This documentation presents a masters degree dissertation paper examining the history, cultural impact and identity of UK Hip-Hop music from the 1990s, with a particular focus on the instrumental sound of pioneering record labels like Ninja Tune, Grand Central, Warp, Wall of Sound and Mo Wax.  Featuring interviews with some of the UK's leading DJs and Producers, detailing their thoughts, memories and experiences in creating the UK sound, as well as experiences from my own lifetime in DJing and making Hip-Hop inspired beats.

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It is an academic study, however it is aimed as much at Hip-Hop fans and enthusiasts as it is at researchers and academics.  It is a story about UK music and identity, my own identity, and (I hope) yours too.

 

Through this research I assert that the UK brand of Hip-Hop, although inspired by the turntable skills of artists such as Double D & Steinski, and the sampling culture of American Hip-Hop originators, transformed it into a recognisable UK identity with it's own cultural elements and impact.  Focusing the sound of Hip-Hop through the lens of DJs coming up through the warehouse party days of the late 1980s, UK artists made instrumental Hip-Hop more narcotic, darker, moodier, cooler.  Spy themes and movie dialogue replace rapping about guns, complex sampling and scratching became the melody, and just dance to the music became the message.  With the psychedelic influence of rave tunes and illegal parties, I make a case for reclaiming the term 'Trip-Hop' from it's association with solely Bristol-based acts such as Massive Attack and Portishead, and argue that it is not only a fitting label for it's drugged-up associations, but it is in fact a cultural identity that enabled the UK to carve out it's own niche in Hip-Hop history.

 

I believe that the UK dance music scene of the 1990s holds a special place in music history, and that Trip-Hop should be celebrated as an intergral part of it's development.  Innovative in the extreme, experimental and free, fun-loving and party-making.  The UK should be proud of the musical achievements of this genre.

 

Below are some short extracts from the research, and a link to the full paper.  I would love to connect with like-minded Hip-Hop fans, other researchers and academics, or anyone interested in music history in general, so please feel free to use any of the contact information on this site to communicate with me, discuss the research, add any information you think is beneficial, anything you want to talk about.

 

Thank you for spending some time with me.