It's the tyranny of the boombap which kills UKHH, though, isn't it? The lyrics might be good, if you sit down and analyse them, but to do that you have to put up with beats so predictable they might as well not be there. Plus, the delivery of UKHH artists sounds so uniform- regular, flowing rhymes, inexpressive macho delivery, it's like listening to a school teacher giving a lecture on safe-sex (which Black Twang's G.hetto C.hildren S.ex E.ducation more or less is).
As regards subject matter, for me there's NO FEEL of the streets at all in UKHH. It has the feel of the studio, of tightly crafted rhymes, of trying to make it sound convincingly generic enough to get radio play next to US hip hop. It sounds so insular. As for sexuality in UKHH, forget it! It's much too concerned with peer prestige to woo the ladies. An exception is Klass A's pretty wicked Ching Ching, but then again that's on Dizzee's label.
Compare to GLC, who despite being a total mess, are chaotic enough so that their references to binge drinking and fit girls can at least take you by surprise, create a mental picture for you of them sitting in a room chatting a girl up in between hits off the bong.
I dunno, Martin is onto something here for me. I don't want to hate on UKHH, some of it is quite good, but there does seem a undeniable general trend towards mediocrity/conformity.
Hot Chip are a strange one. I know them, vaguely, and don't particularly like their RnB type stuff, the lyrics sound so silly. But I'd totally defend their right to get stoopid talking about driving their mum's car around Surrey. But something in it doesn't work for me. Strangely, their first EP release was a masterful bit of Will Oldham esque alt:country, it's wonderful.