Always reminds me of (fairly) local legend Masterscratch this one. I've mentioned it before but back in the early eighties new tunes were quite difficult to get a hold of, mixtapes by a proper dj even more so. When we got a hold of one of Masterscratch's new tape it was like your birthday all over again. I don't know how they got an hour up the road to my neck of the woods but his distribution department were excellent. In fact I only recently threw them out as I don't have a tape player any more. Happy days.
Wonderful! I have wanted a decent rip of this legendary 12 inch and finally I have found one, so many thanks.
ReplyDeleteHere is some background info on the single, taken from this incredible essay on UK hip hop/electro/rap:
https://howslifeinlondon.wordpress.com/thesis/
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 (Louw, 2007: 210). 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, particularly in Covent Garden which became the ‘first city-wide focal point for hip-hop in the capital’ (HHC Digital, 2009). As well as helping bring the scene together in London, the Newtrament Krew also helped create links between the scenes in London and Bristol, regularly hosting jams with the Wild Bunch13 in both cities.
Haven't heard this in years,can you please repost this
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