Frank Kogan

The biggest station dedicated to 'urban' music in the UK (ie hip-hop, r&b, grime, dubstep, dancehall, ragga, funky, bassline &c &c) is 1xtra, which is an offshoot of the state-funded Radio 1 (the most important pop station in the country - a place on the R1 playlist is generally seen as paramount to having a hit (there hav4e been exceptions, but not many). The creation of 1xtra is a mixed blessing for the mainstream presence of 'urban' music in the UK: on the one hand, it gave a voice to many forms of black music, especially homegrown underground music, which would never have got on to the R1 playlist in the first place; but on the other, it's ghettoised all but a few token black artists to a digital radio station which most households don't even receive, and all but erased their presence from the mainstream R1 playlist. People waffle about the various reasons for this but I prefer to just call it "massive racism".

Pirate radio station Rinse FM is also key to the development of underground scenes like grime, dubstep and funky.

Good discussion about the current 1xtra playlist on this ILM thread, of all things. You'll note that both Jazmine and J-Hud are present and correct on it, but have been left off the mainstream R1 playlist in favour of artistic colossi like The Verve and Kings Of Leon. I think I might actually throw up a little at this point.

On to happier matters - in purely vocal terms TI is probably my favourite rapper around right now, I just love the sound of his voice and his Georgian drawl. 'What You Know' is one of the five best hip-hop singles of this decade. Am still hopeful for his new album despite the varying quality of what's emerged so far - even the bad songs are interesting in some way - though his last album was really disappointing. Also he's one of my few celebrity crushes.