After a recent facebook discussion I decided to air my views via my fantastic blog. It is about the UK music scene, Plan B has recently shot to fame with his number one selling album ' The defemation of Strickland Banks', which contains two top 10 singles. Plan B has been making music for many years, I first heard about him 4 years ago when he came to my attention with such songs as 'sick 2 def' and 'mama (loves a crackhead)'. At the time he recieved very little media attention but was accurately described as Englands answer to Eminem with a daring and bizzare but clever lyrical style. He also plays guitar and sings something very unique. His debut album 'Who needs actions when you've got Words' reached number 30 in the charts. However due to the negative vibe surrounding around UK rap artists he did not recieve much media recognition despite being clearly very talented, admitadly some songs could not be played commercially due to the lyrical content such as ' No more eatin' and 'Charmaine' due to the subject matter.
The defemation of strickland banks is a far more comercial album. Plan can not be faulted for trying something new with his motown inspired album which doesn't really appeal to the 'pop' market. Furthermore he strayed away from the dance/techno scene that similar grime artists have gone down in persuit of mainstream money such as Wiley and Bashy. After all this rambling you must be thinking what my point is, well your eger mind is about to be satisfied, it is that clear talent should be noticed and promoted regardless of it's mainstream potential. Right of centre music like heavy rock and trance have their own comecially succesfull markets being apreciated for their talent, however UK urban artists do not get the positive promotion they deserve. Most of the music does involve talking about negative things such as drugs sex and violence, but most are only talking about everyday situations that they live in. Furthermore many artists put out positive messages or even promote themselves through music without talking about drugs and guns.
An example of artists that have been labelled 'sell outs' are Dizzee Rascal and Kano. Both raised in East London, had a raw gutter style which at times talked about drugs and guns but only describing the way in which they live their lives. Dizzee Rascal found fame with 'Boy in da corner' and followed success with 'Showtime', both musically creative albums. However his most recent release is not worth the plastic its made on, with an almost pop sound with no raw edge that the former dizzee rascal would of laughed at. I understand he is just trying to make money and can't talk about the hood and that type of subject as he does not live around that anymore, however his descent into senseless drivil such as 'bonkers' is beyond me and awful basic bassline with nonsense lyrics about being bonkers? An example of someone balancing the best of both worlds in Wiley who became a house hold name with ' wearing my rolex'. Acredited with being the creator of Grime he has made money through the trance/grime scene but also realesed two albums which appeal to the grime fans. He is a true hard worker who makes music he enjoys aswell as music that will be popular and make money, although he is often critiszied for not making the commercial switch along with dizzee rascal, but he has became succesfull eventually doing his own thing. A recent release that may have commercial success is 'midnight lover' that has an R n B theme that has brought through artists from around the country.
However times are a changing, strong lyrical artists who talk about real social situations such as Devlin have been getting recognition recently singing to XL recordings along with South London rapper Giggs. Hoepfully they will not follow the path dizzee rascal and Tinchy Stryder and they can utilise their raw talent and put it into a style that will appeal to all true fans aswell as having chart success.
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