Artwork by Take Me Back Pirate Radio Archives. We dedicate this set to the loving memory DJ Chiilem RIP. Bringing you a blast from the past! This recording features one of the most underrated line ups of DJs and MCs during the 1998 era. However, if we fast forward in time to the present day we can see the likes of Evil B and Eksman as an established legends in the UK underground music scene whereby they have broken the underdog mould to form their own individual and collective legendary statuses. MC Evil B's style was deeply influenced by Stevie Hyper D, Wu Tang and DMX. There's no question that Evil B is now an established MC in his own right, but it always respectful to look into the artist's influences. Evil has openly credited Stevie Hyper D (RIP) as being on of his most influential and inspirational musical artists growing up. 1998 was a pivotal year, with the likes of 2000AD Productions booking Rude FM's DJs & MCs in their main arena for their events at Bagleys Studios. However, as we have mentioned in a lot our descriptions before this upload, the Drum & Bass scene was a close knit community and Evil B had a slim chance of breaking through at that precise moment. It took Eksman many years of grafting after this recording to get accepted in the main structure of the DNB scene which we see as a grave injustice, but the fruits of his hard labour paid off making him the deadliest MC on the DNB circuit until this very day. Even though Remarc is Eksman's brother that didn't automatically grant him a path to the scene. Though we have tantamount of respect for Harry Shotta. The likes of Eksman and Evil B grafted incredibly hard and so there's a massive gulf in class because the old skool turned new skool MCs brought the balance of things that would lift an MC to the dizzy heights. Most importantly the voice, the variation of flows and lyrics. If you listen to present day lyrics by Evil B you can see his ability to tell stories and the depth of emotions he goes into and his excellent grasp of language. He's far from am any rhymer with good timing. Evil B would swap his name round to B-Live and began doing UK Garage shows on north London's Passion FM 91.8 for the next six to seven years before making a comeback to the DNB circuit and joining forces with Logan D (Low Down Deep Recordings).
Which brings us onto Kray Z B (Krazy B / Crazy B) who was also one of the most underrated MCs of that time. Though he gained some short lived success, it is believed there are multiple factors as to why he didn't fully blow up like we wished he would. The fact he was on Rude FM and then Ruud Awakening FM always meant he along with many others were second fiddle to those on London's prestigious Kool FM 94.5/94.6 (Kool London). Kray Z B began teaming up with a new breed of MCs like Funsta (The Punisher) which gained him more credibility. Although this partnership was short-lived, Funsta MC was snapped up by Kool FM and Kray Z B also joined them.
DJ Chillum (Chiilem) and DJ XS were renowned underground pirate radio DJs. In fact their mixes and selection was up there with the best, but again Rude FM wasn't running big scale rave nights to bolster its talent and was unable to promote them in a further capacity to boost their recognition. That wasn't necessarily Rude FM's fault, they didn't have the funds to enable to do what Kool FM was doing. Career DJs were stuck in this void of if you didn't produce music then your chances of playing out at clubs were very slim. Yet many DJs would post CDs to A&Rs and chase underground record labels to play their music only to get knocked back and releasing your music on white label and selling it out of your car boot was risky business especially if the likes of DJ Brockie, DJ Hype, DJ Zinc, DJ Andy C and big name DJs didn't cut your track on dub plate. Then it wasn't getting played. Even with that said producers would get their tracks cut on dub plate for others to play with no reward. This had nothing to do with whether the track was good enough. Regardless the scene was like an old boys network. Like most industries nowadays. Timing and luck was also another factor to aiding this.
Some ravers stayed oblivious to these facts and this closed door policy fuelled the growth of the new emerging 2 Step UK Garage, Grime and Dubstep scenes. There has been a lot of fuss about these new scenes taking a lot from Jungle and Drum & Bass without seeing why. Well we have shed light on it. Regardless of what nostalgias you may have and what your musical taste is. We cannot deny there's new exciting music being made. Without sitting on the fence we rightly see the old skool 90s era as being the most exciting and innovative time for British music in the last 40 to 50 years. In our eyes it outshone the Punk and Ska eras, but that is a matter for discussion and not set in stone.
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