Goldie Lookin Chain | |
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Live at Leeds Festival 2005
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Background information | |
Origin | Newport, Wales, United Kingdom |
Genres | Hip hop, comedy hip hop |
Years active | 2000–present |
Labels |
Atlantic Records Gold Dust Records |
Website | www.youknowsit.co.uk |
Members | 2Hats Billy Webb Eggsy Mystikal Mike Balls Adam Hussain Rhys Graham the Bear |
Past members | Maggot |
Goldie Lookin Chain are a Welsh comedic rap music group from Newport, Wales. The group produces humorous, controversial and often explicit songs that satirise hip hop, today's consumer society, the "chav" culture and life in Newport and South Wales in general.
The group recorded 6 albums before gaining a major record deal and were signed to the East/West record label, the home of rock band The Darkness. Rumours suggest that GLC was signed after record label bosses heard The Darkness playing GLC tracks whilst on tour (source: BBC Radio 1 – GLC Documentary). GLC went on to support The Darkness in the latter stages of their UK tour.
GLC's first UK chart entry was "Half-Man Half-Machine"/"Self Suicide", which reached the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. When group member Dwain Xain Zedong was phoned by BBC chart presenter Wes on the Official Chart Show to be informed of this, Xain informed the rest of the band that they had reached number 1, much to the shock of the DJ. "Half Man Half Machine" was a surreal song about one of the members (Eggsy) believing he was a robot, dressing up in foil, and going to the shops to buy ten fags and some crisps. The song namechecks many well-known 1980s 8-bit computer systems including Binatone, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, ZX81 and BBC Micro.
In August 2004, the group reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart with "Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do". With the tagline "The gun is the tool, the mind is the weapon", this track – again satirising the American hip hop scene – was a popular radio hit. The B-side was the album track, "Soapbar".