Derek B RIP

BBC News: British rapper Derek B dies at 44

It's surprising how Derek B has been... well, perhaps not deliberately airbrushed out of UK musical history, but certainly overlooked by those who compile the lists and decide who's important. He may have been helped along by the tidal wave of DIY house and hip-hop acts (Bomb The Bass, S-Express, Coldcut, Krush, LA Mix et al) that hit the charts in the first half of 1988 in the wake of MARRS's truly ground-breaking Pump Up The Volume, but as I sit here, I can't think of any British rappers before Derek B who could claim two top twenty hit singles; Good Groove and the Prince-sampling Bad Young Brother both reached #16 in the UK charts.





Indeed, his profile was so high at the time that he even warranted a mention in Harry Enfield's opportunistic Loadsamoney single - "Derek B? On your biiiiike!"



However, lest we forget, Derek B's biggest success was as co-writer of an even bigger crime against music... Liverpool FC's Anfield Rap.