Producing four Top 20 singles and selling 100,000 copies in its first week of release alone, So Solid’s masterpiece of a debut is a bizarrely overlooked part of their story in the popular imagination. You can hear references to their songs right across the thriving genre multiverse that is black British music in 2019, from Krept & Konan, to Skepta, to J Hus’s producer Jae5. Yet it’s not these negative media narratives that are most keenly felt, 18 years on from the release of their multi-platinum debut album, They Don’t Know.
The politician and broadcaster Trevor Phillips blamed what he called So Solid’s “gold chain and no brain” mentality for an unexplained double murder, in a British city 120 miles away from the crew’s home, as if their music’s popularity had had some kind of ambient influence on the population at large – and the Labour government even sought to censor rap lyrics as a result. Their image – and decline – was cemented by completely unrelated (albeit tragic) incidents such as the murders of two teenage girls in Birmingham on New Year’s Eve 2002. It’s easy to get distracted by the seemingly endless soap opera of controversies, tabloid press hysteria, and real world strife the group have been embroiled in over the years: by the beef with Dizzee, with UK garage’s elder statesmen, with the British media, with self-appointed moral guardians, and senior Labour politicians by the cancelled tours by Romeo going on Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Dinner Date, Harvey going on Celebrity Come Dine With Me and The Weakest Link, Lisa going on All New Monty, CelebAir and Celebrity Coach Trip, and all three of them being on Channel Five’s The Games by Harvey’s tabloid tag as a “ love rat,” and stint as a professional footballer by Romeo reworking “21 Seconds” as an advert for car insurance by Ashley Walters’ stellar acting career, in Top Boy and beyond by Megaman’s entrepreneurial success with his clothing line Cheats and Thieves by their numerous and varied solo careers and features by the sad history of violence outside their shows, by the history of violence inside their shows by Neutrino shooting himself in the leg by the arrests for murder, gun possession and assault.Īt the height of So Solid’s success, the British establishment never once let them enjoy it.
It’s easy to get distracted from So Solid Crew’s music.
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