"an england story: the culture of the mc in the uk 1984-2008" on soul jazz records

lol tracklist plz

lol we did have some commentary on this CD relating to this dickweed article that says basically "if u don't like this ur a racist", so sorry bro but there we go.

http://www.newstatesman.com/200803130031

The development of Black music in the United Kingdom owes much to the influence of Jamaican and US music on each succesive generation of Carribean immigrants to the UK - from Windrush to the present day. UK based MC’s take these influences, mix them up with local references and styles thus creating an identity of Black British culture. This is constantly evolving not just musically but also in terms of each subsequent generation’s relationship to British society. As Tricky put it in Massive Attack's Blue Lines, of "English upbringing, background Caribbean”

An England Story shows the links and musical path from the arrival of UK Dancehall and Soundsystems in the early 1980s, through successive musical movements such as Jungle, UK Hip-Hop, up to today’s Garage, Grime and Dubstep.

The global pre-eminence of American hip hop means that music like grime and UK hip hop is often seen as a form of rap, whereas it owes as much to reggae music and culture as it does to any American influence. Black music in Britain has fashioned its own identity in contrast to that of America, Africa, or elsewhere, by drawing on the unique relationship that the UK has with the Caribbean. As Rodney P (of celebrated 80s UK Hip-Hop group London Posse) says:

"This is a UK thing, it's hip hop and it's reggae and we do reggae - and those Americans don't know about that".

Since the evolution of the 'fast chat' dancehall style of the early 80s, the influence of reggae music and culture has been crucial to the development of urban music in Britain: from the heavy sampling of Jamaican vocals/instrumentals employed by jungle, hardcore and garage, to grime's London take on the soundclash, the riddim version and patois-inflected rhymes. The importance of the Jamaican soundsystem concept and its dubplates, specials, clashes and heavy, heavy bass is a constant throughout these different stylistic mutations

1. YT — England Story Play
2. Suncycle — Somebody Play
3. Doctor & Davinche — Gotta Man Play
4. Ty & Roots Manuva — So U Want More (Refix)
5. Papa Levi — My God My King Play
6. Tenor Fly — Bump and Grind Play
7. Skibadee — Tika Toc Play
8. Riko — Ice Rink Riddim Play
9. Jakes & TC — Deep Play
10. Jah Screechy — Walk And Skank Play
11. Top Cat — Love Mi Ses Play
12. Warrior Queen & The Heatwave — Things Change
13. Glamma Kid — Fashion Magazine Play
14. General Levy — Champagne Body Play
15. London Posse — Money Mad Play
16. Navigator & The Freestylers — Ruffneck Play
17. Stush — Dollar Sign* Play
18. Tubby T — Ready She Ready Play
19. Blak Twang — Red Letters Play
20. Est'elle & Joni Rewind — Uptown Top Rankin
21. Tippa Irie — Complain Neighbour Play

Black music in Britain has fashioned its own identity in contrast to that of America, Africa, or elsewhere, by drawing on the unique relationship that the UK has with the Caribbean. As Rodney P (of celebrated 80s UK Hip-Hop group London Posse) says:

"This is a UK thing, it's hip hop and it's reggae and we do reggae - and those Americans don't know about that".

right because obviously there was no jamaican influence in new york. obviously.

tubby t is a neat rap name : )

I have never heard of any of those tracks

also the title "An England Story" (as opposed to "English") sounds kinda wrong. Makes England sound like a record label.

or a series of childrens' books

should be all Slick Rick

It's the title of the first track (if you didn't notice0, that being patois I guess?

I like a lot of this record albeit with some misgivings,the Freestylers being chief amongst them

also the title "An England Story" (as opposed to "English") sounds kinda wrong. Makes England sound like a record label.

Their ESG comp was called "A South Bronx Story" and that sounds perfectly fine.

that freestylers song 'here we go' was kind of dope!!

i found about 1/3rd of this listenable, but the bad parts were quite bad

also there's a little bit too much "humour" for my taste

yes but "South Bronx" also works as a possessive. "England" does not.

x-post

uh

grammar cowboy rides agin

it doesn't have to, and it doesn't have to be 'english' to work either.

would like to hear this. only know the Ty/Roots which i like, and maybe the Stush if it's the one i'm thinking of

right because obviously there was no jamaican influence in new york. obviously.

i think he's trying to say you haven't heard reggae influence as much in NY rap as you have in LDN rap but not sure

"an england story" is the name of a song on the comp. maybe you should complain to "YT"

well maybe I WILL

i'm not enjoying this. am i dense?

