(From Outstanding single; 1999)
Someone recently popped up in my comments to ask what my favourite UK rap songs are. Bearing in mind that I view all forms of rap music from these isles with the same conflicted sense of awed pity that the average person probably feels when watching the Paralympic Games on TV, this is the best I can muster up as top 15 list of songs which feature UK ppl doing something that could be construed as rapping on them:
2. Roland Rat Superstar ft. Kevin The Gerbil - Rat Rapping (1983)
3. Wiley - Jack's Not Nimble (2006)
4. London Posse - Gangster Chronicle (1990)
5. Gemini - Me N Da Girls (2007)
6. Silver Bullet - 20 Seconds To Comply (1990)
7. Jammer ft. Wiley, D Double E, Kano & Durrty Goodz - Destruction V.I.P (2004)
8. Dizzee Rascal - Off To Work (2005)
9. Rodney P - Big Tings We Inna (2001)
10. Sway - Baby Father (2007)
11. Skepta - Rolex Sweep (2008)
12. Cookie Crew - Got To Keep On (1989)
13. So Solid Crew - Dilemma (2000)
14. Oxide & Neutrino ft. various So Solid weed carriers - Rap Dis (2001)
15. Spiral from Big Brother 7 - Finglas (2006)
Footnotes: also quite like 3 Fekky singles; had to disqualify Monie Love for being a proto-Cat Deeley seppo sell-out; the music of Skinnyman is only useful as tragic comedy; would rather drink the foot sweat from a pair of Skinnyman's pleather Air Force 1's than ever sit through a Blade song; would rather sit through Blade's entire catalogue than ever listen to a rap song made by a citizen of Nottingham or Bristol; 90% of Grime is unlistenable bollocks, though a vast portion of the writing about it is a prime source of unintentional LOLz, particularly anything penned by John Doran or Tim Jonze.
I was thinking about doing something similar with Canadian rap but all I could come up with is Main Source and Maestro Fresh Wes songs.
ReplyDeleteWat no Swollen Members?
ReplyDeletedon't forget "pass and move" by the boot room boyz
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Bl4gLsfMY
Liverpool going on to be a club of racist cunts like Gerrard, Carragher, Suarez + Dalglish since then has at least spared us from anymore LFC novelty rap songs I suppose.
ReplyDeleteSkrtl definitely looks like the type of bloke who does impressions of the Vietcong soldiers from The Deer Hunter when he's up in Chinatown.
hyypia was the type who'd wash his hands thoroughly after taking a trip to st john's market.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot Dialed blud
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcIommZjMSE
Money Mad deserves Gangster Chronicles spot if only for it being Westwoods "production" debut
Big fan of that other Rodney P song which was also from 2001 (iirc), Murderer Style. Got the vinyl and everything.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Skinnyman always reminded me of Albert Steptoe.
half these tunes are grime m8
ReplyDeletetrust a dirty manc to claim he doesn't like grime but put 50% grime tunes in a list for UK rap
gonna call the GRIME IS NOT RAP police on you tbh
Methinks the lazy protesteth too much with that overchubbing of the waters. With this clickbait you're the Katie Hopkins of rap bloggers. THE best rap album to come out the British Isles EVER is this = https://sfdb.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-the-ditch
ReplyDeleteAhem, 2$hin:
ReplyDeletetop 15 list of songs which feature UK ppl doing something that could be construed as rapping on them:
Those songs I listed here are the only good Grime songs, but a 90% shitness rate is better than UK rap's 98% shitness ratio.
The worst track on https://deadresidents.bandcamp.com
ReplyDeleteis better than EVERYTHING in this generic list.
I second Money Mad and would add Hijack's Daddy Rich and anything off of Gunshot's 3rd International Rescue album.
Lee Scott is the only one I really bother listening to.
ReplyDeleteDonal + Shapey - why was I not informed that Spiral is now making Scouse House choonz?
ReplyDeleteim not havin this, grime is class you bloody slag. the best grime is found in sets, its not a singles or albums/mixtapes genre
ReplyDeleteeveryone knows uk hip hop is the real embarrassment
No shit UKHH is the real embarrassment, but trying to act like Grime is that much more noble + credible a genre than UKHH is LOL, especially when you admit that most of its artists can't make any good songs to save their lives.
ReplyDeleteFace it - Roll Deep are just a less earnest version of Task Force in slightly more expensive clothes.
What about those guys that rap like das efx lol
ReplyDeleteI admitted nothing of the sort! Releasing singles/albums just wasn't the focus. a lot of the early singles are instrumentals released for playing in sets anyway, which was clearly the focus of the scene in its heyday. And a lot of artists just didn't capitalise or weren't backed when they should've been, perhaps decent rappers like trim would've had a couple of decent albums by now if he had been.
ReplyDeleteThere's a handful of great grime singles imo and the likes of Rolex Sweep don't even come close, not even the best Skepta single...
No Crazy Titch on this list is the biggest travesty here IMO.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGZaWHFL1x0
ReplyDeleteSMH, Spiral has just dropped the best House banger since K-Klass' remix of Holly Valance's Naughty Girl and all you guys wanna talk about is frigging Grime.
ReplyDeleteRe: Rolex Sweep. Any song with a dance is automatically the best song in that artist's catalogue, FYI.
"Scouse Ebonics" is the GOAT UK tune
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v5v6BdeaDQ
Dunno whats the best part of the Spiral video, politicking in the Dublin Equivalent of Times Square or idk Piccadilly Circus, hearing him speak/still maintaining his aura or the clubs only being slightly less half empty than in the other videos
ReplyDeleteNot since Them released Baby Please Don't Go, Gloria and Mystic Eyes in the '60s has an Irish artist recorded 3 songs as good as Finglas, So Sexy and this House banger.
ReplyDeleteif we're talking *anything* that could be construed as rapping then where the fuck is this classic?:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vgxfRMJt44
smh. you're starting to slip marty.
Need a Gurl U Trippin' UKG classix compilation.
ReplyDeleteCos I'm too lazy to make a best of Irish hip hop list:
ReplyDeletehttp://napoleancomplexjakarta.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/im-going-to-take-the-high-road-and-not-make-a-ub40-reference/
Grime is rap music, anyone saying otherwise is lying to themselves and god
ReplyDeletealso looking fwd to a Canadian version of this list but only if it includes Solitair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6VoygloCOo
Grime is rap x garage. Or was, anyway.
ReplyDeleteYou not a fan of Trim Taliban?
Enough talk of Grime, more talk of Irish Big Brother contestants.
ReplyDeleteCan't forget The Avenue by Roll Deep
ReplyDelete"Feelin' sharp pains in my left tit" = socially conscious reminder for the lads to make sure they check themselves for lumps that aren't supposed to be there
ReplyDeleteFor a rap blogger, you sure do spend a lot of time doing rap down or trying not to talk about it at all. How queer.
ReplyDeleteHazel getting Daley kicked out >
ReplyDeleteSallie Axl was so misunderstood in that series.
ReplyDeletesmh grime is mainly garage x toasting via jungle bbz
ReplyDeleteppl not from london need to stop having opinions on grime tbh
might drop a ukg post but i'll probably just end up zipping up a folder containing 12 copies of sexy cinderella in 320
So, beyond Giggs, how much Road Rap have you actually suffered? j/c. Leaving my abstract grime return colonialism out of this...
ReplyDeleteAfter saying that Roll Deep are the Wu-Tang of grime, in the way that it consists of 3 MCs and a shit ton of weed carriers.
That Spiral house song is pretty good hah
ReplyDeleteis grime what the english call the embarrassing hip hop songs they used to like when they were kids?
ReplyDelete