M Magazine 50 Years of Hip Hop Edition

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• CoverM SPECIAL EDITION
• Page 2Hip hop is so much more than just music: it's an art form, a way of life and a global cultural force. Since its inception in the Bronx in the 1970s, where the likes of DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash pioneered the sound, hip hop has transcended borders through fashion, culture and its four pillars: DJing, rapping, graffiti and breakdancing. In the UK, venues like Subterania, Fridge Brixton, Bar Rumba, Rock City, Hammersmith Palais, SW1 and Labatt's Apollo helped shape the UK scene, as did the spot outside the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden where breakers congregated to show their latest moves. Icons like London Posse, Outlaw Posse, Slick Rick, Cookie Crew, Monie Love, Klashnekoff, Killa Kela, TY, Sway, Kano, Skinnyman, Akala and Blak Twang all contributed to the musical richness, laying the foundations for a new generation of trailblazers to innovate the British sound.
• M prsformusic.com/m-magazineEditor Maya Radcliffe Content Editor Sam Harteam Moore Art Director Carl English Creative Manager Paul Nichols Contact [email protected]
• 'HIP HOP IS THE MUSIC THAT BEST REFLECTS LIFE'BLAK TWANG The south London rapper and MOBO-winner tells Mabout coming of age during hip hop's foray into the UK music scene, and how he and his rap peers began to carve out this country's distinctive hip hop identity.
• Page 5He smiles as he then remembers a YouTube clip of him, Skinnyman and MCD doing a cypher together when they were younger. That was a day we all went to work on a track called UK Allstars, which was produced by Funky DL, a great producer. It was strange that we all showed up to the studio because that would never happen nowadays, but then it was an awesome time and era to be alive. Lyrically, Twang is renowned for using London slang and terminology in his music, and he credits various artists for influencing his writing. 'Nas was one of my biggest influences as far as writing goes, as well as Mobb Deep,' he says. "I used to work with MCD in a studio down Holloway Road, which really made me see a different level of writing - London Posse as well. They were so creative with the words they chose, it just sounded so natural and conversational. I wanted to reach the levels they set for me, and then I put my own slant on it!'
• GROUNDBREAKINGAbove: London Posse GROUPS
• Page 7From London Posse to Cookie Crew, a host of pioneering hip hop groups helped lay the foundations of the UK scene. M traces these acts' groundbreaking contributions, musical innovation and enduring impact on the hip hop landscape. Whether it's Little Simz winning the Mercury Prize, Dave topping the UK album chart or Stormzy headlining Glastonbury, British hip hop looks indomitable. According to the BPI, only pop and rock accounted for more album consumption than hip hop in the UK in 2022, with British artists responsible for the lion's share of those sales and streams. The genre also commanded almost a fifth of the singles market, with eight of the 10 most-streamed and highest-selling tracks by UK artists.
• Page 8'Over time, British artists who grew up on hip hop would come to dominate charts and venues worldwide.' mid-'80s, bringing London Posse member Sipho into the charts in 1986 as a featured artist on the single C'mon Every Beatbox. Pop band Wham! and post-punk outfit Adam and the Ants, meanwhile, both released rap singles in the early '80s. If these efforts made little impact within the UK's nascent hip hop scene, the 1982 release of Malcolm McLaren's Buffalo Gals was seismic - even if, by relying on New York musicians and shooting the epochal video in the US, it can't really qualify as the first real British rap record. Early British rappers were savvy enough to make a virtue of their differences, but the influence and inspiration of American hip hop was pivotal. Key dates in the UK rap timeline, therefore, include the UK Fresh '86 festival: organised by Capital Radio and the Streetsounds label (which had found a niche by licensing US rap 12"s and repackaging them as affordable compilation LPs), the all-day event at Wembley Arena brought New York's A-list to London. The DJ service Disco Mix Club hosted its first DMC World DJ Championship in London the same year, with Fresh '86 opening act DJ Cheese its inaugural winner. By November 1987, the city was so well established on the hip hop map that Public Enemy would choose their support slot to LL Cool J and Eric B & Rakim at the then- Hammersmith Odeon as the place to record the fevered crowd response segments that were dropped in between songs on their 1988 masterpiece, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.
