I've said this before, but drill is (and grime was) what UKHH people always said they want - indigenous UK mic music but now it's here they can't get on board
I mean tbf you could say that hardcore was that (as in britcore not rave) although most of it is too derivative of Rakim I'll give you that. But in 88-93 that made sense.
But after that wave petered out due to various reasons and politics UK rap became this overly histrionic whiteboy confessional nonsense. I'm not clear exactly how that happened, I guess because a lot of the britcore producers moved into hardcore/jungle (criminal minds, MC Duke) etc... And of course jungle was still tainted by house music for stoner Henry from Sussex.