h2éire - irishhiphop.com

Since 1999

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You can find the h2éire Twitter curated by Shapey Fiend here.

A partial archive of older versions of irishhiphop.com is online at the Internet Archive.

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H2éire / irishhiphop.com began in early 1999. I set it up in order to track down recordings by local legends Scary Éire and to put together a clearer picture of Ireland''s hip-hop scene, from rap music and djing to graffiti and breakdancing.

The site''s initial content was gathered wherever possible, from word of mouth, magazine and newspaper transcripts, and bootleg recordings. As word of the site spread other hip-hop enthusiasts began sending on news and information, and up and coming and established hip-hop musicians began to send their demos direct to the site, where they were hosted as Realaudio and MP3 files.

However the guestbook soon became the main focus of the site, attracting a lot of attention and becoming a very active community. In 2001 the guestbook was updated to a forum, and in 2005 the site moved fully to forum format. At this point social media was beginning to take over, and also the time taken to maintain the site wasn''t sustainable, and this format continued until the previous day (or at least until the forum software crashed on 22/10/2021).

In recent years due to inactivity the forum became an archive and document rather than an active community, providing a snapshot of hip-hop happenings in Ireland during the peak of its activity from the late 1990s into the 2010s.

Nothing stays static, everything keeps evolving. Hip-hop in Ireland keeps moving also, part of a larger global cultural movement that brings people together and promotes creativity in so many positive ways.

Best wishes to all reading this, and if you''ve ever browsed through or posted to the site in the past thank you.

Kieran Nolan

[email protected]

23/10/2021