UK rap occupies many lanes. It's a genre so broad (depending on the sort of #head you are) that it can stretch from Skinnyman musing on social deprivation to Loyle Carner's grief over his father's death to gun-fingers-to-the-sky yelling along to Roots Manuva's "Witness (1 Hope)" or turning up to Section Boyz' latest surprise drop. Once the novelty of a British accent "doing hip-hop" wears off for listeners from outside the country, those willing to be open to what our rappers can do quickly learn that the genre exists in multitudes.And so we come to road rap. It's existed on the relative margins for ages, and in 2017 it's become increasingly hard to define what the genre name even means. Traditionally, it's been rap that speaks to the experience of life on road – or street life, to translate for you non-UK types. With lyrics that speak frankly about violence and try to give voice to the lives of those ignored by the mainstream, road rap has turned into a term so slippery we set out to investigate its place in the current music world. We've enlisted the help of Mike Skinner to host again, following his turn investigating political Middle Eastern rap in our Hip-Hop in the Holy Land doc from 2015. This time, he's burrowing into the hidden places where road rap flourishes to figure out where the genre stands, how much you can even term it a separate genre today and to ask what next for the artists now associated with its name. Watch our trailer for it above, and keep an eye out on the site for the full film soon.You can find Noisey on Twitter.
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