Is the road to music success in the black community defined by pop rap or street journalism, I look at Giggs.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been asking myself this question, broadly based on a UK initiative not in the U.S, mainly due to the fact the hype that continues to surround the the next ‘big’ thing in UK hip hop Giggs. But can we call it hip hop or shall we refer to it as street journalism, a tale of many stories some positive & some negative that documents a best selling rough travel guide to life in deprived areas.

This road to success for a black artist clearly has some guidelines, 2009/2010 has seen the rise of many I would call cartoon characters of the black community, not denying the sense depravity they might have had growing up but to escape that, it seems the notion of ‘selling out’ buckets down like spring rain but who could blame them with labels, money and exposure dangling just above their questionable D&G shades.

But in essence of street journalism we have a new artist on the block, those who know him from the ‘streets’ aware of his clique ‘SN1’ and their notorious mixtapes (selling them in the streets, but not quite as drastic as Eazy-E did with a gun, check out Welcome to Deathrow), quickly from that gaining notoriety for his deep voice over gritty beats, the new essence of UK hip hop stems from staying to the streets and not straying over to the darkside (by that I mean mainstream).

Periods in jail for guncrime charges, Giggs can certainly (if he wanted to) take the throne most rappers worldwide base there gritty background from, but looking at interviews it appears this man is purely about his business, taking his XL contract, his designer SN1 label and street journalism and shoving it down the throats to those that will listen.

But can he make it? It appears nowadays its not just the mainstream media not backing your goals (although 1xtra gives him credit, a 0.9% audience share doesn’t do this man justice) it appears to be the met police appear also to deride any sort of success, warning XL recordings not to sign him, tours being cancelled due to safety concerns, it appears a desire to tell a story (no matter how gritty) is enclosed in a tomb to be opened at your peril according to many.

Street journalism or ‘rap’ as its coined seems to strike to fear, a voice that treads fear into many, a hopeful beating back into his old is the hopes and dreams of many but I hope that many realise that there is talent in the streets of many inner city areas that can tell a story and get people to WAKE UP and NOT be ignorant, XL have artists that send messages that have been heard, M.I.A progressing onto to more serious issues, Thom Yorke ever challenging the social norm, and now we have Giggs, lets hope a message can now be delivered that can be real, positive and have people look in more detail of the ‘struggle’.

Nardwuar.....The Human Serviette

From his shortly lived but still ongoing band The Evaporators (who At The Drive In did support once upon a time), Nardwuar is and continues to be a cult phenomenom amongst music fans alike, not so much for his love for his purposeful mis-matched dress sense, but for his inane, baffling, insightful, confusing interviews which eludes to the interviewee admiring his work or reach for the nearest exit, whatever the result, Youtube is rife with interviews he has done over the last 20 years and it has become a frequented pass time of mine.


Known for his signature catchphrases 'check, check, check', who are you?, where are you from? (to start with) and ending always with a 'doot dooda doot doot' to which the normal reply is either fuck off or a 'i'll go along with this' attitude from the interviewee. What you will notice with Nardwuar is that his research is second to none, in the modern era of not adopting a relationship with musicians and just looking at a piece of paper and firing mondane questions about production style differences, influences and all that wafty stuff, Nardwuar usually produces gifts, old samples they have used, influences that are relevant and questions that somehow connect with Canada (his home is Vancouver, British Columbia to be more accurate).

Such instances that spring to mind include, regularly baffling Snoop Dogg, pissing off Slipknot, having plenty of laughs with the Mars Volta (seemingly respecting him for not insisting on Omar's pedal levels), again baffling Pharrell with ultra rare vinyl records, having photo's of Josh Homme at primary school and superior knowledge of garage rock which The Horrors can only respect. That's just a short list of the interviews he's done, there are so many and each one just as entertaining as the next, if you're bored then look up NardwuarServiette on Youtube, sit back and enjoy because this transcendental form of interview which sure to amaze.

Now hosting his own radio show in Canada, it seems he's got into the current affairs game and regularly frequents parliament with odd ball questions for the suits in power, who 9 times out of 10 find him rather annoying, but sticking to his first love of music badgering, here are some memorable ones, including Dave Rowntree almost assaulting the geeky tartan wearing maple flower.












Check out more that include interviews with The Strokes, Florence and the Machine, La roux, Lady GaGa, Nirvana, Franz Ferdinand, Jay-Z, The Libertines, Marylin Manson, Slipknot, Common, Nas, Flava Flav, Blowfly, Killers, Little Boots....Basically the list is endless.