London Posse

From south London

London Posse came together in the mid-1980s around Rodney P, Bionic, DJ Biznizz and founder Sipho the Human Beatbox. A 1986 tour with Big Audio Dynamite, whose Don Letts and Mick Jones brought them along, got them out of London, and a trip to New York gave them their name: people there called them the kids from London.

Their own voice

Where most British MCs still copied American delivery, London Posse rapped the way they talked. “London Posse” / “My Beatbox Reggae Style” (1987, Big Life) was the first UK track backed only by beatbox. Their album Gangster Chronicle came out on Mango/Island in 1990, and in 2007 Hip Hop Connection readers voted it the most important UK hip hop album ever. “How’s Life in London” followed in 1993. They toured with Public Enemy and N.W.A. Sipho died in 2004.