Azealia Banks has clearly never heard of Ric Branson.
Coincidentally, at a time when the ‘swag’ (or accused lack
thereof) of UK Rappers – Grime, Hip Hop or otherwise – has been brought into
question by a mentally ill, racist, homophobic, Trump endorsing, contradictory and
all around repulsive troll of a woman, what better time is there than to
reflect upon my own personal favourite UK rapper of all time – a gent that
places firmly in my ‘Top 5, Dead or Alive’ list – the man formerly known as Ric
Branson, also once known as Ricochet from the trail blazing UK golden era rap
crew, Universal Soldiers. A man that, before the word even existed in this
context, was the living and breathing definition of ‘swag’ personified.
As we near the 10 year anniversary point of his debut (and
only) solo release project, ‘No Pressure’, I inexplicably find myself pondering
more and more as to what happened to this outrageously talented guy. I won’t go
into too much detail yet – I’m currently in the process of attempting to track
him down to conduct a sort of retrospective interview/oral history (wish me
luck) – but needless to say those that are aware of the musical contributions
of the former artist known as Ricochet must be wondering where he is and what
he’s been up to, much like myself. For those of you that have never heard of
Ricochet/Ric Branson and Universal Soldiers (including rhyme partner Ultra and
producer A H Fly), there’s no shame in your game..... The real shame would be
that you live your life in ignorance of the music of this elusive yet supremely
talented MC. The ‘end game of shame’ would be that their music simply
disappears from the rap public’s conscious altogether – even upon extensive
searches and re-searches on the internet only the barest bones of information
is available, comprising a few old interviews on long defunct websites, some
grainy photographs at minimal resolution on Google images and thankfully many
songs that some forward thinking types have kindly uploaded to youtube. You
can’t buy the music anywhere online it seems – all online retailers list as
being sold out – and it was only by chance that I managed to grab a copy of ‘No
Pressure’ off of discogs recently (my original copy is locked somewhere in
Dad’s attic in Cornwall with the Street Veterans 12"s).
For those of you that really
don’t know, I’ll give you the briefest of rundowns. Back when Low Life Records
really started hitting in the early 2000’s and Braintax (boo!), Taskforce,
Jehst, Tommy Evans, Champions Of Nature and a few notable others were creating
and releasing music that would become the backbone of the Golden Age of UK Hip
Hop for those in my age group, Universal Soldiers were right there doing the
same thing too. But Universal were different. I won’t comment on Ultra and Fly
at this point, but Universal were known for one thing and one thing only –
Road. Life on, life off, it all revolved around being On Road.
Speaking of Ric specifically, all I can say (whilst still
attempting to keep it brief) is the following : Impeccable flow. Effortless
lyricism. Story telling par excellence. The clear ability to murder a rapper in
a battle (not that we ever got to see that happen – shame). And, most crucially,
at the back end of the period of time when everyone and their mum was swearing
they were ‘keeping it real’, Ric kept it realer than possibly any other rapper
I can think of (with the exception of C-Murder). He was – not unashamedly so,
as hints of shame crept in here and there – a hustler. Some of the stories he
told may have been ever so slightly embellished, but a large part of me doubts
that. Ric was out to get his on his own terms and these escapades have been
thankfully documented in excruciating detail for all to enjoy.
To this day – maybe even more so now – I find the amount of
personal detail that he included in his music shocking, but in a good way. He
detailed his movements, plans and the executions of his Grand Visions
seamlessly, always nonchalant but never without the underlying current of
seriousness and sincerity. I’m not going to go too far into the nuts and bolts
of the content at this point – that will come later, dependent on the result of
my search for an interview – but suffice to say that if you have listened to
his music and have been privileged enough to have moved in some of the same
creative circles as I have (with those that know or knew the man on a
creative/personal level) then you know that through hard graft, street smarts
and an unrivalled business acumen he moved himself into a position by which he
was able to officially retire from multiple ‘urban employments’, so to say, to
pursue far more lucrative and ultimately legitimate means of existence. I
believe Nas referred to it as ‘A Hustler’s Dream’, and this particular dream
was cleverly documented in a way that I personally have never seen or heard of
before or since. Basically, the guy is a fucking genius. ‘Listen to Mad Runningz and you
know my past – I don’t just move food, blud, I show some class’.
