Warhammer, heavy metal, computer games, skateboarding and hip-hop were the things I loved as a young teenager. Niche hobbies, unpopular stuff, and things you had to go off the beaten track to indulge. It was hard work, but hey, that’s punk rock for you. Around about the same time I discovered Warhammer in the 4th year (that’s year 10 in new money) I was handed a tape of the latest Public Enemy album ‘Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black’. I had to prise the Guns N Roses tape out of the Alba hi-fi, and what I heard blew my tiny ignorant mind. This went in hard, was political, had boatloads of swearing, and even had the cover of ‘Bring The Noise’ by Anthrax. Considerer me converted!

Getting hold of music was next to impossible, Britannia (you remember that mail order scam?) had only just picked up on grunge, so that was out of the question, and you can forget Woolworths. So aside from the standard bootlegging and trading, it was either a trip to the next town to order stuff on import, or a trip to the big city (Swansea or Cardiff). For our video  fix, we had to rely on our mate setting his Grandad’s video to record Yo! MTV Raps in the small hours of Saturday morning as none of us had cable TV. Things got a bit better with the Radio 1 Rap Show, it might have been heavily censored, and some found Westwood’s style offputting, but you can’t fault the music he played and new acts he introduced. Hip Hop Connection was the magazine of choice if you didn’t fancy getting The Source magazine on import, just look at their top 100! albums

This musical experience climaxed at my first ever gig, Reading 1994. Just look at that, Gang Starr (Jeru the Damaja was there too), Cypress Hill and Ice Cube. Then you had the crossover stuff Honky, Fun-Da-Mental, Senser and Shootyz Groove on top of all the other alternative majesty. The year after wasn’t too bad either, watching Gravediggaz open up the main stage in broad daylight on the Saturday morning was incredible! After that, it all started getting a bit too commercial for my liking, watered down with a heavy R’n’B vibe and cleaned up for the daytime crowds. So yeah, I’m a white boy OG.

This is basically a trip down memory lane to accompany a Spotify playlist I made,

so shut that bedroom door, put your headphones on, and travel back to the golden age

of hip-hop.