Sinogrime

Grime is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It developed out of the earlier UK dance style UK garage, and draws influences from jungle, dancehall, and hip hop. The style is typified by rapid, syncopated breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute, and often features an aggressive or jagged electronic sound. Emceeing is a significant element of the style, and lyrics often revolve around gritty depictions of urban life.

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. Grime's rise in the early 2000s benefited from a time before smartphones and social media dominated the music landscape, allowing the genre to develop at a slower, organic pace. Many of grime's foundational MCs, such as Ghetts, Kano, and Skepta, spent years refining their craft, with early career periods often lasting five to ten years. This period also produced significant archival material, from ''Run the Road'' compilations and ''Lord of the Mics'' DVDs to the ''RWD'' magazine, all of which captured grime's evolution at its peak. The genre’s emergence has often been compared to punk rock, a comparison solidified by tracks like Jammer's "Dagenham Dave," a nod to The Stranglers' song of the same name.

The accessibility of music production technology, DIY media, and pirate radio stations contributed to grime’s grassroots nature. The genre was fueled by a "create it if it doesn't exist" mentality, similar to other independent music scenes. In its early days, grime was less a challenge to the music industry and more a direct parallel, with its own ecosystem of photographers, marketers, promoters, journalists, and label owners acting as both creators and gatekeepers. In the mid-2010s, grime began to receive popular attention in Canada. The genre has been described as the "most significant musical development within the UK for decades."

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.

History

Origins

Grime emerged in the early 2000s in East London. It has origins tied with UK pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM, Deja Vu, Major FM, Delight FM, Freeze 92.7 and Mission. and it was through pirate radio that artists could first present themselves and build an audience. 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". 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 definitive grime release 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, but released in 2002) and "Pulse X" by Youngstar (released in 2002), a member of Musical Mobb, are also often considered to be contenders. Dizzee Rascal personally claimed his song "Crime", released in 2000, was the first grime song. DJ Slimzee and DJ Karnage have also suggested "Year 2000" (released 2000) by Wiley as a contender. 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. Also of note is the OST for the 1994 video game Wolverine: Adamantium Rage. Composed by British producer Dylan Beale, it features "all the hallmarks of early grime instrumentals: staccato strings, eski bleeps and square wave bass". This would mean it predates the first recognised grime tracks by as much as 8 years.

Wiley at the timed dubbed the sound 'eskibeat' rather than "grime", which had yet to gain popular usage. 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. 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. Initially, some referred to the genre as 'grimey garage'.

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", the name sublow being a reference to the very low bassline frequencies, 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. It became Wiley's first grime hit song.

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, 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.

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

Development

Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Kano and Lethal Bizzle were among the first to bring the genre to mainstream media attention in 2003–2004, with their albums ''Boy in da Corner'', ''Treddin' on Thin Ice'', ''Home Sweet Home'' and ''Against All Oddz'' respectively. Dizzee Rascal garnered widespread critical acclaim and commercial success with ''Boy in da Corner'' winning the 2003 Mercury Music Prize. From 2001 to 2006 The RWD magazine forum was cited as a key development in the genre's culture. Moderators included Logan Sama, and artists such as Wiley, Skepta and Jme would often come on the forum to engage with the community. This was the birthplace of Wiley's famous rants, where he would often target forum users and resort to either trolling or humorous insults.

The genre was predominantly non-visual in its early stages, meaning you would primarily only hear artists on pirate radio or through their music as opposed to actually seeing what they looked like. This changed with the rise of various DVD series' such as ''Lord of the Mics'', ''Lord of the Decks'', ''Risky Roadz'', ''Run the Roads'' and ''Practise Hours'', filmed by amateur videographers such as Roony 'Rsky' Keefe and Troy 'A Plus' Miller. The DVDs often featured artists giving interviews and performing freestyles. These videos often featured record store Rhythm Division on Roman Road in East London, which served as a key community hub for both developing and established Grime MCs during this time. The store was frequented by artists like Wiley, Skepta and Dizzee Rascal before its eventual closure in 2010. Jammer created ''Lords of the Mics'' in 2004. The DVD primarily showcased underground artists clashing (or "battle rapping") each other. ''Lord of the Mics'' was originally sold by Jammer, Jammer secured an exclusive deal with ukrecordshop.com which helped catapult sales worldwide. The DVD eventually helped smaller grime artists find a platform through selling the DVDs to independent record stores throughout the UK and eventually helping grime form an internet following from uploads to YouTube. This series built a unique platform for artists, because the majority of prior exposure for these artists was through pirate radio. This video series allowed artists to be more visible, and spread their sound.

In 2003, TV channel Channel U was formed (later became Channel AKA, now Now 70s). It would become one of the most important places for people to discover new grime music.

