EVOLUTION OF MC’S 49
EVOLUTION OF MCS WORDS | Ed Aarons
In part four of Kmag’s series tracing the Evolution of MCs, we
discover how three artists helped to transform the status of the
MC from supporting cast to the main attraction.
them. It was the whole experience of trying to get in, at a night called ‘Spirit of the Jungle’ was alongside influential lyricist came another setback in the fight
all the mad queues and the girls that really hooked Hyper D and Fearless. From then it became a regular to have their voices heard.
me in. It was the first time I’d seen local guys up there thing and I got to meet all the MCs and DJs.”
on the stage getting everyone dancing that is what “For the next two or three years he would probably
made me realise that I could make a career out of “I’d seen Hyper D play a few times and he was the have been the man to chase but at the time he
it. I had been mainly into hip hop beforehand so it person that everyone looked up to but I always tried passed away, I was just grateful to be doing well,”
was a real eye-opener to see how popular the whole to do my own style,” Skibadee adds. “My inspiration reflects Skiba. “When Stevie died, I asked some
thing was getting. I was completely fresh to the whole was really other forms of music because that had serious questions about whether it was actually
scene because I didn’t like what I had heard but when I been my background – I would hear a hip hop bar worth carrying on – he had become the number MC
discovered it for myself there was no turning back.” and try to do my jungle version of it to adapt to the in the scene but what legacy had been left behind?
music. I think that helped when I started out because I I consider Hyper D to be up there alongside the best
The likes of Det, Navigator and Fearless were other sounded quite different from everyone else who came artists from hip hop and reggae but I wasn’t sure if a
influences as Skiba quickly set about making a name from a more reggae background. Most of the MCs few tape packs and being popular within the drum &
for himself in the scene. “I was watching what they that were at the top of the game when I was starting bass scene was enough for me. For three or four years
were doing and it made me start thinking about trying out had been there for a while and it was difficult I lost a bit of interest and didn’t really write many lyrics
to do it seriously,” he recalls. “I did some research to make the breakthrough. I managed to go from a because I couldn’t see the point of it all. Then I realised
and came up with a few ideas but I didn’t really know nowhere to being properly established after two years that I needed to try and do a bit more than just MCing
anyone. A few months later, I got the chance to go on of performing so that was very surprising, especially week in week out and start getting into the studio to
pirate radio with my cousin and we started on Crystal because it is still difficult for new MCs to emerge.” release my own tracks.”
FM in Fulham and they asked me if I wanted to come
back every week. I really just stumbled into it but I was By the time of Hyper D’s untimely death in the But while the likes of Skibadee, Shabba, IC3 et al
lucky because Ash-a-tack was the main DJ down there summer of 1998, Skibadee was well established have proved worthy successors, they owe it all to
and he took me under his wing and started hooking me among the elite of British MCs and was named as the amazing legacy created by the man they call the
up on some of his nights as well. I was a real nobody runner-up in that year’s Best MC award, just behind original junglist MC.
back then and I remember one of my first appearances Stevie. But with the passing of drum & bass’s most
K48-49_EvolutionOfMCs.indd 49 23/4/08 14:08:00
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