a thread for peckham gangster rapper GIGGS

i remember seeing some talk about giggs here before but can't remember where and since XL is releasing his album next month thought i'd start a new thread. the guy seems to have a lot of street buzz despite supposedly banned from playing shows in london due to his gang affiliation. according to wiki officers from operation trident tried to persuade XL not to release his album!

for anyone who hasn't heard giggs his gimmick is that he raps SLOWLY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JrJSVR_1Uc

today i downloaded 'best of giggs vol 3' which is 70 tracks. some of it is pretty great. particularly like him going over one of the sid roams beats from that 'product of the 80s' mixtape from a couple years ago.

this song which bizarrely features b.o.b. (does this explain all the b.o.b billboards all over east london rite now wtf?) is from the new album i guess:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNC-3tdq6OA

honestly i feel a bit conflicted about the gang stuff. i never really think twice when listening to a us artist who is rapping about gang-related stuff but i suppose this is a bit closer to home. or maybe i'm just getting old i dunno.

love his constant use of "unnnnnnggggh" and other adlibs. like he listened to the Jadakiss mixtapes and thought "but why doesn't he do the ehhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa noise more often?"

srsly tho wouldn't be surprised if the album quietly did pretty well, he's kind of unavoidable in LDN at the mo - i hear someone blasting it out in their car/on the bus almost every other day it seems.

This might just do well in the USofA with the appropriate exposure... and not like the streets did "well" but like Slick Rick did well. Your average n. american listener can actually understand and appreciate wtf he's saying irrespective of any wanna-be anglophile inclinations.

he's already won a BET award in fact... brings it up in his bars a lot. as well as his jeans. and his hat.

not confident the music industry in the uk knows how to deal with someone like giggs tho. the 'look what the cat dragged in' video is so cringe and you can already tell they are wanting to push him towards the route that dizzee went down. is there no room in the uk for a genuine rap star?

he needs a rival. maybe a rival reppin' Lewisham endz.

can you imagine someone like jeezy coming out of the uk? they wouldn't get as far as their second album without become a kind of urban novelty act with check shirts and break-dancing in the video

You guys got something here. I've been hating on UK rappers for a while, but I like this. I know it's coming from a place that's maybe referencing N. American lyrical styles and content more than is normal in the scene there, but it works. Why are you conflicted about the gang references? I checked the Paul Morley interview on youtube. Giggs seems fairly genuine... Perhaps he'll just be fuel for another public panic & commiserate crack down on civil liberties? Is the gang/gun problem in London as serious as all that?

the gang he is heavily involved with are seriously nasty: they were responsible for the murder of damilola taylor

yeah he publicly reps one of London's most notorious gangs - SN1/Peckham Boys - in pretty much everything he does, to the point of making "official SN1 merchandise". doesn't do him any favours re: Trident, although to be fair, they are twats to every "urban" artist who isn't Chipmunk.

read this: http://listofgangs.piczo.com/peckhamboys?cr=5&linkvar=000044#

(don't read if like any rational human being you can't be arsed to read a long clinical list of bad things Giggs' friends may or may not have done)

honestly i feel a bit conflicted about the gang stuff. i never really think twice when listening to a us artist who is rapping about gang-related stuff but i suppose this is a bit closer to home.

haha "oh i mean, it looks good on YOU"

http://factmag-images.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/giggs.new_.story_.main_.2222200.jpg

1. Intro
2. Hustle On
3. Look What the Cat Dragged In
4. The Way It Is
5. Bus Commercial
6. Get Your Money Up
7. Ner Ner
8. Reminiscing (feat. Joe Grind and Gunna Dee)
9. The Loves Still There (feat. Kyra)
10. Little Man & Me (feat. ML)
11. Life (feat. Shereen Shabana)
12. What More Do They Want
13. Matic (feat. Gunna Dee & Y Butch)
14. Signs
15. Up Up & Away (feat. J-Melo)
16. Have It Out
17. All I Know (Get Your Money Up remix) (feat. Nathan)
18. Let Em Ave It

eh, so is Don't Go There not on the album?!

I've listened to enough old-skool grime to not be too phased by the gang stuff, but at the same time I'm not sure the GBP is really ready for London-based gangster rap.

Also the slight issue that he can't fucking rap and sounds ridiculous.

i think he sounds pretty awesome

not gonna argue about the rapping bit tho

Think I'm just bitter because if anyone should be hyped as the British answer to Jeezy or whatever it should be Trim.

i wish giggs was any good because fuck knows the uk could do with proper thug rap in the light of the novelty jester gimmicks every other successful "urban" act has turned themselves into, but i've yet to hear anything that makes me care about him. the uk mc is at a very weird crossroads right now.

assuming that's the same kyra, she did a GREAT vocal of lil silva's "different":

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

Why does the UK need "proper thug rap"?

i guess the only reason i brought up jeezy is because imo jeezy isn't really a "good rapper" either. trim is amazing.

xps trim or goodz!

wtf happened to ice kid, anyway. he had potential.

