This new book delves into the social history of rap and grime

Over the last few decades, UK rap and its sub-genres have crawled from their underground roots and burst into the mainstream. Journalist Aniefiok Ekpoudom traces this journey in his new, debut book Where We Come From: Rap, Home and Hope in Modern Britain. Ekpoudom has dedicated over 11 years to documenting Black Britain, and his new book reflects his knowledge and love of the culture birthed by Black British artists.

Over the last five years, Ekpoudom has spent his time travelling the country, from South London to the West Midlands to South Wales, to collect detailed perspectives of the conditions that shaped the music which continues to impact our cultural landscape today. As the book reveals, rap, grime, and other similar genres were birthed from the storytelling of British MCs in the diaspora, with artists orating their raw experiences of an alternate history of modern Britain, from Windrush to more recent instances of police brutality.

We caught up with Ekpoudom about the influence that British-Caribbean sound system culture has on UK rap genres, the transformation of underground genres into mainstream cultural forces which have impacted politics and legislation, and the personal accounts that have influenced the narrative of Where We Come From.

How do you think British rap and grime capture the voices and stories often overlooked by mainstream narratives?

Aniefiok Ekpoudom: Rap, grime and all of these genres do what mainstream spaces can’t do. If you’re living within these [marginalised] spaces, they give you a direct voice that transmits your experience outwards. And if you live outside these spaces, they provide an instant insight into what’s happening in places on the ground. From a UK perspective, when I listen to music, and I listen to UK rap, that reflects stuff that I already know about. But then when I listen to international rap, I feel like it’s the clearest insight into what a country looks like and what’s going on in the undergrowth of that country, away from whatever the curated national image shows.

In the introduction of Where We Come From, you describe a moment of prayer and celebration in the green room of the O2 Forum Kentish Town. How does this moment encapsulate the essence of the journey that Giggs and many others have undertaken in the British rap and grime scene?

Aniefiok Ekpoudom: In the introduction, Giggs, his manager Buck, musicians and his friends are backstage before his performance in Kentish Town. I went to that show; that was his first performance, having been banned from performing in London for so long. I think it was essential to include that, because it shows the long road many musicians and rappers have walked to make careers for themselves and other people. Someone like Giggs’s story encapsulates the story of modern British and UK rap. It’s resistance, resilience and persistence. Many people probably would have given up, given the obstacles he’s faced along his journey. But he kept at it. From the outside, people weren’t necessarily looking at UK rap at the time as something that would be an economically viable genre for you to make money off. Still, Giggs and others saw stuff in it that maybe others didn’t, so they kept plugging away.

Where We Come From explores the interconnected realities that birthed UK rap and grime. How did you approach weaving these stories into a narrative that resonates with both longtime rap enthusiasts and newcomers to the scene?

Aniefiok Ekpoudom: When writing the book, I didn’t think about audiences as much. I just wrote it as if I was writing for myself. What would I like to read? What are my interests when it comes to literature in general? I think having gone through that process, I feel like it arrived at a stage where people who have read it who aren’t fans of the music and people who have read it who are fans of the music both had similar but different reactions. The book uses people’s real-life stories to tell that history, and if you’re walking through history and reality through someone else’s eyes, you’re living their day by day, week by week, month by month experiences with them. That’s captivating for a reader, even if you aren’t a fan of the music. Or if you are a fan of the music, there’s all of these familiar things in there that you’ll now see documented for the first time.

The book delves into the roots of UK rap and grime, tracing them back to British-Caribbean sound system culture. How did the experiences of Black and working-class communities shape and sculpt these genres over the past 70 years?

Aniefiok Ekpoudom: The essence of it, especially with the sound system culture, was something I was interested in exploring. If you are a fan of UK rap, you’ve grown up in the UK, and you are Black in the UK, you know how influential sound system culture has been in all the genres. Grime has borrowed a lot from sound system culture. I wanted to show that when we think of this idea of British rap, we’re not just talking about a British version of hip hop. It’s its own unique thing. Of course, it is massively influenced by American hip hop, but still, it’s just as affected by sound system culture.

You mention the intertwining of UK rap and grime with older genres like reggae, two-tone, jungle, and garage. How do these musical influences contribute to the unique identity of British rap and grime?

Aniefiok Ekpoudom: Two-tone originated in Coventry. On the face of it, it’s very different to rap. It’s more like a cultural influence. Sometimes people don’t realise the things that two-tone was talking about: for instance, The Specials are probably the most famous two-tone band, and their most famous song is called Ghost Town. In that song, they’re talking about social deprivation in inner cities across the UK. The same environment that birthed two-tone is the same environment that birthed all of these genres after it.

“Why are these genres consistently demonised? Race is a massive part of it. It’s also rooted in embarrassment; the genres show a side of the UK that sometimes politicians would like you to believe doesn’t exist” – Aniefiok Ekpoudom 

The introduction discusses the transformation of these underground genres into mainstream cultural forces which have even impacted politics and legislation. How do you see the role of UK rap and its sub-genres in shaping societal conversations and influencing policy in the UK?

Aniefiok Ekpoudom: UK rap is one of the most popular genres in the UK. I think you can see how it’s impacted language in the UK: young people across the UK might live in Sunderland, but now that they’ve been taking in the music so much, if you hear young people from these areas speaking, they sound like the musicians from the Black communities in the inner cities that birthed the music.

Also, with these genres, people can share their stories. For instance, we can have someone like Stormzy, who is one of the most famous people in the country, who at the same time consistently advocates for Black Britain. It’s a unique change, and I feel like we didn’t necessarily have that voice before to be able to participate in mainstream society like that. Politically, a lot of times music has been a scapegoat.

In doing the research for the book, I watched a few documentaries, and I remember this jungle documentary and how the BBC talked about jungle music at the time... now you can take the word ‘jungle’ and change it to ‘drill’. It makes you think, why is [history] being repeated? Why are these genres consistently demonised? Race is a massive part of it. It’s also rooted in embarrassment; the genres show a side of the UK that sometimes politicians would like you to believe doesn’t exist.

Can you share a particular story or encounter during your reporting that left a lasting impression on you and significantly influenced the narrative of Where We Come From?

Aniefiok Ekpoudom: I met this guy in Birmingham called Cecil Morris. He started this pirate radio station called PCRL radio, which stands for People’s Community Radio Link. He started it during the Wandsworth riots [in 2011]. The BBC and other radio stations in the city wouldn’t play any Caribbean music, so he started his own, and it got so popular that the BBC and the other four radio stations banded together to sue him because he was taking away from their listenership.

Where We Come From focuses on South London, South Wales, and the West Midlands. Can you elaborate on why you chose to focus on these regions?

Aniefiok Ekpoudom: The book is not a history of UK rap and its sub-genres from beginning to end. It’s not that biographical, it’s just documentation of a sound; it’s more like a social history that looks at people’s lived experiences. I wanted to capture what modern Britain looks like today and what it feels like to live in what is Britain today. I couldn’t do that by just staying in London. Essentially, I knew I needed to go outside of that. So that’s why I went to Wales. They have their own identity there, and it’s the same for the West Midlands. Birmingham has had a thriving musical scene that has been popular for decades, almost as long as London. I wanted to show that as well.

I even ended up doing interviews in places like Manchester, Ipswich and Scotland. Some made it, some didn’t, but I wanted to get on the ground. It was five years of going up and down these places all the time, interviewing people, visiting community members, community groups, community centres, artists, DJs, managers and whatnot in all these different places to try and get a history of those communities.

Where We Come From: Rap, Home & Hope in Modern Britain is published by Faber & Faber on January 18.