In 2004, grime received its first UK Top 20 single with Lethal Bizzle's song " Pow! (Forward)". The song would prove controversial for the alleged fights it caused in clubs, leading to many venues banning the song from being played. This made it difficult for Lethal Bizzle to find a platform to perform his music. Lethal stated in 2012 to The Guardian that he was unable to play in urban clubs for over a year due to the bans placed on him. Many other grime artists also experienced difficulties performing in clubs due to Form 696, a police risk assessment form that many clubs were asked to fill in by the Metropolitan police. The form was created in 2005 after a spate of gun violence in clubs. The form was criticised in 2009 by John Whittingdale, a Conservative Party MP, for being "draconian". The form was also criticised for allegedly targeting black music nights due to it asking specifically what ethnic groups may be attending the event. Many grime raves were shut down by police using the form. Lethal Bizzle stated in 2012 this led to a shift from making grime music for the clubs, to making grime music for "in-your-house listening". Form 696 has been blamed for contributing to the decline in popularity grime experienced during the late 2000s.

Logan Sama's show on radio station Kiss FM was one of the only daytime radio shows that would regularly play grime during the 2000s.

Decline

By the late 2000s, grime had begun to enter into a decline. Record labels, radio, and the media struggled with knowing what to do with grime, and as a result limited its impact and exposure. The rise of dubstep and UK funky also made it harder for grime to gain a limelight. Many grime MCs also began to move towards commercial electro house-influenced rap and away from grime music. Artists such as Tinchy Stryder, Chip, and Wiley began to shift away from grime music and instead began releasing music with pop elements to much success. Wiley's track "Wearing My Rolex", produced by Bless Beats, has been credited for kickstarting this wave of commercialisation, but while it managed to gain a number 2 spot in the official singles chart, many of the initial attempts to replicate this success failed. Tinchy Stryder's " Stryderman" only managed to peak of No. 73, while Roll Deep's "Do Me Wrong" failed to chart at all. Skepta's " Rolex Sweep" only peaked at number 86, although it did briefly start a dance craze after it was released, received a remix by the band Coldplay, and featured on the comedy show ''Misfits''. Dizzee Rascal found more success than most, with his songs such as "Dance wiv Me" finding itself on the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart. The wave of commercialised music received some criticism from fellow grime artists for being inauthentic to the original sound.

Another commercialisation that happened during this period was grindie, which fused grime with indie rock.

Grime did still have some success during this period, such as the popular Tempa T song "Next Hype" released in 2009. "Pow" by Lethal Bizzle was dubbed the 'unofficial song' of the 2010 student protests. The grime scene outside of London was also flourishing in the midlands, particularly in Birmingham. In 2008, GrimeForum was created by Hijj. The forum was a major platform for grime music at the time, providing a space for artists to promote themselves and a space for fans to discuss grime as a whole, something that was important to people outside of London due to the lack of information they had access to. Canadian artist Tre Mission credited the forum's importance in his early growth.

The lack of media attention towards grime, or any mainstream platforms that would reliably showcase grime, gave rise to internet platforms such as SB.TV (formed in 2006), Link Up TV (formed in 2008), and Grime Daily (formed in 2009, now known as GRM Daily). With their initial focus only on grime music (though this has since changed), these platforms provided an easy outlet for artists to funnel their music through and gain fame from, collectively creating an ecosystem that allows artists to easily record, produce, and release music to the masses without the need of support from traditional media or the music industry.

In 2012, Charlie Sloth). The show became a popular segment and granted grime MCs and UK hip-hop artists a large platform to showcase themselves.

Revival

In 2011, a new edition of Lord of the Mics was released, the first since 2006. Lord of the Mics is a series of grime clashes hosted by Jammer. Both the LOTM III DVD and CD charted. Wiley, inspired by the return of LOTM, also brought back Eskimo Dance the following year, a grime rave from the 2000s that had been discontinued. Jammer suggested that the success of Eskimo Dance encouraged more grime raves to be held than had been previously.

By 2013, a revival of instrumental grime was occurring in the underground, with a new wave of producers experimenting with grime music. Logos, who was credited by FactMag for initiating the revival, credited the fall of dubstep as inspiration for going back to grime and reimagining it. In 2013, just a year prior to grime's resurgence in the mainstream, a large 'war dub' occurred amongst dozens of grime producers. It started off with grime producer Bless Beats releasing "Wardub" on Twitter, followed by a response from Shizznit which also included disses towards various producers within the scene, who in-turn followed up with their own diss instrumentals.

In the following year, grime experienced a commercial MC-led revival, initiated by the success of Meridian Dan's "German Whip" featuring Big H and Jme. The song reached number 13 in the UK Singles Charts. Two months after that, Skepta reached number 21 in the UK Singles Chart with his single " That's Not Me" featuring his brother Jme. Two months later, Lethal Bizzle released the single "Rari WorkOut" featuring Jme and Tempa T, which also charted, peaking at number 11 in the UK Singles Charts. A wave of new successful young grime MC's also began to emerge, such as Stormzy, AJ Tracey, Novelist, Jammz, and Lady Leshurr.

In 2015, Kanye West invited various grime artists to join him on stage at the Brit Awards. Following criticism of the performance, Stormzy released " Shut Up", using the 2004 instrumental "Functions on the Low" produced by XTC, a member of Ruff Sqwad