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Hip hop is a genre of music in Ireland.
Beginning
Some elements of hip hop, like breakdancing and graffiti art, arrived in Ireland in the 1980s. At the same time, an underground scene of hip hop musicians were growing steadily more prominent. By the early 1990s, the scenes in Dublin, Cork and Belfast included such performers as Third Eye Surfers, Marxman, Creative Controle (now known as Messiah J. and The Expert), Homebrew, Ghost and Jay, Captain Muller & the Deathsquad and Scary Éire.
After the 1998 release of Optic Nerve by Exile Eye, hip hop has achieved much acclaim in Ireland.
Current situation
The current scene continues to grow but remains underground. Many artists and groups have developed and irish hip hop groups perform regularly in the main cities. "Crawdaddy", "Voodoo lounge" and "Eammon Dorans" (half owned by the fun lovin' criminals) being the usual venues in Dublin and Skye in Belfast. A diverse number of hip hop styles are evident in irish hip hop.
The "graff" scene in Ireland has exploded within the last year (2005-2006), with not much of an explanation other than the release of the higly acclaimed Playstation 2 game "Marc eckos getting up". Lots of kids/Toys (higly unskilled graff writers) have started to write and have brought a lot of negative attention from the public to light. This has been a major disadvantage to the top writers and crews in the scene as there has been a major crack down on graffiti in the last year.
Keen up and coming video producer, Urbanize from Northern Ireland, is currently editing the final touches to a dvd which will hopefully enlighten many people of the irish hip hop scene. It will be released hopefully later in the year, towards September/October 2006. It includes interviews with the most prominent emcee's and dj's in irish hip hop today and performances showcasing the raw talent of these performers.
Notable hip hop groups
- Scary Eire have performed live hip-hop since the late 1980s. Consisting of Ri-Ra, Dada Sloosh, Mr. Brown and DJ Mek. DJ Mek has been Irish DMC mixing Champion 5 times. Ri-Ra has release several solo singles. DJ Mek has also release solo tracks and performed production work for Ian Brown on his album "the Greatest".
- Messiah J and The Expert offer a funky original sound, and have seen the most success internationally of any irish hip hop artists via the release of the acclaimed "Whats Confusing You?" album in 2004. They are currently devoloping a new album due for release in late 2006, and worked with the C-Rayz-Walz of Def Jux on a 12" EP entitled "When the Bull Gores the Matador" which was released on March 31 2006.
- Lisa Dee originally from Dublin was a member of Ireland’s top Hip-Hop act Third Eye Surfers. Lisa moved to New York to record her solo album with DJ Wool (Glen Brady) in Brooklyn 2002 and now lives in London UK for the past 3 years working on fresh material with reputable UK producers Nutty P and Chris Smoove.
- Nu-Centz is a young Dublin based emcee who began writing at the age of 15. He has developed his style gradually over the years, now 18 years old he recently released his latest album I can explain the follow up to his 2005 album Music for the open minded. With a radio friendly style, Nu-Centz, accompanied by Rawsoul (emcee, Westmeath), and Paul Donnelly (vocalist, Dublin) have developed a good following, especially in the Dublin area. He is currently working on getting a website and a forum, made by dreamer, from swords.
- Collie is an older emcee from Dublin, currently based in Cork, but still sporting his thick Dublin accent he has released several albums and also performed at Oxygen (2005). His album is ainm dom sold numerous copies. It contains tracks such as het out, dublin bus and sham. In sham he disses the net scene in hip hop and ireland. He mentions h2 eire (www.irishhiphop.com).
- The NS Crew are an underground hip hop group originating in Ennis, Co. Clare. Comprised of four MC's and a DJ. The NS Crew consists of R.O.B (MC), Johnny Joints (MC), Spliffo (MC), Ninebar Dan (MC) and Bobby Comber (DJ).
- Roysta is a Belfast based artist who brings a very original style of hip hop. Using ska instrumentals and fusing together numerous genres Roysta is something new to everyone's ears.
- The Gudmen, separately known as "Ay Cee" and "P the Emcee", they are a kildare based pairing who make regular appearances in venues around Kildare and Dublin.
- DJ Flip of Dublin is a world renowned DJ/producer, I.T.F. world scratching champion. He has worked with several international Emcees such as "Marc Strech" of "Foreign Legion", Flip and Strech combine to form "The O'Liffey cousins".
- White Noise is a human beatboxer with several hundred gigs under his belt, also represented ireland at the world beatbox championships in germany 2005, is playing at the Oxegen festival in 2006 and collaborates with mixed genres.
- Urban Intelligence are a Ballymun crew who released "the homemade bombs" mixtape in 2005. Consisting of "Lunatic"(emcee),"4Real"(emcee), "Teknikal"(beats/production) and "Moschops" (beats/DJ/emcee/production) they offer what some may say is the irish equivalent of gangsta rap whilst also recording social commentary on modern day Ireland and its problems. They are signed to "Working Class Records".
- Captain Moonlight (the name comes from old irish tenant who used force to scare landlords into lowering rent) of Kilkenny is known for his tongue-in-cheek lyrics and comedic observations. His track "Dirty C*nts", an observation on the Irish political scene caused much controversy, including tabloid articles after he directly insulted numerous high-ranking politicians such as Mary Harney, Bertie Ahern (Irish Taoiseach), and Fine Gael (mainstream political party).
- Aos Dana (cork based) are solely responsible for bringing the raw feel back in to irish hip hop, they are a 5 man collective based in the cork region, and have so far gained some what of a cult following in the south with their 'death before dishonour' e.p. cheb x and dj restless have appeared in the likes of the savoy and brunos and are currently producing their new album due to be released after the summer.
Numerous other groups/artists/pairings are active in Ireland, Disfunktional, Project 77, The Elements The Korrekt Minds, Dark Half, Butcher Boy, Blacksterz, Aire, The Infomatics and White-Noise (beat boxer) to name a few.
Bony, Jaae, GMC, Tommy G = The group Lockdown. The Dutch Gold Kid,Kissmequick, B.wonder , Buachaill Dána, Mickey Gatch, Nash, South of District , Aos Dana and MC Squared.
See also
"Irish hip hop"