POLLS: If You’ve Only Just Discovered Grime, is it Too Late?

In 2003, 19-year-old grime rapper from East London, Dizzee Rascal, bagged the £20,000 GBP Mercury music prize for Boy In Da Corner. The repertoire was inspired by London’s bleak inner-city life. Despite raps about guns, teenage pregnancy and drugs, the accolade showed the gradual shift in social acceptance for urban black music in Britain.

The slow ascent to mainstream was undeniable. The following years would see grime acts like Tinie Tempa and Tinchy Strider cater to a broader audience by incorporating more trendy elements from dance genres. Real grime still lived in London tower blocks, reaching audiences through pirate radio and underground outlets like Channel U and Grime Daily.

In its purest form, the genre isn’t meant for wide appreciation. Its aggressive lyrics spread over fiery 2-step beats and raw PlayStation-tinged samples, are turbulent. Grime is not widely understood across different sectors of British society, let alone across the pond in the U.S. As a derivative of hip-hop, the thick accent and slang associated with the genre obstructed its traction. Early UK hip-hop acts on American soil included London rap duo SAS, who joined Dipset in 2002. They also caught the attention of Dame Dash and Roc-A-Fella Records. The transatlantic connection soon broke off, with members Mayhem and Mega running into visa mishaps and falling out with colleague Juelz Santana over creative differences.

At 140 bpm, grime’s delivery ignites a different type of sentiment compared to U.S. hip-hop. Moreover, the inner-city British jargon present challenges to new listeners trying to pick up the lyrics. To gain recognition, therefore, grime had to be adapted and compromised for the mainstream audience.

Chipmunk’s 2011 release “Champion“ with Chris Brown is one example that showed the maturation of the North London grime artist, yet his gimmicky lyrics were light years away from U.S. chart hitters. The track was simply because the genres’ aesthetics were opposites. While wordplay and metaphors are key components to a U.S. hit, grime instrumentals are structured to host quick, punchy bars, allowing MCs to serve up high-strung slogans, building towards crowd-frenzy rewinds from the DJ. Boy Better Know rapper JME notes “Productions nowadays are more polished than they used to be, the music has matured a tiny bit. You still get the odd unmixed raw tune with only four instruments that give everyone that burst of hype though.” Grime’s energy derives from competitive clashing that has given the genre its epithet, “war dub.” JME continues “Imagine 10 MCs in a room, one microphone, and everybody waiting to say a catalogue of bars they made up a few days ago. All while the listeners are tuned in live and the DJ is mixing with chaos behind him. We’re all in sync. That’s grime.”

New York DJ-producer Drop the Lime compared grime to punk. “Grime is subversive, it’s got this punk-like attitude that a lot of modern hip-hop lacks.” Drop the Lime was among the first to embrace the genre stateside. Not one to shy away from experimentation, Drop the Lime released Shotgun Wedding Vol. 4 in 2006 with MySpace-active party starters Syrup Girls (DJ Siren and Star Eyes). This mixtape was a blend of grime, crunk, 4×4, Baltimore club, and the then un-categorizable UK bass styles. The success of the project led to the DJs starting influential record label Trouble & Bass and booking grime and dubstep heavyweights Skepta, Jammer and Plastican for their first U.S. gig. “It was at this Lower East Side Spot called Rothko’s. It was so rowdy. We realized that we weren’t the only ones in the States loving the do-it-yourself, fuck-the-world mentality that grime was bringing,” says Drop the Lime. “Our parties were in-your-face, chaotic, monstrous, unpredictable, fun, ravey. No rules, no laws.” A month later, VICE Records released the second volume of its Run the Road compilation, a project that sought to highlight the future starts in the grime scene to the U.S.

For a moment, it looked like grime was set to blow up. Skepta and Jammer went on Hot ‘97 radio, followed by an interview with MTV. Lady Sovereign — one of the first successful female grime artists — was to sign with JAY Z for Roc-A-Fella Records. 2006’s “What We Do,” a collaboration between North London grime MC Lethal Bizzle and Twista showed signs that both styles could entwine harmoniously. Then everything went quiet. The time wasn’t right yet. Grime, came from the battle rap circuits and provided a voice for anguish. U.S. hip-hop was more infatuated in the braggadocious lifestyle, rapping about money, women and champagne. The internet in the mid noughties didn’t provide the whirlpool of knowledge that it does now. This meant the cross-breeding of genres were less likely to happen unless there was an avid interest between both parties that would lead to probable results. Nowadays, hours of free listening courtesy of Rinse FM and NTS radio, alongside lectures and live-streaming footage from Boiler Room and Red Bull Music Academy give those interested a firm grasp of unfamiliar musical subcultures.

