Upwards

Ty
Upwards

The early 2000s were an explosively creative time for UK rap. Roots Manuva’s 2001 album, Run Come Save Me, and The Streets’ 2002 debut, Original Pirate Material, helped establish guideposts for the era’s leftfield sound—a decidedly British one, informed more by IDM, dancehall, jungle, 2-step and garage than boom-bap or G-funk. Two more albums that came within months of each other in 2003—Dizzee Rascal’s Boy in da Corner and Ty’s Upwards—only made it clearer that the UK was carving its own path forward. Where Dizzee (the son of immigrants from Nigeria and Ghana) properly announced the arrival of grime—noted for its aggressive lyrical style and abrasive, steely beats often made on a Sony PlayStation—to international audiences, rapper/producer Ty (born Benedict Chijioke) took a more soulful approach. On his second LP, his flow is quick and nimble but laidback as he tackles all manner of topics with the sort of conscious hopefulness that the album’s title suggests. Lead single “Wait a Minute” rides an organic 2-step beat while Ty reflects on a relationship’s problems. And “Rain” is a contemplative anti-gun-violence track that addresses a concern that hadn’t been broached much before in British music. But aside from its high-minded lyrical MO, Upwards is also the sound of a young city dweller with a keen ear, absorbing and filtering everything around him—sampling Caetano Veloso, interpolating Adam Ant, riffing on ’70s Afrobeat—while making occasional callbacks to his Nigerian heritage. The fact that Upwards and Boy in da Corner were released by labels typically associated with abstract electronic music (Ninja Tune offshoot Big Dada and XL Recordings, respectively) signalled that something big had been bubbling in the UK rap underground for some time. That they were both recognised by the Mercury Prize jury only cemented it, and in doing so helped give voice to a new generation of Britons with diasporic roots—one that can still be felt decades later, not only in hip-hop, but also in London’s club-jazz and Afrobeats scenes.

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