Hip-Hop
West Coast rappers Luniz had a moment in 1995 with this playful weed-smoking anthem, I Got 5 On It, a million-seller in America that also reached No.3 in the UK singles chart.
Skoota Warner is a multi-talented drummer turned rapper turned drummer again, harnessing hip-hop and southern-fried funk from New Orleans.
It’s impossible to forget this tune once you’ve heard it because it lives inside your head for ever and will pop back whenever you hear the word Milkshake for the rest of your life.
I was wondering what to post today and then I realised the answer was starting me in the face on New Year’s EVE. So here she is with her 2001 hit Who’s That Girl?
Long Island rapper Roc Marciano samples old soul and jazz records and Memphis horrorcore instrumentals to create his unique style of hip-hop.
This is powerful stuff: it reminds me of when I first heard Linton Kwesi Johnson back in my youth. Like LKJ, Cleeshay uses spoken word, though the music is stripped-back R&B rather than roots reggae.
I have to admit that, like most others, I was initially attracted to this tune by its sampling of Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side. But there was much more to the New York rappers than that – though Reed got all the money and the teenage rappers never saw a penny.
DJ Shadow teamed up with rap duo Run The Jewels on Nobody Speak, one of the standout tracks from his 2019 comeback album.
Kneecap are a hip-hop trio from Northern Ireland with a strong republican message in their raps, aided here by Grian from Fontaines DC.
The Streets came out of nowhere, creating kitchen sink dramas of life as a young working-class man in the UK at the turn of the millennium.