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“Grime is a lifestyle. As long as there are 12-year-old kids turning on their mum’s PC with a cracked version of Fruity Loops making his own DIY sound, there’s grime.” – Skepta

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“Before, there was no way to translate this raw sound into any context, especially if you hadn’t been to the UK. I would go to London to buy white labels in record store, only to find out what tracks they were later when the information surfaced on the web,” says Star Eyes who still regularly plays a fusion of grime and bass in New York’s dance mecca Verboten.

Similarly, JME says that to understand fully grime you have to venture to London. “People that love it the most are ones who actually come to London, rave here, do well here. Those who don’t understand the culture just haven’t left their block, so you can’t blame them.” Therefore, the trajectory of grime to the mainstream largely has the internet to thank. Recent collaborations between Ta-ku and Jaden Smith, and Jamie xx and Young Thug would have been far-fetched otherwise. The internet gave birth to forward-thinking artist like Future Brown, Ngunzungunzu and J-Cush’s Lit City Trax who aren’t afraid to blend underground U.S. dance strains like footwork and vogue with grime.

For grime really to have a significant impact Stateside, a trustworthy harbinger needed to step up to present the sound in its most honest form; a man who can transcend genres and bring together emerging artists like Evian Christ with household names like French Montana in his sonic experiments. In February 2015, the genre witnessed another huge clash in the U.S. market. Kanye West took to the Brits Award to debut new track “All Day” with a mob of 40-odd men dressed in all-black and a flame thrower. Grime fans considered this one of the biggest “black hoodie moments” since Roll Deep’s music video “When I’m Ere”. The line up had grime’s biggest and most promising talents — Skepta, Jammer, Shorty Krept and Konan Novelist, Stormzy and Fekky. No strangers to the genre, these artists had spent the previous 12 years tirelessly grinding behind-the-scenes, releasing music directly to fans or through independent mainstays like SBTV and Don’t Watch That!. The mainstream industry frowned on the sideline, associating them with anti-social sectors of society that often donned sensational headlines.

In trademark Kanye West fashion, the rapper took the Brits in spontaneity. Replacing Rihanna’s set, his cast was called an hour before the show through text messaging. Led by Skepta, “30 goons” were rallied. Yet although the casts might be impromptu, the incorporation of grime in one of his latest endeavors was carefully arranged.

As an artist who constantly feels misunderstood, Kanye’s decision to co-sign grime aligned with his creative prowess to prove critics wrong. It was not unusual for ‘Ye to express contentious opinion, but this was beyond that. He used irony to his advantage, bringing out artists that had generally been shrugged off by the music industry on a new single that featured British music icon Paul McCartney of The Beatles.

While some may say Kanye was leeching off other subcultures for credibility, many saw this as an act of validation from the U.S., a market which UK rappers had long tried to penetrate. For many, this was a celebratory moment, a triumphant hallmark following years of struggle. The banning of Lethal Bizzle’s 2004’ grime anthem “Pow!(Forward)” and the shutdown of last February’s Just Jam event at the Barbican are examples of how the genre has been continually marginalized.

Kanye disregarded social stigma and brought the finest contemporary British underground acts on stage – an occurrence that arguably hasn’t happened since So Solid Crew performed at the Brits in 2002. “Kanye West and Virgil Abloh’s involvement indirectly boosts the perception of our underground sound to the masses,” said JME. “It gives a voice to a group of people who felt like they were ignored.” The Boy Better Know rapper highlighted the positive impact of that validation. “Whether it be U.S. or Zimbabwean granddads singing your praise, the fact that somebody outside your core fan base and target market is rating your work feels amazing. It’s not necessary, but it’s brilliant.”

The mutual appreciation between U.S. rap artist and grime is more prominent than ever — with the likes of Drake shouting out grime stars on Instagram and Virgil Abloh playing grime on rotations in his sets. With Kanye shining the light on grime, critics are worried that the genre will lose its credibility. Grime’s neighboring genre, dubstep rose to mainstream in 2009. We’ve witnessed a share of exploitation, resulting in gruelling iterations like brostep and soulless, wall-scratching EDM derivatives.

On the other hand, there’s not need to worry about grime being commercialized – if it hasn’t been already. Dizzee Rascal and Wiley have already made big-room “sell out” house releases like “Bonkers” and ““Wearing My Rolex.“ As Star Eyes puts it, “I don’t think U.S. involvement will hinder grime. Wiley can make an Eskimo beat and turn around and release a cheesy track like “Lights On.” Grime artists are versatile.”

Among the ambassadors carrying the torch from UK to the U.S. is Skepta — who’s worked closely with the likes of A$AP Mob, Flatbush Zombies and Ratking — isn’t scared that the sound might be diluted. “Grime is a lifestyle. As long as there are 12-year-old kids turning on their mum’s PC with a cracked version of Fruity Loops making his own DIY sound, there’s grime. As long as there’s little ASBO kids on estates chatting shit, there’s grime.”

Now, having read this, what do you think? If you’ve just discovered grime is it too late?