'Straight outta Britain' may well be straight outta Ipswich, and most obviously straight outta reggae, but more importantly, it's straight outta the mouth of YT, one of the most exciting performers to emerge from Britain's home-grown reggae scene in many years. Firin' heavyweight headshots straight to the dome, the vitality of his delivery, the ease of his flow and his literally stunning lyrical armoury, are testaments to the devotional commitment of this hard graftin' MC. For a white singjay, emerging from the unlikely setting of East Anglia, YT (aka Mark Hull) has made no attempt to shy away from a challenge. Realising Britain's kaleidoscopic culture has spread much further than the red, white and blue, Suffolk's dancehall sensation has totally immersed himself in Black music. Having humped speaker boxes for local reggae systems, obsessively studied Saxon Sound's live yard tapes, toured with Bounty Killer, Macka Diamond, Spragga Benz etc and twice successfully appeared at the World's largest reggae event ('Sting' in Jamaica), he's definitely served his time in the reggae trade, since making his recorded debut with Dennis Rootical in 1992. Bitten hard by the skankin' bug, as a young kid hanging out with pre-junglist producer Digital and Digital's Dad (Who ran the Ipswich based sound system Sir Tropic),
YT learnt to master patois heavy, dancehall deejayin' before graduating with honours in gifted reality rhymes(Check out 'Wicked Act' for the evidence, where he tackles the 7/7 bombings with passion and poignancy). And judging by 'Straight Outta Britain', YT has certainly studied the disciplines of reggae diligently, as echoes of Saxon's fast chat specialists (Papa Levi, Tippa Irie etc..) and even Sizzla, influence his highly impressive, instantly recognizable delivery. Although the odds may have been stacked against YT selling reggae back to Jamaica and the rest of the world, this richly versatile debut album, is the perfect platform to fulfil his ambition, and genuinely build upon the love he's already received from Ja and elsewhere(David Rodigan is a well publicised fan). |
|
Add to Profile
Add to station