By Peter Nicholson

TY MAKES HIP -hop. Sure, he's been adopted by broken beat DJs around the world, works on the regular with Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen, and – gasp – is from the U.K.; regardless, Ty makes hip-hop. The kind that makes your head nod uncontrollably, the kind that makes you laugh out loud, the kind that makes you want to kill your MTV.

Ty's history is as multifaceted as his most recent album, Upwards (on Ninja Tune imprint Big Dada), which recently was nominated for a Mercury Prize alongside the likes of Franz Ferdinand. Born in London to Nigerian immigrants, he survived stints in foster care and initially became involved with hip-hop as a dancer. But his first recording was in 1995 with I.G. Culture (New Sector Movements), a producer known for his hyperfuturistic dance-floor fusion.

Ty went on to work with Unsung Heroes, host London's long-running hip-hop night Lyrical Lounge, and record with DJ Shortee Blitz before dropping his first solo effort, 2001's Awkward (Big Dada), which won praise from publications ranging from NME to Blues and Soul.

Upwards has received similar acclaim (including the title of best album of the year according to listeners of Gilles Peterson's WorldWide program on the BBC), and it's easy to hear why. Ty produced all the songs with Drew (Doze Guys) and manages to maintain a coherent flow while stretching his fluid rhymes around slow hip-hop struts, up-tempo Afrobeat, and stop-and-go broken beat. And from cheeky boasting over the fuzzed-out boom-bip bombast on "Ha Ha" ("feeling like my left toe is equal to Pele") to deadly serious delivery alongside a floating alto sax on "Dreams" ("I've got friends jumping in front of trains, saying goodbye / Can't handle the truth, can't deal with the lie"), Ty's raps grab you by the ear and find your mind no matter the rhythm or the rhyme.

Despite the different styles flexed on Upwards, Ty never sounds like he's trying on genres just for variety's sake or merely to showcase different deliveries. Instead, songs explore sundry moods of a large personality. And you won't hear Ty trying to imitate De La Soul or A Tribe Called Quest, no matter how much he loves them. "We've been boxed down so many times that eventually we've gotta stand up and start learning our own kung fu," Ty explained over the phone from London. "The kung fu has to be British in order to knock you out, 'cause if I try to do American kung fu, you're just going to slap me with some nunchucks."

Though it's obvious the "U.K. hip-hop" angle is tiresome to Ty, it's also clear U.S. cultural dominance isn't far from his mind. One of Ty's projects has involved leading hip-hop workshops in Africa, where he was dismayed to find ingrained Americanisms in local performers. "I did a little exercise where I had them performing and singing to their natural, national music, and then I clicked my fingers, and they'd change to hip-hop. Their bodies would be free when they were talking and doing their national dance, but when I switched to hip-hop, they'd start to do these gestures, these kinda Ja Rule gestures. What I was showing them was they needed to transport the energy they have for their national music into hip-hop."

For Ty, that kind of energy has produced an album that reflects his Nigerian heritage and London upbringing. Perhaps because of faster songs like "Wait a Minute" or endorsements by people like Bugz in the Attic, Ty's version of hip-hop has been embraced most readily in the United States by DJs working in other genres. "Broken beat people have kinda taken it onboard, and I'm really happy with that.... I didn't go out of my way to make a broken beat record; it just happened to reflect the English soul.... But you know what, [broken beat] is a great pigeonhole to be stuffed into."

Nonetheless, Ty is gradually making tracks into the greater U.S. hip-hop world. Los Angeles duo DJ Haul and Mason recently used the chopped African chant and squelchy synths on Ty's "Look 4 Me" and the steel-drum spiral and bass thump on "Oh You Want More?" on their promotional mix for URB magazine and Scion, where Ty slots seamlessly next to Biz Markie and Pete Rock. It would be foolish to think we'll soon be hearing Ty on Clear Channel stations or seeing him on Total Request Live, but those businesses rarely have time for innovative homegrown talent, much less a U.K. rapper with Nigerian roots and a fondness for broken beat. Hip-hop lovers ready to make up their own minds would do well to look to London, where Ty reminds us that being real isn't about a formula.