48 EVOLUTION OF MC’S
For any new music to capture the imagination of as M Beat’s ‘Incredible’ featuring General Levy and the “At the time, there was more opportunity to cross over
the general public, it’s vital to have a figurehead to ‘Junglemania’ album. from the street to the mainstream but now it’s much
spearhead the movement and jungle was no different. more underground again so it’s been difficult for MCs
Where Ragga Twins helped to spread the message of the “’Nuttah’ got me recognised on a bigger scale – I to do the same thing,” UK Apache says. “It’s mainly to do
UK underground in 1990 with their appearances in the had been climbing the ladder slowly before but it with the support they have received from the scene but
top 40, by 1994, UK Apache became synonymous with all changed when that came out,” reflects Apache. also because other genres of music have come around
jungle’s explosion into the mainstream with the release “The best thing was that it exposed me to a far wider and that created more competition.”
of his collaboration with Shy FX ‘Original Nuttah’. audience than before because that tune helped to
bring the reggae and jungle worlds closer together. At It was going to take something special to help MCs
“I had been on a reggae soundsystem for years when the time, I was just doing my thing and I didn’t really regain their credibility and salvation came in the form
I met up with Potential Badboy and did a tune called think about it being a whole new type of music or that of west London’s Stevie Hyper D. Having followed
‘Every Man Has a Right’,” he remembers. “Shy saw I was a figurehead. It wasn’t until about ten years later the well-trodden route from reggae soundsystem
me perform that on a night and he got in touch to when it was still being played that I realised just how to rave to pirate radio, Hyper D’s unique lyrics and
see if I would be interested in working with him. I had important that tune was to the whole scene. We took unparalleled onstage energy made him an icon for
written ‘Original Nuttah’ as the lyric for a reggae track the tune all over the world and it helped to spread the thousands of ravers as he became the new visible face
about six years before and it was weird because he word about jungle and drum & bass - I still get people for the emerging drum & bass scene. Skibadee was
had intended me to do the lyrics for ‘Gangsta Kid’. hitting me up telling me how much they like it.” one of the new generation of MCs to be influenced by
They didn’t even know anything about it but when I seeing the great man perform, even if he wasn’t exactly
performed it, everything fitted together and the whole But while General Levy was able to reach the heights overwhelmed by his first exposure to jungle.
thing went mad.” of number four in the charts, his success was in
many ways the beginning of the end for jungle MCs to “Someone played me a tape of it and I really didn’t like
Despite only peaking at number 39 in the UK charts make the crossover. After his infamous ‘I run jungle’ it,” he admits.
in October 1994, ‘Original Nuttah’ helped to introduce comments in The Face magazine, the scene turned its
the concept of the jungle MC to the wider world and collective back on MCs and it was back to square one “In 1994, all of my mates were going down to Roast
paved the way for the following year’s releases such for many who had worked so hard to gain recognition. for Valentine’s night and I got roped into going with
K48-49_EvolutionOfMCs.indd 48 23/4/08 14:07:29
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68