• Page 9and whose sound and style was based around looped samples and scratching; or Norman 'Fatboy Slim' Cook, whose debut album was a breakbeats collection released *on Music of Life and whose first big hit was a remix of Eric B & Rakim. Yet it was the so-called Britcore sound - those up- tempo, skittering beats allied to rapid-fire rhymes that were instigated by Hijack, Gunshot, Hardnoise and Blade - that would become arguably the most important and influential development in British rap's foundational years. During the late '90s, when US hip hop became the globe's dominant genre, European fans who prized authenticity and integrity over the partying and excess that characterised the American hits elevated Britcore, treating it as the last bastion of the old-school values of independence, integrity and a refusal to sell-out. By the turn of the century, as drum'n'bass, speed garage and grime respectively developed the idea of spitting fast rhymes over hard, sped-up beats, what had at first been decried a stylistic dead end came to be seen as the first manifestation of a new, and uniquely British, approach to hip hop.
• THE LYRICAL GENIUS OF UK HIP HOPM explores the poetic evolution of UK hip hop lyricism, from its roots in the Windrush Generation to modern-day greats like Dizzee Rascal and Giggs.
• By Jesse BernardOver the past 50 years, hip hop songwriting has been primarily built around storytelling and world-building, elements which can be traced back to the genre's roots in gospel, blues and jazz music. At its core, the retelling of the Black American experience, both individual and collective, is the very clear thread that weaves these styles together, greatly influencing the music that is created. To understand the fabric of hip hop in any country it has a strong cultural presence in, an acknowledgment of migration patterns is imperative. While the Great Migration - when approximately six million Black people moved from the American South to Northern, Midwestern and Western states between the 1910s and 1970s - birthed a wave of industrialism and urbanisation in major cities across the US, Black migration to the UK didn't occur en masse until the Windrush generation of the mid-20th century. Many of these Black immigrants came from Caribbean countries where both gospel music and sound system culture were prominent, and these two traditions were brought with them upon their arrival to the UK, forming the roots of Black British music.
• Page 12Young Black people were already able to creatively express their frustrations at this time through reggae and dancehall music, but thanks to increased media exposure from the US, they were also learning how their stories could be told in other forms. Early UK hip hop acts such as Demon Boyz, London Posse and Monie Love, who all emerged on the scene in the late '80s, began crafting the language rappers on these shores are still using today, basking in the freedom afforded by a relative lack of songwriting rules. Despite this, UK hip hop did suffer from something of an identity crisis during those early years. With the genre still finding its feet in this country and US acts only just beginning to tour internationally, several UK artists began to rap in American accents in the belief it would give them the necessary crossover appeal on both sides of the pond. London Posse member Bionic was instrumental in changing this approach, as the group blended their style of rap with ragga music, while the later emergence of jungle, UK garage and grime gave license to British artists to feel empowered by their accents and speak authentically in a language their audience could identify with.
• LADY SOVEREIGN'Early UK hip hop acts such as Demon Boyz, London Posse and Monie Love began crafting the language rappers on these shores are still using today.' II VICTO
• Page 14'The emergence of jungle, UK garage and grime gave licence to British artists to feel empowered by their accents.' Giggs has never been one to shy away from articulating his experiences of life on the road: rappers of his ilk see the brutal reality of street life, which, in some ways, is its own level of consciousness. Talkin' da Hardest offered a more rounded, if bold and illicit, view of what inner city life was truly like for many young Black people. If the late '90s had witnessed a lyrical shift towards more ostentation, Giggs sought to drag the form back towards a rougher and more ominous path as though he was saying, 'This is what this life is really about!
