NEWS
EVENTS
UK Rap Scene: On The Up
RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 11th June 2010 | Osh
The UK rap scene is bubbling up nicely and there are a number of artists that are ready to blow! Top of the pile is Peckham born and bred rapper Giggs. His gritty raps have dominated the UK underground for the last few years after rising to prominence with his club smash “Talking the Hardest”. When Talking the Hardest first hit the clubs Giggs was an unsigned rapper with a local buzz. Today Giggs is a signed artist with nationwide recognition a BET award and an album on the way. He has enjoyed a phenomenal rise which, due to his darker rap style has seen many stumbling blocks thrown in front of him. The mainstream didn’t want to hear Giggs hardcore raps, which detail the harsh realities of ghetto life. Giggs is about to release his album, and with it he is bringing another more hardcore side of UK rap to the mainstream. By bringing this dimension to the UK rap scene it has given a platform to so many more UK rappers to showcase their talent without feeling they need to conform in order to succeed. There have been successful UK rappers before Giggs. Rappers like Swiss and Sway are well known rappers and have even received recognition in the US. Sway burst onto the scene only a few years before Giggs making headlines with hits like “Lil’ Derek” and “Up Your Speed”. He also had success in the US, making an appearance at the BET awards and has featured made music with the phenomenal US artist T-Pain. Sway’s style of rap music is nothing like the dark gritty music that Giggs makes. it’s a lot lighter and more comedic. This made it more acceptable to the mainstream as it wasn’t anything new. In the UK many artists that are looked at by the mainstream as rappers came up as grime artists, but once rising to the top of the underground they watered down their more gritty grime lyrics for commercial rap music in order to make it in the mainstream. Chipmunk and Tynchy Stryder are the latest example of this, they used there success on the Grime scene as a springboard for success in the mainstream. It didn’t seem as if there was a clear avenue for mainstream success with grime music. Artists like Kano, Chipmunk, Tynchy Stryder and more recently Tinie Tempah have all tasted success when producing more radio friendly Rap music despite them all making their name on the Grime scene. It’s this constant watering down of artists that make the rise of Giggs so refreshing! He has come out with his own sound and has made it to the mainstream by sticking to his craft without compromising his style. While other UK Artists like “Black The Ripper” have huge underground following and success, their decision to stick to their craft has made success difficult. Giggs is an artist that’s stuck to his craft and been able rise above the underground. ‘Talking the Hardest’ gave Giggs a foot in the door of the music industry. However it was only a foot in the door and the music industry really wasn’t happy about seeing this foot. It’s at this point when many artists have begun to commercialise their sound. Giggs didn’t! Instead He kept making the same music and put his effort into making his SN1 crew a movement in the underground rap scene. Even when the industry was trying to push the door shut and leave him out in the street, Giggs stood firm continued to make HIS music. Fans rewarded him for his persistence continuing to support him, helping him sell 100,000 mixtapes in two years. With this underground support Giggs kept on banging at the door refusing to go away, demanding the chance to be heard. He was gaining more success and recognition in the underground to the point where he was receiving recognition in the US. Winning a BET award for best UK act and making music with US Rap stars such as Joell Ortiz. It was becoming clear that the music industry had a choice to make, it would have to let Giggs in the door or he would break the door down! Giggs decided to break the door down and now that he has been signed and is on the verge of releasing his second single and an album in which the only change in the music is the quality of production. The music industry has had to accept that they can’t commercialise Giggs. Giggs blazed his own trail into the music industry and the trail Giggs blazed has opened doors for many other talented UK rappers. Before ‘Talking the Hardest’ there wasn’t any room for the hardcore UK rapper. Since then there has been a real emergence of UK rappers with Young Spray and Young Teflon two UK rappers who may sneak in the door behind Giggs. Even within Giggs own SN1 camp artists like Gunna D and Joe Grind have also made names for themselves. He has brought the light on to a dimension of UK rap that had been kept underground for too long to the point where every UK rapper should be supporting the release of his album this month as his success isn’t just a success for Giggs but for UK rap and a reward for staying true to your music.
