Dappy Write-Up

Dappy, real name Constodinos Constavlos, is a singer-songwriter from Camden, United Kingdom. Focusing around the genres of Grime, Rap, and Hip Hop, Dappy has been performing musically since the age of 13 as part of UK based act ‘N-Dubz’ alongside best friend Fazer, and Cousin Tulisa. N-Dubz have become a prominent name within the UK music scene racking up 8 top 40 hits, and releasing  3 albums to date, ‘Uncle B’, ‘Against All Odds’ and ‘Love.Live.Life’, all of which are now certified with Platinum selling status. Throughout his career, Dappy has been a consistent source of controversy, from drug use, abusive phone calls to being removed from a flight for being disorderly. Controversy has also been an extensive feature of Dappy’s song writing, often being martyred by critics and various charities for his outlook on life and various situations, which they feel that the topics being portrayed in his lyrics are ‘glorifying thug culture’. In early 2011, N-Dubz decided to take a break from their group ambitions, and launch solo ventures. Dappy’s solo career began by signing to management company ‘Takeover Entertainment Ltd.’ He then released his first solo single ‘No Regrets’, which debuted at Number 1 in the UK, and is set to be the title single of his first solo album ‘No Regrets’, set to be released in early 2012. In a recent media interview, Dappy said that, in going solo, he planned to aim his music at an older audience, indirectly referring to N-Dubz early teen dominated fan-base. This artist has shown his appeal to his new projected audience, and his old fan-base, by combining his old style of lyric-writing, with a thoughtful outlook on life.

Hip Hop History

The early origins of UK Hip Hop lie within the hip hop scene of America. Breakdancing, graffiti, and live PA’s were all common amongst the beginnings of the scene, as in the US, however the UK scene emerged as a multicultural scene in the early 1980s, as opposed to the heavily African American dominated US hip hop, however the US has become significantly more multicultural in recent years. General stylistic conventions of hip hop are things such as the heavily computer-based backing tracks, the unmelodic and rather un-conventional lyric delivery, however there most conventions can be shared with the US versions i.e. lyrical content, clothing, jewellery etc. Within the genre iconic radio DJ’s include Tim Westwood, Mista Jam, Logan Sama, and even the late Radio 1 DJ John Peel gave life to the genre on his daytime show,  seen as a breakthrough by artists and fans alike. Many of the most noticeable artists within the UK hip hop genre are those from America, people such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem etc. but artists with roots within the UK music scene as a whole are people such as Dappy, Wiley, Sway, Tinie Tempah,  Professor Green, Example etc. There are numerous Iconic songs of the hip hop genre in general including tracks such as 99 Problem by Jay-Z to name just 2 Stan by Eminem, however the list of tracks from within the UK is significantly smaller, even despite an insurgence of UK artists breaking into the scene. Artist such as Tinie Tempah, with pass out, frisky and written in the stars, and also Professor Green with Jungle, Just be good to green and Need you tonight, among numerous others, possess what I’d like to call the key songs of the genre, as they have all cemented the UK in mainstream Hip Hop history, as their chart positions show a clear progression.

Research Task - UK Hip Hop Mind Map

Firstly I researched the UK Hip Hop genre in order to identify general conventions, iconography, origins and key songs and artists. My findings are shown adjacent, in the form of a mind map.