Grime

By Tripp Underwood

Grime is a British underground music movement blending elements of hip-hop, dance hall, drum ‘n’ bass and electro, all at break-neck speeds. Its obvious Jamaican and West Indian influences are traced to its home in London’s notoriously rough East End where it was born and continues to flourish.

Lyrically, grime focuses on the darker elements of life, with far more songs about violence and the struggle to survive than about getting women or flaunting wealth.

Aside from the street-life mentality, grime thrives on inner-scene dissing. Most grime concerts are just organized battles between MCs or crews, and it’s not unusual for the tension to go beyond rhyming and end up in physical violence.

In the mid 2000s, the genre first gained mainstream attention when grime artist Dizzee Rascal won Best Album of the Year in England’s prestigious Mercury ceremony. The music’s popularity has grown steadily since then, but despite its growing commercial appeal, it retains its subculture status.

Most grime debuts are homemade CDs or DVDs made by teenagers and sold in small record stores and barber shops before being circulated through the scene via mix tapes and CD trading. Pirate radio continues to be the music’s biggest on-air supporter, and despite the high profiles of grime’s most popular MCs, young grime talent is largely ignored by major record labels.

Lady Sovereign, one of the few grime artists to receive critical success in America, says the industry’s inability to market something as raw as grime is the reason it stays underground. “I’ve seen a lot of people at the top end of music who have no idea what’s going on in the street,” she told the BBC. “They’re asking ‘What’s the hottest thing?’ And these people are controlling music? Some of them ain’t got a clue.”