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Grime is a sub-genre of urban music which first emerged in London, England in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, drum and bass, and hip hop.

Musical style

Grime music is typified by sparse and minimalist 2-step breakbeats, generally around 130 beats per minute. The lyrics and music combine futuristic electronic elements and dark, guttural bass lines. The rapped lyrics will often contain jabs at other musicians, and concerts are often organized as battles between competing performers, rather than simply performances. Due to its experimental nature and diverse stylistic influences, artists involved in the grime scene initially resisted attempts to classify or pigeonhole the style, resulting in a range of different labels, including sublow, 8bar, and eskibeat. Grime is sometimes associated with dubstep, a similar but largely instrumental genre which also evolved from the early 2000s UK garage scene.

According to Sasha Frere-Jones, writer for The New Yorker, grime has developed a fierce sound by "distilling" rhythms to a minimal style resulting in a choppy, off-center sound. Frere-Jones also states that grime has maintained a style unique from American hip-hop, with clear Jamaican and West Indies influences. Writer Hattie Collins supports Frere-Jones' s analysis by asserting that grime is "an amalgamation of UK Garage with a bit of drum'n'bass, a splash of punk and a touch of hip-hop thrown in for good measure."

Origins and development

Grime emerged from the rave culture in the late 1990’s and sounds like hip-hop performed by MCs. It is really fast and heavily accented with the English accent. It is not music you can easily dance too due it’s fast beats. It exists largely in an informal economy. Artists make their debuts on homemade DVDs on which they are competing with other MCs. It is young, rebel music, with more songs about survival than love. Many popular grime artists are teenagers raised in East London’s low-income council estates. Sometimes their performances end in ultra violence, a tradition carried forward from the garage scene. Grime lyrics are laced with taunts directed at rival MCs; grime concerts are organized as contests, or clashes, between competing crews. The emergence of grime is intrinsically connected to its origins on UK pirate radio, with many performers honing their skills and achieving underground success before approaching the mainstream. This indicated the movement of UK Garage away from its house influences towards darker themes and sounds. Among the first tracks to be recognised as grime were "Eskimo" by Wiley who was the founder of the eskibeat label and "Pulse X" by Musical Mob.

Dizzee Rascal and Wiley, former and current members of Roll Deep respectively, were among the first to bring the genre to the attention of the mainstream media in 2003, with their albums Boy in Da Corner and Treddin' On Thin Ice respectively. Dizzee Rascal particularly garnered broad critical and commercial acclaim, with Boy in Da Corner eventually winning the 2003 Mercury Music Prize. Grime has received a lot of exposure from television stations including Channel U, Logan Sama's show on London station Kiss FM and the BBC's youth oriented digital radio station 1Xtra.

Grime however is still in many respects considered to be underground music. It exists in an informal economy where most artists make their debut's on DVDs that, like mixtapes are sold out of barbershops and make their way around the city. These artists also receive a lot of help from pirate radio stations which keep the public up to date with the music. Even though grime is very popular in the UK, many recording labels have yet acknowledge its presence as a genre that can compete in the global market. DJ Semtex, an A&R for Def Jam Recordings and also Dizzee Rascal's DJ, says that "the biggest conflict I have is with major labels because they still don’t get it." He says that they just don't understand the value of grime, and more so UK music a a whole as other countries do.

As with many similar scenes around the world, the grime scene has encountered some criticism, especially from government officials like Home Secretary David Blunkett who in 2003 called rap lyrics "appalling," or former Culture Secretary Kim Howells statement that grime artists were helping to create a culture “where killing is almost a fashion accessory.” Howells went even deeper into the issue, making comments that many found to be “deeply racist,” referring to popular artists and crews as “boasting macho idiot rappers.” While the government offers one point of view, the artists and listeners offer another. In an article by Jeff Chang in The Village Voice, Dizzee Rascal’s often violent and sexual lyrics are heralded as “capturing, encapsulating, and preserving” the life that he and his peers live on the streets every day.

International growth

Dizzee Rascal was the first grime artist to gain international acclaim after winning the Mercury Music Prize, though he received as much notice for his stab wounds as he did for his debut, Boy In Da Corner. It wasn't until the release of his third album, 2007's Maths + English, that Dizzee experienced the same kind of international acclaim. Dizzee was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize again, and despite the fact that the album wasn't released in the United States in 2007, it received high praise from international music critics, magazines, websites, and blogs, including Pitchfork Media, Rolling Stone, NME, and Rock Sound.

The 2005 release of 679 Recordings' Run the Road compilation, showcased some of the most popular grime releases to that point, increasing the popularity and fame of grime and grime artists internationally. A particularly notable grime artist who has had success overseas is Lady Sovereign, who reached #1 on MTV's TRL, appeared on Late Show with David Letterman, and is now signed to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records, though her music has departed considerably from her early output on pirate radio stations, and she does not self-define as a grime artist.

See also

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• Grime artists
• Dubstep
• Grindie

References

1. ^ McKinnon, Matthew (2005-05-05). "Grime Wave". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
2. Collinson, Jamie (2006-12-11). "Grime scene investigation". guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
3. Hancox, Dan (2006-12-13). "Keep this frequency here: in defence of dubstep music". guardian.co.uk. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
4. ^ Frere-Jones, Sasha (2005-03-21). "True Grime". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
5. ^ Collins, Hattie (2004-11-19). "will grime pay?". Collective. BBC. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
6. Sasha Frere-Jones. True Grime: A genre’s magic moment.
7. McKinnon Matthew. Grime Wave: Grime is the soundtrack of East London. Will it play anywhere else?
8. Harvell, Jess (2005-03-21). "They Don't Know". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
9. Radio 1’s Hip Hop on BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5055724.stm, retrieved 2008-3-12
10. Gibbons, Fiachra. “Minister labelled racist after attack on rap 'idiots',” The Guardian, January 6, 2003. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jan/06/ukguns.immigrationpolicy1. Retrieved 2008-3-12
11. ^ Chang, Jeff (2004-01-13). "Future Shock". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
12. Patrin, Nate (2007-06-15). "Dizzee Rascal: Maths + English". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
13. Hoard, Christian (2007-05-30). "Maths + English". Rolling Stone Online. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
14. Miller, Alex (2007-06-01). "Maths + English". New Music Express. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
15. Galil, Leor. "Dizzee Rascal - Maths & English". Rock Sound. Retrieved 2008-03-12.

External links

• BBC News: Is the UK on the verge of a Brithop boom?
• The Grimepedia

• Electronic music genres
• Hip hop genres
• Youth culture in the United Kingdom
• Music from London