Please allow me to introduce an article that will be a regular look at ‘Hip hop and Beats’ for God is in the tv.
2011 was a near stellar year for hip hop; rappers (though not necessarily hip hop artists) are now a central actor in nearly all pop, with even MCs from the UK now being legitimate pop stars. “Some people say I’m bonkers...” is a refrain that many fans of hip hop who have supported the new wave of UK rapper during their underground phase will be saying to themselves. The world, at least if you are a rapper, has gone mad.
But I want these articles to be relentlessly positive; about music, about style and about the internet. Hip hop’s very being is steeped in the DIY culture that is adored by the internet, mixtapes being downloaded in their thousands have been created using a computer, a small home studio and a bandcamp account. Indeed, has there been anything more fitting with digital native culture than the mixtape?
And in the spirit of the ‘da interwebz’, I want this to be a two way thing. I will (perhaps with a healthy amount of vanity) be recommending the music I hear and want to share to you, but we also want that to be the same from the people who read the articles.
So from the get go, I want to hear your hip hop and beat tips for 2012: Can A$AP Rocky and Frank Ocean avoid the BBC Sound curse? Have you heard the rapper XV? A ‘new’ rapper who has about 10 mixtapes already. Are you angry that despite producing brilliant albums rappers like Jehst and Roots Manuva are scrabbling about while Professor Green gets all bling bling on us? Is Devlin a scally or a street poet? Is there a rapper that you have been jealously guarding ready to expose us to his or her brilliance? Well here is your chance. As starter, here is a brief playlist to get your teeth into.
