Schema Magazine

The first recent British female act that came up in context of modern "urban" music that was poised to make waves on this side of the Atlantic was Ms. Dynamite who was the 2002 Mercury Prize winner (awarded to British act of the year) and though acts like dance/electronic type acts like Roni Size/Reprazent and Talvin Singh had previously won the Mercurty as well (in 97 and 99 respectively), Ms. Dynamite's winning was a milestone in the state of British "urban" music (falling along the hip-hop/r&b lines). To this day, no British female has had quite the mainstream impact that British rock and soul acts have had but it was a big spark in that promise. Though Dynamite had came up thru the the harder and more underground garage/2-Step scenes, her album, A Little Deeper, was a more polished hip hop/r&b type affair def fit the mold of current radio type hip hop/r&b over here

The album ended up flopping over here and Ms. Dynamite disappeared for a while to resurface last year with Judgement Days which still failed to deliver on her early promise.

As "grime" emerged as the UK's answer to American hip hop mixed with its own garage/2 step base, 18 year old MC/producer, Dizzie Rascal won the Mercury Prize the next year in 2003 which only made more news of the burgeoning scene over in the UK.

Then in 2005, a year in which the new state of music had came to into its own thru blogs, forums, file sharing and "mashed up" genres like never before, a Sri Lankan British refugee by the name of M.I.A. stormed the blogosphere of musical hipsters like a force never seen before. Her story was crazy (fleeing civil war torn Sri Lanka with a father that was a significant figure in it - rumoured to be a notorious Tamil Tiger - who came to UK at age 12 and found success as an art student and ended up touring with the band Elastica as a behind the scenes filmographer. Her music was even crazier: with equal influences of hip hop, dancehall, electro and grime, she became known as the radical-chic provocateur, using quasi-inflamatory lyrics about the current war on terror but coming from the side of "terrorists."

M.I.A. ended up having her song Galang used for a Honda commericial and opened for Gwen Stefani. She didnt quite break mainstream American success though she was Spin Mag's artist of the year and made Rollling Stone's list of "Mavericks, Renegades & Troublemakers" among numerous other critical accolodes that year and her upcoming release this summer will include tracks worked with Timbaland. She was also one of the most controversial and love/hated artists in a long time.

M.I.A. wasnt really considered an MC by pure hip hop standards (she's usu considered to be in her own genre) but shortly after her, the self proclaimed "biggest midget in the game," a pint sized white girl MC named Lady Sovereign who, like Ms. Dynamite and Dizzie Rascal before her, also emerged from the more underground urban scene to mainstream hype in the UK. She was like a British answer to a female Eminem: an white MC who could spit lyrics with the best of any and shared the same punk-ass, cheeky ways as Slim Shady. She then attained the major feat of being the first British act to be signed to Jay-Z headed up Def Jam records and though she was also just recently picked up to tour with Gwen Stefani, she still never broke the mainstream over either. Like M.I.A., she counts Missy Elliot as a major influence.

Though steeped in a much poppier sound, Lily Allen, emerged as the new potty mouthed, cheeky British tabloid fav. The daughter of British comedy fav Keith Allen (who played the corpse in Shallow Grave, "Mother Superior" - the drug dealer in Trainspotting and who was also behind the English World Cup song, Vindaloo), Lily Allen became widely significant for becoming one of the first musical acts to be broken from Myspace. Though she was already signed to her label already, her myspace page blew up to enormous proportions and forced her label to get going on her album.

Allen's musical style was influenced by urban music as well but also mixed in very poppy British sounds as well. I'm not sure of what artists to site but in the same way Dexy's Midnight Runners' Come on Eileen is a very British pop sounding song, Allen carried the same vibe and mixed it in a lot of British ska/reggae influences (she is a big Specials fan). Her lyrical style earned her countless comparisons to being a femal Mike Skinner (the MC, the Streets).

Of all the artists mentioned here, Corinne Bailey Rae is the least fiesty, least cheeky. Her songs are more like a soft, summer breeze and void of any harsh urban or electronic sounds but a more organic soulful, folky and jazzy sound instead. She's like a Macy Gray without the antics or looniness or a more folky soul version of Erykah Badu. She and Allen are also normally in very girly dresses.

Though she first emerged with the album, Frank, in 2003, Amy Winehouse's new album, Back to Black is gaining her next hot artist type buzz. Where Allen is the cheeky, poppy ska beat chick and Bailey Rae is the organic, breezy singer-songwriter type, Amy Winehouse has the big, deep raspy soul/jazz voice that makes you think big bad mamma jamma demanding R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Bailey Rae and Winehouse both share influence of old school songstresses like Billie Holliday and Sarah Vaughn and Winehouse brings back the Motown era soul to a genre that has mostly ridden on the soul of the 70s for ages (D'Angelo to Lauryn Hill, Jamiroquai to the Brand New Heavies). And like Allen, her lyrics are laced with sharp, rough around the edge remarks about dudes, getting high/drunk, and life in general.

The coolest thing about the quintet of British ladies, I'd have to say in closing though, is that they are all on their own tip which is obviously more that can be said about the state of artists (esp regarding "urban" female acts) over here. None could be mistaken for each other.