Philadelphia freedom

Is Philadelphia once more asserting itself as the soul music capital of the United States? The city natives The Roots and the expat British rap duo Floetry think so. Ian Burrell reports

"London SE5 to Philly's West Side,/ Just to bring the vibe,/ Now we feelin' all right!" So say Floetry, who may be the hottest properties in British rap and R&B, even though many a British music executive has probably never heard of them. That's largely because the thoughtful and uplifting messages of Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart were seen by the record industry as irrelevant to a British audience, and so Floetry left Camberwell, south London, and took off for America. "It was very discouraging being in Britain. I walked away," says Ambrosius. "They try to make you what they want you to be [but] I wanted to make my own mark. There's nothing wrong with a British girl trying to sing about love and positivity."

Now based in Philadelphia, Floetry landed three Grammy nominations and are at the centre of one of the most dynamic movements in contemporary music. The Liberty Bell city, with its great traditions of African-American music ranging from jazz icon John Coltrane to the Seventies soul productions of Gamble & Huff, has been re-born as the capital of neo-soul and positive rap. For those who prefer musicians to computers, intelligent rhymes to gangsta lyrics and singers who can hold a note without studio enhancement, the new Philadelphia sound offers a reassuring alternative both to manufactured pop and the hardcore rap so despised by politicians and America's moral guardians.

Yet this could all be happening in London. Scroll back a decade. The Roots, the most successful purveyors of the live experience of hip hop, and the artists at the very epicentre of the current Philly scene, have left behind an America dominated by West Coast gangsta rap and are learning their trade in north London's Kentish Town. It is 1993 and a period of intense creativity. Sitting in a sushi bar in the West End earlier this week, Ahmir-Khalib "?uestlove" Thompson, The Roots drummer and inspirational dynamo, reminisced: "We had to move [to London] because there was no market for us in the States. For us to be productive, we had to go to a place where there was a buzz going. And it was beautiful."

Championed by the DJ Gilles Peterson, who was to put out their first album on his Talkin' Loud record label (released on Remedy in the US), The Roots found in Britain the musicians that had all but disappeared in America, where the computer had become king. They quickly became a part of London's acid-jazz scene, consisting of a host of like-minded music-makers that included the versatile British soul singer Omar and fellow American expats like Carleen Anderson and N'Dea Davenport, singers with the Young Disciples and the Brand New Heavies respectively. But like so many other short-lived British music trends, it didn't last and in 1995 The Roots went home to Philadelphia.

"We came in right on the caboose, during the last, last period. But we took a lot from that," said Thompson. "We took the idea back to Philadelphia and enticed the talent of Philly not with music or the promise of a recording deal but with something much more enticing – food." In the months after their return home, The Roots house became Philadelphia's in-place to hang out and eat the creations of a five-star chef who happened to be a close friend of the band. Among the regulars was local singer Jill Scott, a guy from the pizza parlour who came to be known as Musiq, a student named Bilal and a young man called Jaguar from the local 7-11 store. All four are now big names in America.

The live music sessions evolved into a club night called Black Lily, at which the atmosphere, according to Thompson, can be "pure bliss". "We provided the forum and the platform" he said. "Black Lily gives you the opportunity to develop your craft, it's a tool shed." No longer just a showcase for raw talent, Black Lily has grown to host big-selling performers like India.Arie.

But no artist from the Philly scene has progressed quite like The Roots themselves. From the raw sound of the first album Organix, through the jazz-influenced hip hop of the follow-up Do You Want More to the moody third LP Illadelph Halflife, the band refused to conform to stereotypes while building their reputation for live performance by frequent touring all over the world. The next album, Things Fall Apart, scooped a Grammy for the single "You Got Me" (co-written by Jill Scott and performed with Erykah Badu), and the following project The Roots Come Alive encapsulated the atmosphere of their stage show. The only hip hop act ever to be invited to play the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York, they have again broken convention on their latest album Phrenology by introducing a rock dimension, epitomised by the new single "The Seed", featuring Cody Chesnutt.

To Thompson, the change is no big deal. He points to hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaata playing a mixture of James Brown, The Troggs and The Monkees at Bronx block parties in the Seventies. "To me, hip hop is an amalgamation of all styles," he says. He also cites radical changes in musical direction by The Beatles and Sly and the Family Stone. "We've got to do it too," he says. "If we want to be in the vanguard of hip hop, let's walk the walk and talk the talk." The next Roots venture could take a further rock twist. "In Radiohead terms, if this album is a Kid A then we have an Amnesiac up our sleeves!"

Meanwhile, The Roots will spread their love for good musicianship by opening up a French-version of Black Lily in Paris tonight. The London franchise is already going strong. Run by the pioneering Amplified club promotion team, it attracts a clued-up crowd who know their music and know how to have fun. Amplified also mirror the eclectic taste of The Roots, with a music policy ranging from KRS-One to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

It could almost be the early Nineties again. Only it's a bit late for Britain to hold on to talent such as Floetry. The Londoners now feel right at home in Philly, working with the city's legendary producer Jazzy Jeff, the long-time musical partner of actor Will Smith. "It was in Philly that we found the producers, our management and the record deal in the space of six months," said Ambrosius, 25. "It was something different for them. No one comes across two black British females that sing and do poetry."

Multi-talented, Ambrosius grew up wanting to be a basketball player and represented England as a teenager before her career was wrecked by injury. Like Stewart, 24, (the rapper/poet "Floacist"), Ambrosius (the singer "Songstress") attended the Brits performing arts school in Croydon funded by the annual music awards.

As well as stagecraft, the school taught the duo about the industry itself – without preparing Ambrosius for the sharks who wanted to ignore her songbook of original compositions and mould her into an American-style R&B performer. In heading to America, Floetry have followed the path of the London-born rapper Simone Wilson, aka Monie Love, who went to the States to link up with Bambaata's Zulu Nation in New York in the late Eighties.

The Birmingham singer Julie Dexter has also moved Stateside, earning the title "the UK's Queen of Soul" and performing at Black Lily. Omar, too, the Acid Jazz stalwart, is now highly regarded on the Philly scene and recently featured as a guest artist on US rapper Common's album Electric Circus, which was produced by ?uestlove. Floetry's own debut album, Floetic, was shortlisted in the Grammy's as one of the best urban music albums of the year. Their live performance was similarly lauded.

Perhaps the rap-denouncing Government ministers who are paid to nurture British talent could spare some time to give Floetry a listen.

The singles 'The Seed' by The Roots is out now on MCA, and 'Floetic' by Floetry is released on Dreamworks 14 April