• Page 15It was as though Swiss was expounding on the many notes he took over his years growing up in south London, leading him to ask questions of why the likes of Dizzee and Giggs had to be in the positions they were in in the first place. Cry gave young people the words they couldn't find, imagining a world where Sittin' Here and Talkin' da Hardest didn't exist and instead offering hope and a sense of perspective. There was a Black consciousness beginning to form in UK rap, and while the artists might not have always been able to articulate just how and why life was that way outside of the music, if you gave them a pen and a pad, they could rival some of history's most prolific thinkers when it came to race and social class. Then there were those who found themselves straddling the very thin boundary between grime and rap, which still exists today. Justin Uzomba, formerly known by his stage name Mikill Pane, recalls attending rap events as a teenager where grime MCs would attend, and vice versa. There was a mutual respect between the two genres: after growing up and living in the same neighbourhoods and going to the same schools, many of these artists would then cross paths at these events, particularly as spaces were few and far between for rap and grime at the time.
• Breaking down barriers as a female hip hop artistThe Edinburgh artist now part of hip hop collective LOTOS takes us through her against-the-odds journey as Scotland's first prominent female rapper. Whether in the US or the UK, women have always been invested in hip hop. While many female artists, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, have been marginalised over the years, we're now seeing more women than ever making it to the forefront of hip hop. What is also important to unpack is that the conscious rappers-those who choose to tackle difficult issues in society, politics or real-life suffering - are still being driven further and further underground.
• Page 17'Playing on the same bill as DMX did enough to quench my thirst for music after decades in the game.' posters and pay their money just to give me abuse. It was madness, albeit a totally different time. But, as Skinnyman said, if they're not hating, you're not doing something right. It wasn't all doom and gloom, though, as there were also good people at home and abroad. Joining forces with Glasgow sound system Mungo's Hi Fi gave me a new lease of life, renewing my love, joy and faith in music and leading me to roots reggae. I toured Europe with the Spanish rap group Violadores Del Verso, played internationally with artists such as The Skatalites, The Mighty Diamonds, Yellowman and John Holt, and recorded with Sugar Minott, DJ Vadim and Fat Freddy's Drop. In the US, I toured with the likes of Naughty By Nature, The Roots, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, while a career highlight came when I performed at Barclays Center in Brooklyn as part of the Ruff Ryders Reunion show. Playing on the same bill as the late legend DMX did enough to quench my thirst for music after decades in the game.
• Page 18MF DOOM
• Page 19
• Radiohead frontmanThom Yorke practically hailed DOOM as rap's James Joyce. If you've been anywhere around Glasgow, London, Manchester or Leeds, chances are that you will have stumbled upon an MF DOOM mural. Featuring his name in all caps (like the man demanded) and his iconic metal mask, the vibrant artwork that reflects the technicolour oeuvre of the enigmatic rap raconteur has been sprawled across buildings, underpasses and bus stops since his untimely passing in October 2020. Considering that the London-born DOOM spent most of his life across the Atlantic, the UK graffiti dedicated to rap's ultimate supervillain is testament to how much these shores embraced him.
• Page 21What followed Operation: Dogmsday is the stuff of legend. DOOM ushered in the new millennium by releasing a host of projects over a 17-month span from 2003-04, introducing the world to an ensemble of artistic personas in the process. In June 2003 he dropped the distorted space concept odyssey Take Me to Your Leader as the three-headed King Geedorah, an intergalactic horror straight out of the Godzilla Monsterverse. As cocky hoodlum Viktor Vaughn, he assumed another fearless alter ego that cared for little outside of trapping and time travelling on September 2003's compelling Vaudeville Villain - a grittier, grimier album compared to its predecessors. Most notably, MF DOOM starred alongside his musical soulmate Madlib on March 2004's Madvillainy, considered by many to be both the rapper and producer's magnum opus. Joining forces as Madvillain, the duo combined stoner rap aesthetics, obscure comic book references and avant-garde soundscapes to create one of this century's most innovative albums. Overcoming a leak that occurred a few months before the record officially dropped, Madvillain justified the hype that preceded the final re-recorded version as DOOM's lyrical chops were enhanced by Madlib's pristine production that deftly toed the line between soulful and spaced-out. Even the subject matter went to another stratosphere, with both DOOM and Madlib's alter egos making memorable appearances: the raucous America's Most Blunted saw Madlib face off against Quasimoto, while Vik Vaughn's romantic laments on Fancy Clown became renowned as rap's first-ever self-diss track.
