The UK Hip Hop scene emerged in the 1980s, with many early acts paying homage to American heroes such as Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five or Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force, crafting Electro epics for the dance floor (examples being Broken Glass and Newtrament). These artists would imitate their heroes heavily prior to groups such as London Posse or Asher D & Daddy Freddy, who rapped in their native accents and added Ragga influences to their music, thus creating truly British, unique hip hop.
By the 1990s, the UK had progressed to a denser, more aggressive style similar to Public Enemy termed Britcore and eagerly moved beyond imitating American accents and inflections. This coincided with a growing trend: the use of patois, a form of Caribbean slang used in Yardie and Rastafarian culture. This different slang lexicon helps differentiate some UK artists from other regions.
In the mid-2000s, UK hip hop was mostly supplanted in popularity with the emergence of Grime, an urban EDM style heavily influenced by UK Garage and hip hop. However, artists such as The Streets, Roots Manuva or Klashnekoff still remained popular.
Interest in UK hip hop began anew in the 2010s with the advent of UK Drill, a grime-influenced style of Drill commonly associated with gang culture which became an international phenomenon; the appearance of Afroswing, a Dancehall and Afrobeats-influenced style of hip hop; as well as with a flourishing underground scene of which we can cite the label High Focus Records.
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