SevenStreets got very excited when Bang On! appeared in our inbox last year. Liverpool hip hop, by its own admission, has struggled in recent years to break out of the city. Though the likes of DyNamic, Skech and Kev Teezy utilise YouTube, Facebook and mixtapes to organically build fanbases, the city’s tangible rap scene seemed confined to irregular events and one-off gigs.

That is until Bang On! - aka Tuebrook twentysomething Elliott Egerton - was spotted by legendary label Big Dada. Home to artists like Roots Manuva, Spank Rock and Diplo, the imprint is the first notable record label to take a punt on Liverpool’s rap game.

Gould’s debut single ‘Hands High’ was released last year (watch the video below), and an album’s scheduled for later in 2011. It might be a watershed moment in British hip hop and grime - though previously it’s only been London-based artists who’ve broken through, this could usher in a whole wave of attention focused on the north of England.

“He first came to our attention when he did a photo shoot for the cover of HHC with Roots Manuva a few years back” label boss Will Ashon told SevenStreets.

“Then we heard “Scally Thugs” and “Get Ya Cock Out” from his mixtape and thought they were the funniest, freshest things we’d heard in years. We thought he’d be a nutter, but after an afternoon in the pub in London we decided he was not only hugely clever and massively talented, but a complete gent, too.”