First up is a South East London crew who released four 12"s back in the early 80's, and had a very strong stance on sounding British. They were MC Reu, Def G, Xtreme & GLK, aka Lords Of Rap.
I first heard of them on the BBC documentary 'Rapping - The Low Down' that aired around 1988/89, they caught my attention for 1.Looking fly as a crew all colour co-ordinated (yeah ok shell suits aren't that hot now, back back then, bwoy they were the lick). And 2.Sounding very unique, and British, you gotta remember that not a lot of crews took this stance back then, it was all new and exciting and everyone wanted to imitate the latest U.S. artist. Over here we were just realising we could rap in our own accent to stand out.
-BBC documentary 'Rapping - The Low Down' (featuring Lords Of Rap)-
So yeah there's a little flavour of what was going on with the Lords back then, repping Peckham to the fullest. As mentioned they sadly only released four 12"s, and from seeing them on 'The Low Down' film I made it my mission to seek out and buy everything they released...
This was their first outing on wax, which I only found by accident on the floor of in a very dusty record stall on a Lewisham market stall 6 years ago (now this has made me realise that the younger generation collecting their MP3 folders will have no memories like this of finding their music will they!). The 'Hip To House' track is kinda corny, and also featured on a Furious Fish Records compilation too. However the title track 'Lords Of Rap' shows them in their early development, with slightly yank twangs too. Still a dope cut though...
Next up was the 'In Effect' 12", which came in 3 mixes. I can remember the day I bought this too, it was at one of the early Southport South Weekenders many moons ago, one of the record stalls had it amongst some house tunes. Without knowing the track I picked it up and paid for it on the strength of the name Lords Of Rap, who I'd seen on TV recently...
Now i'm not sure which 12" came next, but by this time they'd hooked up a deal with the HUM label (Hardcore Urban Music), and their product came through this via their own (I think) Mad Dog imprint (which I recently found out had their offices in the same block in Camberwell that Suspect Packages used to operate out of), anyway... The 'Jazz It Up' 12" in 1991 came with the extra cut 'Where Are You Coming From?', however it was the title track that gained them some extra airplay and focus with its jazz fueled vibes...
They even performed it on Normski's 'Dance Energy' programme back in the day, this was the shit for those who remember it...
And finally there's the cream of the crop, for me anyway, the 'Stix N Stones EP'. The last official release they dropped and what a blinder it is. It was around the time CDs had just started making their way into stores and replacing vinyl, 'Where Does The Xtra 3 Quid Go?' deals with this issue, classic stuff. This 12" also came with a little cartoon 'Mad English' by Art Jazz, you can check it below with all the Lords Of Rap tracks mentioned above, enjoy, and educate ya'self...
Gotta give props to the Lords Of Rap for bringing some dope music into my life (and many others I imagine), I'm not sure what the rest of the crew are up to these days but Def G aka Soliheen is still active, hit us up bro. You must have some unreleased Lords Of Rap ya wanna play me?!
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