Drawing a fine line between U.K. Hip Hop and Acid Jazz/ of yesteryears: Stereo MCs - Supernatural seemed to be playing everywhere in my German hometown in 1990.
From clothes shops to cafes and BBQs, you couldn’t escape it. Tracks picked by DJs varied from in R&B, Indie and Pop clubs from I’m A Believer, to Lost In Music, to Set Me Loose, to Early One Morning, to I Ain’t Got Nobody but the most played one across all scenes was without a doubt Two Horse Town.
I just checked on Discogs whether only was an album track as I remembered, and interestingly the made a 12” testpressing of it only in Germany. With the dope groove of the album closing Smoking With The Motherman in the flip. That was wafting out of many speakers.
In 1992 they became utterly inescapable with the Connected single.
Off the top the UK stuff I was deep into in 1990/1/2/... YD set has some incredible music on it. Has a special place for me because I was living in a freezing house in Manchester and we'd got burgled and they took all my music and gear apart from my turntables and amp. My mates said they'd come back for them but in the meantime one lent me this album on vinyl so it was all I had to listen to when I was doing my finals.
I remember The Streets making an impact, at least in the sense that I was in high school and had friends listening to Original Pirate Material when it came out, and none of them were really into hip hop then.
I was into Roots Manuva when I lived in NYC in the early 00s.
Dizzee Rascal made an impact too, but I don't know how much of a purist you are in your definition of hip hop.
I think there was other UK hip hop around that time making waves because of trip hop and acid jazz
Cosign on The Streets, Dizzee and Roots Manuva (although it was more just his one track "Witness"). I dare say that "Witness" might be the most important "HipHop" track out of the UK ever. As in that beat/track had such an impact, it even influenced US producers and beatmakers. Gunshot and Hijack were pretty significant where I grew up too (Germany). That whole "Britcore" scene had a big following in Germany. I remember loving Killa Instinct's first 12"s. Looking back, being non-native speakers helped us to appreciate some of those records in the same way as US releases (although the production level wasn't on par most of the times). The development of this sound from UK HipHop towards Grime blew the doors wide open though on a global scale. Lots of records that had international impact. Can't forget London Posse of course, the first UK act to be played on Yo! MTV Raps in the US ("How's Life In London"). Their first 12" is still on my want list.
th th th the terrorist group! …but only because I saw one little blurb where ice t mentioned hijack. I want it to be London Posse but it’s Stero MCs and then a method man release yo delf remix that had something to do with a Justin (?)
Thanks both. Yeah while not 100% hip hop per se, Stereo MCs were pretty important here for sure.
I’ll check that YD Jimster, never came across them in my acid jazz phase, I was all about Corduroy above all else…that’s a big convo for another day.
IIRC "Apparently Nothing" made some waves and got the YD name out there for a while, which is all most people know, but before that I'd seen Carleen Anderson already (she's about 4' tall with a 100' voice) and been blown away.
People had rumoured that her album would have a lot of different styles on it and it was all the kind of shit you wouldn't believe how good it was. This was about 1990, pre-internet so I didn't know that the YDs project was also this same project. I wasn't sure what to expect but I trusted the opinion of the people I'd heard from.
I remember speaking with upright bassist Wayne Batchelor on a jazz gig and he told me how good the stuff was that he'd recorded for it. It wasn't just a Carleen project. He said the JBs were on it (Carleen is JB family), The Style Council were on it, and there was a lot of rap and dub. I was dubious.... I mean, how's all that going to work?
Turns out Marc Nelson knew *exactly* how, and the songs are somehow as good or better than the sum of the parts for me. It's of its time but timeless.
I heard they never recorded another YD set because Marc wasn't happy performing and Carleen had some kind of breakdown, but I am grateful for what they captured. I think Marc was a perfectionist and there were loads of different mixes but I don't know if any of the remixes I've heard are as good as the album versions. Looks like he knew what he was doing.
YD certainly had a place at the very top of my own and my friends’ wants list in 1990 thanks to the Dub of their promo-only 12” Step Right On. Tim Westwood played this on his BFBS hip hop show for a couple of months without clearly stating what it was and it drove us nuts.
Luckily, when the album finally dropped in Europe, the dub version was included. When I moved to the US I realised that in the US the vocal version was included, which nobody I knew cared about.
Carleene Anderson’s voice has always been a bit Marmite, I think. While I wanted to like it, I didn’t and good Marketing and limited editions did their thing to still make her stuff collectible at the time of release: I was desperate to get a copy of the Dusky Sappho E.P. in 93-94 and when I finally did, I thought she was screeching at times. I was more into her cousin Jhelisha and her 94 debut album. but now we are not talking UK Hip Hop anymore.
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Tracks picked by DJs varied from in R&B, Indie and Pop clubs from I’m A Believer, to Lost In Music, to Set Me Loose, to Early One Morning, to I Ain’t Got Nobody but the most played one across all scenes was without a doubt Two Horse Town.
YD set has some incredible music on it. Has a special place for me because I was living in a freezing house in Manchester and we'd got burgled and they took all my music and gear apart from my turntables and amp. My mates said they'd come back for them but in the meantime one lent me this album on vinyl so it was all I had to listen to when I was doing my finals.
I’ll check that YD Jimster, never came across them in my acid jazz phase, I was all about Corduroy above all else…that’s a big convo for another day.
Gunshot and Hijack were pretty significant where I grew up too (Germany). That whole "Britcore" scene had a big following in Germany. I remember loving Killa Instinct's first 12"s. Looking back, being non-native speakers helped us to appreciate some of those records in the same way as US releases (although the production level wasn't on par most of the times). The development of this sound from UK HipHop towards Grime blew the doors wide open though on a global scale. Lots of records that had international impact. Can't forget London Posse of course, the first UK act to be played on Yo! MTV Raps in the US ("How's Life In London"). Their first 12" is still on my want list.
I loved Blak Twang where is he
IIRC "Apparently Nothing" made some waves and got the YD name out there for a while, which is all most people know, but before that I'd seen Carleen Anderson already (she's about 4' tall with a 100' voice) and been blown away.
People had rumoured that her album would have a lot of different styles on it and it was all the kind of shit you wouldn't believe how good it was. This was about 1990, pre-internet so I didn't know that the YDs project was also this same project. I wasn't sure what to expect but I trusted the opinion of the people I'd heard from.
I remember speaking with upright bassist Wayne Batchelor on a jazz gig and he told me how good the stuff was that he'd recorded for it. It wasn't just a Carleen project. He said the JBs were on it (Carleen is JB family), The Style Council were on it, and there was a lot of rap and dub. I was dubious.... I mean, how's all that going to work?
Turns out Marc Nelson knew *exactly* how, and the songs are somehow as good or better than the sum of the parts for me. It's of its time but timeless.
I heard they never recorded another YD set because Marc wasn't happy performing and Carleen had some kind of breakdown, but I am grateful for what they captured. I think Marc was a perfectionist and there were loads of different mixes but I don't know if any of the remixes I've heard are as good as the album versions. Looks like he knew what he was doing.
https://youtu.be/A1TZTYczfAw
Luckily, when the album finally dropped in Europe, the dub version was included. When I moved to the US I realised that in the US the vocal version was included, which nobody I knew cared about.
https://youtu.be/tj1zQxwQum0