle when this one started up, but it turns out there's a more interesting back story to it. It begins with the **Choice Exclusive** drop and Guru says it's a freestyle, before going into a verse from Hardcore Composer. The tape is dated 1991, so Daily Operation wasn't out at this point. He's then followed by 2 British MCs, which threw me a bit as the cuts in the chorus and the sound quality aren't what you would expect from a radio cypher. Needing some help, I hit up Craig and he thought one of the rappers sounded like Big Ted, which turned out to be correct. I hit Ted up on Instagram and he gave me the details...

It's actually production by Cutmaster Swift featuring MC Storm (Swift's brother) and myself on the extra verses. It originally began as a freestyled acapella from Guru for 279 and he suggested Swift put a beat to it and put Storm and me on there too, and there you have it. Just another one of those hip hop history magic moments.
Cheers for reminding me of it. I have it and the instrumental on a TDK MA metal tape somewhere.

Swift was one of the biggest hip hop DJs in the UK from the early days, and Ted was still known as Jeopardy back then. MC Storm was part of the No Parking MCs (thanks again to Craig for the knowledge) and had a couple of underground releases in the early 90s.

Kind of quirky, and this type of thing would be commonplace 10-15 years later when every mixtape DJ and aspiring producer got their hands on pro-tools but back then it was quite unusual as far as I know. I was going to title it Gang Starr - Hardcore Composer (rare demo version) but thought that might be pushing it a bit. Even clickbait has boundaries.
Big up Eddie as always, I've nearly got through all his tapes now so it's nice that they're still producing results.

"I don't feel no MC like I feel MC D..."

So said Rodney P. MC D is a vet of the UK rap scene and as Silent Eclipse he scored a major label deal with 4th & Broadway back in the mid 90s which resulted in the Psychological Enslavement album that dropped in 95. Like a lot of rappers caught up in the red tape of such deals, he went quiet for a bit before re-emerging and making appearances on various projects in the early 00s.

Although the Silent Eclipse material was quite political and "conscious" (like an English Dead Prez or Paris), he was probably amongst the first artists to have that element of what eventually became known as "road rap" and is definitely highly regarded amongst those that know but his contribution is somewhat overlooked these days.

What we have here are 2 radio sessions from July 1993. The first is something I played loads back in the day but only had in poor quality until now. Taken from Max & Dave's show and over the beat for Make Room by Tha Alkaholiks, D kicks a tale of police harassment that would later appear on the Silent Eclipse album as the track Policing As A Tool. Dope stuff.



The second joint is something I hadn't heard before. More lyrics that would later appear on the Silent Eclipse LP, this time on the title track. This one was for DJ 279.

DOWNLOAD

Big up Eddie for the box of tapes he sent over last week. Not full shows unfortunately but looks like there is going to be some gems on them.

Also: MC D on the Radio 1 Rap Show, 26th November 1999

Rodney P & Riddla freestyle (1999)

Rodney P and Riddla get on the mic on Westwood's show and buss a quick freestyle. Full tape below.

London Posse live in London (1991)

UK dons Rodney P and Bionic performing Gangster Chronicle, Live Like The Other Half Do and Jump Around at Westwood's Live To London jam at The Arches in Vauxhall, which was broadcast on Capital FM, hence the "censored version, seen?!".

Not much UK rap from the 80s and 90s has aged particularly well imo but all the London Posse stuff still holds it's own. Shame we never got that 2nd album around the time How's Life In London came out.



Thanks to Diablo for the tape of this one.

download at the hip hop radio archive

Max & Dave - Kiss FM Rap Show 28.09.94

Max & Dave's Wednesday night show from September 1994. On this tape you get part of the chart (and what a selection that is) and then the second half of the show (from 8pm onwards) is a UK special with tracks selected by the listeners. Full playlist is on Mixcloud, or on the Hip Hop Radio Archive where you can also download it.

