Music Monday: Three Wize Men, South London Hip Hop 1988

Three Wize Men were an early UK hip hop trio, putting out an album and several singles on Rhythm King records between 1986 and 1988. This New Musical Express interview from 1988 situates them very much in South London:

'Sarff London!! Sarff London!! In the best traditions of the Hip Hop Nation this was the lip curl message growled out by the Three Wize Men as a prelude to Refresh Yourself, the band's second single released last year by Rhythm King... For the Wize Men (AJ, Jemski, Danny D along with Fil Chill aka DJ Cybertron) it's a matter of fact that South London exists somewhere along a line that links Deptford to Peckham Rye and the the Rve to the convoluted sprawlings of the Gloucester Road housing estate that provided the subject matter for their first single. 'Urban Hell'. A mass of stairwell towers and walkways from which a thousand flats branch off. its fortifications were intended to keep out the noise from a planned Europe-London motorway. The road never came. Now Gloucester Road lacks only the battlements to be a proper castle at war with an outside world, at siege from within.  It was Danny D who once lived there, but AJ tells the stories of kids he'd find comatose over glue bags and cheap skag. The police avold the place and owners Southwark Council despair at their own creation. South. London... It was the WIze Men's appearance in a support slot to Big Audio Dynamite that in August '86 lured Mute Records boss Daniel Miller, alongside newly formed Rhythm King, down to Jemski's Deptford flat'

'Three Wize Men' pictured on their album 'GB Boyz'

'Gloucester Grove Mix' of  Urban Hell

'Burn it down to the ground'  - Three Wize Men take down North Peckham's (now demolished) Gloucester Grove estate on 'Urban Hell' (1986)

 

Music Monday: Vision Crew - 'Coming from the Blue side, that's SE'

Lewisham-based Vision Crew aren't shy about representing the 'blue borough'. The video for their latest release, Forever, was shot at St John's Station, while on their earlier 'Walk the Walk' (built around a haunting piano line) they proclaim that they are 'coming from the blue side, that's SE'.

According to Complex magazine (June 2017): 'Meet Vision Crew, The South London Grime Bandits - There's something in the water down in Lewisham, South London, because the Blue Borough has been funnelling a plethora of music acts making their voices heard. Penetrating with devastation akin to the Wu-Tang Clan, Vision Crew is a collective on the rise: established in 2014, Ezro, Pascall, Tyzz, Whackeye, Goldie and DJ Kay C are a group of close friends, made up of emcees, producers and DJs taking their ends to higher heights'

Music Monday: Kate Tempest

Brockley-born Kate Tempest has been around for a while - first mentioned on Transpontine back in 2008 when she was performing as Excentral Tempest. But in the last year or two she's made a real breakthrough, including winning the Ted Hughes poetry prize last year for her 'Brand New Ancients' epic performance poem.

She's got a new album out today on Big Dada Recordings, recorded with producer Dan Carey at his Streatham studio: 'Everybody Down is something like a “novel rhyme” – twelve ‘chapters’ telling one long, complex story... Tempest takes the tropes of the hip hop story – drugs, money, gangsters – and brings them to life in a whole new way, a London way, but also a completely personal way, where she inhabits the different characters and shows the boredom and fear in their lives rather than some faked glamour, shows more than anything their need for love'.

The official launch is at Corsica Studios at the Elephant and Castle tomorrow night, but she previewed it last Tuesday at the Birds Nest in Deptford.

Kate at the Birds Nest last week - photo by @amybodiam

New single from the album, the Beigeness, is out now:

Also check out this in-depth interview from last year on Australian radio show Late Night Live with Phillip Adams:

Music Monday: London Bridge is Falling Down - Newtrament (1983)

Newtrament's 1983 electro track 'London Bridge is Falling Down' came out after the general election of that year. The track includes a sung refrain from the nursery rhyme and one of the first UK raps. As Paul Gilroy writes in 'There ain't no black in the union jack' (1987): 'His version chronicled police malpractice and inner city decay while suggesting that electoral politics were a sham. Whoever won the contest, he argued, the political processes of significance would take place far from parliament and the plight of the dispossessed and the poor would be essentially unaffected:

Election Fever on all four channels...
Red or Blue...
Win or lose, lose or win,
jobs will still be getting thin...

vote, vote, vote, there ain't no hope'

