Meet Bang On! the GIT Award nominee making UK hip hop happening again, as he brings ‘post retro punk donk dub hop’ and lyrical wit to the table. But as Getintothis’ Tom Jefferson discovers don’t expect him to wear a chicken suit.
GIT Award nominee Bang On!, aka Elliott Egerton, has been making ripples from Liverpool to London since signing for Roots Manuva-led Big Dada Records, and now looks set to broaden the horizons of UK hip hop.
Hailing from Tuebrook, Elliott started his rap career aged 11 when he featured on Radio1Xtra, 10 years later he has developed a style that is hard, fast, humorous and likely different from anything you’ve heard before.
Speaking with Elliott, he recognizes the effect his roots have on his appeal: ‘The fact that I’m different from the majority of artists in the country, and that I’ve got my own slant on things comes across in the music.‘
As well as a distinctive accent making his style unique, Elliott describes his sound as ‘not completely hip hop, not completely dubstep, but a fusion of sounds.‘ He coins his personal blend as ‘post retro punk donk dub hop‘.
This fusion is something he attributes to the iTunes generation, where genre boundaries are constantly being spliced and diced to create new forms.
Bang On! combines raw, bass heavy sounds and fast, brash delivery with razor sharp rhymes and wit, bringing lashings of humour into his commentaries on politics and society.
He also has a taste for the bizarre; the video for latest single Got It features men in pigs heads, Abraham Lincoln, vampires and the Queen playing the chorus’ killer riff.
His first two singles Got It and former Getintothis single of the week, Hands High, alongside a string of live shows have seen him gradually penetrate what has always been a predominantly London based scene.
With an album out on May 14, as well as featuring on the soundtrack to latest smash hit teen movie Project X, his profile looks set to soar.
Although unintentional, he believes the albums timing is ideally suited to current trends in hip hop: ‘It’s sort of similar to the current movement that incorporates a mish-mash of things. But mainly it’s just an honest portrayal of what’s happening, with some funny stuff too.‘
Along with fellow GIT Award nominee Miss Stylie, it seems hip hop, grime and urban music in Liverpool is finally getting the attention its small, but talented pool deserves.
Of his GIT Award nomination he said: ‘I’m chuffed, as you can imagine. Thanks very much to anyone who recognized me, it’s proper boss.‘
Bang On!‘s taste for the bizarre also extends to his live shows, when at a recent London gig he planned to perform in a chicken suit before, excuse the pun, he chickened out.
So were he to win the GIT Award would he perform in a chicken suit? ‘I suppose I need to don’t I? Maybe, if people want me to wear a chicken suit then why not? Maybe people can get at me on Twitter.‘
[sic] is out in May 14 on Big Dada Records.
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