Yes, but I'm not sure that has anything to do with not enjoying this.

I've not heard this, but there are some stone classics ("Mi God Mi King", "Dollar Sign", the Fashion stuff) on this mixed in with some mediocre UK rap trax and some jungle MCs who might work in some other context, but not here. There was a mix of this stuff floating around (Heatwave maybe) that was good, but IIRC it was mostly UK dancehall/fast chat--this seems to broaden the remit and I'm doubt it's better for it.

Here it is (and I don't recall correctly, but the tracklist still seems better):

http://www.theheatwave.co.uk/music/item/anenglandstory

In Soul Jazz's favor at least it's not 50% the same stuff you've heard a million times before. I think the Papa Levi is the only track on here I think of as being well represented elsewhere.

"This is a UK thing, it's hip hop and it's reggae and we do reggae - and those Americans don't know about that".

right because obviously there was no jamaican influence in new york. obviously.

This is a standard, slightly defensive thing that I've heard black British musicians say many, many times before. It's partly based on truth (ie the majority of black British people are of Caribbean ancestry, which isn't true of America); and partly an, as I say, defensive response to the embattled nature of the black music scene in this country, in the face of the omnipotence of America and the historical indifference to home-grown black music in the wider population.

otm - but the constant need to make its Britishness a selling point never really works or strikes a chord with enough record buyers. it only worked to a degree with Jungle because that was a fresher sound.

I guess they have to use something to try and sell it and maybe that's all there was. This would probably sell better if they waited another 5-10 years before releasing it.

i think alex in SF is OTM (sort of), and stevem is OTM (sort of)

the straight *80s*-vibed ragga tracks are pretty good, for the most part. "england story", "uptown top ranking", "walk and skank", "champagne body", "money mad", "uptown top ranking" are all great.

but then LOTS of the rest of it just confirms the stereotype of british stuff being a bad copy US / JA stuff. from blak twang's half-assed mos def impression to suncycle's bad nina sky / elephant man impression to tenor fly's UB40 ripoff (!!!) to skibadee's take on i don't know who (pharoah monche? some amalgam of every boring mid-90s NYC rapper?)

some of it is just plain depressing. top cat = this is really the same guy who did "request the style"?!?! tippie irie, i would complain too if that guy lived next door.

final comment: LOL grime

i guess i had unrealistic expectations of 20 tracks of ragga over bleep'n'bass, somewhere halfway between unity sounds and the ragga twins.

maybe that music only exists in my mind.

This wouldn't sell if they waited 50-100 years.

Quite possibly. I just thought if it was more distant it would sound more exotic. Perhaps they should have limited the time span to, say, 1984 to 1992 or 1994.

where's the SL2

The Heatwave mix was great

Haha okay so clearly moonship doesn't like fast chat cuz I have a fondness for the Tippa, Tenor, Top tunes.

the Stush & Tubby T tracks are U&K though. haven't heard the rest but i suspect you're all right...

there should be a compilation called u&k garage.

ba dump tsss

sorry my brain just works like that :/

yeah, it doesn't matter so much how terrible the rest of the thing is, Dollar Sign gets you your money's worth

yeah no, balls to this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocCEVtzFhTA

^ REAL ENGLAND STORY

honestly i felt the same way - just to have 'dollar sign' on CD and not wreck my 12" any more than it already is....

lol i downloaded this

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c168/dubstrong/GreatBritishMCs-front.jpg

recently and didn't like any of it except for mi god mi king

http://www.roots-archives.com/release/3363

yeah, rob, that's sort of what i was hoping it would be like!!!

like zig & zag, that is

re: tippa irie, i was just making funny, i actually do like that track. it's got a great tinkly piano (?) line.

that freestylers track is maybe the worst.

Wasn't Blak Twang kind of regarded as the British MC's British MC for a while? Never really saw why he was supposed to be so great meself.

some of the early stuff was okay, but he just sounds so awkward as a rapper, i never totally 'got' him.

theres a heap of guys that could have been on this though that should have been. and they fit the remit a lot better than those horrendous big beat-y tracks that are on this.

when you consider how good "nice up the dance", "rumble in the jungle" and the SJ dubstep efforts have been, it seems very weird that this is so incredibly dire.

