The Listening Room: How ‘90s hip hop shaped London with Charlie Dark

Episode two of The Listening Room is out now.

"The work that I do in building communities is very much based on what I saw the Native Tongues achieve. This idea of a group of people coming together... mentioning each other in rhymes, and generally basically helping each other to rise. The idea of like, if you do well, I do. Well, we all do well together."

In the latest episode of The Listening Room, writer, DJ, and Run Dem Crew founder Charlie Dark explores the records that made 1990s hip-hop a lifeline for young Londoners.

Recorded inside Devon Turnbull’s Listening Room at 180 Studios, the session maps how a sound born in New York rewired the capital’s streets, clubs and imaginations.

Moving from Public Enemy’s Def Jam tour shockwaves to pirate tapes, Live to London broadcasts and coveted Soho import shops, Charlie traces the ecosystem that raised a generation.

Through 12"s by A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, Gang Starr, Mobb Deep, Rawkus-era Mos Def and more, he unpacks how basslines, samples and storytelling shaped language, style and aspiration in Black British London. It's a love letter to hip hop’s golden era, told through a London lens.

The Listening Room is a new podcast from The Vinyl Factory and 180 Studios about how records tell stories.

Throughout Season One, DJs, musicians, writers, and record collectors gather around Turnbull’s system to play the records that have shaped them, tracing how sound moves through time, place, and community.

Listen to how '90s hip hop shaped London with Charlie Dark on all podcast platforms now.