Partly to satisfy my own urges – and partly to see if it may
help me gain contact with the man – I have been so bold as to jack an entire
track from his classic ‘No Pressure’ release and drop a verse of my own after
his. I haven’t just jacked the beat; I’ve jacked the man’s verse, too.
A bold move, and one that could potentially backfire, but
after repeated listens to ‘Street Veterans’, ‘Slanguage’ (a vastly underrated
UK classic) and ‘No Pressure‘ over the last few weeks I was reminded that many
years ago I contacted Ric to ask if he would like to drop a verse on my album
in progress at the time, ‘Cold Lazarus’.
Having sent a message through Myspace (yes, Myspace) asking
if he would jump on a track – money was involved, of course – I received a very
pleasant message back essentially stating that which I already knew – that Ric
was firmly retired from rap and it was going to stay that way. For good. This
must have been back around 2007-2008 and despite the fact I did manage to
secure a verse from the one and only Sean Price – my favourite rapper of all
time – I am still disappointed to this day that I could not coax one more 16
out of the sliver-tongued street entrepreneur known as Juggla Redz. ‘Enlish
featuring Sean Price and Ric Branson of Universal Soldiers’ sounds pretty sweet
to me.
On more than one occasion Ric referred to himself as or compared himself to the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’, the protagonist of an age old tale of English chivalry. A cursory glance at Wikipedia reveals that the Pimpernel’s successes are firmly rooted in the ‘masterful use of disguises and strict secrecy of his group's movements. His identity is secret to all but his men.’ With this in mind, I must admit that my own chances of tracking down an ex-rapper after close to a decade of complete radio silence seem slim, and that’s putting it lightly. However, I will not be dissuaded. Not yet, anyway.
NOTE : I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THE TEXT IS NOW IN A WHITE BOX AND I'M CERTAINLY NOT TECH ENOUGH TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO CHANGE IT. SORRY.
Being an aging backpack rapper constantly
verging on rap retirement, I am now looking into new ways of exploring my love
for Hip Hop culture without jostling for elbow room with every other fucker and
his brother who has figured out how to shout at Garageband. I will continue to
make music as and when I feel the urge, but having spent some time thinking
about it recently I have realised that I have vastly underestimated the
influence and effect that Hip Hop from the UK had on me between the years 2000-2007.
The aforementioned artists, and many others, are all legends in their own
right, yet we here in the UK seem to put a shockingly small amount of stock in
celebrating their music and their legacies, regardless of how ‘garden variety’
they may appear to be.
Not only is this a crying shame, but it
is also indicative of the throwaway culture that the internet and social media
has caused music to become. The artists of the Low Life and YNR rosters, as
well as many, many others of the same era deserve our praise and gratitude for
forcing their music out at a time when it was not as easy as uploading an mp3
or filming oneself rapping on a front-to-back mobile telephone. These guys
grafted their hearts out to produce high quality music on white label vinyl
with hand written stickers and shot them hand to hand in the pre-50 Cent mix CD
era. These guys deserve our respect, yes, but they also deserve to not be
forgotten simply because the wheels of ‘progress’ refuse to stop increasing
their speed.
I am pursuing other artists from the same
era for the same purpose (big up Devise and hopefully Yungun/Essa – fingers
crossed, it’ll be a great story), but my starting point has to be with the one
MC from the UK who not only had the greatest influence on me personally but
whose music and style has, to my ears, not aged a jot in the best part of a
decade. If anything the intricate rhymes, smooth flows, effortless storytelling
and the fantastic reality weaved into all of the above have actually gotten
better over time. Some age like vinegar, some age like wine.
Ricochet was and remains to be one of my
favourite Hip Hop artists of all time, UK or otherwise. I would absolutely love
to sit down with him – only if he’s willing, obviously, and I’d understand if
not – and see if I can’t contribute to empowering his mythical status in my own
way – respectfully - to show people what
a refined talent he truly was.
Oh, and seeing as I just completely
jacked a Ric Branson verse without any permission whatsoever I figured I might
as well go ahead and completely jack an Elzhi verse too. It’s not like I can
afford to pay the man. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Wondering what happened to your favourite
MC? Got similar taste in music to me? Holler at me on Twitter and I’ll see what
I can do. @Enlish.