"i think whoever put this together doesnt actually know enough about UK emceeing."

What they should talking to an "expert" like you to put together something like this together? I will agree that better tracks could have been chosen, but clearly whoever put this together knows a lot about the subject. There are very few obvious choices on this (Papa Levi excepted).

"when you consider how good "nice up the dance", "rumble in the jungle" and the SJ dubstep efforts have been, it seems very weird that this is so incredibly dire."

"Nice Up The Dance" is the only one of those, I rate. "Rumble" is a poorly compiled mess and both Box of Dubs are pretty dull affairs.

u so crazy

i would think the obvious choice would be compiling 2 CDs that didn't suck

Moonship I seem to recall you badmouthing every one of those discs? When did they suddenly become "good"?

Quality in this case has little to do with knowledge. These aren't the choices I would make, but I don't think they indicate ignorance of any of these scenes.

Moonship I seem to recall you badmouthing every one of those discs? When did they suddenly become "good"?

Quality in this case has little to do with knowledge. These aren't the choices I would make, but I don't think they indicate ignorance of any of these scenes.

Frankly I would liked Rumble in the Jungle if it was compiled more like this collection was, fewer hits, more rarities, less SUAD, but hey if you need another collection with "Incredible", "Original Nuttah", et all on it, good on yah.

i badmouth everything

How could I forget that charming tendency.

an canada story

^^ A++

reeemix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Icb_tRTnA4g

"What they should talking to an "expert" like you to put together something like this together?"

glad i didnt have to toot my own horn.

anyway still listening to this and rethinking. it seems to me that the dancehall is pretty uniformly awesome and the non-dancehall is pretty uniformly bad.

^^^correct.

so i just remembered that amusing Goofy track 'Fudgie' from '97 - is he British?

No.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jOjZKDoo08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVgOez607UA

there is a great EP to be made out of this album. that warrior queen track on here has got to be her worst.

Haha ouch teh 80s.

should've / could've been 2+ discs of jams in the style am0n posted. "80s fast chat"? is there a shorthand name for post-"sleng teng" but pre-ragga?

should have been more older stuff on this. also, why no asher senator?

raggamuffin-not-ragga

should've had more APACHE INDIAN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsDRyF_PXQM

actually sorta incredible that as a UK label soul jazz hasn't done a bhangra comp

Ragga is the name for everything post-"sleng teng".

That is kind of weird, although they haven't done much non-UK-US-Jamaica comps have they?

hmm ... i guess not really. i mean, there's the latin stuff. and some of the early universal sound material is south america, african, japanese (though all funk/jazz oriented).

I forgot they also do brazilian too, don't they?

apache indian = uk apache ?

heh didn't know there was a video for this

apache indian = uk apache ?

-- am0n, Tuesday, 22 April 2008 22:43 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Different guys. And "Original Nuttah" is easily a top 10 single of the 90s.

^ the new cash nuttah

top cat sound pretty good here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3DCwJyKSg8

shy fx is so great. they should've put his remix of "ruff like we" on there.

rebel mc ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs_WjstsqV4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihzqk2x506k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K8OcWHCHjs

congo natty >>>>> fashion records

lol?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIyDlda2RoU

ROTFL

there isn't a fucking thing in the track that even *sounds* like an upright bass!

"ruff like a ninja / swinging like a bee"?!?!?

"black meaning good" and "tribal bass" are great though

i see "word sound power" is fetching $25 in the US and £15 in the UK ... hmm ... off to the clearance bins ...

lmao an upright bass makes a cameo here too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFixXmsrqw8

congo natty >>>>> fashion records

this is kind of poor trolling, fashion put out a lot of good ragga jungle but i don't like any of it as much as conquering lion 'code red'

Kind of unfair though, I mean Fashion just provided the vocalists (or sampled vocals) and released a few nice cash ins. It's true that Congo Natty >>> rest of the ragga-junglists for the most part. That said, I think "The Hitman" is better than "Code Red" if the former counts as "Fashion".

I love this and disagree with most of the negative comments above.