Pity the loneliness of the long-distance British rapper. Derek B, the 1980s hip-hop pioneer who died at 44 of a heart attack at the weekend, is fondly remembered by Home Counties B-Boys of a certain age. But his attempt to make it in New York ended in what would become a familiar failure for British “urban” artists trying to break into that all-important American market. Derek B tried to emulate his American idols. But his transatlantic twang brought mockery and exclusion.

Until now it seemed that little had changed for British hopefuls in America trading in R&B or hip-hop. There’s nothing like a visit to a radio station in the American Midwest to bring a high-flying British pop star down to earth. Craig David recalls his one-man mission to bring Southampton’s speed garage sound to the Milwaukee massive.“You’re playing Wembley Arena, and the next thing you’re in a programme director’s office playing to that one person acoustically, while the person’s messing around with his sticky notes and talking to people on the phone.”

It can’t simply be those “limey” accents that fail to cross the Atlantic. Phil Collins is a paragon of cool to the hip-hop glitterati. And Christmas offerings from Rod Stewart and Sting this week entered the US Top 20.

Would Derek B have fared better if he had been uprooted from Wimbledon to the Bronx at 10, the path travelled by the celebrated lyricist Slick Rick? As for the Battersea-born Monie Love, a big star in the US in the 1990s, even her British fans believed that she was a native New Yorker.

But while perfectly serviceable singers such as Lemar and Jamelia lacked the glitz to take on Usher and Beyoncé, the surprise success of one R&B singer from Hounslow has prompted hopes of a stunning reversal of fortune. Jay Sean succeeded where Robbie Williams and Oasis had failed when his single Down knocked Black Eyed Peas off the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Briefly displaced by Britney Spears, Down returned to the top, totting up two million sales.

Sean, 28, born Kamaljit Jhooti, is heading a wave of British urban artists, whose fusion of homegrown styles, from grime to garage and electro, is finding favour with Americans who are tiring of gangsta rap clichés and overfamiliar R&B beats.

“For the first time British urban music has got its own identity and US music has gone stale by comparison,” says MistaJam, the BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra DJ. Beatmakers such as Pharrell Williams are constantly seeking the latest club sounds and that now means crossing the Atlantic. “The big American stars are paying attention to these new British acts and they want to see if their sound will transfer back in the US.

“The British sound mixes styles from pop, dance, grime and even rock. Dizzee Rascal worked with Arctic Monkeys. We aren’t afraid to take risks. It’s a product of the multicultural society these artists emerged from.”

Other transatlantic collaborations include Chase & Status, a London “dubstep” production duo who were summoned to work with Jay-Z. Then there’s Taio Cruz, 24, from Fulham, who wrote songs for Pussycat Dolls and has worked on hits for Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears.The Grammy-winning performance of Estelle’s adroitly titled American Boy and the pop breakthrough of Leona Lewis have also forced the American industry to admit that British urban music can no longer be dismissed as an object of mockery. Soon the likes of Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder could become MTV regulars in the US.

So how did Sean produce his chart-topping elixir? “Long hard graft,” he croaks, his smooth soul voice now a rasp from too many promotional duties. “There are some people who are happy with success just in England. They don’t want to spend two years doing radio and TV, getting on stage in a club in Ohio or Kentucky in front of 500 people who don’t know you and singing through a dirty little sound system. You’ve got to prove yourself.”

The former medical student moved to New York after he lost his UK record deal. “Music is changing, people are looking to grab a different vibe that someone in America isn’t doing,” he says. “I could see what was working. The radio Top 40 stations in the US play everything from pop to rap; they treat it as equivalent and give it a go. In the UK they put you in an ‘urban’ niche.”

Sean refused to “chase an American sound” but his demos impressed the American hip-hop label Cash Money. Hooking Sean up with Lil Wayne on Down, in a market where collaborations are the surest way to maximise sales, helped the song to impress those all-important radio tastemakers. His latest single, Do You Remember, featuring the equally diminutive Lil Jon, is already racing up the US charts and Sean believes that the success of Amy Winehouse, Lewis, Estelle and Duffy has made the American industry more receptive to British performers, after a long drought.

But the Brits should enjoy their moment in the spotlight, because it won’t last, American music industry figures predict. “The British music business spends a lot of time wondering why American radio has rejected the Sugababes or Jamelia, but in most cases American radio never knew about those records in the first place,” says Sean Ross, the executive editor of music and programming at the influential US industry website, Radio-Info.com.

“I would guess that most of the American programme directors playing Down have never heard of ‘grime,’ or of Taio Cruz, Tinchy Stryder or Wiley,” Ross adds. “American labels are usually more focused on breaking the acts that they’ve invested their own money in.” Oh, and Leona’s [Lewis’s] new single Happy is struggling on the Billboard charts.

That won’t deter Sean, who plans to stay one step ahead in the fast-changing dance scene by rush-releasing a new album, All or Nothing, which updates earlier songs with fresh beats. As we talk, at one point he absent-mindedly refers to “you guys over here in the UK”, and, racked voice or not, jets off for another American promotional tour the following day.

“It’s a lot of hard work but it really is worth it if you really want it,” he says. “If you get a huge hit in the US you are pretty much set up around the world.”

If Sean is heading a new “British invasion”, those artists may be standing on the shoulders of Derek B, whose musical instincts, several tributes have noted, were ahead of their time.

And while Craig David may be having a bit of a career lull, somewhere in the American Midwest is a proud owner of his Born to Do It album. After that soul-destroying solo radio tour, the record went platinum.

All or Nothing by Jay Sean is out on Monday on Jayded/Cash Money. Sean and MistaJam appear with JLS, Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder and Taio Cruz at Radio 1Xtra Live, Sheffield Arena, tomorrow

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