Grime music

Origins[edit]

Grime emerged in the early 2000s in London.^[14] It has origins tied with UK pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM,^[15][16] Deja Vu, Major FM, Delight FM, Freeze 92.7 and Mission.^[6][14] and it was through pirate radio that artists could first present themselves and build an audience.^[17] In the late 1990s, UK garage grew in popularity and also found crossover commercial success with shows on Kiss 100 and BBC Radio 1. Whilst much of the popular UK garage sound fused soul and R&B influences, a 'darker garage' sound was also appearing which was more instrumental and less vocal, which allowed MCs to lay down lyrics over them. The role of MCs became more prominent on radio shows, and collectives such as So Solid Crew (on Delight FM), Heartless Crew (on Mission), and Pay As U Go (on Rinse FM) would begin to pave the way for what would eventually be called "grime".^{[18][19][20][21][22]} Members of these crews would begin to experiment with accessible music creation software such as Fruityloops to write their own instrumentals which were cut to dubplate for shows.


The first grime track is often debated. Some will credit Pay As U Go's "Know We" or So Solid Crew's "Dilemma" (both were released in 2000), however, "Eskimo" by Wiley (produced in Christmas 1999 or early 2000,^[23][24] but released in 2002) and "Pulse X" by Youngstar (released in 2002), a member of Musical Mobb, are also often considered to be contenders.^{[25][26][27][28]} Dizzee Rascal personally claimed his song "Crime", released in 2000, was the first grime song.^[29] DJ Slimzee and DJ Karnage have also suggested "Year 2000" (released 2000) by Wiley as a contender.^[30] Other tracks that were among the first to be labelled as "grime" include "Ice Rink" and "Igloo" by Wiley, "Creeper" by Danny Weed, and "Dollar Sign" by Sticky featuring Stush.^[16][31][32]


Wiley at the timed dubbed the sound 'eskibeat' rather than "grime", which had yet to gain popular usage.^[26][20][19] His song "Eskimo" was characterised by its sparse and cold production, and "awkward, off-kilter rhythms". Wiley explained this colder, darker sound, reflected his mental state at the time, stating "The music reflects what's going on in society. Everyone's so angry at the world and each other. And they don't know why" to Spin magazine in 2005.^[20] The name "grime" was coined by journalists who initially termed the music's sub-bass heavy sound as "grimy", which subsequently became "grime". It has also been suggested by artists themselves that the term fits as the music frequently talks about "grimy goings-on" in deprived areas.^[26] Initially, some referred to the genre as 'grimey garage'.^[33]


At this point, the style was known by a number of names, including 8-bar (meaning eight-bar verse patterns), nu shape (which encouraged more complex 16-bar and 32-bar verse patterns), sublow (a music style and movement created by Jon E Cash with Dread D (T Williams) and crew "The Black Ops",^[34] the name sublow being a reference to the very low bassline frequencies,^[35] often around 40 Hz) and eskibeat, a term applied specifically to a style initially developed by Wiley and his collaborators, incorporating dance and electro elements. This indicated the movement of UK garage away from its house influences towards darker themes and sounds. Wiley's song "Wot Do U Call It" was released in 2004 and was made to address the identity problems grime was experiencing at the time, and to establish its separation from garage.^[16][36][19] It became Wiley's first grime hit song.^[17]


Grime is not an offshoot of early electronic music, but rather a subgenre that draws from a wide variety of influences. Early innovative artists such as Dizzee Rascal and Wiley were able to take the strong thumping drums of drum and bass, lyricism and vocal styles of UK garage and alter some of the rhythms of dancehall to capture all three genre's essences and add a new half-time, down-tempo dimension to the mix. The genre's popularity grew exponentially in the United Kingdom, as people across the scene's musical spectrum appreciated grime's eclectic mix of instrumentation and subcultures. This hybridisation united many different music scenes, allowing for it to spread in the same word-of-mouth and mixtape-based style as hip-hop, yet still appeal to fans of electronic music. It also paved the way for more electronic music artists to incorporate stronger Jamaican influence in the future. Grime never received the same attention worldwide that it did in the UK. Much like many other less mainstream forms of British electronic music, its main scene and fan base remain in the United Kingdom.


Although grime is recognised as a creative and innovative musical style,^[37] 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, Dizzee Rascal and Kano, both getting their first hits at the age of 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.^[38]


Grime producers often battle in so-called "war dubs".^[39] Clashing between MC's is generally considered to be an important part of grime culture.^[26][14]