According to the excellent How's Life in London thesis on the history of London hip hop:

'Bertram Johnson, better known as Newtrament, was a London-based DJ who teamed up with MC Sir Drew and DJ Mr Mix12 to record what is widely considered to be the first British rap song London Bridge is Falling Down (Hunter, 1998). Released on Jive in 1984, it was ‘one of the first British tunes to make references to the land of its origins’ through its mention of the ‘boys in blue’ and its message about the state of electoral politics in Britain... The ‘cod American accent’, however, was still in effect and would continue to be present in most British releases during the 1980’s as British MC’s continued to wrestle with their own identity and the authenticity of their music. The Newtrament Krew were influential in establishing jams around London that helped further interest in hip-hop and also brought together the small clusters of interest that existed. The London hip-hop scene at this point consisted predominantly of small localised scenes with many people ‘unaware it was going on in other parts of town’ so these jams were important'

Afrika Bambaataa at Bussey Building

From the South Bronx to South London, Afrika Bambaataa is coming to Peckham on Wednesday June 5th, a legendary figure in the development of hip hop and electro. Worth a tenner of anybody's money.

Inevitably he's going to be appearing at the Bussey Building (CLF Arts Cafe), which has hosted a number of other music greats in the last year or so - I saw the Jungle Brothers there last April.

In fact the club is becoming one of the best venues in London, offering affordable but high quality sounds to a growing and diverse crowd. I had another great night at South London Soul Train there a couple of weeks and the place was rammed - over 1000 people dance, dance, dancing non-stop. Getting busy though, people were still queuing to get in at 2 am. I wouldn't expect a Wednesday night to be quite so mobbed but you might want to get a ticket in advance. Facebook details here.

You saved our lives, now we'll save yours

As health secretary Jeremy Hunt ponders whether to commit political hari-kari by approving a high profile closure of essential NHS services at Lewisham Hospital, a last minute musical intervention shows further evidence of how the threat to emergency and maternity services has united so many people with a common purpose to defend free healthcare in our local area.

Save Lewisham A&E is a great track by Lewisham rapper Question (aka Question Musiq) with the BBC-featured Lewisham NHS Choir, directed by Charles Bailey and video filmed by Chris Martin (not that one, who sadly hasn't yet taken to the streets with Gwyneth Paltrow to save Lewisham Hospital).

Some nices lines:

'You saved our lives now we'll save yours...

Lewisham I was born and raised
Where I spent most of my days
Indoor market Saturdays
I love this town, I love this place

Mum would always say
When she she was pregnant with me
And had difficulties
Had to rush to A& E

Pushing through your consultation, but we know our rights
Now we're marching cos we won't give up without a fight'

You can get all three mixes of it on iTunes.



With Hunt's decision due tomorrow, campaigners are preparing to either celebrate or fight on. If Hunt does decide to proceed with closure, many people will be heading straight down to Lewisham Hospital tomorrow at 6 pm to step it up - watch out on twitter etc. for updates.

Music Monday: Triad God, NXB

This week, Vietnamese-Chinese rap from New Cross courtesy of Triad God. Vinh Ngan was born in Vietnam and raised in South East London. He put out a mix tape earlier in the year, mixed by Palmistry, and it has now been remastered and released by hip US label Hippos in Tanks.

Entitled 'NXB' (which apparently stands for New Cross Boys) the sound has been described by The Quietus as 'delicate Sino-grime style melodies with hip-hop leaning percussion, sub-bass and the sort of rain-soaked synths that have become something of a Hippos In Tanks trademark'. FACT magazine have described it as 'some of the most heady, wonderfully oblique music of year'.

The inspiration for NXB has been described by Vinh as 'South London New Cross, Peckham, China Town / Bar / Club / Casino / Temple/ 2pac & Edison Chen'.




Here's a mix Triad God did for SSENSE,combining Cantonsese rhymes with Chinese film and pop samples:



(thanks to Murray W for the tip)

Music Monday: Koder

This week let's check out Lewisham rapper/grime artist Koder (he's on twitter here).

