2. History of UK RapOrigins
British rap/hip hop was originally quite an underground genre, meaning that there was no
real mainstream platform that artists could use to showcase their music to listeners. When
British rap first started, rappers where highly influenced from US rappers and so tried to
imitate the US sound.
Due to their being no way for artists to get their music out there, many would often
perform on stages live and at parties, however most artists would only be known locally by
the people in their area.
For rappers to get their music to listeners, they would set up illegal pirate radio stations so
people in that local area could tune into their radio frequency and listen to them rap,
however this was illegal and so they would have to move locations often or the police
would shut down their station. Well knows DJs such as Tim Westwood and Dave Peerce
were the first big DJs who were showcasing the rap scene in the UK by putting rappers
music on the radio.
The first rap song that made it to the charts was The Sugarhill Gang record ‘Rappers
Delight’ reached number three in the UK singles chart in 1979.
As the rap scene in the UK started to grow, artists started drifting away from the American
styles of rap and started to produce their own sound. The 1990s is where the UK rap scene
started to really blossom and the first label dedicated to rap was created by Derek B who
was the first UK rapper to achieve chart success.
Going into the 2000s, a new generation of UK rappers immerged who created their own
rap genre known as Grime which originated from MCs rapping over UK garage and drum
and based beats. Well known MCs such as Wiley, Skepta, Dizzee Rascal and many others
really started pushing the grime scene into what it is now. However grime music is mostly
street rappers who speak about violence, gang and drug culture.
Rap in the UK now has completely divided into many different sub genres such as Grime,
London drill and road rap which are all completely different from each other however
originate from the same culture. UK Rap is now no longer an underground genre as a lot of
the charts are filled with rap songs.
3. Possible locations
These kind of locations represent the mise en
scene of the UK rap scene perfectly. The
stereotype of rappers and the target audience
are predominantly male and come from areas
where living conditions are not so nice due to
many of the content rappers speak about is the
struggle they had when growing up.
The stereotypical people that listen to rap are
people who are seen as “chavs”, therefore I want
some of my locations to be where this type of
people hang out like under a bridge. Another
good thing about being under a bridge is that
there is often graffiti which graffiti artists used to
listen to when the rap scene started in the UK
4. Clothes and make up that my model
would wear.
The stereotypical clothes that rappers
wear are seen as “chavy” by people
outside of the genre as they often wear
tracksuits and puffy coats. However this is
more related to the grime genre and not
rap, as many rappers take pride in the
garments that they wear and are often
quite expensive. Therefore I am going to
dress up my model in a puffy coat but
with jeans and a chain so they don’t look
like a chav and more like a rapper.
5. Charts
This is a screenshot from the BBC Radio 1 Top
40 charts, as you can see there are two UK
rap artists who have made it on. Both have
pink arrows next to them meaning that they
are chart climbers and that people are still
listening to their music. The fact that Giggs
who is 12th is above The Weekend and Lil
Wayne is a massive achievement as both
these two are American artists who are
massively well known across the world,
where as Giggs and Dave are only really
massively popular in the UK.
This is a screenshot from ITunes album charts,
you can see that ive circled Wiley who is one
of the most well known UK rap artists who
has made it to 7th on the charts. This shows
just how popular the scene is as he has made
it this high on the world wide Itunes charts
which is probably the most used online
platform to purchase music
