Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the 1980s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, which featured cut-up samples of hip-hop, soul, funk, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia. According to Spin, "in '87 Coldcut pioneered the British fad for 'DJ records'".
Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London with a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More and managed by Peter Quicke and others.
UK rap, also known as British hip hop or UK hip hop, is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of R&B/Hip-Hop. British hip hop can also be referred to as Brit-hop, a term coined and popularised mainly by British Vogue magazine and the BBC. British hip hop was originally influenced by the dub/toasting introduced to the United Kingdom by Jamaican migrants in the 1950s–70s, who eventually developed uniquely influenced rapping in order to match the rhythm of the ever-increasing pace and aggression of Jamaican-influenced dub in the UK. Toasting and soundsystem cultures were also influential in genres outside of hip hop that still included rapping – such as grime, jungle, and UK garage.
The Herbaliser is an English jazz hip hop group formed by Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba in London, England during the early 1990s. Although currently releasing on their own label and having previously been signed to !K7 Records, they were one of the best-known acts from the Ninja Tune independent record label. They have released 12 albums, including two DJ mixes: one for Ninja Tune's Solid Steel series and the other for Fabric's Live Mix series. The Herbaliser's album Same As It Never Was was their first release on !K7 Records. Their latest album Bring Out The Sound was released in 2018, on the BBE label.
Blak Twang, who also uses the pseudonyms Taipanic and Tony Rotton, is a British rapper who grew up in Deptford, Lewisham, South-East London.
Big Dada is a British independent record label imprint distributed by Ninja Tune. It was started by reputed hip hop journalist Will Ashon in 1997. It is best known for marketing of prominent British hip hop artist Roots Manuva, poet and playwright Kae Tempest, grime pioneer Wiley, rapper and designer DELS and Mercury Prize winners Speech Debelle and Young Fathers.
Benedict Okwuchukwu Godwin Chijioke, better known by his stage name Ty, was a Nigerian-British rapper. He released the albums Awkward (2001), Upwards (2004), Closer (2006), Special Kind of Fool (2010) and A Work of Heart (2018). Upwards was nominated for a Mercury Prize. Ty collaborated with musicians such as Shortee Blitz, Drew Horley, Tony Allen, Roots Manuva and De La Soul.
Brand New Second Hand is the first studio album by English hip hop musician Roots Manuva. It was released on Big Dada in 1999.
Rodney Panton, also known as Rodney P is an English MC, as well as a radio and television personality who first gained attention via the UK hip hop scene in the 1980s. A former member of UK hip-hop group London Posse, Rodney P is known for rapping in his London accent.
Xen Cuts is a compilation album released by Ninja Tune independent record label on their tenth anniversary. The album was released in a four-piece vinyl recording (ZEN49), as two-disc CD (ZENCD049) and as a three-disc CD (ZENCD049X) versions, with the third disc "Xen Cuts Missed Flipped and Skipped" also released separately (ZENCD49C). The compilation consists mainly of B-sides and other tracks previously unreleased on CD.
"Witness " is a song by British rapper Roots Manuva, released as the first single from his second studio album Run Come Save Me (2001). A hip hop song with influences of dancehall and funk music and an electronically-inspired bass line, it contains lyrical references to Roots Manuva's British cultural roots with a melody that deliberately resembles the theme song to TV show Doctor Who. Record labels Big Dada and Ninja Tune released "Witness " in various formats during July 2001.
The Qemists are an English electronic rock group, hailing from Brighton, England. They are signed to Amazing Record Co., an indie record label based in the UK. The band have a separate deal with Beat Records for distribution in Japan and with Detroit-based label FiXT Music for North America.
DJ Skitz or Skitz is a British DJ and music producer. He was born in 1970 in Cambridgeshire and started DJing in 1991. He has compiled a number of British Hip Hop compilations and other Hip Hop compilations. Along with Rodney P he produced the first track to ever be played on BBC Radio 1Xtra in 2002, when the station launched; the BBC called Skitz a "hip-hop star". They also presented a weekly show on the station called "Original Fever", which formed the backbone of the radio station, until 2007. The Independent considered it the "show of the week" on the radio station. In 2008 he competed in the DMC UK DJ Championship. He had also created his own record label, Titan Sounds.
Will Ashon is an English writer and novelist, former music journalist and founder of the Big Dada imprint of Ninja Tune records.
Thomas Mackenzie Bell, better known by the stage name of Toddla T, is an English DJ, record producer, remixer and songwriter from Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
X Raisons is the second album from the French hip hop band Saïan Supa Crew, released in 2001. The album's international version was promoted by Roots Manuva and Brand Nubian.
Wayne "Lotek" Bennett is a music producer, songwriter and rapper from the UK. He is most famous for his work with Roots Manuva and more recently with Speech Debelle, producing her debut album Speech Therapy which won the 2009 Mercury Prize.
Yarah Bravo is a singer-songwriter, rapper, poet, beatmaker. Born to a Chilean mother and a Brazilian father, who came to Sweden as political refugees. She sings and raps in English, Swedish and Spanish.
Bleeds is the ninth studio album by English rapper Roots Manuva. It was released on 30 October 2015 on the Big Dada label.
