Started January 2010 [by Jack Thurgar]

This is a scrapbook dedicated to the study of London's weeds and the wild places where they grow. Wildcornerz also looks at the languages, cultures and mythologies that develop in these cracks.


What is a Wildcorner?

A Wildcorner is a term referring to a piece of land that has been left to grow wild in a man made landscape. To be a true Wildcorner, the land has to be restricted from public access. Many are hidden from public view altogether. A common type of wildcorner is referred to by govements and local authorities as a 'brownfield site'.

Wildcorners and corridors* are dotted all over the capital and vary in content, depending on their location and history. In this blog we focus particularly on the Wildcorners of south east London.

* Wildcorridors are networks of pathways that run through the city and facilitate the propagation and growth of weeds. Many are restricted from public access such as railway embankments and urban rivers. In the suburbs, footpaths such as the Green Chain connect public green areas by a network of alleyways and passages that skirt between houses and private land. It could be argued that these are also wild corridors.



Urban and Suburban Weeds

By the term 'weeds' we are of course referring to the cities wild plants and flowers. But their are also two other weeds that grow in the city.

'Graf' like its botanical relation, has many families and strains. Both of these weeds can often be found together, sharing many qualities including their adaptive nature and unregulated status. Both in many cases, originally entered and populated the city using the railway network.

Another 'weed' that historically flourishes in London is invisible and uses the tops of tower blocks to propagate. Pirate radio like its weed relatives, grows away from the public eye and is constantly adapting to exploit these same gaps across the cities FM radio spectrum, fighting and flourishing in-between the commercial stations.

© Copyright of Wildcornerz. All rights reserved. For enquiries please contact: wildcornerz1@yahoo.co.uk

Thursday, 19 April 2012

The infamous Dark n Cold tapes 2000 - 2002

Just having a little Youtube trawl for classic moments from the original Dark n Cold vids. Found a few uploaded.
 They were first just available on VHS from the small clothing store in Soho. The videos were made as a means to promote there clothing range but they were made with love and were/are deliciously underground and budget.
http://www.suspect-packages.com/merchandise/videos/index.php

The first two volumes; 'Uk Untapped' feature various uk hiphop artists of the time [the later volumes were more jiggy and then grime influenced] and pioneered the beautiful thing that is a great mc freestyling to a camera. No mic, no crowd. Just a beat and a camcorder. It is a true celebration of the art form at its most pure. Beautifully simple, intimate and exciting.
They were doing what [the now award winning, massive] SBTV have built on with their 'F64' series on Youtube but they were shottin it, on VHS tapes back in 2000!
 These short videos are like folk recordings, capturing various underground street legends of the time.
Here are a few;

 Skinnyman from Finsbury Park


Surplus - underground Mc from Bristol



Chester P - legendary freestlyer from Highbury

Fallacy - A South East London General [shame its only a little sample of his sick bars here.]


Skeme and Big P - from Deptford and Pecks respectively. 



 .. and Skeme again, still doing it right on the 'UK Legends' series for SBTV last year.




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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous25 September 2012 at 07:12

    Hi,

    keep up the good work.
    www.everythinghiphop./com

    Banks
    Dark N' Cold

    ReplyDelete

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