Black Radical Mk II

Black Radical Mk II (born Felix Joseph in 1971) is a British hip hop artist from Tottenham, London, England. He was one of the pioneers of the British scene, releasing his first single in 1987 and continuing to release records until 1998. He is most well known for his strident political views, which he often used as the basis for his records.

Biography

Black Radical was born in South London in 1971, and was inspired by Public Enemy's unflinching political stance to start making his own music. This resulted in him releasing his first single, "We Outta Here/B.Boys Be Wise" (Independent, 1987), at a time when the British hip hop scene was just starting. Black Radical moved to 2-Bone Records to release "Monsoon" (2-Bone, 1989) before signing with UK label Mango Records. This led to the release of the single "Rippin' Up The Industry" (Mango Records, 1990) in which Black Radical let rip at the practices of the UK record industry – a typically uncompromising move from an artist who had just moved to one of the UK's biggest hip hop record labels.

Two further singles and his debut album followed: The Undiluted Truth: A Black Man's Leviathan (Mango Records, 1991) is widely regarded as Black Radical's best album and showcases his political and religious views. The song "Sumarli" expresses his belief that black men and women should only date members of their own race, whilst "Sign of the Beast" details an apocalyptic vision and makes reference to the Nation of Islam's belief that the white man was created out of genetic experiments on black men carried out by the scientist Yakub. The album was popular, but Black Radical's views also caused an angry reaction from many people – including his own record company, who unceremoniously dropped the artist after the album was released.