Ms. Dynamite - It Takes More

What this video is

Released 20 May 2002 as Ms. Dynamite's debut single from her Mercury Prize-winning album A Little Deeper (Polydor), 'It Takes More' arrived at a pivotal moment when UK garage was transitioning from pirate-radio underground to mainstream chart contention. The track's conscious, anti-materialist lyricism — critiquing the bling culture and machismo dominating mainstream rap — was countercultural within its own genre.…

Why it matters

A landmark text in early-2000s UK urban music, 'It Takes More' demonstrated that conscious, politically engaged rap could achieve mainstream chart success in Britain. It helped legitimise UK female MCs at a moment when the genre was male-dominated, and its parent album A Little Deeper won the 2002…