Finding the Northern Urban Music Scene

After long consideration I have decided to document my account of how I stumbled upon the Manchester urban scene, it is an ongoing story and will take hopefully many years of my life to complete as I never want my journey to end, it's just too incredible. Come with me as I take you into a detailed account of drug misuse, loud music and outstanding musical artists.

I am not your stereotypical urban music fan, after all I am a white middle class boy from a sleepy town in the fields of Cheshire, yet one day I found the most incredible music of entered my life which changed my way of thinking, acting and mindset. I have never been "normal" in my fashion and musical taste, having spent many years of my life listing to Ska and Punk CDs until they wouldn't play any-more, but I'd dabbled in some Hip Hop and Grime but only mainstream artists who never really caught my attention for long as I found no connection to music and could never relate to it, after all I'm never going to be shooting guns and dealing drugs to kids, I am from Cheshire after all. I had a small knowledge of Grime in Manchester but that stopped after Shifty and Urban Knights.

Around the birth of mainstream Dubstep and Drum & Bass most of my friends sold out to the chino and vans wearing masses, we stared going to see strange underground Dubstep raves put on by a small company called Just Skank. My first ever rave was Datsik, Funtcase, Genetix and Persist at the Moho Live in Manchester. This night changed my life, with a handful of pills and a strong will to party all night I entered the rave. The first thing that caught my eye was the fact every single person was off their tits, or so it seemed to me, at first it was an odd and strange place, but the people were nice enough and seemed to welcome me with open arms, in fact I'm sure I heard everyone's life story in great detail. After being thrown out twice and sneaking back in twice, I made my way to the twenty-four hour Burger King with a small handful of worn-out ravers and proceeded to collapse onto the counter, the night showed me that there was more to life than my sheltered existence. I would never be the same again.

I went to a few more Just Skanks but nothing that pushed me on my way to the Hip Hop scene, although each one was a great night and I highly recommend them to any real Dubstep fan. The next rave of note was the Deep Medi Music takeover for Just Skank at Sankeys again in Manchester, I must mention at this point I had been told about a few London Hip Hop Mcs such as Jehst, Chester P and Skinnyman and now thought I was the champion of all Hip Hop in the UK, this rave was slightly different for me as it would be the first time I found out Manchester had a Hip Hop scene. My pre-rave ritual is normally looking up the artist on the line, except this time I noticed an Mc named Sinseer was hosting the event, I heard one of his tracks and thought nothing by it, after all I was going to a Dubstup rave, not a Hip Hop one. During the rave my friend met Sinseer while having a ciggy and spat some of his bars to him, Sin liked them and talked about doing a track together, of course this never happened like most wired conversation. This night was also the first time I'd spoken to the artists performing while the event was still on, its not much but I shared a quick fag with Mala, this showed me that the underground scene didn't have people with huge egos, they were just like me and you. The night was excellent and I had an awesome experience but the events that followed were much more important in my life.

After I got home I did some more research into Sinseer and his music, I downloaded his free E.P. Hazy Daze which changed my musical taste forever. The E.P. spoke to me and I could relate to it much more than Hip Hop from the USA or even London, I must of listened to it on repeat at least fifty time every day at work, I just couldn't get my head round the fact no one knew about him, he was one of the best lyricist I'd ever heard. I saw that my friend had added him on Facebook, I then proceeded to add him as well, not long after that I was added by a guy called Chris Morris Aka Dorris, this then opened my eyes to the Grime scene within Manchester, his music was tongue in cheek Grime that had the aggression yet wasn't someone telling me they were going to shoot me and then rob my body like the London grime I'd heard. The first Bit of music I heard by Dorris was the Animal Season video featuring fellow grime Mc Xtra, it was everything I wanted in grime, clever lyrics with a political undertone. I then downloaded his free album Dorris Vol.2, it blew me away and showed me there was much more to the Manchester scene. After Dorris added me on Facebook I then made it my mission to find out every Mc in Manchester, I proceeded to find as many Mcs on Facebook, this was an excellent way to find new artists.

I started to find Mcs like Cfour the Polymath, a political Hip Hop Mc that spoke to my Punk side yet showed me political music could also be a nice sound, Inflict, who is only fifteen years old yet shows insane lyrical skill, Blizzard, another young Mc who shows incredible skill and also happens to be Shifty's cousin, Hypes, who has just battled on Lord Of The Mics and has one of the biggest hype surrounding him in Manchester at the moment, Magiic, who has truthful lyrics and a good passion and many more. Although Facebook wasn't the only way to find new artists as I was about to find out completely by accident.

