British Dialect were a Milton Keynes based Hip Hop crew that formed during the late 1980s and consisted of rappers Two Tone, Power T and DJ/producer Spatts. While the group was active, they created several recordings that to date remain unreleased. This article has been created to acknowledge British Dialect’s contributions to the early Milton Keynes Hip Hop scene.
Spatts (3rd from right) with The Criminal Minds, 1990.
By 1990 Spatts had joined The Criminal Minds and co produced the groups debut EP “Guilty as charged” which subsequently lead to future releases. In the below social media post Spatts points out a reference contained in vocalist Safe D‘s lyrics acknowledging British Dialect rapper Two Tone‘s affiliation to both The Criminal Minds and the local Hip Hop scene.
“In 1991, we released a Hip Hop EP called “Tales From The Wasteland”. On that record was a track called “Systems Overload”. On that track, Safe D comes out with the following two lines.
Peace Two Tone with your open minded views, Another contribution from the Red, the White the Blue.
That was a reference to a Milton Keynes rapper Two Tone from British Dialect that I was working with prior to the first Criminal Minds vinyl release”.(Spatts, Facebook, 2020).
Further evidence relating to British Dialect and there involvement with local Hip Hop culture is also present in an interview conducted by Break to the beat with The Criminal Minds lead vocalist MC Iceski. The below quote is taken from the interview which can be accessed in full by clicking the below link. MC Iceski describes hearing British Dialect during the time the group was active.
“As for British Dialect they were a crew Spatts was working with, there was a very talented MC with a very fast flow & firin’ lyrics. This was Spatts side project & they pulled together a number of strong tracks”
(MC Iceski Interview, Break to the beat, 2011).
During the early 1990s rapper Two Tone continued to record music forming Gutter Culture with DJ Maniphest which later became rebranded as Urbanised Citizens. No recordings from either project were officially released and Two Tone eventually reconnected with former British Dialect crew member Power T to work on new material.
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