• Page 22'What I really got from meeting these people who are now recognised as icons was how human they were.' Siem ab
• Page 23'I remember the first time I heard Main Source's Live At The Barbeque on the radio in 1991: everybody went nuts as it was the first time they'd ever heard Nas spit,' Tee Max tells M as he casts his mind back to the first time he heard the New York rap legend, who he would photograph three years later. 'Nobody knew who this kid was. When he came to the UK to do press for the first time, some of Illmatic had been played on the radio. But did I know he was going to be going to become an icon? No, I was just a fan of the guy! It was, Tee continues, 'the same thing' when he encountered The Notorious B.I.G. 'Biggie was somebody who had been played on the radio constantly; everybody was really looking forward to his debut, Ready To Die. So the opportunity to be able to sit in the same room with him, let alone take photographs, was amazing. But, back then, I was just a fan of the music: the things Biggie and Nas were saying, how they were coming across and the stories they were telling in their music hadn't been told in that way before. People take those things for granted now, but what they were doing in hip hop at the time was revolutionary!
• 53 TX31 KODAK 5063 TX events, like Notting Hill Carnival. It was always interesting how people reacted to you at these events when they saw you with a camera, because there weren't that many people with cameras at that time!'
• Page 25'I really thought Method Man hated my guts, but he was just messing with me we got the best interview footage ever.'
• Page 26STUSE 'What the likes of Biggie and Nas were doing in hip hop in the early '90s was revolutionary.'
• Page 27got from it, I really love. What that experience taught me was that it doesn't matter who else is in a room, because they're going to see things in different ways and have different things to achieve. I hadn't been in that situation before, and it taught me that it's all about what you see and how you get that image that you believe is gonna be the one.' Some of your best work was taken on the set of Wu-Tang Clan's video for Gravel Pit. How did that experience come about?
• Photo: JM EnternationalTHE RADICAL RESISTANT ROOTS OF UK HIP HOP
• Page 29From Smiley Culture calling out everyday prejudice on Police Officer to Stormzy verbally targeting a Prime Minister while headlining Glastonbury, UK hip hop artists have never been afraid to speak out. M explores the roots of the genre's rebellious streak. By Will Pritchard
• Page 30Some 27 years later, another encounter with police would end tragically for Smiley as he wound up dead during a raid on his home. An inquest returned a verdict of suicide, but Smiley's family - who were never shown the report produced by the Independent Police Complaints Commission-have strongly disputed the finding. While Smiley's music in the 1980s was released against the backdrop of race riots in south London, sparked by heavy-handed policing of the Black community in Brixton, his death- and the suspicious circumstances surrounding it - would add tinder to a fresh pile of tensions years later that would ignite with the shooting of Mark Duggan by police in 2011. London, Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry, Derby, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham burned through a summer of what was the most significant stretch of civil unrest in modern British history.