According to his Reverbnation biog:

'Hailing from Brockley, South London the aspiring rapper has been writing from the age of 13. “Rapping was a way for me to express my feelings about the circumstances of my life, rather than sit and cry I’d grab a pen and paper and start writing, Music became my escape from the world and everything in it”. In the summer of 2007 Koder featured on the popular track Where We Come From by the SE Collective, produced by Flukes of Crazy Cousinz, the infectious track achieved heavy rotation on Channel AKA and received a wealth of positive feedback... Koder continued recording applying the finishing touches to his debut mixtape which was released on 14 April 2010... Koder kept the buzz active with his latest feature on I’m A Star, a catchy grime track which features 13 of the top MCs from across London which included Maxsta, Kozzie, Sickman and Deekay'.

The video for SE Collective's Where We Come From features the Catford cat (pictured below with Doubles), Lewisham police station and the murals by Brockley station.

Koder's AClub freestyle includes the invitation 'Meet me at Brockley Bridge' and confirms if you didn't know it already that 'We've got North, West, East but the party's here in South'



Koders's 2012 SB.TV slot includes the great SE London line 'had her dancing like she was doing Laban' (he does say that doesn't he?).



Also absolutely love this Otis track by Koder with Penelope P (Nadz) - looks like it was flimed on the South Bank:



Sounds so soulful don't you agree?

All of which goes to show, if you didn't already know, that there's some amazing talent and creativity out there on your doorstep.

Professor Green in New Cross

Professor Green was spotted in New Cross last week, including at the Hill Station cafe in Kitto Road. As he was also tweeting about house hunting last week, the rumour has started that he was looking to buy a house in the area. We shall see... Maybe Millie Mackintosh can move in too - bring on 'Made in Telegraph Hill'.

Of course there are musical factors that might attract Professor Green to the far-famed Blue Borough. He has recently recorded a track with Lewisham rapper Dru Blu.

And did you know that on one of his early tracks, he sampled an anarcho-punk classic by a band who once lived in Forest Hill?

Hard Night Out (2009) samples Tube Disasters (1981) by Flux of Pink Indians. As mentioned here before, Derek Birkett from the band lived in Forest Hill in the 1980s and built up his One Little Indian records from there, helping to launch Bjork's solo career among other things

Music Monday: Ode to South London

Leon Rhymes of duo Too Many Ts has composed Ode to South London, a rap featuring puns on various Transpontine locations - e.g. 'foraging for florets of Brockley and its Walworth it'. The video was shot variously in Deptford, New Cross, Brockley, Ladywell, East Street, Old Kent Road, Greenwich, Tooting, Battersea, the Horniman museum and many other places.

Too Many Ts are on the line up for The Big Red Sessions on Tuesday 29th May 2012, a night of free music taking place in The Container - a truck trailer fitted out for performance at The Big Red Pizzeria, 30 Deptford Church Street, London SE8 4RZ (next to The Birds Nest pub)


Also taking part are Shanel Brown, Nick Capocci, Jean Genie’s Massive Hugs and Jamie Fisher. Doors open 7:30 pm, performances start at 8 pm (further details here). Drinks and pizza available of course in the big red bus.

Music Monday: Fekky

Lewisham's own Fekky has been making waves, with a well-received mixtape (available on It's a Madness) and getting name checked by Skepta amongst others. The video for She Loves Me features your actual Catford cat, Catford station and other local landmarks.




His big track Shine On (aka Ring Ring Ring Trap) has had a new remix. Seems the Government's plea for young people to come off unemployment benefit and start their own business has been taken to heart: 'Make Money, why the f*ck would I sign on?' (careful what you wish for David Cameron).



h/t Simon for this one. 'Music Monday' highlights current/newish music from the South East London area. Let us know by email or twitter if you have any suggestions.

Lewisham MP calls for 'gang' video ban

Lewisham East MP Heidi Alexander this week introduced a Private Members Bill in the House of Commons 'to give courts the power to order internet service providers to remove certain material which incites gang violence; and for connected purposes'.

Speaking in Parliament on 8 November she said:

'I am introducing this Bill because I am appalled by the proliferation of online videos glorifying gangs and serious youth violence. The police, via the courts and internet service providers, need to be given explicit power to get these videos taken down or to get access to them blocked. These videos act as a recruitment mechanism for gangs. I believe they lead to an increased number of young people in our cities who feel the need to carry a knife for protection and they terrify any ordinary human being who watches them.


