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’.