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 Various Artists Look Norf
Community Service Productions
Wordsearch worked for what seemed like years on this project and calling himself Community Service Productions has produced the long awaited
Look Norf video. It is a long overdue expose of the Hip Hop scene in the North of England and the East Midlands and as such he has tapped an underexposed rich vein of talent. There have been grumblings about the purpose of such a video and who is really going to be the market for such a product. Whilst I do have the same misgivings, personally I am just plesed that this project has been undertaken and I get the chance to learn more about some artists that I may not have known a great deal about before this came out. I guess it should be the same for quite a few heads who are already into the sounds of UK Hip Hop and a few open minded individuals, but I fear this video will pass without even registering on the radars of the majority of the public. Here at UKHH.com we were going to have a big feature to publicise the video, but unfortunately Wordsearch ended up dealing with an incompetent who never came through with the results. So the video has been available for a couple of months now and we decided that the video needed acknowledgement and coverage. If Wordserch is reading this get in touch and we can still try to get the out-takes on the site, but for now you'll just have to check out the video based on my word alone.
The almost two hour long video takes a look at all elements, DJing, B-Boying, Graffiti as well as MCing. The video contains the usual studio visits where we get to see the artists in their recording environments and homes and also follows some on to the streets so we get to see them in their local manor. There are interviews and a
fair few live performances. When you look at the people involved in this you can just see the talent that is ready to
explode and it proves music talent doesn't necessarily always come from London.
The video opens with a toilet door opening to reveal the title of the video scrawled on the toilet cubicle wall. Next up there is a breif intro from
C-Mone,
Fidel Castro and
Instinct from Nottingham's
Out Da Ville and it swiftly moves on to the
P Brothers and
Cappo backstage before we are hit with a snippet of their show. To start with it is all quick and its swiftly on for some coverage of
Jehst's show at Po Na Na in Sheffeild. Throughout the video the sequences move on fast and next its
21 Eyes at home with his crew.
There is quite a lot of footage from a Po Na Na live night in Sheffield and some might argue at the inclusion of some of the acts that performed there like
Task Force and
Phi Life Cypher who are Southern crews. I have two takes on this, basically they are some of the biggest names in UK Hip Hop and as such their inclusion on the video may draw in a larger audience which has to be a good thing, and secondly it was a gig in Sheffield so we get to see what a jumping night is like there when it goes off. Not only that, they are dope and I want to see anything with them in it. The first of the sequences from the gig is a
Chester P freestyle which should knock your socks off if you listen carefully and next Phi Life Cypher at the same gig demontrate why they are famous for their fast paced couplets.
The
Miniature Heroes return us to the reality of their flat in Leeds where
Arro, the beatboxer for the crew impressively demonstrates his ability to do a beat and a female vocal hook at the same time, then their DJ,
DJ Baboon gives the viewers a scratching demo. The crew get another slot later in the video where they come together and perform a full track and later again when Arro beatboxes the theme to Grange Hill originally an Axelrod funk track.
Cutting backwards and forwards as the video does, C-Mone, Fidel Castro and Instinct from Nottingham's Out Da Ville follow and break down how the crew has evolved over the years, and then we get them spitting dopeness in the studio where their collective work. Annoyingly this section fades out before the rapping finished and you are left tantalised, but dangling and want to know what else the MCs came up with. But this cut is to move on to
Big Trev who breaks down further the history of the Out Da Ville Crew. This longer section continues with
Nick Stez, the in house producer who demonstrates what he is working on on his MPC which is followed by continued interviews and demos from
Scor-Zay-Zee,
DJ Fever and
Lee Ramsay.
Dermo from Leeds,
Grand Iris &
Nexis 6 from Huddersfeild,
Noitall from Sheffield and
Aerosolik Records from Scarborough and all over all receive a few minutes each to
shine and let us know what they are all about. As a break from the music there is a visit out with some graf artists and we see a dub created, wisely I guess Wordsearch is careful to not obviously catch their faces, and there is a funny moment when even the young girlls they meet have markers on them! Then the video moves on to an interview with Derby's
Blood and Jones in their yard, who again feature a couple more times later in the video.
E.P.C. from Nottimgham disappointingly comes over a bit American before it is back to the Po Na Na gig and we see a bit more of Task Force's set starting with
DJ Slipperz cutting up, then
Barry the secret member getting busy on the mic and pleasing the audience. The filming gets pretty wobbly for the
Hoodz Underground crew from Sheffield as they perform at the Leicester Carnival. Then it is back to Scarborough for a breif section with
Vapours Recordings featuring a completely mad DJ set, which is quickly followed by
Braintax making political statements and rapping the Grip accapella live at the Leeds Warehouse.