• Page 31'History, and all the fight and fervour that comes with it, is firmly on the side of hip hop.' to make his voice heard: be it calling out the government's response to the Grenfell disaster while performing on stage at the 2018 BRITS, donning a symbolic Union Jack- streaked stab vest for his Glastonbury headline slot, or saving a tee-up call-and-response line on his 2019 hit Vossi Bop for a since-disgraced former Prime Minister ("Fuck the government, and fuck Boris'). Yet despite being a fixture of contemporary popular culture, homegrown UK hip hop is still forced to strive against every odd. In recent years, MCs have found themselves being forced to defend their artistry against heavy-handed attempts at state censorship, including the use of terrorist legislation to restrict how acts can
• Page 32PRS Foundation: Powering up HIP HOP
• Page 33M Magazine 33
• Page 34'The PPL Momentum Music Fund helped progress my career as an artist massively.' - Queen Millz genres. I'm proud that, in recent years, over 10% of the music creators and organisations we fund work primarily in hip hop and rap genres - and over 20% work in Black music genres, including hip hop - better reflecting what's happening creatively and commercially in the UK. The shift in the last 10 or so years has been huge. I expect this trend to continue and look forward to supporting more incredible members working in hip hop in the coming years.
• Page 35'We are committed to supporting individuals who drive hip hop forward.' - Yaw Owusu
• HIP HOPAS A FORCE FOR PERSONAL GROWTH Journalist and author Grant Brydon shares a selection of the life lessons he's learned from pursuing his passion for hip hop.
• Page 37Love CHANGE
• 'HIP HOP IS ABOUT COMMUNITY, SOLIDARITY AND THE MESSAGE'The south London rapper, singer and songwriter speaks to Mabout her eclectic musical upbringing, coming out of her shell as a creative and the importance of preserving hip hop culture. ENNY made her name in the throes of a chaotic lockdown with her breakout hit Peng Black Girls, a spirited ode to the limitless beauty of London's Black women that was later remixed by Jorja Smith. A crafty wordsmith, her witty, audacious raps batted away the corny, preachy sermons commonly associated with 'conscious rap' with ease, energising the form with a tongue-in-cheek relatability that remains hard to resist.
• Page 39'I've come up in a space| where there's always been a hip hop sound.'
• BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIERHOW RADIO DJS SHAPED UK HIP HOP Shortee Blitz, Ellie Prohan and Esi explore radio's enduring impact and profound contribution to the hip hop scene.
• Page 41each week, she aims to give over 25 new artists their KISS First Plays! 'The best DJs are the ones that shine light to a new sound,' she tells M. An important distinction, Ellie adds, needs to be made between UK and US hip hop, particularly in how 'uniquely British' the former is 'in how it brings together different genres.
• WHY PRODUCERS ARE THE BEATING HEART OF HIP HOPProduction has been at the core of hip hop since its inception. M speaks to some of the UK's leading and emerging producers to get their take on how integral their line of work is when it comes to advancing hip hop culture. 'As a kid, I wanted to rap,' admits Jae5, the British- Ghanaian producer best known for his work with J Hus and Burna Boy. One of the UK's most sought-after producers, the Grammy Award-winner (real name Jonathan Kweku Awotwe-Mensah) rose to prominence as part of the JOAT Music production group before receiving acclaim in 2015 for his work on J Hus' debut mixtape, The 15th Day. Since then, he's worked with virtually all the contemporary big- hitters in the UK scene - including Skepta, Headie One and Dave - as well as with international stars like Koffee and the aforementioned Burna Boy.
• Page 430000 00000
• Page 44Not only are the producers vital to the artists themselves, they've also been integral to shaping and propelling the sound of hip hop and all its related forms. Indeed, the very origin of hip hop can be traced back to instrumentals: during one set in August 1973, the Bronx's DJ Kool Herc laid down the blueprint that would become the basis for modern hip hop production by mixing isolated breakbeats from funk and reggae records on twin turntables. To many, this is the moment that the essence of hip hop was born. One way of looking at it is that without producers, the MCs couldn't get to work. I've seen in a lot of hip hop sessions that the rapper won't even approach the mic until they know they've got a beat that sounds incredible, notes Mr Hudson (above), the artist, producer and songwriter best known for his work with Kanye West and Jay-Z. 'Whereas if you're in indie or alternative [music], [the artist] might be sitting on a porch with the guitar.
