I had a converstion with Chris who first said this and he did put me
right on the fact that he said that *he* had never heard a good
English rapper. Not that there weren't any. I came to the conclusion
that there were no good rappers within the UK acid-jazz scene and a
lot of otherwise excellent tracks do get spoiled by poor vocals but
there are some excellent rappers out there that don't get any
recognition as no-one buys UK hip-hop. I must say however that the
above named people are IMHO all pretty poor and don't possess any
real skills although they do put across positive messages so that can
only be commended. If you want to check out some good English rappers
go out and buy some Blade (who's track 'Keeping Watching This Space'
is my favourite song of this year and is technically Armenian I think
but I'll let that pass), the Brotherhood (best album of the year),
Katch 22 (for some jazz influenced stuff), Guttersnypes, London
Posse (new 12" out soon), Son Of Noise (a bit american sounding but
some of the most innovative scratching I have ever heard),... I could
go on but won't. (Scary Eire from Ireland and Two Tone Committee from
Scotland also rate a mention. Any good rappers from Wales?)
If you don't think that they are any good UK rappers just ask any hip
hop fan in Europe (excluding the UK) who they think is a good rapper
and you might be surprised.
Colin.