We’ve already heard a little bit of Leyton based hip-hop crew, Gunshot on this programme through their participation in the B.R.O.T.H.E.R Movement’s GhettoGeddon single, but Peel gave them the floor by programming Nobody Move!, the b-side to their new single, as the opening track of this edition of John Peel’s Music.
I can’t get into specifics over the pluses of this track because it’s an example of hardcore hip-hop and so leaves me, a white 45 year old, in its slipstream as the flow speeds past me, but the feel of the thing is irresistible. Using the refrain from Yellowman’s 1984 album opener, Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt as its foundation, Nobody Move! appears to be set at a funeral if we take the opening oration at face-value, but further listening and the bits of MC Alkaline’s rap that I was able to make out have led me to think that the funeral is purely symbolic with Alkaline replacing Soundboy as the fastest, hottest lip on the mic. We aren’t here to bury Soundboy but witness Alkaline’s coronation and his own speech lays out just what he did to get to the top and what he’ll do to stay there, namely be the best and stay the best - Ah...the confidence of youth. And if we all stay still and pay homage, no-one will be killed - literally or linguistically.
Peel loved Nobody Move! but admitted that he thought the A-side of the single, Killing Season was even better. Unfortunately, he couldn’t play it on the radio due to a number of profanities that were in it. I find it amazing that British Forces Broadcasting Service would have been so squeamish about bad language given the demographic that Peel was broadcasting to - though admittedly, it wasn’t just people serving in the Armed Forces that would have heard BFBS’s output. Maybe they feared that a battalion hearing the word “shit” on a record would lead to anarchy on the parade ground.
Video courtesy of Tyron88N
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