One day my friend Tom, who goes to university in Manchester, was taking his daily trip to Dr. Hermans when he noticed a flyer for Jehst at the Night and Day cafe in Northern Quarter put on by Will Not Be Televised, as soon as he told me we instantly bought tickets, after all Jehst was the artist who got me into UK Hip Hop. During that time we had been experimenting with the legal high MXE, we decided that we would have a trip at the gig. The night came quickly enough for me even though I was ecstatic. So off we headed into the great unknown with a few legal highs and a small bag of ganja. After arriving at Night and Day the moment it opened we took seat and waited for the night to start. The first artist to play was D'Lyfa Reilly and Red IQ, I was fairly sober at this point and felt slightly uncomfortable due to the new environment. D'Lyfa blew me away, it was like he had been performing for years even though he clearly wasn't that much older than me, with Bo'Nidle and C Aye Monk accompanying him the first act had firmly settled in. Up next was my now favourite act, just before Red IQ, Dayse & Aver. This political whirlwind blew my mind away as soon the first beat was dropped, the intense show and combination of MXE and ganja put me in a place where I have never been so happy. A band called Dirty North played next but unfortunately my memory of this is fuzzy due to much good living, I do however remember they were good I did buy there mixtape when I got home and it is a great listen. With Jehst running somewhat late, two hours to be exact, Konny Kon took up the decks playing almost every track he had, he is an amazing DJ, I think everyone should see him at least once in there life. During what seemed like endless time waiting for Jehst we ventured outside the venue, what waited for us outside blew my mind. Everyone was chilling blazing spliffs and cyphering, I remember Blizzard and a few other Mcs spitting the most epic bars I'd ever heard. When Jehst eventually did turn up put on a great show but didn't seem as important as the other acts. After this night me and Tom vowed that we would go to every Hip Hop gig in Manchester.

When I got home the next day was when the magic really started. I proceeded to download my all time favourite Hip Hop releases, D'Lyfa Reilly's Sewing Seeds E.P. and Dayse & Aver's EP0001. Both releases are highly recommended. I like D'Lyfa's E.P. because each track is 100% relatable to and each track is a masterpiece. EP0001 is just an utter mind blowing listen, each track is a political jewel, the beat structure is just insane and was completely new to me. With each listen I grew more and confused as to why they were not the most known artists in the UK, I just wanted to tell everyone I knew about them.

The next gig we went to was another Will Not Be Televised event, this time the headline act was the legendary Jeru the Damaja. This is another event that will always be close to my heart as its the first time I ever had a proper conversation with an artist that has inspired me. Pretty much as soon as me and Tom got back to sleepy Cheshire, after Jehst, I started to look for our next gig and it just happened to be this. The event was held in Rusholme's Antwerp Mansion, which has become my favourite venue due its look and feel, Antwerp Mansion is an old conservative headquarters that has been turned into the most liberal place I'v ever been. With Jehst being such a fun night me and Tom decided we would take MXE again, so after a train journey and a taxi ride we arrived at Antwerp. The first thing that struck me was the graffiti outside on the walls. The first act that played was a Blackpool Mc called Spider Jaroo who put on an interesting performance but it seemed only me and Tom had arrived. Up next was a Manchester Mc called Sparkz, he did a great set that made sure when I got home I would download his E.P., each track seemed to whip the crowd into a Hip Hop frenzy. After Sparkz an amazing beat-boxer performed followed by Red IQ and Dayse & Aver's group The Natural Curriculum, both amazed me again, this time though I knew every lyric spat. After they played I had a small chat with the Mcs, more than at Mala though. The thing that amazed me was all the Mcs were 100% real people with no celebrity ego. By the time Jeru came on I was out of my mind on MXE so its kind of hard for me to recall what happened but I know it was a good set.

When I arrived home I downloaded Spider Jaroo and Sparkz's releases, both are highly recommended and you can find reviews somewhere on this blog. The main thing I took away from that gig was that I needed to be part of the scene, but how? I couldn't Mc, I couldn't make beats and I didn't have skills. A few weeks later Dorris and Xtra teamed up to release Less Gass More Work, this is when I had a break through, I felt like I could help push this music out, so I made this blog and started reviewing the releases I had found so far. I hope to continue the blog for a long time to come and get great sanitisation from writing. I'd like to thank everyone that has shared this blog or even read it. I'm just a fan with nothing to do on his lunch break.