I first came across these videos last year, when a constituent contacted me after his son had been the victim of a gang-related mugging. He sent me links to a video that was up on YouTube of the gang that had robbed his son. The video was filmed in broad daylight in a car park in the heart of Catford. It contained images of 10 to 15 young men—perhaps I should say boys—rapping, swearing and waving knives around as if they were cigarettes. The video boasts about violence; it is menacing, sickening and frightening. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these sorts of videos on the internet, not just on YouTube, but on sites such as Spiff TV. If someone types “Brixton gangs”, “Hackney gangs” or “Lewisham gangs” into any online audio-visual search facility, they will find these videos. Not all contain images of knives, but the narrative is the same, “Mess with us and we’ll stab you.” These videos have been viewed tens of thousands of times each—sometimes hundreds of thousands of times'.

(full speech here)

While not wanting to belittle the problems of gangs and violence, I question the response of censoring the internet to deal with them. There all kinds of complex social and economic reasons why gangs exist, and it is all too easy to blame social media. In the aftermath of this summer's riots there has been an escalating panic about them - but people have been rioting, robbing and stabbing each other since long before any of these things were invented.

Some online videos might be interpreted as promoting gangs, but banning them isn't going to make gangs go away - it might just hide the reality. I have looked at some of these videos. My first thought was that I would rather be able to see for myself what some of my neighbours are up to, whether I like it or not. It is also obvious that there is a great deal of posturing and bravado - who's to say what is genuine violent intent and what is just some kids showing off? Really serious career criminals don't tend to provide police with the obvious intelligence helping hand of showing their faces on the screen (I know some of them are masked, but it's not hard to recognise people if they're known to you). You don't see many 'hey hey we're the mafia' videos do you?

Likewise who's to draw the line between glorifying gangs and creative musical expression? A lot of DIY rap and grime videos could be victims of a catch-all ban like this. Similar arguments were made in the early 90s about banning 'gangsta rap' for glorifying violence - apart from denying people from around the world from hearing some of the most innovative music of the period, this ban would have simply swept under the carpet depictions of a world that many people would prefer not to think about but exists nevertheless. Music is also one route out of the limited horizons of gang culture - some of those kids boasting about how they run 'their endz' might go on to greater things - see for example the success of Peckham rapper Giggs.

Here's an example of the kind of thing which I think the MP has in mind. From last year, it's Ruff Man and  Y.Affecta's 'My Neighbourhood', filmed it seems in Taylor Close, Deptford (next to Lapwing Tower) - though it also refers to 'Brocktown - that's my neighbourhood' (or Brockley as some people insist on calling it). It talks about the Ghetto Boys (New Cross/Deptford gang), and I must admit if I bumped into some of these guys masked up in the street when I was walking the dog I would be decidedly wary. At one level, yes, it could be viewed as bragging about gangs. Maybe some of the people in this film have been involved in dodgy business of one kind or another - though of course the police already have countless laws to deal with that.

I do think though I should  be able to choose for myself whether to listen to this kind of music and make my own mind up about such films. Even if you find it abhorrent, maybe it's telling you something you need to know about the city you live in.



Heidi Alexander's Bill is also supported by Joan Ruddock, MP for Lewisham Deptford. It is though unlikely to become law, as few Private Members Bills get granted the time to get through Parliament.

SE London Hip Hop

Well we've been including some locally filmed videos from the roadrap new school, so let's rewind a bit to some great UK hip-hop.

Blak Twang, aka Tony Rotton, grew up on Tanners Hill Estate in Deptford (see earlier post). 2002's So Rotton is a great track and the video features Peckham library (just like Kivali Luciano and Giggs) and Lewisham Model Market.



Also check his Queen's Head (1995), featuring Roots Manuva, and filmed in Crystal Palace park:



Then there's Blade. Born in Iran in an Armenian family, he ended up in New Cross in the late 1980s and recorded his debut Lyrical Maniac in 1989. The video for 'What you waiting for?' (1992) includes New Cross station and that subway down the road from it (from Amersham Vale down to Pagnell Street):

Peckham Mayor

Peckham Mayor by Kivali Luciano is the latest in a long line of rap tracks using SE15 landmarks in its video, good to see the youth bigging up the library! (see previously Giggs and Joe Grind)



Then a few months ago there was Pecknarm London by Y.R., Deej & Big Chess:



See also some classic old UK Hip Hop videos from Blak Twang and Blade featuring Peckham, Lewisham, New Cross and Crystal Palace