British Hip Hop

British hip hop,) is a genre of music, and a culture that covers a variety of styles of hip hop music made in the United Kingdom. It is generally classified as one of a number of styles of urban music. British hip hop was originally influenced by the dub/toasting introduced by Jamaican immigrants in the 1960s–70s, who eventually developed uniquely influenced rapping (or speed-toasting) in order to match the rhythm of the ever-increasing pace and aggression of Jamaican-influenced Dub in the UK and to describe street/gang-violence, similar to that in the US. UK rap, or speed-toasting, has also been heavily influenced by US Hip-Hop. UK hip hop has been commercially superseded by grime, however, after a post-millennium boom period, the genre remains a hotbed of talent.

In 2003, The Times described British hip hop's broad ranging approach:

"...'UK rap' is a broad sonic church, encompassing anything made in Britain by musicians informed or inspired by hip-hop's possibilities, whose music is a response to the same stimuli that gave birth to rap in New York in the mid-Seventies."