Every Wednesday, Marta brings a slice of the Mediterranean to Sheffield to see if the music scene really differs at all.
Due to this blog, it is now a common truth that the Harley is always a guarantee for good music, and even better whiskey.
This time I went with two friends to a hip-hop night, which sort of betrays the über-Englishness of a place like the Harley; still, the opening act was pure Albion hip-hop. Rap gets funny when it comes to Europe. The real thing, the music born in the U.S. – the ghetto music – is actually Wall Street music. It’s violent, immoral, obsessed with money and fortune: Fuck the World big time or die trying.
The alternative, revolutionary message was sort of attached to it in the pseudo-intellectual transition to the Old Continent, where most of the people tried to imitate its style with results that swing between embarrassing beyond belief and excellent – I think especially of the French MC Solar and the Italian rapper Danno, although I am afraid these names won’t tell you much. While music is usually a very international language, hip-hop gets extremely nationalistic, partly because of the references and mostly because of the language, which is absolutely incomprehensible to non-native speakers.
I am usually not fond of hip-hop. I mean, I grew up with Public Enemy and when I was 17 I was madly in love with Eminem as was every straight girl of my age, but that pretty much tells everything about my competence in talking about this genre. I was surprised when my super English friends told me they don’t like British hip-hop, because the accent makes it sound really ridiculous. I can see their point, but on the contrary I love English hip-hop exactly because of the accent. It makes it more exotic to my ears and the rhythm becomes smoother and calmer by definition, regardless of any content. The music becomes less violent and more introspective, which is exactly how The Ruby Kid is.
Introspective more than political, this very white British boy from Northern England reminds of a European version of Eminem, which can actually be considered a very big compliment when it comes to flow and care for the musicality. His EP Winter In The City has just come out and it’s a very interesting product, if nothing more. After all, isn’t all music a product to begin with, as he earnestly sings in ‘Art v Industry’. He is not Bob Dylan, which is often quoted in his lyrics, but he’s very talented.
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