For the next few years I fully immersed myself in Hip Hop, firstly as a break dancer and music collector / tape supplier. Crews were formed and we roamed our patch with our ghetto blaster and roll of lino, which we would lay on the pavement to battle passing crews. If we wanted any music we had to mail order it, or research the details and order it, with over a months wait, from Virgin. Scraps of information were gleaned from the single columns in magazines like Jocks, Blues & Soul's 'Whatupski' as well as Westwood's 'Zulu Message' and Record Mirror etc, however we were severely deprived of the information we required. Slowly things changed and when the New Skool of Run DMC, LL Cool J and JVC Force dropped I was starting to produce my own simple breakbeats as everyone does using the pause button technique. My friend got a Casio keyboard with limited sampling time and we added music production as a pastime to our breaking crew. We had a go at rapping, beatboxing and producing and to get enough sample time we had to spin the records ultra fast and then play them back greatly slowed down.

Later I got some cheap decks and after a few years of bedroom mixing progressed to playing out at parties and a few clubs. From the late '80s whilst flirting with each new type of Urban music as it emerged such as Ragga, House, Jungle and Drum'n'Bass etc, I would always return to where my heart was really at - Hip Hop. I'm afraid that Hip Hop has now grown so big I can't get with all of it. I started to not dig or properly understand all the G-funk stuff coming from the west coast. Warren G, 2 Pac, Kurrupt, the Dogg Pound, E-40 etc. So I just left it alone and concentrated on what I liked. Give me some head nodding New York beats or some relevant UK stuff anytime. By the mid 90's though I was seeing and hearing an increasing homogeneity and following of set formulas in the music form for which originality and breaking new ground were pre-requisite rules. People like Puffy and Jay-z started milking it and worse was to come in the form of southern stuff like Master P, No Limit, Swizz Beats and Nelly etc. I could see no merit in this music and failed to see why people were going mental for it. I was disillusioned, but all I have to do is throw on some Task Force or Phi Life Cypher and I know there is some serious shit that relates to me out there.

So having been in this for quite a while I have heard a lot of fads come and go and a great deal of extremely excellent and extremely rubbish music. I don't want to be drowned in a sea of mediocrity, demos released as professional product or regurgitated ideas passed off as original or innovative. I have seen the internal workings of large businesses and how they manipulate situations purely for their financial advantage. I have also witnessed great injustices committed against artists and therefore I have developed quite a cynical point of view.

I initially started this site as a backlash against the current false media fawning over UK Hip Hop and other overly positive sites, as well as being a bit of a joke to stir up some shit. I was going to indulge my love of criticism and denigration and slate a few mans, then sit back and see what happened. I got off to a good start, but since then Crate Digger came on the scene and turned this shit around and made it into one of the most current and frequently updated UK Hip Hop sites. Luckily it would appear that he thinks along similar lines to me and the overall feel of the site remains quite distinctive, by not playing the media game or feeling the need to be subservient to any greater power. Whilst we on occasion focus on imperfections and can be accused of being overly cynical, we remain truthful to our core values and with coherent arguments talk about topics others wouldn't dare broach.

So tell me I'm wrong.

Long Live Good Hip Hop.