1Xtra Original Fever 15.03.04

Some UKHH from back in the day. Rodney P & Skitz host their 1Xtra show live from the BBC's Maida Vale studio wit DJ IQ, Cappo, Taz and Blak Twang all passing through and performing.

If you like early 00s UKHH, I also dropped this tape of Greenpeace's All City Show on XFM from 2004 with Klashnekoff 

Mystro on Kiss FM (2004)

The man now officially rolling as Mysdiggi up on Kiss FM with Big Ted and Shortee Blitz back in 2004 around the time he dropped the Music Mystro EP. As you'd expect with these 3 in the same studio there's jokes and jams and then a big freestyle sesh with Youngblood joining him on the mic.

It's good to see Mys blowing up off the back of that Sainsburys advert, which has almost banished the memory of that Christmas shitshow they dropped with the horrific vocal stylings of Bantz4Hire cheese monster J Corden. Almost.

Kano - Fire In The Booth (2016)

"...had a Gareth Southgate, couple summers I missed the pen"

Some great lines in this. Seems like most of the UK rappers I enjoyed years back have all but retired so good to see Kano's got a new lease of life and is basically killing it right now. Garage Skank and 3 Wheel Ups have been in permanent rotation over here since they dropped. Think I'm gonna go get the 'Made In The Manor' album now.

Fusion - The Burner (2003)

Obscure promo mix CD heat now, courtesy of Fusion, a producer best known for his work with OB4ZL favourite Fallacy. This gathers up a bunch of exclusives, blends, freestyles and remixes from the US and UK. Highligts include some early Durrty Goodz (when he was still Durrty Doogz), the mix of Made You Look over the Big N Bashy instrumental, D&B vet Skibadee dropping something over a Just Blaze beat that I cant place right now and some always welcome verses by Skeme (the English one).

Fusion - The Burner (2003) by Djstepone on Mixcloud

Champs n ting

As this blog is 99% old music I don't tend to indulge in end of year lists and 'best of's, but as Kano's 'Garage Skank Freestyle' has rendered everything else obsolete for the last 2 months it's only right I give it some shine and name it my tune of the year (in a year where new songs I absolutely loved seemed to be in short supply). Its not one for the Purists but when have they ever been any fun?

BUY HERE

Save for a couple of tracks here and there I never really liked any early Grime - the MCing and production was a bit too raw (a nice way of saying it was terrible) but Kano stood out as someone who was a notch above the rest of the Channel U goons and could cut it with "proper" rappers. My mate had text me a link to Garage Skank and it was few days before I got round to checking it while I was stuck in traffic. The cut-n-paste style video was cool but it was Dot Rotten's beat that immediately got me. Chipmunk Soul might be my favourite rap sub-genre so something that sounded like a UK version of an early Just Blaze/State Property album deep cut was right up my street. If this was 2004 Kano could throw Twista on the remix and have a US hit in the bag.

"Your girls pum pum stinks like the A13 Beckton exit" >>> that whole Drake vs Meek Mill nonsense.

Happy Christmas.

Freestyle Frenzy (2002)

OK, first things first: this isn't that 'Freestyle Frenzy' with all the classic WKCR freestyles. This is a 12" from 2002 featuring nine MCs (4 US and 5 UK), each one rhyming over a different beat produced by Joe Buhdha. Its just under 15 minutes long and features Masta Ace, Wordsworth, Canibus, Maylay Sparks, Scorzayzee, Skinnyman, Scorpio, Mr 45 and Rodney P...

DOWNLOAD

I thought I'd better drop something along these lines for anyone worried about the direction this blog was taking following the Ruff Ryders/Rocafella/Cash Money fest on the mix below. Relax, theres room for everything.
















