The London Posse - British Hip Hop's Greatest?

Having aired a piece on the influence reggae had on the birth of hip hop in the US the other month reminded me of British act the London Posse, formed by Sipho the Human Beatbox, along with his friends Rodney P, Bionic and DJ Biznezz. They were one of the earliest groups on the British hip hop scene and first came to prominence as hip hop had a bit of surge in popularity in around 1987, along with the likes of fellow UK artists Derek B, the Cookie Crew and the Wee Papa Girl Rappers. Whilst Derek the Cookies and the Wee Papper Girls went for a more commercial sound the Posse had more of a ‘street’ edge and were strongly influenced by reggae, not just musically as heard in Bionic's ragga-tinged flows in particular, but also by the attitudes evident in the British reggae scene. "The Saxon Sound DJs always stressed the difference between England and Jamaica," Rodney P explains."The reggae thing was, 'We're English Jamaicans, our flex is different'. Men like Tippa Irie had already represented that, so we had their lead to take, and we just brought the same argument to Hip Hop."
When the band originally formed they could not come up with a name but whilst out on the road, appearing as a support act for Big Audio Dynamite, a moniker finally arrived. Rodney P recalls... "We didn't have a name when we went on the road, but we went to New York with Big Audio Dynamite, and we got called 'The London Posse' because we were the only group of English black kids in New York, and it stuck."
On their return, they released the single London Posse (Big Life, 1987), produced by Tim Westwood, which spoke of their experiences, and had a cover photo of the band taken in Leicester Square tube station.
After its release the Posse went back out on the road, and although all were happy with the single, cracks began to show in their relationship with each other. Sipho, the instigator of the bands making was ironically the first to jump ship, after receiving a job offer from Derek B. Next a deal with Big Life for more records fell through, followed by Biznezz slopping off. This left the Posse now as a duo of Rodney and Bionic to their own devices. "In a way it was a good thing," the rapper recalls, "because it got me and Bionic to focus back on the music. We were hungrier than ever. So we linked with Westwood again and made 'Money Mad', because that was the mentality at the time."
The single was recorded by Jive Records in-house engineer Bryan "Chuck" New at his home studio and compiled by the engineer from samples and song fragments brought to him by Bionic and Rodney, with the single becoming something of a calling card for the band.
On release the single caught the attention of Island subsidiary Mango, and led to the band being offered a chance to produce an LP. The duo were perhaps not quite ready to make an LP but jumped at the chance anyway. Rodney confesses, "We went in to do the album without knowing what the fuck we were doing. We had an idea of what we wanted, but we just got as close to it as we knew how, which wasn't really that close! When we left the studio every night we were happy with what we did, but it was never quite right. We recorded it in little bursts but over a quite concentrated period of time – maybe a month, month and a half. It didn't take very long. A lot of it was written long before we got the chance to record it. We had a million lyrics, literally. Lots and lots and lots of lyrics!"
The London Posse released 'Gangster Chronicle' in 1990, it was recorded cheaply by a band that hadn't demanded an astronomical advance, and as such returned a significant profit for Mango. The success of this LP also helped to bring a raft of their contemporaries to Mango, including Black Radical Mk II and Demon Boyz. Unfortunately despite this, and for whatever the strange reason the label was dropped by its parent company not long after. With the labels demise though, as a gesture of good will, Mango gave the masters back to the group.
London Posse then moved to Bullit, run by their manager Errol Bull. The group recorded a second album but could not afford to release it, so it was permanently shelved. This was because any money they received for their work was ploughed back into the record company instead, they released a selection of singles: "How's Life in London" (Bullit, 1993), "Supermodel" (Bullit, 1993) and "Style" (Bullit, 1996). Bionic moved into drum and bass, while Rodney P continued as a solo artist. He formed a partnership with DJ Skitz to host a BBC 1 Xtra radio show and released a solo album.
In 2001, Word Play Records reissued the album ‘Gangster Chronicles’, adding some later material such as "How's Life in London" and "Pass the Rizla".
It has to be said that the London Posse have to go down as one if not the most popular UK hip hop crews ever. This is despite only releasing only one album and having officially broken up way, way back. Over the years their popularity has not diminished, but rather a kind of mythology has grown up around their memory. At the time they first came out UK hip hop was flourishing in its first mini boom. Gunshot and Hijack were making big inroads into Europe and British artists were pioneering a distinctive sound, and fighting hard to be looked on with credibility and not as just some quirky gimmick compared with US artists. The London Posse went along way to breaking down those conceptions by bringing the more professional production values of New York and stepping up the UK's game, and in so doing gave British hip hop one of its most inspiring, enduring and memorable moments.