Dance Before the Police Come!

Philip “PJ” Johnson and Carl “Smiley” Hyman originally just wanted to make “fast hip hop,” but it so happened that they were working right at the time the UK rave scene was born — and that scene LOVED their breakbeats, their righteous anger, and the monstrous bass they’d inherited from reggae soundsystems. Their 1990 debut album perfectly captures the interface between the Public Enemy indebted rap tracks they were already making and the bleeps and narcotic influence they were pulling in from the raves where their tracks were spun. Tracks like the spooky Eurythmics-sampling “Lamborghini” and “Derek Went Mad” with its bouncing house bassline remain staggeringly influential dance classics, but what’s really noticeable listening back with the benefit of hindsight is just how well the more purist hip hop sits alongside them. Contra the cliché that early UK rappers were too beholden to the Americans, PJ and Smiley’s voices and social commentary are East London through and through, and the sound of the album overall across all the tempos and variations captures a moment in history just so. In their own work and with their productions for the likes of Ragga Twins and Nicolette their contribution to the UK — and global — music scene is incalculable.