1990s hypes revisited - loose series installment 06 - "Britcore"

**firefinga** · 13-09-2018, 05:18 PM

There was this mid-90s hype - at least in the German speaking world - regarding "Britcore" - UK Hip Hop, outfits like Gunshot, Blade, Hijack. They had a bit of a cult-following in Germany (and Austria) from let's say 1991-1995, got good reviews in music mags and were repeatedly on tour. Yet, they kinda disappeared without a trace after a couple pf years. Gotta admit though, never really listened to any of their stuff....

**john eden** · 13-09-2018, 06:13 PM

Gunshot and this track especially were very big with punk/hc people I knew:

I saw them once and they were great from what I can remember.

This lot seem less cred than London Posse.

**DannyL** · 13-09-2018, 06:44 PM

Gunshot were bloody brilliant, wish I still had their album. I remember one of their videos that had a guy in nicking a car stereo. I think the reason that UK rap never really took off back in the day was that it was eclipsed by raving, which had much deeper cultural roots, there was always a fantasy/cargo cult element in UK hop hop

**CrowleyHead** · 13-09-2018, 07:04 PM

Interestingly Shut Up And Dance kind of flit in and out of this as well, despite being rave pioneers (which fits into how Woebot was trying to argue eons ago about how Hip-Hop was more of a antecedent of jungle than ragga-themed stuff).

It's v. weird as a modern rap fan to go back to a lot of this stuff or London Posse or what have you and try to appraise it as fairly as possible b/c a lot of it doesn't hold up greaaaat.

**firefinga** · 13-09-2018, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by CrowleyHead

Interestingly Shut Up And Dance kind of flit in and out of this as well, despite being rave pioneers (which fits into how Woebot was trying to argue eons ago about how Hip-Hop was more of a antecedent of jungle than ragga-themed stuff).

Demon Boyz fit in there as well, I think

**padraig (u.s.)** · 13-09-2018, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by CrowleyHead

Hip-Hop was more of a antecedent of jungle than ragga-themed stuff

they're both in there. if you look at the big OG junglists they were almost invariably bboys of some kind thru the electro era and late 80s. Hype, Dillinja, etc.

but West Indian etc influence was huge too - it's etched into every strand of jungle's DNA, sonically and culture-wise. I'm sure Droid or Eden could elaborate.

SUAD were bboys but then they also had the Ragga Twins and Peter Bouncer. Congo Natty is another big one. Roni Size etc via the Wild Bunch.

like pretty much everything back then (it seems from afar) everything was often all mixed up, usually if not always to the good.

the mighty Criminal Minds first couple records were straight-up Hijack etc style Britcore rap and they hold up pretty well, esp if you're into late 80s U.S. fast rap.

then after ardkore and jungle they went back to making rap and it's pretty awesome. like if you're gonna do Cape Fear, come correct.

**droid** · 13-09-2018, 10:02 PM

SUAD were hip hop boys, no doubt - in fact they said that as far as they were concerned they were just making fast hip-hop, until they went to their first rave and saw the madness firsthand - but they also came from soundsystem culture and were steeped in reggae.