Grime music
Grime is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM)[3] that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It developed out of the earlier UK dance style UK garage,[4] and draws influences from jungle, dancehall, and hip hop.[2] The style is typified by rapid, syncopated breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute,[4][1] and often features an aggressive or jagged electronic sound.[5] Emceeing is a significant element of the style, and lyrics often revolve around gritty depictions of urban life.[6]
The style initially spread among pirate radio stations and underground scenes before achieving some mainstream recognition in the UK during the mid-2000s through artists such as Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Lethal Bizzle, and Wiley. In the mid-2010s, grime began to receive popular attention in Canada.[7] The genre has been described as the "most significant musical development within the UK for decades."[8]
Though they are often compared, grime is generally considered distinct from hip hop due to its roots primarily being genres such as UK garage and jungle.[9][10][11][12][13] Many but not all grime artists are from the black British community.
History[edit]
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]
Musical style[edit]
Grime is typified by complex 2-step, 4/4 breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute, or sometimes structured around a double-time rhythm, and constructed from different synth, string and electronic sounds.[4] Self-proclaimed 'godfather' of grime Wiley claims in his 2017 autobiography Eskiboy that he personally created most of his early tracks at 140 BPM as it is the default tempo in FL Studio.[1] Stylistically, grime draws on many genres including UK garage, drum and bass, hip hop and dancehall.[37] The lyrics and music combine futuristic electronic elements and dark, guttural basslines.
Grime predominantly evolved from the UK speed garage scene and genre towards the latter stages, although it takes influences from other genres. According to Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker, grime has developed a fierce sound by "distilling" rhythms to a minimal style resulting in a choppy, off-centre 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."[38] Frere-Jones also states that grime has maintained a style different to hip hop.[38] Hattie Collins supports Frere-Jones' analysis, asserting that grime is "an amalgamation of UK garage with a bit of drum & bass, a splash of punk".[37]
According to Alex de Jong and Marc Schuilenburg, grime music also samples sawtooth wave sounds (chiptunes) from video game music and ringtones which had become part of everyday life in London and other parts of the country;[207] Street Fighter II, for example, is frequently sampled and referenced, as grime is "built around lyrical clashes" which are "equated with Street Fighter's 1 on 1 battles".[208] British grime lyrics often reference communication technologies popular with artists and listeners such as smartphones and social media. Sirpixalot recently brought attention to the game Wolverine: Adamantium Rage from 1994 which bears some of the hallmarks sounds of grime.[209]
Criticism[edit]
As with many similar scenes around the world, grime has encountered some criticism, especially from government officials such as Kim Howells, who made comments that some grime supporters claimed to find "deeply racist", referring to popular artists and crews as "boasting macho idiot rappers".[266] A counter argument is given by Jeff Chang in an article in The Village Voice, where he said 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.[267]