A brief history of UK Rap
Sweet Irie was once quoted in a Red Bull Academy article saying reggae is the tree from which hip hop and grime both emerged, and from there came UK rap. According to Okayplayer.com, throughout its history, UK rap has always cross-pollinated with other sounds such as garage, funky house, grime, and more recently, Afrobeats, trap, and drill. “It’s reflective of the nature of Black British-led sounds that dates back to when dancehall became heavily influenced by electronic sounds in the 1980s.”
UK rap emerged in the mid to late aughts. The Stockwell rapper Roots Manuva came to national prominence in Britain with the release of “Witness” in 2001 “with its wobbly production and south London twang that was attributed to the Caribbeans who resided in the area for decades,” as described by Jesse Barnard for okayplayer.
By the 2000s, UK rap was intrinsically linked to garage. If you heard straight rap, it was UK hip hop according to the strict genre definitions prescribed at the time. Then So Solid Crew introduced grime’s slow-tempo, bass-heavy ominous sounds into rap, changing garage forever. The road (or street) rap of South London continued this trend of slower, darker sounds, acting as the closest precursor to the drill and trap music we know today.
In the 2010s, UK rap hit the mainstream as a culmination of Top 40 hits over nine years. According to Barnard, "In recent years, the UK rap tree has grown and expanded due to the social phenomenons that took place earlier in the decade. Access to platforms such as YouTube and streaming sites have given younger artists a broader and more diverse soundscape to take inspiration from. While drill was born in Chicago — via the likes of Chief Keef, Lil Reese, and King Louie — it migrated to the UK and ultimately replaced grime as the sound of Black youth. Road, or street rap, was very much underground but it wouldn’t be until the rise of south London crews such as 67 and Section Boyz when drill and trap came to major prominence in the UK. More recently, acts such as Skengdo & AM, SL, Unknown T, and K-Trap have been leading the current wave of drill artists rising to popularity.”
The strict rules that have previously defined rap, hip hop, grime, jungle, or trap have begun to dissolve. Artists across genres collaborate, support, and inspire one another. Underground sounds almost always make their way to the charts in one way or another.
