Whether you accept the theory that it's a natural evolution, or prefer to believe that someone's been putting something in the water, the astonishing increase in the numbers of great UK rap records being released over the last two years is undeniable.
This much maligned, seemingly defeated genre is climbing back to its feet, staggering a bit, finding its voice and taking steps back to respectability. There's been great rap made in Britain for almost 20 years, but it's never had the amount of media support or public interest it's getting now - and happily this is coinciding with another one of the music's periodic renaissances, as longer-toothed artists entering a second or third flush of excellence rub shoulders with newcomers steeped in the traditions of the music.
Skitz, a producer and beat-maker from Bath who's been living and working in London for the best part of a decade, has feet in both camps. While his name is well-enough known within the scene for him to be able to assemble an all-star cast of British vocalists, he's also enough of a best-kept secret to allow him to be hailed as a newcomer by mainstream music media.
A widescreen aural production best heard on a walkman, 'Countryman' finds Skitz raiding his crates for beats that encompass delicious acoustic filigrees, reggae-tinged bass-heavy room-shakers and understated gentle rockers. Each is set off by a handpicked cast of rappers, singers and DJs whose voices, flows, lyrics and cuts are perfectly in tune with the musicianship and composition.
Luton's Phi-Life Cypher continue where their own 'Millennium Metaphors' debut album left off with 'Cordless Mics At 20 Paces', dropping lyrical comparisons of deliciously non-PC status to rival Redman or Eminem over Skitz' skillful spaghetti western soundscape.
"You'll get wasted like a racist/Surrounded by 20 vexed niggas with Black Panther braces/Causing more pain than a sadist/Rhymers are scared to play this/My flows kill at high speed like Lady Di's Mercedes," if you please.) Dynamite, cohort of Roni Size and an increasingly prominent part of the Reprazent crew, shows he has bona fide hip hop mic skills with two offerings, including the effortless storytelling of 'Double Reds'.
And Taskforce do for the Highbury Estate what Nas and Mobb Deep did for Queensbridge, 'The Junkyard' paying a poetic if desolate homage to a forgotten inner city of shattered dreams and broken governmental promises.
Unlike many offerings of recent months, though, this isn't an all-guy thing. A stunning all-woman triumvirate of Wildflower, Tempa and Estelle set the whole thing off with 'Domestic Science', the title itself being a marvellous enough piece of wordplay but which is surpassed by lyrics written for "women that's living in Britain/on council estates raising their children/probably on the social". And 'Inner City Folk', a track featuring Roots Manuva, benefits from a chorus sung by Valerie Etienne and really ought to be released as a single once the weather warms up and its summer vibes can carry it into the Top 40.
No one album can sum up an entire scene, and there's much more to British hip hop than even a record this multi-faceted can hint at. But Skitz proves here he's a producer of prodigious gifts, and the emcees and DJs show there's room for reality and non-conformism even when making music that has considerable commercial potential. For newcomers to hip hop or dyed-in-the-wool fans looking for the next step forward, 'Countryman' is as good as it gets.
