UK Rap on TV - 1986

This is how we take the old to the new.

Not everyone agrees when Hip-hop’s ‘Golden Age’ starts but most acknowledge that a changing of the guard happened in 1986, leaving anyone who had been around since the start of the decade, well and truly in the “old skool” category.

Here in the UK, the term Hip hop was finally embraced across the board in ’86. The number one shop for the music was Groove Records in Soho. They changed their weekly ‘Electro Funk’ chart to ‘Hip Hop’ in February and Street Sounds updated their influential ‘Electro’ series to ‘Hip Hop’ that same year.

In the UK Pop Charts and on TV programs of the time including Top Of The Pops, The Tube, Club Mix and Solid Soul you had some old skool artists still hanging on at the start of the year such as Kurtis Blow and Lovebug Starski. There were the likes of Whistle, Mantronix and The Real Roxanne who made a big impression for a short period, essentially bridging the gap between old and new skool. I’d add Fat Boys to this category too, although they wouldn’t actually have a chart hit until the following year. Then by the end of 1986 it was all about Run DMC.

The biggest Hip hop event of the year was on July 19th at Wembley Stadium. UK Fresh, organised largely by Morgan Khan from the Street Sounds and Streetwave record labels and hosted by Mike Allen of the Capital Rap Show. The daytime and evening featured a mixture of: old skool acts like Grandmaster Flash, Lovebug Starski and Afrika Bambaata; plus Electro era favourites Captain Rock and the World Class Wreckin’ Cru (featuring Dr Dre and DJ Yella before NWA); heavy hitters of the day such as Roxanne Shante, The Real Roxanne and Mantronix, plus Steady B, Sir Mix A Lot and Just Ice who would all go on to become underground stars in the late 80s and early 90s. Here’s a news report that went out before the event.

Representation of homegrown UK hip hop artists was still limited. Here in Wales even more so, despite scenes starting to bubble up in Cardiff, Swansea and Cwmbran especially. Llwybr Llaethog, a London based crew from Blaenau Ffestiniog, released their groundbreaking Dull Di Drais EP but wouldn’t hit TV screens until a little while later. Geraint Jarman could be seen rapping in Welsh on S4C’s Drannoeth y Ffair which was recorded live at the Majestic in Caernarfon the previous October. However the track in question ‘Dim Lle i Droi’ owes more to Ian Dury and The Clash than anyone from New York and as great as it is, I’ve never seen or heard the track referred to as hip hop before.

The first real taste of what was happening in London that year was on a BBC 2 music marathon called Rock Around The Clock in September. As well as including US acts like DJ Cheese & Word of Mouth, T La Rock and Mantronix, a segment of the program called ‘Hip hop Grandmaster Class’ also featured Faze One live from the Town & Country Club. The group had appeared on Hip hop 15 in the Street Sounds series and also had some minor US attention when their track ‘Layin’ Down A Beat’ was picked up by Sutra Records in New York. The label which had been responsible for launching the Fat Boys’ career. This undoubtedly led them to be the first British rap group featured on US television.

The following month a programme called Chasing Rainbows on Channel 4 covered Southall’s Circuit Crew. Although the episode was largely about the Bhangra scene, it included the young collective of rappers, DJs and breakers bringing Hip hop to the wider South Asian community. Hip hop would go on to become a big influence on the Bhangra music of the late 80s and 90s (the clip below says 1987 but the program was broadcast on 11th October 1986.

In November The Tube did a whole feature on British Hip hop that included Faze One and Hardrock Soul Movement aka Max & Dave who started out with the pioneering soul, rnb and hip hop sound system Mastermind Roadshow and went on to host the Kiss FM Rap Show. In ‘86 they released tunes on Andy Sojaka’s Elite label and Morgan Khan’s Streetwave.

It also included Sanny X & Mr P who I know very little about, except that Sanny X came over from Sweden to enter the DMC Championships in 1984 and was invited to stay in the UK by Tony Prince, signing to the DMC label and recording a number of remixes for them, as well as releasing the track ‘Golden Rules’ with Mr P, who was a rapper from Newcastle.

1986 also saw the launch of the 24 hour Music Box channel on cable TV, which was simultaneously broadcast on Yorkshire TV during the nighttime. Nobody I knew had cable or satellite TV growing up so I couldn’t tell you how much rap was played on it. I doubt much at all from the UK, except for a group of their own presenters (including Timmy Mallett) called The Rap Pack, who are best forgotten.

Music Box’s show Boogie Box did include this quick section featuring Max LX from Hardrock Soul Movement and Howie G (or maybe D?) from the short lived rap duo Fission. It also has a competition to win a copy of Street Sounds’ Hip hop 15.

There’s no doubt that the UK acts featured here haven’t aged particularly well, and in keeping with the time period they all rap with American accents, or at least a heavy twang. But this still doesn’t excuse the fact that they frequently get left out of the history of UK rap.

The only group from this period who do still get some recognition in UK rap history are London Posse. This is largely due to the fact that Rodney P remained a central figure in Hip hop throughout the late 90s and 2000s, presenting a BBC 1Xtra show with Skitz between 2002 and 2007 and taking hold of his own narrative in many cases.

The group were also influential in shifting the window of authenticity from rapping like you were a New Yorker to UK rappers embracing their own accents and dialect (although some Welsh rappers had embraced their own accents and language even earlier). It’s interesting to note Bionic from London Posse’s comments about accents in this clip from the Irish TV show Megamix. Alongside him is Sipho (RIP), one of the founding members of the group and one of the UK’s most influential beatboxers, although he was originally from Kerry, which is likely how they ended up on Irish TV.

This post follows on from UK Rap on TV - Early to Mid 80s. Coming up next time, 1987.