I don't know an awful lot about the scene at all and hadn't heard the collaborations EP. I get a few recommendations from Chappers but that's my limits. I bought the Devlin album hoping to get into it but it's put me right off!
I've got a Devlin album. Bought it randomly, one time at Rough Trade, wish I hadn't. My goodness, it's shit. The lad's got very little talent, his song-writing is cliched to hell and he does love name-checking himself and his mates and his urban credentials. He's also very mono-delivery and...
It's funny you should mention ginger because Ed Sheeran was voted very recently the most influential artist in black and urban music in the UK by some panel on Radio 1 Extra.
I'm not sure if that's an all-out piss-take, a lack of self-awareness or indicative of a truly diverse musical culture.