Darkman

Born around 1970 as Brian Mitchell, the West Indian–heritage rapper spent his formative years between Finsbury Park and Shepherds Bush in London, interrupted by a three-year stretch in the Caribbean. At a moment when west London’s reggae scene thrived, he sharpened his skills on local sound systems and eventually launched his own, Platinum, where he alternated between Jamaican patois chatting and straight-ahead rap while also studying production techniques and assisting the crews Outlaw Posse and Cash Crew. In 1987 he founded the label Powercut; its early single “This Is How It Should Be Done” by One Love Sound featuring Joe 90 was quickly recognized as the first fusion of reggae and hip-hop. The success prompted a deal for Powercut with Warner Brothers’ Slam Jam imprint, brokered by dance producer Dancin’ Danny D of D-Mob, yet the arrangement yielded only one release—the Powercut Crew’s “Firin’”—out of sixty submitted demos, leaving Mitchell disillusioned. That frustration surfaced on his debut Darkman track, “Whats Not Yours,” which appeared on the Jus The Way compilation showcasing acts from his new Vinyl Lab imprint. Via the Beechwood collection, Steve Jarvier—Mitchell’s partner in a north London record shop—was recruited by Polydor and installed at the struggling Wild Card subsidiary, where he promptly signed Darkman. The resulting single “Yabba Dabba Doo,” driven by Mitchell’s fury after viewing a documentary on the Stephen Lawrence murder and propelled by its Flintstones chant (Mitchell being an avid cartoon enthusiast), earned mainstream attention and sponsorships from Magnum Hi-Tech clothing and Vicious Circle, even as he continued his studies in performance arts and animation. Its follow-up, “She Used To Call Me,” reaffirmed his dedication to the rap-reggae blend; as he observed, “Everyone should just dig into themself and then it would just come. A lotta people don’t look back, they forget where they come from, just live for today...” Although he insisted that UK hip-hop required a distinct identity, detractors occasionally faulted his focus on gun imagery as mismatched to local listeners, an objection that remained marginal.