Disco Scratch

So a few days have now passed since I first heard of the untimely death of an inspiring, ground breaking and influential UK MC.  Derek Boland, born 15th January 1965 in London, started DJing at 15 on pirates in London, namely LWS and KISS.  Rock the Beat was his first sonic Assault in 1987, released on the Music Of Life imprint and forging a new path for UK acts to follow in his wake.  Derek B was the  third rapper to ever perform on Top Of The Pops, with “Bad Young Brother”,  following Doug E Fresh and Break Machine.

He was a big big name back in 88 and I remember my first purchase of his was indeed the “Bad Young Brother” 12.  The energy that he had was inspirational and I’m proud to say I was a fan back then and will continue to be a fan of his music.

After releasing his LP “Bullet from a gun” I don’t really recall much being released from him, or seeing him anywhere he seemed to just fade out.

I think this was because he is essentially an old school artist and struggled to find a place in the Britcore scene at the time, which had become harsh and political instead of the party style that Derek B was associated with.  I never had the pleasure of seeing him live on stage, but I do however have some quality 80s footage on video which as far as I’m aware is not available ANYWHERE on the net, so I’m going to try to find it, rip it and upload it to youtube tonight, then add it in here later.

There is a lot of stuff I could write about Derek B, but in the past week a lot has been written already and I don’t want to fo over the same stuff twice, so here are some

links:

Drew Huge from Fat Lace does freelance journalism and wrote this piece for The Guardian

Here is the link to The Guardians’ piece about Derek Bs death and here is the obituary.

More Links to Derek B:

Derek Bs Myspace

Derek B on wikipedia

His discography

New Music Express

BBC news article

Starts tributes to him (via Gigwise)

I always believe in looking back over someone’s life with happiness that they existed and contributed to our lives and considering the up and coming festive season, here is the dope “Chillin’ With Santa” as included on the “Christmas Rappin” LP that came out in 1987.

Derek B - Chillin With Santa [ 4:53 | 6.7 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (93)

Nuff respect to Derek B, a UK legend.  Being as Disco Scratch is at the heart of the old school UK Hip Hop community and is read by many people in the scene show some love & respect for this artist by taking the time to leave a comment to this post, it will be a longstanding mark of his career.