The Music Scene So Far

Remember back in 2010 when JLS and Tinie Tempah release Eyes Wide Shut? They were probably the 2 biggest Urban music acts we had out there with mainstream success... and JLS weren’t didn’t even make urban music.

 But now when I switch on Capital FM (which I admit isn't often) I’m hearing Wiley, Wretch and Sway. Now to be fair, we’ve always had people in the Urban music charts - think So Solid Crew. But who else from them days had chart success and made a big enough impression for us to remember their names?

…Stop trying to think of names. Very few is the answer. Now just read on...

Recently the urban music scene has achieved a new type success, in which we don't just have one hit wonders, but artists that are creating history and are here to stay. I’d say we have to go back to the start of 2010 to find where this started...‘Pass Out’. 

Now this has been a progression, and it wasn't just this one song that changed the whole scene. Without the success of artists from way back such as Craig David, Dizzee or Tinchy from not long before, I don’t think it would have been as easy for Tinie Tempah to make such an sudden impact. But ‘Pass Out’ certainly gave the game a boost and opened the ears of the music industry.  

The success of Tinie and Labrinth with that track did many things. It connected mainstream music to the latest of underground urban music scene. Tinie was a grime artist before his chart success, and with Pass Out, he opened the music industry to the genre and made it accessible and available on a mainstream level. People who hadn’t even heard of grime or brushed it off with that same old guns, gangs and drugs stereotype, now saw a different side to the whole genre and culture... and actually enjoyed it! Not only that, but it inspired other artists on the underground that it was possible to break through the charts. Wiley has even said when talking about his recent success, that seeing people like Tinie Tempah having their success inspired him and made him believe it was possible. It does seem exaggerated, but it’s true. A year ago, did you ever think you’d see Wiley on a Now 83 CD?

After Tinie broke through, we got a whole bunch of artists hitting the charts with songs influenced from the bars they spit on Tottenham streets and beats they produced in their bedroom. Plan B, Wretch 32, Skepta all have had chart success and are now names that even your mum will recognise. 

Now I realise I’ve mainly just been talking about Grime, but I feel this is the one genre under the urban branch that has grown, evolved and made the most progress recently. It has been the dominant UK urban genre which has developed from some of our most prominent genres: bassline, dancehall, garage, drum and bass with, ofcourse, the influence of Hip Hop. 

But what is better, we’ve had other genres breaking through to, with the likes of Angel, Delilah and Katy B (to name JUST a few) and introducing not only a UK take on some of the USA's most popular genres, but they are even creating sounds so fresh and different it is hard to label them.

Giggs - one of the underground's finest is should be releasing
an album soon... it'll be interesting to see if anything he puts
out will make chart impact.

Like I said before, we’ve always had people from the Urban music scene in and out of the charts but I feel like urban music as a whole is being taken more seriously as a genre and a culture. SBTV, a company that began with Jamal Edwards filming MC’s spraying in the middle of the estate, is now a renowned and respected brand. People are beginning to understand more about the whole culture, and with that they understand the music and are more willing to listen to it. With this shift in the behaviour, the artists born out of urban music and culture are not only making an impact, but one that is lasting and they are staying there.

No I know there will be some of you saying something along the lines of “*insert artist here* is a sell out now”, but no one said it was perfect. It is progression and we are getting there. We’re a long way from being like the USA, where some of the realest Hip Hop and sweetest slow jams hold the number 1 spot but we’re getting there. If turning a bit mainstream is what it takes to hold a spot in the charts right now, then so be it… we can “re-evolve” later. All I'm saying is, I'm excited to see what happens in 2013.

p.s apologies for saying Urban so much...I know..it was probably as annoying as Tulisa's "Urban roots" *bbm cover's face*