Quite apt that the thread title is "at the moment" as generally UK rappers/MC are only fleeting, ephemeral peaks. Either the streets will turn on them or piss-poor attempts at commercialism take away the edge and then there's no real return.
That John Wayne tune that got posted was huge for a few weeks- I remember it vividly-and then all the street talk about him switching sides started and his moment was gone. The 09/10 rap thing ate people alive. Two months later he was Johnny Gunz with that ropey la la la adlib. Can't remember the full background, did he get ran out of Peckham and into the Old Kent Road lads or was it Brixton. Youngsta was massive with that Crystal Meth tape and then he got rushed and bang the hype is gone. That's the thing when your real captive audience is kids and white lads from the suburbs I guess - half the appeal was the street drama.
Even someone like Wiley who everyone is evangelical about was only really good on radio or in beef and only then for about four years really. A great eccentric personality but the music was shite for years. That afrobeats tape could have been good but he kept lashing shit features in etc etc
How many grime MCs were great for a dvd, or a six month run and then they disappear. Drill is probably the antithesis of this in a way because most people seemed to lean into the anonymity with all the gimp masks and that.
Maybe this is the point of UK stuff though we are about scenes not stars, unless you're white or willing to pander to the white market wholesale.
The most charismatic person in UK rap is Tim Westwood by a home county mile.
No, he's a nonce.
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