Grime music
 | It has been suggested that Electro-grime be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since November 2008. |
| It has been suggested that Rhythm & grime be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since November 2008. |
| Grime | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | UK garage Dancehall Hip hop Drum and bass |
| Cultural origins | Late 1990s - early 2000s, East London, UK |
| Typical instruments | Rapping - Toasting - Music sequencer - Personal computer |
| Subgenres | |
| Sublow | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Grindie - Rhythm & grime - Electro-grime | |
Grime is a genre of urban music which first emerged in East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop.[1]
Musical style
Grime music is typified by complex 2-step breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute and constructed from unorthodox sounds.[1] Stylistically, grime takes from many genres including UK Garage, dancehall and hip hop.[2] The lyrics and music combine futuristic electronic elements and dark, guttural bass lines.
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. Whereas hip hop is inherently dance music, the writer argues that "grime sounds as if it had been made for a boxing gym, one where the fighters have a lot of punching to do but not much room to move." [3] Frere-Jones also states that grime has maintained a style unique from American hip-hop, with clear Jamaican and West Indies influences.[3] 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."[2]
Grime is a genre of music often associated with artists such as Lethal Bizzle (More fire crew), Wiley (Roll Deep), Bashy, Kano, Dizzee Rascal, Ghetto, Crazy Titch, Bruza, Skepta, Tinchy Stryder, Durrty Goodz, Trim, Dot Rotten and JME. Similar to when the Americans came up with the term and genre hip-hop, grime is a genre that is also associated with Urban Street culture. It began in East London and rapidly spread throughout the UK Urban Cities and Suburbs. Grime has since become a movement, a sound of the 'Youth' in and around multicultural UK Cities. Great talents are now emerging through the genre in rapid successions to become household brands in their own right. In the 2008 MOBO Awards celebration 'Chipmunk' a grime artist won the category of 'Best New Comer'. Grime continues to excite, entertain and grow to attract audiences far and wide, across the globe. It is currently well received by none other than the Americans who gave the UK and the World Hip-hop. In recent times they have come to know that there is a massive untapped pool of talent in the UK waiting to be unearthed.
Origins and development
Grime emerged from the inner city boroughs of East London , notably the boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest and Hackney in East London. The emergence of grime is intrinsically connected to its origins on UK pirate radio,[1] with many performers honing their skills and achieving underground success before approaching the mainstream. Like other garage variants or mutations, pirate radio stations such as MajorFm.com[citation needed] were essential to the evolution of the genre, which at this point was known as a number of other terms, including "sublow" (a reference to the very low bassline frequencies, often around 40 Hz[4]), as well as "eski", a term applied specifically to a style initially developed by Wiley and his collaborators. This indicated the movement of UK Garage away from its house influences towards darker themes and sounds. Among the first tracks to be labelled grime as a genre in itself were "Eskimo" by Wiley and "Pulse X" by Musical Mob.[5]
Dizzee Rascal and Wiley, members of Roll Deep, 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.[1] 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 a cross-pollinated genre, taking influence from a variety of different cultural styles as well as musical ones,[2][1] and is therefore still in many respects considered to be underground music, even after mainstream exposure. It exists in a largely informal economy in which most artists make their debuts on independently-produced battle DVDs[3] that, like mixtapes are sold out of barbershops and make their way around the city. These artists also receive a lot of help from pirates and 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 to acknowledge its presence as a genre that can compete in the global market. There is a perception that international major labels don't understand the value of grime, as DJ Semtex, an A&R for Def Jam Recordings and also Dizzee Rascal's DJ says, "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 as a whole, as other countries do. [2]
Although grime is recognised as a creative and innovative musical style,[2] there are other contributing factors to its rapid and widespread growth in popularity; the MCs producing current grime music are overwhelmingly young as a group. The most well known names in the industry such as Dizzee Rascal and Kano both getting their first hits at age 16, with I Luv U and Boys Love Girls respectively, and the resultant package of "youth making music for youth" is seen as a crucial factor for Grime's success.[3]
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."[6] Howells went even deeper into the issue, making comments that Grime apologists claimed to find "deeply racist," referring to popular artists and crews as "boasting macho idiot rappers."[7] 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.[8]
There are more and more concerns that grime will lose its authenticity as it gains popularity, as a result of its roots in immigrant cultures and under-privileged communities will be lost to corporate power, as some perceive to be happening with the increasing fame of artists such as Lady Sovereign and Dizzee Rascal.[2]
International growth
Template:Sample box end Dizzee Rascal is regarded as the first grime artist to gain international acclaim after winning the Mercury Music Prize, for his debut, Boy In Da Corner.[8] It wasn't until the release of his third album, 2007's Maths + English, that Dizzee Rascal 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,[9] Rolling Stone,[10] NME,[11] and Rock Sound.[12]
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 appeared on Late Show with David Letterman, signed to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records, and whose "Love Me or Hate Me" became the first video by a British artist to reach number one on MTV's Total Request Live,[13] though her music has departed considerably from her early output on pirate radio stations, and she does not regard herself as a grime artist.[citation needed]
The international growth of the UK grime scene has also been evident in recent years with many of the popular grime artists playing on the Urban stages of the big summer festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds and O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. For example Dizzee Rascal played at all these events in the summer of 2008 and other important grime figures such as Wiley, Lady Sovereign, Lethal Bizzle, Boy Better Know and Roll Deep have all played some of these music festivals in recent years. There is no doubt that the jump from Grime as an underground UK music scene onto the mainstream has been a dramatic one, aided by the huge success of Dizzee Rascal but also seen by the Summer 2008 song for Wiley, called Wearing My Rolex, which reached a high of number 2 in the UK charts, selling over 200, 000 copies.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e McKinnon, Matthew (2005-05-05). "Grime Wave". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
- ^ a b c d e f Collins, Hattie (2004-11-19). "will grime pay?". Collective. BBC. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ a b c d Frere-Jones, Sasha (2005-03-21). "True Grime". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/a-life-of-grime-498018.html
- ^ Harvell, Jess (2005-03-21). "They Don't Know". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
- ^ "Cameron attacks Radio 1's hip-hop". BBC News. BBC. 2006-06-07. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ Gibbons, Fiachra (2003-01-06). "Minister labelled racist after attack on rap 'idiots'". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 2008-03-13.
- ^ a b Chang, Jeff (2004-01-13). "Future Shock". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ Patrin, Nate (2007-06-15). "Dizzee Rascal: Maths + English". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ Hoard, Christian (2007-05-30). "Maths + English". Rolling Stone Online. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ Miller, Alex (2007-06-01). "Maths + English". New Music Express. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ Galil, Leor. "Dizzee Rascal - Maths & English". Rock Sound. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ Mathewson, Catriona (2007-02-16). "Sovereign hits her gold mine". The Courier-Mail. Queensland Newspapers. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
External links