(NB - posted this ages ago and just updated the DL link but for some reason it now shows as a new post)

Don't Sleep #8 Wan Cee 'Rememberance' (2005)

Thought I'd drop a UK joint for this month's Don't Sleep. This is definitely one of my favourite songs from that era, and probably one of the last UK rap tunes I really loved before that changing of the guard occurred and things switched up when the grime scene took over a for a minute.
I'm a sucker for a throwback joint and this is one of the best - nice soulful beat courtesy of the underrated Fusion, with that Crooklyn Dodgers sample in the chorus and Wan Cee reminiscing on growing up in London in the 80s and 90s. Air Max, Chipie Jeans, Champagne Jungle days.

DOWNLOAD

Video is kinda cool too. Got some burn on Channel U when it dropped but the track never quite got the props it deserved. Possibly because the hood kids were all checking for grime and the backpack crowd were more on that Jehst/Low Life Records tip and didn't tend to take to the more 'road' elements of UK rap because they were mostly middle class white students. Possibly.

If you like this and want to check some more UK rap from the same kind of period check my UK Bubblers mix.

For Don't Sleeps 1-7 go here

DJ MK - London Underground 2014

If you haven't heard, DJ MK has re-issued both his seminal London Undergound mixtapes on one handy cassette themed USB stick. For a very reasonable price, you get remastered versions of Volume 1 and 2 along with a host of previously unreleased material from the original sessions.
They're limited to 200 copies so don't sleep and end up having to pay double on E-Bay in a few months  from now (and don't ask me to upload it either!)

For details check Suspect Packages or email emm_kay@hotmail.com

Volume 2 in particular is a personal favourite of mine. Along with Skitz's 'Countryman' album it captures that early 00s era of UK Hip Hop perfectly. Go get that!

UK Takeover live freestyle (2003)

Some classic UK business. Jehst, Braintax, Tubby T (RIP), Fallacy, Lee Ramsay, Roach The English Kid and Ms Redz spitting live over 'In Da Club' and 'Made You Look'. Fallacy kills it.

DOWNLOAD

This is something I downloaded from somewhere about 10 years ago and recently rediscovered on a spindle of old CDRs. Trying to find out a bit of background info on it hasnt been easy though. Until I'm told otherwise, I'm going with it being broadcast live on BBC 1xtra from the UK Takeover event in Nottingham that ran for a few years. If anyone knows any more/different then let me know.

Mr 45 & Kittison freestyle on Kiss FM (1993)

Some UK heat here, with Nottingham's Mr 45 and Kittison rhyming live on Max & Dave's Kiss FM show...

DOWNLOAD

There wasn't a lot of quality Rap music coming out of the UK in the early 90s. As I think I've mentioned before, the scene's golden era of the late 80s had given way to the dance music explosion at the turn of the decade. However, these two (alongside producer Joe Budha) dropped a solid EP that I still play to this day. The Radford EP is well worth a purchase if you come across it and in the dope 'Radford' contains what might be one of the earliest examples of what would eventually become known as 'Road Rap'. London Posse and one or two others aside, it was pretty rare for UK artists to come with anything that thugged out back then.

Rapper Tag #16: Kyza

Kyza steps up for number 16 in the Rapper Tag series

#HipHopBetterWakeUp

DOWNLOAD

Dont forget to check The Infinite Hip Hop Show on Kane FM tonight at 6pm (UK time)

DJ Step One - The Infinite Hip Hop Show 19.05.12

DJ Step One - The Infinite Hip Hop Show - Kane FM (19.05.12) by Kane Fm on Mixcloud

Last night's show on Kane FM. The usual selection of new and classic material including a guest mix of old school UK Rap by Lovegrove from Style Warrior UK.

click below for the tracklist

Yungun 'Jack The World' (2011)

The new project from Yungun has finally dropped, mixed by the ever reliable Mr Thing...

GO HERE

"Yungun a.k.a. Essa reunites with DJ Mr Thing for the Jack The World mixtape, weaving the common thread through hip-hop, disco, soul, house, afro-beat, jazz and electronica. A treasure trove of new, exclusive and unreleased Yungun material, it reminds us how good a mixtape sounds when it's actually mixed ... by a real DJ ... with real records!

Oh, and for all you DJs out there - you can grab the radio edits here: