Issue 4 / September 2010

14
Bido Lito! September 2010
WHO SETS
THE SCENE?
Liverpool’s Gagged
Underground...
Words: John Still
“It’s not very often that the words
Liverpool, Urban and Music are seen
together in the same sentence.” This
was the opening gambit from Radio
One DJ Ras Kwame, compere of the
Diaspora Urban Music conference at
Liverpool Sound City festival earlier
this year. The event was designed
to throw a spotlight on the Urban
music talent of the city, and raise the
question of why Liverpool has never
cultivated a reputation for Urban
music in the same way it has other
genres.
Liverpool is a small city with a global
reputation, built in no small part on
music. Since the dawn of the 1960’s
the city has been at the forefront of
music, with prominent performers in
a number of different
scenes and bands
as diverse as Frankie
Goes To Hollywood
and Carcass making a
name for themselves
in their particular
eras. However, the
city has so far failed
to gain a reputation
for a buzzing local
Urban scene. From
the members of
the audience at the
Diaspora
seminar,
it would seem that
Liverpool does have a
wealth of underground
Urban talent. So where are these performers being let down in terms of the
opportunities being afforded them in the city?
YAW OWUSU runs the OneHundredGlobal Youth Culture and Management
Agency, and the Urbeatz Record Label in Liverpool, home to artists such as KOF and
JANIECE MYERS. With such a prominent position in the Liverpool Urban scene, he is
ideally placed to shed some light on the problems that face local artists. “Kof has
supported acts like Akon, Lupe Fiasco, N-Dubz etc. He has performed at Glastonbury,
toured, had his music played regularly on Radio One, collaborated with national
stars and been covered in everything from the Guardian to RWD Magazine. Yet he
still can’t get a full feature in any regional press or a listen by the programmers at
local radio. These are facts.”
Save for the touring artists playing the arena, there is precious little to be found
in local mainstream media about Urban artists. There are obvious constraints
placed on local editors, minimal pages allotted to entertainment, however,
much more emphasis seems to be placed on the local Indie scene that to the
Urban scene. Local radio station Juice
FM used to run a weekly ‘Urban Hour’,
but that has been cancelled and not
replaced.
One reason for this could be the
dissemination of Urban music styles
into the mainstream. A glance into
the top forty charts on any given
Sunday will reveal a plethora of
Urban artists who have transcended
their underground roots and made
it big. Former grime upstart Dizzee
Rascal is now a pop-kingpin, Tinie
Tempah has two number ones to his
name and even the more obscure
Dubsteppers’ Skream and Skepta
have made breaks for the big time.
But surely this increased interest in a
certain style should make for a more
vibrant local scene,
and increase the
interest in local talent
rather than be used to
reduce its airplay?
One of the problems
hit upon at the Diaspora
conference was that
of a lack of solidarity
in the scene, with too
much competition and
infighting
detracting
from the overall goals
of the collective. Yaw
continues, “Yes there is
definitely competition.
Janiece Myers I am sure that exists
within every genre. But
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