The most thrilling musical discoveries come when you’re completely unprepared- for instance, about 40 clicks deep into an internet hole with no sign of surfacing anytime soon. Something catches your attention: an arresting graphic, an engaging bio, an intriguingly titled song and suddenly you’ve been spat out onto Soundcloud and your tinny laptop speakers are blaring a track so unpredictably brilliant that when it finishes you realise your heart is pumping as if you’d actually risen from bed today and done more exercise than the 30 second walk to the bathroom.
Credit Instagram for the introduction to OG Horse, a hip hop collective comprising about 6 individuals, from Birmingham, UK but boasting production, wordplay and vocal charisma so assured that they seem to have rolled straight out of an established rap capital like Atlanta, GA. Here’s the thing about the British hip hop ‘scene’- grime undoubtedly dominates the conversation and other facets of the genre have been massively overlooked as a result. Rap in Britain has always felt like it brings far less variety to the table than our transatlantic cousins; I have several theories on why but that treat can be saved for a self-indulgent thinkpiece. What’s important here is the freshness and striking originality that marks OG Horse out as cut from a different cloth, evidenced on songs like Karachi, a collab between members Eli Prince and Wes Yanks.
Absent are the posturing soundbite rhymes and identikit beats that have come to define modern grime (which doesn’t necessarily denote bad music, just a certain model that’s followed) but the track also eschews the unfortunate tendency other British rap offerings have of pairing weak backdrops with lyrics that try to be too tricksy for their own good. Karachi (someone’s got a thing for Pakistan) is a 4 minute showcase of incredibly promising talent, the pair spitting bars that recall Chance with their fast flow and ability to deftly weave clever lyricism between a nebulous, shifting beat. Even their choice of producer provokes a thrill: despite Tony Maliyoti’s presence as in-house OG Horse beatsman, Karachi sees them aligned with precocious whizkid Louki, she who possesses a Swiss Army knife of musical skills- just check out her stunning track GOLD for proof, self-produced and featuring all her own vocals.
This group of artists are special for a myriad of reasons: their collective direction as musicians, the accomplished nature and heavy themes of their music, their startling youth. But more than that, they’re proof that there’s a entire sonic universe outside London that is thriving. OG Horse proffer more exciting hip hop than anything I’ve heard from the capital city in 2015 and they’re doing it from the Midlands, without major label support. The sheer deluge of music we’re flooded with can make it difficult to sift the real deal from all the fool’s gold we seem so content to embrace. Make no mistake- OG Horse have the spark that could take them all the way. Now we’ve just got to hope they’re willing to light touchpaper.
Follow @WesleyYanks, @dorienpeace, @TonyMaliyoti and @Louki_ on Twitter now.
Orpheus Speaks 