“It’s based on a personality and a goal,” explains 21 year old Kebbie Conteh about the meaning behind his hip-hop moniker Joker Starr. “’Joker’ was given to me by my cousins when I was younger, and ‘star’ is what I want to be.” Having been rapping seriously for only three years, it is impressive what he has so far been able to achieve.

Due to the modest financial returns it offers the majority of its artists, British hip-hop has had more than its fair share of casualties over the years. One example of this is the defunct collective Lords of Rap. After releasing a string of singles in the early 1990s with limited success, the London-based quartet decided to split up. Eight years on, the group’s main producer and rapper Def G now goes by the name of Soliheen and was the man responsible for producing two of the tracks on Ty’s well-received debut LP as well as crafting beats for new rhyme-slinger Joker Starr.

Music Of Life Records, one of the original UK hip hop labels. They released a fair bit of US stuff, a lot of crap sounding stuff but a few good UK 12"s.

Formed in 2002 Urban Fire is an outlet for UK and US Urban Acts.

Panic Room was a label from Essex focussing on releasing the work of Headzache.

Dented was a UK based hip hop and drum n bass record label. Home of the Foreign Beggars.

A-Ball is an unsigned emcee and is looking to promote his work and get his name known throughout the industry.

Bite It! was Trevor (Underdog) Jackson's hiphop label responsible for introducing us to the Brotherhood and Lewis Parker. Hasn't released anything for quite a few years as Trevor concentrates on his Output label, which is more of an electronic thing.

Tongue Tied was an Edmonton, North London based label. Hope to the Universal Soldiers.