Did anyone used to stay up til 2-3am on a Friday night to watch Tim Westwood's amateurish but essential hip hop video show back in 1988 on ITV? It was shown in the South East of England as part of a night time show called Night Network and within that was Westwood's half-hour show called N-Sign Radio (if you know of why it was named that please spread the knowledge). This was when rap videos were scarcely shown on the box so this show was heaven for the younger b-boy.
I can remember live performances from Biz Markie, Demon Boyz, Cash Money & Marvelous and Derek B.
The first video below is a full show, actually it's the very first one so Tim is a little flustered (see how he fluffs his lines - not very gangsta) at times but there's some great videos shown from Eric B and Rakim, Kool Moe Dee, Heavy D, Salt n Pepa, Mantronix and Bomb the Bass (if you're quick you'll spot Groove Records as well as Fulham's Hall Of Fame).
Much props go out to Rich over at mastermix.org from whom this video comes from. You should check his site here for more early Westwood-related mp3's as well as other old school treasures with a slant on the London scene.
This one below is a live set from Cash Money & MC Marvelous in the middle of one of the N Sign Radio shows. If you want to hear more then check out this linkage which is an mp3 of the full set.
This next one below is just for the intro by Westwood and his co-host only. Watch beyond that at your peril.
Lastly we have a video for UK artist Merlin with Born Free. Unfortunately it runs out before we see KRS-ONE.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
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8 comments:
Ha nice one, havent seen N-sign since it was originally aired. Cheers!
P.S. The graffiti hall of fame in the 'Beat Dis' video is the golborne pit at Ladbroke Grove and thats Artful Dodger doing the 'Bomb' piece.
Thanks for the correction, Paintwasters. It's been a loooooong time since I rode the tube around London with my camera.
I have quite a few of these shows on VHS, so i've just converted them to AVI for my PC. Pity he cut short a lot of the videos, but back in 1988 beggars couldn't be choosers. We were just happy to see any Hip Hop on TV.I live in the North West of England, but could still get them up here. I was on nightshift one Friday nighht, flicking through the channels ( all 4 of them )when i stumbled across a Steady B video being shown. Classic
yo 808, get that shit up on youtube mate, i loved this show, i wanna see more
yo 808 get that shit up on youtube mate
get the one of Ice-T giving timmy shit about his hand gestures
Yo screw youtube put those shows as Torrents on TPB
If you leave an e mail addy here i can send you some files...........
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