The UK deserves some love for its underground hip hop scene with drill, bashment and grime being the more dominant genres in urban UK music. I feel dirty using the word “urban” as a categorisation term but grime fans get weird when you put grime and UK hip hop in the same bracket (even though it technically is but whatever).
Anyway yah, Cult of The Damned… Cult of The Damned is a hip hop collective that spans from all across the UK and are all great rappers in their own right but occasionally collaborate on a cypher-styled track together and usually release a killer music video to go along with it. I was first put on to them by their track ‘Civilised’ infiltrating my YouTube recommendations and I thought it was the best thing I ever heard. The somber (whatever instrument that is) on the instrumental mixed with the lowkey, nonchalant delivery, the gritty visuals and lyrics that keep you tuned in for the whole duration of the song are what make this tune an absolute banger from start to finish. Not to mention the hook line sang by Be The Gun (a.k.a. Barebase) that sounds as smooth as a jazz crooner’s bum.
COTD are a force to be reckoned with in the UK hip hop scene, a personal favourite member of mine is Lee Scott. I love Lee Scott’s delivery, it’s like every word he says punches you square in the face but you’re a masochist. Maybe it’s just something about Liverpudlian rappers but Lee Scott is the most Liverpudlian Liverpudlian rapper I have ever heard, and I have put a lot of hours into listening to O’Shea and The Calcium Kid respectively. Another notable member for me is Black Josh, love his solo stuff! He makes chill hip hop with gritty beats and doesn’t fit into the UK hip hop norm, at least to me anyway. Definitely recommend checking out Black Josh, his music can be found here.
As a northerner myself, I am always drawn to northern rap as a whole anyway cos again… I feel like it deserves more credit (this is turning into my favourite phrase on this blog I swear). I don’t believe Cult of The Damned have a member from Sheffield, correct me in the comments if I’m wrong but to be fair I don’t think I have ever seen a rapper from Sheffield actually going that far apart from a bassline MC called K-Dot, again correct me if I’m wrong but I feel like I’d know if there was one.
Final words, big shoutout to Milkaveli for his drip. Keep killin’ that wardrobe game man!
My Personal Favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79t5e-CTAaU
Peace,
Mike
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