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By Haidar Elias

With his latest single ‘Digital Boogie’ dropping on March 14th and a solo album, ‘Reality TV’, being slated for summer 2005, Shiloh seems destined to make a mark on the urban music scene. His video for ‘Digital Boogie’ seems to get heavy rotation on Channel U, while Shiloh himself has completed several shows around the UK and has recently supported US R&B sensation ATL in London. It seems that the Shiloh bandwagon has just started rolling and already created a huge following in the UK.

Shiloh’s first taste of performing in front of a huge audience came when he was only eight years old, when he was chosen to rap live in front of thousands of people during the infamous Live Aid gig at Wembley in 1985, which was organised by Sir Bob Geldof. When asked about the experience, he replied: “Back then, I thought nothing of it. I didn’t think it was a big deal; they just told me to come up and I just did my thing. It was only after my mum told me I was up there with Frank Bruno and in front of thousands of people that I realised.” However, the little brushes with fame didn’t stop there, at 10 years of age, Shiloh appeared on the television programme ‘BBC Screenplay’. He reminisces: “The BBC came down my local youth club where I was emceeing and they asked me to perform on camera, so I just did it!” He added, “Performing in front of so many people at an early age helped me develop into a natural entertainer and now performing just comes easy.” This statement can be further verified by industry heads describing him as a ‘unique’ and ‘energetic’ one-man show.

After various stints on television, Shiloh took his craft towards emceeing at Jungle raves, before moving on to the Garage scene. After taking advice from a friend, Shiloh began to take emceeing seriously, and turned his attention to the Hip Hop scene. “Although at the time I was in the Garage scene, a friend would always come up to me and say, ‘You’ve got talent! You’ve got talent! Why don’t you take it further?’ That was when I thought about putting my own material out, so my friend introduced me to the label ‘Urbanfire Recordings’. They asked me to freestyle, so I did that, then they asked me to do it over a track and I managed to tear the whole track up.” He smiled and continued, “So from then, they were like, ‘Boy, we have to sign you!”

After getting signed to Urbanfire, Shiloh started off as part of the Hip Hop group Westek. With all the members hailing from West London, (Shiloh himself coming from Shepherds Bush), they released a hot mixtape called ‘Westek Street Banga Vol. 1’. Westek generated a huge buzz, getting rave reviews from various urban music magazines, whilst at the same time creating a huge following in London.

However, things didn’t work out for Westek, and Shiloh has come a long way since then. Now ready to release his debut album, he proceeded to tell me about the concept behind the single and what fans should expect from his upcoming album, ‘Reality TV’. “Right now we’re at a digital age; everything is digital orientated, you know?” said Shiloh about the single ‘Digital Boogie’. “It just shows that you can have fun while rapping; you don’t have to be gangster or rap about being a gangster or anything like that.” He then moved on to speak about the album itself. “Basically, with ‘Reality TV’ I’m coming from different angles. I try not to pigeonhole myself to one type of rap genre. What a lot of people don’t know is that I’m quite a versatile rapper, my material deals with different types of emotions. You can find deep tracks, you can find tracks strictly for the clubs and just general everyday things that effect me in my life. You know things that are going on around me and what I see, and I just write it in word form, you get me? I already have a few hot tracks on there!” In spite of this, one thing that Shiloh is keeping tight lipped about is collaborations on the album. “In terms of collaborations, I can tell you that I will be working with a few New York emcees but I can’t tell you who,” he said teasingly. “You’re gonna have to wait till the album drops.” After continued persistence, I finally get Shiloh to concede, as he revealed, “Some members of the Wu Tang Clan, so watch out for that!” With a hot new single and exciting collaborations lined up from the States, ‘Reality TV’ is shaping up to be an interesting album worthy of anticipation.

Having been compared in style to Obie Trice and Nas, I ask Shiloh about his favourite artists and who still inspires him today. Shiloh replied, “Back in the days I use to look up to people like Bobby Digital [alias for RZA from the Wu Tang Clan], Nore and The Lox. Them manz, they all came hard!” It would be true to say that most of Shiloh’s inspirations came from New York bred emcees that came with a hardcore sound reminiscent of early 90s Hip Hop. I went on to ask Shiloh’s opinion of the talent in UK Hip Hop. Shiloh answered, “UK Hip Hop has developed a lot compared to what it was five, 10 years ago. Back then, the only artist that was putting it down was Rodney P. Now you got so many manz coming in and doing their own thing and people are starting to take notice, like Dame Dash, head of Roc-A-Fella Records who recently signed SAS [London based Hip Hop group]. Now they’re working with people like Cam’ron, Kanye West and part of Hip Hop’s elite in the US,” he explained. “Artists like Kano, Klashnekoff, Dizzee Rascal, they’re all doing their thing and it’s good for British Hip Hop.” When asked why the British Hip Hop scene took so long to emerge, Shiloh responded with a simplistic view. “The reason why British Hip Hop artists are starting to get recognised is because they’re coming with their own flavour, their own style. They’re no longer trying to imitate what’s happening in the States!” he says avidly, before continuing. “Artists like Dizzee Rascal blew up because he came with the Grime ting, you know? He came with something original and that’s what made people recognise! Kano, who before was on the Garage ting like me, managed to flip his style into something different and he’s now coming out with his own flavour and I respect that. That’s needed in the game if British Hip Hop is gonna be big, you get me?”

Shiloh’s view is straightforward but without a doubt on point. If British artists continue to push the boundaries of creativity and originality without emulating artists from the US, there is no reason why British Hip Hop artists cannot grow to be as big and popular as their US counterparts. Shiloh’s turning his words into actions, and with his debut single and album, is bound to turn heads across the world.

The double-A side single, ‘Digital Boogie/Keep The Crowd Waving’ is out now. Also look out for his full length LP, ‘Reality TV’, dropping summer 2005 on Urbanfire Recordings.