Why does the UK need "proper thug rap"?

b/c it's usually pretty good, and certainly better than fucking "dirtee disco"

This sort of reasoning just reminds me of everyone overcompensating for Tinchy and Chipmunk last year by jumping all over Tempah T, who can't really MC either.

Goodz is way too hyperactive for this sort of thing, he seems to be going down the dubstep path which in terms of commercial success without appearing to sell out might be quite an astute move.

i dunno if anyone was ever holding tempa t up as the next big uk urban star haha

giggs is the only 1 in this country who makes the music he wants to even me i dont im jus feeding you music for money sad really is but yeh 2:04 PM Jun 6th via web

(wiley)

even in a wider sense does any urban music chart right now that isn't chipmunk/n-dubz/nu-dizzee novelty bullshit?

weirdly quite a lot, but mostly shit - b.o.b., iyaz, usher/will.i.am, jason derulo have all had uk no 1s this year with complete dreck.

tinie tempah's "pass out" was briefly heartening, a great example of a commercial beat that was genuinely great as well, a good-times party track that wasn't cheesy novelty.

the zinc/ms dynamite and nas/damian marley singles both scraped the top 40, which is better than i'd have expected for both but obv it's reprehensible that they stall while crap like "good times" and "dirtee disco" sails to the top.

matt dc spot on throughout, although giggs does seem to have a certain perverse charisma that basically maybe no other uk rapper/grimeist has ever had. everyone thinks what wiley thinks, almost irrationally

You're forgetting the Taio Cruz school of, yknow, actually properly massive stuff.

Anyone who doesn't like Pass Out can fuck right off.

has dubstep ever had any charting success? (not including things like chase & status)

no doubt xp

"heidi & audrina eat your hearts out" >>>>>> giggs

haha oh yeah forgot about "i wear cologne / cos i was born alone", tremendous line

i chirps her just for fun, i never ever call her phone
i leave her in the club, i never ever walk her home

princess nyah's remix of it is superb too btw - "i'll make ya pass out/you see the heels and the legs but no arse out"

matt dc spot on throughout, although giggs does seem to have a certain perverse charisma that basically maybe no other uk rapper/grimeist has ever had. everyone thinks what wiley thinks, almost irrationally

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 9 June 2010 11:38 (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

REALLY? Charisma no other uk rapper has ever had?

It sucks so much that no Klash became canon so much. Or Maestro or Kyza. Or ROOTS FUCKING MANUVA? etc. etc.

Yeah going back to the old-skool of worthy-but-dull UKHH is exactly what's needed here.

Just sayin'.

(also only mentioned second wave ukhh acts, not the old-skool. :D)

Actually that's a bit harsh on Roots but if Klashnekov isn't exactly wildly charismatic. But charisma is a red herring given that Kano had an absolute boatload of it and it didn't do him any good.

I don't really see what makes Giggs stand out btw. I mean he is a dece act at a time where anyone with skill isn't doing anything worth their talent but... charismatic? Because he talks about being ROAD in the nme?

(tbf i haven't listened to much by dude other than whatever semtex gets excited about on a friday)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RqpMAJ6gX8

duh i'm not saying charisma in general but the type of charisma giggs in particular has - i can't think of anyone else who's seized people's unthinking trust in the same way.

I don't really see what makes Giggs stand out btw.

these are teh facts:

the guy seems to have a lot of street buzz

his gang affiliation

he raps SLOWLY

xp

i'm not saying you have to like him but i think the ways in which he stands out are clear

also:

I know it's coming from a place that's maybe referencing N. American lyrical styles and content more than is normal in the scene there

like the reason he got signed and is popular is not because wiley or dizzee are actively selling out but because he clearly comes from a different place and has a different sound

Still needs a DJ called Shits imo

hahahah

so now we need rappers to talk so slowly theyre basically rapping like alkies?

*rap so slowly theyre basically talking like alkies

lol this person has a new lp coming out

When Will It Stop?

Released: August 2013
Label: XL Recordings, Takeover Entertainment
Formats: CD, Digital Download

NIGGERS IN YEMEN ‏@deckoking 23 May

Just clocked my RE teacher is in the music video of monsta man by @OFFICIALGIGGS
Retweeted by GIGGS