The early 2000s were a hell of a time for UK rap fans. Some of our biggest stars today were cutting their teeth, earning their stripes and collectively shaping the trajectory of the scene for the next 20 years and beyond. However, because a lot of it was released via mixtapes and DVDs, a lot of it has been lost. Some of it has since made its way to YouTube, but that hardly secures its preservation until the end of time. Still, it's better than nothing.

One such DVD series is Welcome To The City, which spotlighted up-and-coming talents with collected music videos, freestyles, interviews and BTS footage. Hosted by Robeworld founder Mykal Million, it doesn't quite get talked about as much as it should. I mean, who else in the UK had indepth footage of Dipset on their DVDs back then?

There's a lot to get into, including an early Snap Capone freestyle, Dubz freestyles, a very fresh-faced Morrisson, South Yorkshire pioneer Pakman, and a lot of the South London core who are still imitated today, including Giggs, Kyze, Swiss, Jaja Soze, Cerose, Tempman and more. According to the uploader, there's also an appearance from a young Richard Riakporhe who went by Blackz at the time.

Also, we have to give credit to that YouTube channel as a whole, which also has Streetz Incarcerated DVDs, and tonne of mixtapes from PDC, SMS, and their affiliates, all in full.