Tour De Force from Hudderfeild flow nicely in their front room over an instrumental momentarily before we are hit wih a load of people vibing on the streets after the Po Na Na gig including tremendous off the dome verses from Phi Life and Barry as well as Leeds'
Projex.
There is loads more on here including footage of a very polite breaking session performed in a hall by
Fresh of Nottingham where everyone gets applause after their turn,
Tommy Evans kicks a very lyrically intricate freestyle and a night time graf expedition to a GNER shed with
A.T.X. Some trains get hit, but the sound is annoying and this section could have had some background music mixed low in the background. They film the inter city train leaving in the morning and it looks real nice the whole way along. Good job.
CRF from Manchester tells us about
Tone Def Records and the
Critical Beatdown fanzine and the
Rap Parasites crew with
DJ Jepi and old skool
MC Buzz B and the
Ruthless Rap Assassins, although as with many of the interviews there isn't much energy in his presentation. We get the facts we need, but a more professional director would edit this down more to more it along.
Ritual shows us about Lincoln, interviews an old guy in a park who knows nothing about Hip Hop and then demonstrates his skills. There's a rambling interview with
Noz & 21 Eyes which again could have been edited to make them look a bit better, as it is it comes over as bit of an anti London ramble, probably through frustrations at lack of recognition. They have skills as they perform again in their front room, but they
definitely need a bit of practice to know how they are going to handle the choruses! Multiple camera shots would have enabled switching the shot when the wrong person was caught on camera, but the single hand held style of the video does not allow for this.
As the video draws to its conclusion we are returned to the Out Da Ville studios for a
mammoth freestyle featuring Scor-Zay-Zee,
Mizz Red and Lee Ramsay. This crew have skills in abundance and it is right that they probably get the most time on the vid.
Low Life with its Leeds origins also gets a fair amount of coverage, mostly via
the copious live footage from the Sheffield Po Na Na night. We are returned there again for Jehst's
DJ Ideal to get busy for a moment before Jehst drops an accapella. And to round up all the crews are revisited to drop their shout outs.
So there is a mixture of well known names, but it is more focussed on up and coming artists and so it is a reasonable cataloguing of many of the artists out there trying to make it and for anyone who wants to know about them it makes them accessible.
I do now have the feeling that video is a dead format. Whereas vinyl still has a purpose for mixing and scratching, video has been totally superceded by DVD and I think that future editions, which I
believe are planned, should be released on DVD. The cover has a definite home designed feel and doesn't have the swanky flashness of a Hollywood release, but this is in keeping with the Home Made, shoe string status of the project, a statement proudly displayed on the spine demonstrating the amount of love that went in to the filming and editing. However the home made feel pervades the presentation and the editing. The cuts are quick, or look a bit dated and whilst
I'm not suggesting cheesy fades or effects it could look a bit smoother or as if more money was spent on the post production. Additionally it feels like a collection of video clips
as there is no narrative to take the uninitiated through this and a lack of a presenter leads to a lack of continuity. However this could have been a good move as anything less that a top notch presenter can detract from the quality of the programme. This could be
compensated for with a more liberal use of graphics, but here we only have simple titles introducing each section. Again not something to be overdone, but with today's technology it should be something to be
considered for future releases.
So to sum it up, this may not be the polished finished article, but it stands up against the Pioneers and UK Hip Hop Untapped etc. and so if it is what you are into you need to see this. Hopefully volume two can take on board some of my criticisms and I'm sure you'll let me know if, as I usually am, I have complained too much. So far I think that Indelible is setting the standards in terms of production values and on screen look, but the actual content on Look Norf can't be faulted.
UKHH gets a mention on the credits - nice one Wordsearch, hope we helped with a few hook ups,
apologies once again for not sorting a full feature, we have so many ideas we want to follow though on that unfortunately not everything happens, usually due to a lack of man hours or funding. The video is currently available from
suspect packages, or for £12 from Wordsearch himself, email him at:
wordsearch_uk@hotmail.com or ring him on 07980 127 505 for details of how to purchase it from him.
As mentioned before Wordsearch is also about to start filming Look Norf vol.2 so if any MCs, DJs, Graffers, Breakers or Producers based in the Northern Regions are interested in appearing on it, get in touch with him on the above e-mail or phone number. Such is the talent in the North I hear that there at least two other Northern Hip Hop
documentaries entering production now including one by Tom Sales, so if you want to get on that too, hit mim up on:
Tomobedlam@hotmail.com.
- QED | profile
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