Irish Hip-Hop Scene

Written for The Print (NUI Maynooth's student paper) for the 16st of February 2012 issue.

             The Irish hip-hop scene is often regarded with much hilarity, and hardly ever taken seriously by the casual rap fan. To many, when the subject of the hip-hop scene here is brought up, it conjures thoughts of the pitiful and unintentional humorous rappers with incredibly thick accents. This side of the scene was perfectly incarnated in 2006 as DJ Spiral dropped his woeful single “Finglas”, universally jeered despite reaching #9 in the charts. This laughable façade on our industry aside, Ireland does in fact have an incredibly rich hip-hop scene which is beginning to gain recognition on a grander scale. Here are just a few to look out for in the coming year.

            The TemperMental MissElayneous (née Elayne Harrington) is a Finglas rapper vaguely reminiscent in style and substance of Immortal Technique. Her lyrics are contemplative, transcendent and mostly political. TMM will often rap about societal issues; she shows feminist tendencies particularly in her single Contra-Diction under-cushioned by Eastern flavoured philosophy: “Nothing is real, nothing exists”. MissElayneous is above all a clever lyricist. Her flow is tinged with her punk influences and has a West Indian patter. TMM has just launched her EP called Proletarian Restitution which can be bought at her shows, usually performed alongside her b-boy Barry Krishna.

            Much acclaimed and awaited, Dublin’s Lecs Luther is set to make an explosion once his CD Fish & Chips drops. For some time now, speculations about the date of release have been rampant, while Lecs himself has only specified “soon”. Often compared with Tyler, The Creator and MF Doom, Lecs has acquired his own underground following, appearing on forums from Kanye West’s to OFWGKTA’s own and even having his own fan made fuckyeahlecsluther Tumblr account. Unfortunately for an Irish man, Luther raps with an American drawl, and though this false accent is off-putting, his smooth laid-back flow makes it hard to begrudge him this. His soft rhyme-based lyrics are incredibly pleasing and more than make up for the US accent.

            Earlier in 2012, Lethal Dialect released his spectacular LP LD50 Part 2 which includes the leading single Keep It Real. And this is exactly what Lethal Dialect does; he doesn’t rap with any other accent but his own and he only ever speaks from experience and sincerity. LD’s rhymes are based on his life in the suburb of Cabra and often deal with class divides, which is a huge factor in the mainstream disinterest in Irish hip-hop today. LD50 Part 2 is up among the best Irish hip-hop albums of all time. It is even comparable with some of the great classic New York, Chicago or Los Angeles rap acts. It can be streamed online at www.harmlessnoise.ie.

            Irish hip-hop has been rich and full of pride through the years. In the 1990’s, groups such as Marxman and Scary Éire even opened for such acts as Beastie Boys or Public Enemy. We have an amazing battle scene with DFI, consisting of really clever lyricists such as Cork’s Nash and Ballyfermot’s Nugget. A casual rap fan could easily grasp some of the prolific artists we have to offer in a scene that is truly and sadly overlooked.