Where We Come From

A DAZED BOOK OF THE YEAR

A landmark social history of British rap and grime – from the artists and communities who created and were shaped by the music, to the listeners who found a sense of identity and home within it.

WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY GARY YOUNGE

'Remarkable.' GUARDIAN
'Sublime.' NEW STATESMAN
'Essential.' THE WIRE
'Pioneering.' MOJO

'Ekpoudom has written the book I’ve been waiting to read . . . Intimate and illuminating.'
CALEB AZUMAH NELSON, author of Open Water and Small Worlds

'Brims with life and reverberates, long after you have closed its pages, with a quiet, lasting power.'
JIMI FAMUWERA, EVENING STANDARD

***

Something is happening in Britain, trembling the tracks as it unfolds. Recent years have borne witness to underground genres leaking out from the inner cities, going on to become some of the most popular music in the nation.

In this groundbreaking social history, journalist Aniefiok Ekpoudom travels the country to paint a compelling portrait of the dawn, boom and subsequent blossoming of UK rap and grime. Taking us from the heart of south London to the West Midlands and South Wales, he explores how a history of migration and an enduring spirit of resistance have shaped the current realities of these linked communities and the music they produce. These sounds have become vessels for the marginalised, carrying Black and working-class stories into the light.

Vividly depicted and compassionately told, Where We Come From weaves together intimate stories of resilience, courage and loss, as well as a shared music culture that gave refuge and purpose to those in search of belonging. Ekpoudom offers a rich chronicle of rap, identity, place and, above all, the social and human condition in modern Britain.