It's telling that so many friends and acquaintances who were massively into hip hop during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s, say to me, 'Well there's no good hip hop now, is there?' And I launch into my diatribe, that there is 'good hip hop' out there - you know challenging, bright, intelligent, quirky, boundary breaking, leftfield, goofy hip hop - it's just hard to find.
Ultimately the mammoth marketing machine of mainstream hip pop, has created a one dimensional view of hip hop - gangsta, bling, grillz, rims'n'rides, jiggy, mysogynistic - and that image now pervades. And unless you're a bona fide hip hop head or work in music, it's bloody hard to find the alternative to this. Most of these mates are stuck on the Pharcyde, Wu Tang and Black Sheep, and good luck to 'em, that period's not known as 'the golden age' for nothing is it?
However decent hip hop does exist in 2007 and two of its leading exponents are hosting nights in the next couple of weeks. First up is the mighty Lex Records, home to Prince Po, Danger Mouse & MF Doom - The Mouse & The Mask, Shape Of Broad Minds, Kid Acne, and much more, including Dan Le Sac & Scroobius Pip, who I have to admit to not getting, at all. But hey you can't love 'em all.
And next Wednesday there's a showcase of recent additions to their roster: Shape Of Broad Minds and Flying Lotus, are well worth checking. Think Madlib, think J Dilla (RIP) and you're in hip hop heaven.
In a couple of weeks there's this huge party for Big Dada Records tenth birthday. My thoughts on Big Dada have been expressed before here, but just to re-iterate, this is one of the labels I have the most respect for.
Two recent examples show why: when nobody's touching grime with a barge pole, Big Dada gives Wiley an album deal, and it's the perfect fit coz Big Dada's all about individual, boundary breaking hip hop and that's exactly what Wiley is. A maverick genius, that 90% of people don't get, but if you love rap, as in flows of words that are bent, mangled, twisted and flexed in a completely unique way, then Wiley's as good as any, especially as his London street slang style mixes up patois, cockney, and is the voice of a generation. Way more than Lily Allen, Kate Nash, Jack Penishead (cheap gag I know), and the rest of the estuary English cliched crew.
Hip hop as the voice of the unheard? Well Wiley's repping working class, estate London, a demographic that doesn't have ANY representation in 2007.
Secondly, Big Dada released a certain Diplo's debut LP in the early noughties, 2003 I think. When nobody had heard of the thug (watch the Well Deep DVD and you'll find out why) from the Deep South.
Now of course he's the man of the moment who's just about the hippest don Dada, and has joined the dots between global ghetto sounds - think of baile funk clashing with dancehall and rutting with grime.
No Diplo also means no Spank Rock, MIA, Hollertronix, Bondo Do Role, Radioclit... And no Big Dada means no Ty and Roots Manuva, two of my fave rappers. I'm struggling to think of a homegrown hip hop label with the balls to put Roots Manuva's urban blues, or Ty's irrepressible conscious funkiness.
