Straight outta Shropshire

Hip hop music - the very name conjours up images of inner-city danger zones such as Compton, South Central LA and Church Stretton ... Hang on, asks Andrew Owen. What was that last one again?

Church Stretton's hip hop community.

There, that's a title you don't write every day. It's hard to picture the county's picturesque Little Switzerland when discussing the often violent music that grew out of the poverty and deprivation of America's crumbling inner cities.

But Church Stretton's Jake Buchanan is bringing Shropshire hip hop to the masses on YouTube, y'all. Move over, rap stars with your flash cars, pimps and ho's, because the SY6 are here, and they've got tractors, and wax jackets, and hoes (and garden forks as well).

"In bad hip hop they're always referring to where they're from," says Jake, who has just finished a sound and video technology degree at Salford University.

"We thought it was hilarious to refer to a rural postcode. SY6 starts just outside my house."

The SY6, as you've probably guessed, is a joke. It's Jake's way of combining his love of hip hop music and his skills as an aspiring song-writer and film-maker and trying to get a foothold in the notoriously hard to break into television industry.

Instead of the usual showreel to display his talents, he has made a music video which takes the mickey out of Shropshire life and hip hop cliches.

"I took down the elements that I like about hip hop and decided to do it in my own way," he says.

The idea began when Jake sampled the chorus of a 70-year-old Billy Merrin song called We'll Make Hay, which featured in the BBC series Pennies From Heaven, and added a hip hop beat.

Then he roped in some musically-minded friends who added their own parts to the chorus, and then he approached a farmer he knew. "I said 'Can we run amok on your farm acting gangsta?', and he said yes."

After one day of filming with a borrowed camera and a week's editing, Jake has produced a four-minute "love letter to Shropshire" which acknowledges both the good and the rubbish aspects of rural county life. It's a hip hop video in quite possibly the least hip hop setting on God's good earth, with plenty of hardcore country accents thrown in.

The result, which he calls "gangsta farmer", is becoming a big hit on YouTube, having already been seen by thousands of people.

Hopefully, he says, it will help him to take that all-important first step on the ladder and get his career off the ground.

Reaction has been positive, with many people posting messages saying how much they enjoyed the video.

Jake never thought that his little "in-joke" would get this big.

It's even been warmly received by Muller Dairies, despite mercilessly parodying its latest advertising campaign which appears to suggest Shropshire folk spend the hours from dusk 'till dawn running up hills and singing.

"Because we were making the video in Shropshire my friend pitched it to me that we had to have a Muller reference because Muller have taken Shropshire and made it their own.

"We thought, why don't we do it like Muller in our video but send it up, not in a malicious way but for a laugh?

"I rang Muller and they liked the idea. They're not going to use it but they sent me and the lads ten pounds worth of Muller vouchers, which is quite funny, and the lady said 'We are glad you and your friends are enjoying the taste of Muller rice'."

See, hip hop stars such as Kanye West may have the girls, the cash and the glamour, but they've never had Muller yoghurt vouchers.

• For more on Jake and his music visit his myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/braincellharmonics

• You can contact Jake at this address: jakebuchanan84@googlemail.com