• Page 45the times: whether that's drum machines and samplers for loops in the 1980s, synthesisers for basslines and stabs, or software taking over from hardware, with digital consoles completely opening up the realms of possibility at one's fingertips. 'We come from a do-it-yourself world,' says Dave VJ, which Normski agrees with: "One thing with hip hop is that you don't have to be a musician: the producer is a whole band in a room
• HIP HOP'S SAMPLINGLEGACY From N.W.A. to Central Cee, sampling has been a constant in hip hop since its inception. M charts the rise of the art form that laid the foundations of the genre.
• Page 47'UK producers have long been using samples to bolster their hip hop, grime and rap tracks.' Epitomised by DJ Shadow's 1996 debut album Endtroducing....., which was composed almost entirely of sampled sounds, the floodgates had opened. Kanye West's emergence in the '00s, initially as a producer for the likes of Jay-Z before embarking on a solo career, was fuelled by his deft way around a sample, reworking the likes of Chaka Khan's Through The Fire and The Jackson 5's I Want You Back. J Dilla was rightfully crowned as one of the best hip hop producers of all time following his death in 2006 due to his innovative and soulful approach to chopping and warping samples, while the practice also became integral to the production style of Timbaland and the Neptunes.
• SLICK RICKTHE BRITISH STORYTELLER WHO CONQUERED HIP HOP
• Page 49The Bronx, 1984: on the corner of 170th Street and Jerome Avenue, 'Human Beat Box' Doug E. Fresh has been invited to judge a rap battle. When a 19-year-old in Ray-Bans calling himself MC Ricky D steps up to the mic, Fresh's ears prick up: Ricky's compelling stories, smooth delivery and British accent set him apart from his rivals. Frankly, they set him apart from what anyone else was doing in hip hop. After the show, Fresh approaches the young man with an offer. 'Yo, we should do something together. What they went on to do together would change rap history and launch the career of the genre's most influential storyteller, Slick Rick Richard 'Slick Rick' Walters was born in Mitcham, south London on 14 January 1965. At just 18 months old he was blinded in his right eye by a shard of glass from a broken window, an injury which would have a profound impact on his life. 'I was always pretty shy because of the eye; he said in a 2014 interview. 'So rather than going out and playing sports, I stayed indoors and wrote stories. At the age of 11, he waved goodbye to the UK as his family moved to the US, settling in Baychester in the northeast of the Bronx. The biggest difference between Mitcham and the Bronx was the prevalence of boomboxes on every street corner, which played the breakbeat and funk records-The Honey Drippers' Impeach The President, 7th Wonder's Daisy Lady - that would lay the foundations of hip hop.
• ER GRIMEW T
• THE UNDER INFLUENCEThe UK genres that owe a debt to hip hop 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York. Housing 102 apartments, this caramel-coloured tower block is where, 50 years ago, 18-year-old Clive 'DJ Kool Herc' Campbell and his sister Cindy threw a party in the building's community room. Inspired by the selectors [DJs) and toasters (MCS) of the sound system culture from his Jamaican childhood, Herc hooked up two turntables and a microphone and set about replicating the atmosphere and dynamism of the dancehalls of Kingston.
• Page 52debut What's The 411, which spoke searingly of life, love and heartbreak over hard-knock hip hop beats. There's also been ample crossover moments with artists from the world of guitar music, with arguably the most notable and influential being Aerosmith and Run-DMC's joint international hit Walk This Way in 1986. Grime
• AfroswingUK drill Gunna Dee and Kyze) as well as the likes of Blade Brown and Dubz, brought a much grittier sensibility to Black British music with his brand of road rap.
