Knee Deep in the Beats

from the LP Flesh Eating Disco Zombies Versus The Bionic Hookers From Mars, Ninja Tune Records, 1996



British hip-hop don’t get no respect, being one of the few American-bred styles of modern music that the Brits haven’t totally cracked (as compared to, say, the way they psychedelicized rock, congealed punk, or mainstreamed house); as with all things in life, one can find some notable exceptions to the rule, London’s Funk Allstars being the ones who pop into my mind first. Essentially the productions of one Jason Turnbride and his pals, I first heard these cats on a tape that DJ Craze had mixed around ‘99/2000, one who’s name I can’t recall (if anyone knows this, please hit me up with it, as I’d love to procure that mixtape again) but where he focused entirely on British hip-hop artists: full of thick beats, trippy samples & plenty of cockney accents. You can pretty much trust that any record released on Ninja Tune will bring the funk, and this was no exemption, containing some badass scratching and stellar production, leaving us with a really good case for giving UK hip-hop a second, deeper, look.