Where is skool boy from

As a lyricist, he remains the genre's most iconic. As comfortable spitting in his kitchen on Instagram as he is in front of thousands on stage, Wiley is grime.

And grime is Wiley. A sensational live MC in the dance and on radio sets, Riko's career straddles genres and decades, beginning on London pirate stations in the mids as a jungle MC.

His power is all in his flexible delivery, switching effortlessly between the deep-voiced, patois-heavy style of ragga and an altogether more cockney-sounding grime flow. His greatest triumph? Having the best vocal on Ice Rink, possibly Wiley's grimiest ever instrumental. Kano, Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder vocalled the classic too, along with four other MCs, but only Riko had the might to dominate the riddim.

His latest singles go as hard as he did on Pressure FM, all those years ago. While still in his teens Dizzee Rascal pioneered an abrasive, aggressive sound. He entered the music industry in his prime; part enfant terrible, part extraordinary innovator. Dizzee pushed the sound across continents, earning a Mercury Prize that was followed by platinum plaques.

You could call him the Martin Parr of music, showcasing the beauty in the mundane. Mike Skinner is the MC who brought suburban working class culture to the forefront.

For many, it was the first time hearing a UK voice from outside of London rapping on the radio. Always committed to supporting new talent, Skinner has helped launch the careers of Kano, Ghetts and Murkage Dave, also stylistically opening the door for unusual artists like Jimothy Lacoste and more conventional rappers like Professor Green and J Hus, who himself has cited The Streets as a major influence.

His back catalogue looks as thin as his frame, but Skinnyman's legend looms large over the history of UK hip-hop.

Fifteen years on, and rappers not fit to lace Skinny's boots have turned that truism on its head. Council Estate of Mind, that dazzling debut, is a definitive document of the times in more ways than just that one.

Skinny's fearsome freestyle prowess saw him face down Eminem with off-the-top-of-the-head disses during the supposed battle-rapper's first British gig. But his greatest talent is his ability to mine bigger, universal truths out of private and personal moments. He did this throughout an LP that continues to inspire and resonate today.

Mr K-Lash was the bridge between the two: a voluble, vivid lyricist whose pen-pictures of his Hackney neighbourhood were both a counterpoint to — and, likely, an inspiration for — many of the grime MCs making their name across east London and beyond. Klash's early releases were hailed as instant classics, but were eclipsed in when he teamed up with Nottingham beatmaker Joe Buhdha for the classic album Lionheart: Tussle with the Beast.

Klashnekoff came along at exactly the right time for music, but was arguably too far ahead of the game to become the big name his talent truly merited. An innovator since his teenage days at the forefront of More Fire Crew, Lethal Bizzle — back then, just Lethal B — has always been ahead of changing trends in music, and technology.

When garage collapsed amidst bad publicity and acrimony over the next year or two, Bizzle reinvented himself as a solo artist, bridging divides between rival crews in with one of the most important grime tracks of all time: Pow! An anomaly in grime's early days, Pow hit the top ten after laying waste to London's clubs — acquiring the status of legend, it was so riotous it was even banned by numerous anxious club-owners.

Kano has been there at many pivotal moments in UK rap history, making his presence felt and known. With each album that followed, Kano continued to push the boundaries of what he considered grime to be and yet, because of this, he had lost much of the flare that had garnered so much attention. Talking Da Hardest was the national anthem for young people.

Back then I was heading up the MTV Base and Dance channels and you didn't tend to get loads of excitement there around British artists. But suddenly Giggs came along and everyone was buzzing about him — my interns, the streets.

He came had that distinct, throaty, deep, monotone, gravely voice that encompasses Jamaican slanguage and the cockney, street vibe perfectly. It was like the guru descending from above. Suddenly, record labels were chasing to sign him. His track The Last Straw disses me and the head of Radio 1Xtra at the time, Ray Paul, because we had a misunderstanding when we first met — the video is quite hilarious! I explained to him that we wanted to support him but we needed clean versions of his songs, and he thought we were blackballing him years later, he came up to me and apologised.

The police would stop him performing live with Form , but he had the tenacity to keep it going and build his fanbase. He turned his negative, challenging reputation into something positive and completely led the direction of UK road rap.

He's released books. He's hosted TV shows. He's written a graphic novel. His poetry and his novel are now on screen. And he's never had the major label deal or the major marketing budget. This has all been built independently alongside a young black woman who has been his manager for all these years. Before Akala, artists like Roots Manuva and Rodney P did also dabble in political lyrics, but Akala took it to a different level.

He managed to spread his message beyond just the world of music, the black community or hip-hop culture. Artists like AJ Tracey and Dave and so many more are happy to be political now. I wonder if someone like JME would've sat down with Jeremy Corbyn if he wasn't seeing the Akala generation before him being so outspoken about politics.

JME's crystal clear lyrics combine humour, business acumen and general life advice, with references to everything from video games, veganism, married life and his abstinence from drugs and alcohol. Music has allowed JME to be autonomous; a champion for individuality and a figurehead for integrity. We can all learn something from him, as a musician and businessman, but also as an open-minded human being.

Her effortless barrage of flows combined with incisive writing makes her one of the most dynamic MCs in the UK, and her production is also something to be reckoned with. Her influence on the scene is clear — beyond her output as an artist, she has also curated her own festival Welcome To Wonderland at the Roundhouse the past two years, which has given a platform for up-and-coming names like Junglepussy and Rapsody. What to say about an MC so brimming with swaggering confidence that he called his debut album Greatest Hits?

Skepta has been running rings around the grime scene since before he'd even picked up a mic, on 's DTI and Private Caller instrumentals. Once he started MC-ing a year or so later, he was immediately dispatching rivals and ending careers with a crystal-clear flow and brutal efficiency.

After dallying with electro-pop, Rolex Sweeps, Timmy Mallet, a porn music video and US-style rap, the prodigal son famously returned home, ditched his designer labels and donned the superhero costume of a black tracksuit. The culmination of this profound journey of self-rediscovery, his and singles — That's Not Me and Shutdown — almost single-handedly re-launched grime into the pop mainstream.

Skepta became a Mercury-winning global celebrity, and his self-belief rubbed off on a whole new generation of MCs, stretching from road rap, to grime, to Afroswing. Skool Boy was not the only one that noticed his natural talent. Money By Da Pound, a Memphis-based indie record label, had no idea the missing component of its expansion was footsteps away in the promotions department.

Immediately upon listening to his penchant for boastful rhymes and infectious hooks, management knew they had a star on the rise and signed him to a deal. In and , Skool Boy collaborated with Soulja Boy and Jibbs, as well as released 2 mixtapes: Buzzer Beater and Gym Class, securing almost 10, downloads without promotions in Adopting an energetic, fun, and down-to-earth approach to his craft, Skool Boy maintains a genuine character both on and off the mic. He can undeniably move a crowd hype, which has done many times over, opening for an array of prominent artists such as Roscoe Dash, Soulja Boy, Plies and Yo Gotti.

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