Yo. This is Kano and I’m about to watch some videos and see which one of these UK artists
gets my cosign.
I think for like a long time, or for a little while I think, where music was in the UK,
especially hip-hop, they were kind of looking at America so much that they were emulating
what Americans were doing.
For some years now, people have been telling their own stories and putting their own spin
on it.
And yeah, we've created our own thing.
I know this tune.
I met him the other day for the first time in Birmingham.
I hear the recognizable sample, but I know that he’s a major part of the new thing
that’s going on now.
People are feeling this guy.
Yeah, he’s not reinventing the wheel, but yeah.
I like the tune.
I like this ‘cause it’s local.
You can tell that it’s just the ends that he grew up in and his mates and that.
That’s how my videos used to be, like all my mates wanted to come and now they’re
like, that’s shit’s long…
No one wants to come to the videos nowadays.
When I hear this, I’m like straightaway, I can tell that he’s from up north.
And when you come from a place, like outside of London and you can kind of captivate your
city, because there's not so many of you, like they really root for you.
You know what I mean? Massive respect to what he's doing and obviously still repping his ends, and
you can tell that's where he's shooting his videos and what not, so.
Yeah, big respect to that.
I like this.
I wonder what it’s shot on.
It’s like a square crop.
I know she's not like singing singing, but I love when people just, are themselves, you
know what I mean?
A lot of people don’t like to hear comparisons and shit like that, so I don’t mean to do
that to her, but yeah.
That Santigold like Azealia Banks-y kind of, you now what I mean.
That's the kind of world it feels like it lives in to me.
Everyone, like artists, we know what’s out there.
We know what’s working.
We turn on the radio and we hear what’s working or we see what’s got millions of
views and what not.
So to say, “Look, maybe that’s not for me.
I wanna do my things this way,” is like commendable.
So yeah, never heard her before and yeah it’s cool.
This looks like yesterday.
Like, the visuals are working for me.
Nah, I’m joking.
I like that he’s got his little dance thing going on as well.
People that ain’t afraid to just vibe and not just be so hard all the time.
But yeah, fun song you know what I mean, young guys, getting it, enjoying life.
Big them up.
Yeah I’ve seen this.
You know when someone’s just like, English.
Just like, pub, pint, packet of crisps.
You know what I mean?
English.
Yeah this hard.
This beat is mad.
I like it because I know already that it was a challenge to spit on.
I don’t think his flow is off-beat.
I just think the beat is off-flow.
It’s like he’s showing you the side of Britain that isn’t necessarily publicized,
you know what I mean?
But it’s different to who I'm speaking for.
It's his own thing.
So it's nice to hear that perspective.
Liking the beat already.
Fuckin’ hell.
How old are these guys?
They’re in their 70s.
That’s impressive, ya know.
I dunno, they might not have wrote it but even to perform it, you know what I mean?
Ah!
He said, “I’m a nut box, put five cans in me grandson’s lunch box.”
Oh man.
Tune’s alright though.
Fuckin’ hell.
Wow.
Showing me what the next 30 years of my life could look like.
To be honest, I want to know who’s writing it, if it’s them or not.
If they ain’t, I'm still impressed, like to be able to perform that, you know what I mean?
Yeah that's a mad one.
That's a... yeah.
Big them up, man.
I wonder if they do shows.
They should do shows at funerals or something, ya know?
What's quite interesting to me is, it's probably the first generation that grew up on artists
that were from England.
Yeah first one was Headie One, I liked that tune.
That’s what really stuck out, just like the vibe.
Aitch.
Yeah I liked his vibe and how just down to earth and local it was.
Shygirl, yeah.
I liked that as well, she was doing something interesting.
Next one was Poundz.
Just a bunch of mates enjoying life.
Slowthai that was a proper video that, you know what I mean?
Pete & Bas.
Yeah that was funny man.
Of those six videos that you've just shown me, I think the Slowthai one is, is the one
I can co-sign.
It was creative, it was interesting, it was slick but then raw, and if that was the first
thing you saw of him, it would really tell you who he is.
The future's all right, it's looking all right for us.
You turn on the radio now, before it used to be like a bunch of mostly American music
and you might hear the one Dizzee Rascal or whatever, but now it's like, English artists
are actually flooding it, and that sounds crazy because that's how it should be, but
it hasn't always been like that.
In terms of black music, we never got a look in at times, but that's all changed now.
You think Americans can hear the different accents that we have within our thing or they
think it's just all English.
Yeah, it's like, I don’t know, listening to Jay-Z and then listening to Gucci Mane,
you know what I mean?
It's like you can tell they're from a different place.