Tuesday 11 May 2021

Shinola songs from the shittiest artists (part 2)

Like the Mermaid mum in Round The Twist, this series may have legs.

Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)
(From Run Come Save Me album; 2001)



A spectacular fluke in the otherwise dull career of stoner/student fave Roots Manuva or wot? Witness (1 Hope) is some bionic Englo-Jamaican Bashment-Rap - basically, that's my fancy way of saying it's the only U.K Hip-Hop song you can play in a DJ set between Mr. Oizu's Flat Beat and Dizzee Rascal's I Luv U.

Bad Bascomb - Black Grass
(From Black Grass Music album; 1973)



Breakbeat Lenny's Ultimate Breaks and Beats compilations contain a fair few shinola songs by the shittiest artists. For my money, Bad Bascomb's Black Grasss is the best of the bunch and I type that with the authority of someone who once bought Bascomb's one LP in the vein hope it contained any other jams (spoiler: it doesn't.) Originally a B-Boy favourite which Howie Tee later used as the backbone of Special Ed's Hoedown, Black Grass is peak Duelling Banjos-core.

A1 x J1 - Latest Trends
(From Latest Trends single; 2021)



Even Russell Grant couldn't have predicted that a CBeebies U.K Drill equivalent of WSTRN's In2 would be Brit-Rap's first legit anthem of 2021. Nuff respect to A1 x J1 for stickin' to the Nice & Smooth blueprint of one short chunky member & one long skinny member.

13 comments:

  1. Bit harsh on "Run Come Save me." "Evil rabbit," "join the dots" and "Stone the crows" are also good songs off that Roots Manure album.

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  2. Join The Dots MIGHT have been decent if it didn't have that stupid whistling.

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  3. Roots' early Ronin 12"s (with Skitz) were a big deal to me in the mid-late 90s and I still love them to this day. Not a massive fan of anything recent-ish though.

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  4. Is there any actual good U.K. Rap I’ve absolutely hated every thing I’ve heard.

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  5. Ben, the only good U.K Rap is obviously the songs I've posted on here over the years 😆

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  6. Was planning to revisit your previous instalment and add this lot:

    Rocket From The Crypt - On A Rope (1995)
    Company Flow - Info Kill (1996)
    Blonde Redhead - For the Damaged Coda (2000)
    Cee Why feat. Tommy Evans & Jehst - Water Torture (2001)
    Bloc Party - Banquet (2004)
    Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (2009)
    Lucifer - A Grave For Each One Of Us (2015)
    Lukhash feat. Meredith Bull - Dying Breath (2021)

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  7. I need to come up with some indie ones for future posts in this series. Maybe I'll declare that Suede's We Are The Pigs is better than anything David Bowie ever recorded (apart from Fame, natch.)

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  8. Forgot all about that Roots Manuva song. Only song of his I've ever heard and apparently that's not a bad thing.

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  9. @ben. The best UK Hip Hop
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjxP4XYEiFc
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHl7f03uojY
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGIFZXPgARw
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gzY37BjMaM

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  10. I remember Second hand brand new was in rotation hanging with the clique, at the time (99). may not of aged so well.. ?

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  11. Artical is good off that album, too. I never found him that great a rapper but I appreciated how he leaned into more dubby/electronic production than UK hip hop tended to - which, as you alude to, put it closer to grime than a lot of the sub-Premier stuff that was boring me to tears at the time.

    (Saying this I do feel like It's Murda by Klashnekoff is the best UKHH choon ever and that's much more dusty.)

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  12. My G.O.A.T noughties UKHH tune has gotta be Rodney P's Big Tings We Inna.

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