After the NBC sitcom "Coupling," English muffins and the "You ah the weakest link" Mrs. Anne Robinson, the fate of the U.K.'s latest export, Brit Hop, might be in question if it weren't for the groundbreaking quality of the new product.
Until recently, the players in England's urban underground were rabble-rousing groups like the So Solid, More Fire and Roll Deep Crews. That is until a new breed of hip-hopper dealing in post-House and 2-step terms and speaking the language of the streets appeared on the scene. Today, the British Isles boast some of the freshest beats on either side of the Atlantic and a growing audience within the States. The following groups have all been Mercury Music Prize--annual best album awards--winners or finalists and mentioned on countless "Year's Best" lists.
In between the 2002 debuts of both Ms. Dynamite (A Little Deeper) and The Streets (Original Pirate Material), the new Brit sound began to materialize. The Streets' follow-up online exclusive EP All Got Our Runnins demonstrates the sound's possible longevity. The album itself consists of five remixed OPM songs and three new vignettes as rapped by solo Street Mike Skinner laid over the usual technoed-up tracks. His themes--playing the Playstation, paying the dealer and braying the everyday drama--are covered here, but a new awareness has also emerged; the title song revolves around the trappings of money and "Streets Score" is Skinner's reassessment of his own fame and artistic credibility as a white urban poet from English suburbia.
After five stab wounds, Dizzee Rascal is as credible as they come on his world premiere, Boy In Da Corner. As the title connotes, Rascal on the song, "Sittin' Here," and on others is watching "every detail/ I watch so hard/ I'm scared my eyes might fail." Imagine the voice of Chingy, the rhythm of Misdemeanor Elliott and the lyrical authenticity of Nas combined, skittered and performed to the sound of inner-city life. In fact, each song reveals a facet of the 'hood, whether it be teen pregnancy ("Aged 16/ She was never full grown/ She was in a family/ Now she's got one of her own"), gang violence ("We used to fight with kids from other estates/ Now eight millimeters settle debates") or the absence of love (the song "I Luv U") in a way that's as bumpin' as it is knowin'. With a flow this vicious, these songs reverberate like a stampede stomp from Compton to the East End.
Basement Jaxx's third project, Kish Kash, is an entirely different animal. Known better for one-hit wonders like "Where's Your Head At" and "Romeo," here the group pays tribute to the beat and unleashes a bullet train of musical propulsion. Take the first single, "Lucky Star," which features guest Dizzee Rascal rapping over a Bollywood meets techno beat the size of, well, a star. On the spiraling "Plug It In," *NSYNC's JC Chasez tears a new one for the Glade Plug-ins jingle, while on "Cish Cash," New Wave vamp Siouxsie Sioux proves that electroclash is still very fashionable. Channeling a topsy-turvy, club-beatin' Prince on the rest of the album, this easily becomes the last year's best release and now on the group's tenth year together, a sure sign of even better things to come for Brit Hop.
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