Rapper's Delight

It’s about time UK hip-hop received a shot in the arm. The scene has gone a bit quiet in recent years, with Roots Manuva the only artist close to a mainstream pioneer.

At first glance, it seems unlikely that there could be anything mainstream about Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip. These guys are what you might call outsiders, and it’s a title they positively relish, physically and musically. On Tommy C, they speak of a nation “losing sight of what beauty is”.

And it’s this subversive attitude that might just bring them to the mainstream after all. The Essex duo combine to devastating effect, with the cutting lyrical prowess of Mr Pip the perfect foil to Dan le Sac’s intense innovation on the decks, and the product is a hip-hop record that could even sell a few copies.

The spoken word style brought to prominence by Mike Skinner a few years back has been burgeoning on the underground ever since, and it was only a matter of time before a character like Scroobius Pip came along for another crack at the big time. His direct lyrical style blends neatly with Dan le Sac’s varied and complex musical mastery, as shown to great effect on the Radiohead sampling Letter From God to Man, or the clever Dizzee Rascal parody Fixed.

The truth is, it’s hard to imagine this duo taking the charts by storm. The likelihood is that whilst they’ll sell some records, and whilst the tents at the summer festivals will doubtless be full to bursting when they hit the stage, Angles is too much an anti-pop record ever to force them towards the upper echelons.

But Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip are exciting, they’re novel, and they’re challenging. So you never know.