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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CRATE DIGGER (as of 18th February 2001)

NAME: CRATE DIGGER

AGE: 23

PROFESSIONS: full-time cynic, part-time record collector/DJ/anorak, wanna-be music journalist

HOMETOWN: Purley - a suburban town just outside Croydon in Surrey.

FIRST RECORD PURCHASED: Bros ‘Drop the Boy’, 1988

FIRST RAP RECORD PURCHASED: De La Soul ‘Three is the Magic Number’, 1989

FIRST UK RAP RECORD PURCHASED: Subsonic 2 ‘Unsung Heroes of Hip Hop’ 12” 1991

FAVOURITE RAP ARTISTS: The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, Eminem

FAVOURITE UK RAP ARTISTS: The Creators, Universal Soldiers (but I’m biased!), Supa T, Jehst, Braintax

THE STORY SO FAR:
I was brought up in a home where there was a music-playing device of some kind in every room. Terry Wogan’s Radio 2 show was my mother’s favourite, and in the late eighties, my sister would annoy me with her constant playing of tunes by a group called Public Enemy, that at the time I thought were just a load of noisy rubbish! Around this time, I was into pop music and was well on my way to becoming Wet Wet Wet’s biggest fan. Of course, I liked some rap tunes back then – but my choices were always limited to whatever was getting into the charts. However, it was not until 1993, when I developed a major crush on Monie Love, that I took a real interest in hip hop music!

I began taping Tim Westwood’s Capital FM Rap Show on a regular basis; I started digging the crates of my local second-hand record shop; and I even started standing up at the magazine shelf in WH Smith’s for hours reading Hip Hop Connection cover to cover, with no intention of buying it (old habits die hard!!). So, by the time I was sixteen, I had become the guy at school you gave a blank tapes to in order to get a copy of the latest rap tunes.

Around this time, I didn’t really make a distinction between the rap music that was from the US and the stuff that was produced in the UK – if I liked the tune I bought it (simple eh!!). This sentiment still remains with me today. Anyway, back then I was into the more mellow UK rap – mainly the stuff Giles Petterson was releasing through his Talkin Loud record label (Urban Species, Marxman, Galliano), plus Subsonic 2, NSO Force, 11:59 and Stereo MCs.

When I went to university in 1995 my most prized possessions were my stereo and my record collection. Max ‘n’ Dave’s and Trevor Nelson’s radio shows on Kiss FM became part of my staple diet and I gained a small rep for deejaying hip hop and r&b music at house parties, on the college radio station and at major student functions. It was during my studies that I met Principal from Bristol’s Esoteric crew and I became close mates with an emcee called Ricochet (now one half of the act Universal Soldiers).

The Brotherhood, Funky DL, Rodney P, Blak Twang, and Silent Eclipse were the UK rap acts I was checking for at the time, and when I left uni, I developed further my interest in home-grown hip hop. One of my work mates from by first job was the girlfriend of one of the MudBury Family DJs. As a result I was eventually persuaded to check out one of their early Mudlumz events at Dingwall, Camden Town. At around the same time I also used to go to the Northern Lights hip hop workshops Ricochet was running in Edmonton that
attracted the likes of Lewis Parker, Supa T, Profound, plus a young Jargon and Dupa Styles.

So, since my early childhood, I have always been passionate about my music and have a particular love of hip hop, soul and jazz-funk. And since I was a teenager, I have been known to my friends for being a tad sarcastic, and more than a tad opinionated. So, I guess it was inevitable that by the time I was nineteen I had become one of those judgmental prats whose gripes appear on the letters pages of magazines like Touch and HHC.

Today in 2001, I still like to get my point across, but I try to do it in a less confrontational manner. Though I don’t claim to be the ruling authority when it comes to music, I do know what I like to hear in a hip hop record – regardless of whether it is made in the UK of the US. To me, it’s all about rhymes that flows, beats that get your neck jerking and your shoulders bouncing, and most importantly - no fake accents, egos or personas. Sometimes I feel that I am asking for too much!!!

Long Live Hip Hop

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