• The evolution of the hip hop hookM speaks to Outlaw Posse's K-Gee, singer and producer Tiggs Da Author and songwriter Maiday about the importance of the hook in UK hip hop. Above: Aitch
• Page 55Comprised of MC Bello and DJ K-Gee, Outlaw Posse were at the forefront of UK hip hop in the late '80s and early '90s thanks to pioneering UK rap tracks like Livin' In Hackney. According to K-Gee, Outlaw Posse's peak years pre-dated the eventual commodification and commercialisation of hip hop, and as such the duo 'didn't go in thinking "this is going to be a hit" or "this is going to be massive". We just did what felt good! Livin' In Hackney's staying power wasn't down to a deliberately catchy melody or a memorable hook-in fact, most Outlaw Posse choruses didn't feature any lyrics at all. 'A lot of the hooks [came from] me on the turntables, cutting up rap records like DJ Premier, K-Gee tells M. 'Sometimes I'd listen to [MC] Bello's raps and then find a hook that I could scratch in, or I'd build a hook from a scratch of an existing hip hop record, and he'd then write a song that made sense with that kind of hook. We did go on to use vocalists sometimes, but most of it was turntablism, man!'
• P MONEY'Grime makes you realise you're not alone' The London MC tells Mabout the creative influence he drew from his challenging upbringing, how he helped grime break through the mainstream and why the genre is now open to everyone.
• Page 57OBEY NIKE
• Page 58'Grime isn't just a genre: it's culture, its community and it's the people.' At the core of UK hip hop, one artist in particular has risen to become a poetic storyteller of the streets; a voice that articulates the graphic realities and complex narratives of life in the urban sprawl. Meet P Money, the grime artist whose verses are not just lyrics but potent slices of life, conveying an unfiltered depiction of the environment that sculpted him.
• Page 59The UK has recently witnessed a rise in young hip hop artists stepping into the spotlight to share their nuanced stories and perspectives, something that pleases P greatly. 'Central Cee has come through and is taking over right now, going number one with Dave: that's something that didn't happen back in the day,' he says. "I can only see the future being even better, because now that young people are seeing that [example] you're going to have more young people coming through [the ranks]. The next massive act will probably be under 20, and we haven't had that since Dizzee Rascal.' 'The next massive UK hip act will probably be under 20, and we haven't had that since Dizzee Rascal.'
• Hip hop entrepreneurs changing the gameIt's not just the rappers who've shaped the country's hip hop scene - visionary business leaders have also found ways to help the artists and the culture thrive. M speaks to some of those who made it happen. 'As the music industry has changed, it's become increasingly important for artists to also be entrepreneurs.'
• Page 61However, by the end of the century the UK scene had largely been driven underground, with Britpop in its pomp. The arrival of grime changed all that. "When I first got involved in the industry, a lot of UK artists wanted to emulate US artists, recalls AJ. 'It wasn't cool to have a UK scene at the time until grime artists started to make it cool. Then, all of a sudden, US artists started to pay heed. Grime combined hip hop with UK garage and jungle to create a sound and style all of its own. Thanks to 'Jamal Edwards always had a vision MajorFm.com, that sound was soon reverberating around and was focused on executing it with the planet. 'You had a small east London community, and all of a sudden they were put on a global stage, AJ remembers. "I remember quite vividly that Jammer's first international booking, in New York, came directly through the station.
• Page 62FROM SOUTH LONDON TO THE WORLD: A TRIBUTE TO TY
• Page 63'TY quickly decided that he was going to be different from the rest of the pack.' - Blak Twang
• Page 64TY was a shining light in UK hip hop. Born Ben Chijioke on August 17, 1972 in London, the rapper, producer and songwriter crafted genre-defying music throughout his two-decade career and positively used his platform to promote unity, cultural diversity and social change. 'I remember hearing TY freestyle for the first time in Hyde Park in the early 90s: I was blown away! Michelle Escoffery
• Page 65'The way TY could just bring in a crowd, it was amazing.' - Tee Max 'Over time, you start to learn more and more about TY, his personal experiences and the difficulties he had in his life. It made me marvel even more that he could be the open and supportive person he was having been through as much pain as he'd been through. I just remember him being possibly one of the most entertaining people I'd ever seen on stage. The way he could just bring in a crowd, it was amazing.
• PRESENTSPRE PRSPRESENTS found
• Page 67P PRS
• Page 6850 YEARS OF HIP HOP