MOBOs: Homegrown talent on top of the world

Published on Tuesday 29 September 2009 20:47

AFTER his much-mocked stage invasion at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month, it was almost a relief to learn three-times-nominated Kanye West will not be in Glasgow tonight for the Mobos. Nor will any of the other major American nominees for a Music of Black Origin Award, including Beyoncé, Eminem, Jay-Z and Lady Gaga.

In other years, this would be the story: poor Blighty's inferior urban music scene snubbed yet again by the real stars. This year, possibly for the first time, we don't need them.

While most British grime, rap and R&B artists remain of negligible interest internationally, their hit rate at home has been remarkable in the past 12 months. There has been one No 1 apiece for X Factor spawn JLS and Alexandra Burke, two for Tinchy Stryder and three for Dizzee Rascal, who has transformed himself from edgy teenage Mercury-winner to radio-friendly pop supremo.

Other homegrown Mobo hopefuls with Top Ten hits include Tottenham rapper Chipmunk (who has amassed four nominations), DJ Ironik, Alesha Dixon and Mr Hudson. R&B singer-songwriter Taio Cruz, another Londoner nominated last year, has just had a No 1 hit with the skittering electropop of Break Your Heart, while N-Dubz, a modern-day East 17 who seem to be central to the new urban mainstream, are surely due a chart-topper of their own before much longer.

Just as, in recent years, indie rock has smoothed off its edges and essentially become pop music, so British rappers are moving on from their minor underground fan bases and working hard to land on daytime radio playlists.

Chipmunk's joint hit with Ironik, Tiny Dancer, unashamedly lifted large portions of the Elton John ballad, speeded it up and gave it bounce.

Stryder's No 1, Never Leave You, features surviving Sugababe Amelle Berrabah on an anthemic chorus, while Dizzee now raps about sunshine and discos over breezy synths. This is the sound of the moment.

Nor is it overly reliant on aping the urban music of the States, which has long since overtaken country as the most popular style in the charts. You can't get much more London than Chipmunk, aka teenager Jahmaal Fyffe, who raps about such un-American subjects as drinking tea and his GCSE results.

That doesn't mean we can't play them at their own game. West London singers Estelle and Jay Sean have recently featured big-name US rappers Kanye West and Lil Wayne on their songs and earned hits over there. Sean's single with Lil Wayne, Down, has just been at number two on the Billboard chart for three weeks, making him the most successful male British urban artist in US chart history.

Both Estelle and Sean have complained about lack of support from their British record companies and it is still the case that a UK urban act sustaining a long career, such as Beverley Knight, is a real rarity. But with the simultaneous success of so many similar artists, it feels like a tipping point is being reached.

By next year, they won't need their own specialist awards ceremony in the Mobos – they'll have taken over at the Brits.