Welsh hip-hop collective Goldie Lookin Chain is either a novelty band with one joke (and arguably a two-decade old joke, at that), or satirists of hip-hop and contemporary society, finding humour in the gulf between the band's own aesthetics and the bling more commonly associated with rap music. Dressing like early 80s shopping centre breakdancers, the collective - Eggsy (aka Mr. Love Eggs), Dwayne "Xain" Zedong, Adam Hussain, Mike Balls (aka Hardest Man In Soccer Violence), 2Hats, Billy Webb (aka Tim Westcountry), Mystikal, and Maggot (b. Andrew Major) - appropriate a genre that fetishises black American culture and transpose it to Newport, Wales.
After releasing a series of home-made CD-Rs, Goldie Lookin Chain debuted for Atlantic Records in 2004 with Greatest Hits, apparently because the Queen album of the same name "did very well so we thought we'd have a go". Greatest Hits found currency in a variety of subjects including, Mecca bingo halls, Victoria Beckham, and "medium value" McDonald's meals. The single "Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do" mocked government hysteria over hip-hop while referencing Zammo from children's school-based UK television series Grange Hill. "Half Man, Half Machine" referenced 80s computers including ZX Spectrums, Commodores, BBC Micros and Speak 'N' Spell machines in a tale of dressing up as a (silver foil-covered) automaton and nipping down to the newsagent, while faux boy band ballad and Christmas single "You Knows I Loves You" rhymed Milli Vanilli with Caerphilly and sought resonance from lines like "I see you walking on the way home from work/Your Tesco tunic really drives me berserk". Over the course of an album, however, it became apparent that once past the humour of their utter incongruousness, Goldie Lookin Chain really were not hugely funny. As The Guardian newspaper problematically recognized, "When GLC name-drop murdered Boogie Down Productions producer Scott LaRock while interpolating a song by BDP's KRS-One, they prove that they know and (presumably) love hip-hop, yet their whole schtick panders to the outdated prejudices of listeners who don't and that's what makes this album rotten.'
Goldie Lookin Chain notably caused a minor furore when they performed at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium before the 2005 World Cup qualifying match between England and Wales: the group was criticized by the Welsh Football Association after dedicating "Your Missus Is A Nutter" (the first single from second album Safe As F**k) to Victoria Beckham. The following year, Maggot appeared on the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother, finishing a credible third. Despite the added profile his appearance gave to the band, they were dropped by Atlantic shortly afterwards. They set up their own label Gold Dust Records and released a third album, Under The Counter, at the start of 2008. The album featured the delicious Kelly Osbourne tribute, "Song For Kelly".
