uk hip hop

for many people : 2004 = the year that uk hiphop became a much more interesting force. special issues from HHC highlighting the scene, the streets, dizzee rascal, the grime media explosion etc etc. however i haven't been overly enamoured with the sounds i have heard so far. but i suspect this is something i need to revise, and yesterdays arrival of the new album by evil ed could be my turning point. in the last few months i have been fortunate enough to get my hands on 3 albums which are all interconnected, with each album featuring a set of playas and producers (mr thing, lewis parker, jehst, LG, mark b etc) - yungun - the essance (janomi records) - tommy evans - new years revolutions (ynr productions) - evil ed - the enthusiast (janomi records) of the three i have to admit that evil eds is the most fun for me as ed comes in as a dj/producer and calls upon various uk voices to flesh out his old school hip hop beats, whereas tommy evans in his military socialist party garb has some serious sides to his message and a few choice cuts spread across his album. the yungun album however took some getting into .. but today i'm going to give them another spin and see if it hits home .. stay tuned .. on a different trip altogether i have also sorted out a catch all page for my fave soul-n-funk party jam mixtape creators - the soulsavers. lots of superb stuff going on in their world thats for sure. more later. mark e ireallylovemusic