So Solid Crew makes me proud to be English

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Most anti-SSC rhetoric - which seems to come exclusively from the UK - quite perceptively detects traces of insularity, pointless hostility, aggressive stupidity and contempt for audience, etc., among other things good and bad - i.e., the exact stuff that's made British pop the undisputed world standard since the Stones, the Who (who had a 'razor-sharp-witted black comedy masterpiece' about a deaf, dumb and blind boy being raped by an uncle), John "I resent performing for fucking idiots" Lennon, the Kinks, the Jam, Joy Division, The Smiths, Pete "Admit you're shit you're shit you're shit you're shit" Shelley, you know. Oh, you don't consider SSC an 'English pop group'? Can't imagine why not. Really.

― dave q, Monday, 1 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, I'm playing the race card. Flame on!

On a lighter note - come on, if somebody comes up with a cooler idea than an English pop cross between NWA and Slipknot, I would love to hear it!

― dave q, Monday, 1 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

meltzer, in his anti-marcus/xgau throwdown, suggested that if you REALLY can't stand "second-person hostility" as an element in music, then aren't you kind of missing the point of all of rock and its cousins?

UK rock groups, key and valued members of whose extended families ended up in pokey for serious criminal acts: Led Zeppelin, Bay City Rollers...

― mark s, Monday, 1 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I guess what's interesting as a SSC listener in Australia is how *little* violence I hear in their work, at least compared to most US gangsta rap. The playa/hata dichotomy (as epitomised by Puff Daddy, lest we forget) is hardly the most fearsome rap-device in the world, and otherwise everything I've heard to date (NB. i don't actually have the album though) has been stock-standard MC "I'm better than you" material. Which is not a put-down: The Streets excepted, subject-matter has never ever been the main point of garage MC-ing.

Obviously there are very very good reasons for SSC's negative rep, but I don't think it's nearly as audible in the music as it is often presented as being.

― Tim, Monday, 1 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

We have a winner in the ILM straw man contest.

Or, if you are being serious, can you find an example of any writer dismissing them on the grounds that they aren't an English pop group?

― Alexander Blair, Monday, 1 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Is it true that the new So Solid video is being filmed in Iraq??????

― adaml (adaml), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Good god! That's amazing news if true.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

So I've heard. And there's this.

― adaml (adaml), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

So Solid's MC Harvey plays for AFC Wimbledon, so they have my vote. You Dons!

― Mark C (Mark C), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

London isn't British anymore. Truly English music now comes from the North, i.e. Manchester, Liverpool etc. Look up the word "Britpop" for a further explaination.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

you are still norwegian.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

and I'm afraid he makes himself more and more obviously non-British if he makes remarks like that, because the only people here who would endorse that are the sort who would want Enoch Powell as Tory leader if he was still alive.

Geir's latest comment could easily have come out of the mouth of Robert "Is it in the blood?" Henderson or even Nick Griffin and his BNP cohorts. I'm afraid that if you actually lived here, Geir, rather than get your picture of this country from a few old Kinks records, you'd realise that there is more to Britain and England than a certain sort of guitar band from a certain sort of background.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

what the fuck was that yahoo news story about?

i'd be quite impressed about a video shoot in Iraq tho - or is it just bad taste? a publicity stunt that will actually achieve very little?

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 29 October 2003 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I still cannot see what is so "English" about immigrants from Asia and the Carribbean trying to ape inner city trends from the US.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 30 October 2003 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

...

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 30 October 2003 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I still cannot see what is so "English" about immigrants from Asia and the Carribbean trying to ape inner city trends from the US.

WTF?

*Liverpool forty years ago.*

Well, I still cannot see what is so "English" about immigrants from Ireland trying to ape inner city trends from the US.

― Ben Dot (1977), Thursday, 30 October 2003 02:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I still cannot see what is so "English" about immigrants from Asia and the Carribbean trying to ape inner city trends from the US.

People have assured me time and time again that Geir is not a racist - I'm afraid time and time again the evidence suggests otherwise.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 30 October 2003 10:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Racist or not, he's definitely a twat.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 30 October 2003 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Back to the thread title, what is positively good about SSC? I think they're better if you strip away much of the rhetoric about their significance as a 'street' phenomenon, but also better if you get rid of the whole 'punching girls in the face' stuff too.

― Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 30 October 2003 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

There pretty cuddly these days - they're on children's TV all the time.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 30 October 2003 10:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the new vid sends out that kind of mixed message. But the jaw-breaking incident/firearms stuff isn't just a tabloid set-up?

― Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 30 October 2003 11:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Who hasn't broken a few jaws in their time, errrrrrrrrrrrrr.......

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 30 October 2003 11:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Geir is not racist

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 30 October 2003 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

he just has very stringent - outmoded even - definitions of things

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 30 October 2003 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmmmmmm!

― Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 30 October 2003 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I still cannot see what is so "English" about immigrants from Asia and the Carribbean trying to ape inner city trends from the US

this makes me wonder if the notion of 'Englishness' is still valuable today and if it's something that has been diluted or strengthened or in some way both thru increased multiculturalism in this country. i generally reject the idea that 'Englishness' is a fixed concept with fixed associations. it is Britpop's greatest strength but also greatest weakness that it seems to base itself on those same fixed ideas, values and associations, but you could say that about hip hop or anything too i guess.

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

OK Stevem, let's agree that Geir is merely an ignoramus whose has grown up in a parochial, racially and culturally homogeneous environment in a tiny and insignificant corner of the tiny and insignificant continent of Europe. That he has little capacity for enjoying or appreciating cultural experiences outwith the laughably narrow and inbred confines he chooses to operate within. Other than that, he's OK.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

London isn't British anymore

!!!!!!!!!!!!

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah! Insignificant! That's right, because there's an unquestionable perspective in which some things are 'significant' and others not, and you've taken it, yeah the real shit goes down elsewhere. Erm, how can a country be 'insignificant'? As for culturally homogenous -- are you by any chance writing from the States? In which case -- erm?

― Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha - you think the States is more culturally homogeneous than Norway? I think there's a thread somewhere where Geir says he's heard there's like three Black guys living in Stavanger - or they're Moroccan or Turkish, well anyway they're not Norwegian.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I was looking for 'homogeneity' in California, but all the fuckin' signs were in Spanish

― dave q, Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought you meant England, but even then -- why is the US significant to the rest of the world? (Except for its charming way with bombing the shit out of people, etc).

― Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 30 October 2003 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

All cultures and all peoples are significant - Geir's version of Norway and of his ideals of pure European culture are insignificant

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 30 October 2003 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, they're worrying.

― Enrique (Enrique), Thursday, 30 October 2003 14:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't mean to fall to the bait here, but "inner city trends from the US" picker up by Caribbean immigrants? Where do I start? I suppose AT THE BEGINNING. I know Geir makes comments about things he knows shit all about (I'm swearing a lot today, sorry), but this is really bloody ridiculous. If he'd read ANY of the dancehall or hip hop threads or, perhaps, decided to do a titch of research before blurting out this ignorant comment, he might realize that hip hop was initially developed by West Indians. All of the early hip hop pioneers were West Indian. They were doing the same thing that has been happening in Jamaica since the 60s, i.e. talking over a recorded beat.
Frankly, a lot of the great developments in Jamaican musical forms is a result of the West Indian diaspora in places like the US and England. The cultural forms that this diaspora brought with them were mighty influential on Geir's beloved britpop as well. I'm not going to list a whole wack of examples. I think it's Geir's turn to do some research.

― cybele (cybele), Thursday, 30 October 2003 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

but a lot of British-based Caribbean immigrants are affecting dubious American accents and have done for some time (Dizzee doesn't and that's one reason why he shines, tho his choice of attire is totally in keeping with U.S. b-boy style) and i think this is more what Geir was alluding to

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 30 October 2003 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Then he should have said "inner city accents." He said "trends." Okay, I know, I know, I'm too angry today. I'm going to go, listen to some Dwele, and relax.

― cybele (cybele), Thursday, 30 October 2003 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

ooh Dwele, has he produced the new Tribe thing? - sounds like it

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 30 October 2003 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it's Geir's turn to do some research.

Like maybe how people live in the 21st century perhaps?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 30 October 2003 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Geir is evidently the equivalent of the sort of people who dream each night of Michael Howard becoming Prime Minister. I get the impression there are more such people in Norway than here, a sense of isolation bringing on this belief in "purity" - whenever Geir makes comments like this I always remember the ILE thread I started about the Scandinavian Right, well before he appeared on these forums. As for his view of England/Britain, I get the impression that, like many people from outside the UK, he believes what he's been told about the English/British cultural continuum being an "insular island race", etc, etc. He has not grasped the subleties of how things really are, namely that people have come from the world over to form this country, from the Romans on, and the patchwork of Britain was sewn by the "immigrants" of the day.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Friday, 31 October 2003 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

his choice of attire is totally in keeping with U.S. b-boy style)

It's also Jamaican raggamuffin, though. The scenes have always been interdependent. Dick Hebdige to thread?

― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Friday, 31 October 2003 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

his choice of attire is totally in keeping with U.S. b-boy style

Who Geir's? Well I never

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 31 October 2003 13:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Stop mixing music and politics. It just doesn't mix. Music is supposed to be nice and pleasant for the listener, it isn't supposed to have an attitude.

And the great musical forms we have here in Europe deserve to be preserved without being damaged by American music (because hip-hop is also American music)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 1 November 2003 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

If you believe in the "preservation" of European musical forms from all American influences, I am afraid people are inevitably going to draw parallels with the political regimes which held such beliefs for ideological reasons. Might be harsh, Geir, but it's how you're going to be judged - maybe not in Norway, but certainly on the worldwide exchange of ideas called the internet.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 1 November 2003 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Arguing with Geir about this is completely unproductive. It gives you nothing but a sore head. That the purity of superior European music be preserved from miscegenation is an article of faith for him, held almost as strongly as the complex melody thing. He just won't accept it's wrong, or even express the slightest doubt it might be, no matter how much you try and explain to him it isn't.

In short: do not feed the obstinate mentalist.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Saturday, 1 November 2003 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

You gotta love someone who in one breath can say music and politics don't mix, and in the next breath can make a deeply political statement like "the great musical forms we have here in Europe deserve to be preserved without being damaged by American music."

― bugged out, Saturday, 1 November 2003 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

(Especially when that someone's favorite band is the Beatles!)

― bugged out, Saturday, 1 November 2003 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, and Mr. Hongro clearly doesn't even bother to read other people's posts. So it's futile to argue.

― cybele (cybele), Saturday, 1 November 2003 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Replace So Solid Crew w/ Manic Street Preachers and we're back to 1995. And still very wrong.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Saturday, 1 November 2003 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

eight years pass...

http://sammafia.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/colourlisaromeotylerpromobig.jpg

wah happen lis?

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 10:30 (thirteen years ago)

song however is... pretty great! moody, gliding wookie kinda thing

rip in a bit

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 10:34 (thirteen years ago)

http://www.sharebeast.com/rur16z08wuex

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 10:58 (thirteen years ago)

Love it!

― Tim F, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 11:30 (thirteen years ago)

cosign!

also remembering how great "all over" was >>>>>

― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:18 (thirteen years ago)

lex... did you just enjoy a radio rip

slippin bruv

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:29 (thirteen years ago)

Tune sounds very Major Notes. (in fact a lot like "Something About You"). That's a good thing.

― Tim F, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:35 (thirteen years ago)

only for special artists, liiiiiiisa maffia qualifies

― liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:35 (thirteen years ago)

hah yeah i suppose it does sound like major notes actually. when i bin something i really bin it, didnt think of that in a funky frame at all

do you chaps know and love meleka (& wookie's) 'love you baby' yet btw, been around for a little bit now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKjG0Hgae-8

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:41 (thirteen years ago)

Yah that's excellent also. Love Meleka's death gasp frailty on general principle.

― Tim F, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:46 (thirteen years ago)

have been listening to a lot of lovers rock lately and feel compelled to reject that dramatical reading

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:52 (thirteen years ago)

No I just mean her voice generally, she's not trying for that effect.

― Tim F, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 12:59 (thirteen years ago)

wite ppl hated so solid crew so much in 2001

― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 13:26 (thirteen years ago)

Well, I still cannot see what is so "English" about immigrants from Asia and the Carribbean trying to ape inner city trends from the US.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, October 29, 2003 8:21 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what the fuck is this

― azealia canks (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 13:38 (thirteen years ago)

it is geir

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 13:40 (thirteen years ago)

feel like there are a zillion threads in which Geir expresses the above opinion but maybe this one is the Dead Sea Scrolls as it were

― W. E. B. Du Bois Goals Panel (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 18 April 2012 13:42 (thirteen years ago)

eight months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3azi7ZHqglc

v wicked

romeo & mega should just come back properly, every time they crop up it's like sharks in the kids pool

― r|t|c, Thursday, 27 December 2012 19:56 (twelve years ago)

Wow!

― tpp, Friday, 28 December 2012 00:07 (twelve years ago)

mega's flow so confident

― fennel cartwright, Friday, 28 December 2012 05:54 (twelve years ago)

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