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New approach to this blog

Ok, I'm going to take a new approach to this blog. Every entry in this blog will have a new piece of music attached to it, or be directly about a piece of music that I've written or writing.

Grime 101 by James Holland

Grime 101 by James Holland 
http://here.chantdownbabylon.com/

I'm going to enjoy writing this….

Grime originated in Bow, E3. It is an East End phenomenon, there are South, North and West MCs but it is an East End thing.

It began with the self-released track "Eskimo" by Wiley :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3PdS7r38HI

At the same time, there was what was termed an 8 bar track (changing every 8 bars) called Pulse X by Musical Mob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bMQTU2iI1E

Both of these tracks changed the game, being both slightly rougher than the garage sound of the period and allowing space for the MCs voices.

Big radio stations where friends (crews) would meet at the time were Rinse and Deja Vu.


Wiley formed a crew called Roll Deep,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWQ2KrrcE7U

This track was was produced by their producer Danny Weed. His 'clunk' woodchop snare was everywhere for a while.


Roll Deep included a young guy called Dizzee Rascal. Dizze released a track called "I luv u" which became massive on pirates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZSRCJcO8Dg

Meanwhile, Nasty Crew had an MC called D Double E (later of Newham Generals), Nasty Crew also had a producer/Mc called Jammer.

Pretty much every MC of that period is on this track by Jammer, Destruction, which sums up the early grime period well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3y_Epti-0k

Dizzee and Wiley became massive, and alongside Kano got major labels deals, to varying success.

My favourite tracks of early period grime are from Ruff Sqwad, this is a freestyle from them from the Risky Roads DVD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tv958anq4c

who featured a very young MC called Tinchy Strider, who later went on to commercial chart success.

The best track from this mid-period grime is by them, and is called Xtra. Stone cold classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d7NLvwNCZQ

I have it as my email ring tone.

A notable mention goes to Trim, who left Roll Deep and is an eccentric MC, one of my favourite Mcs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_IVvP0hj5o

Grime was the first music to be produced by the internet, file sharing age and as such there are, literally, millions of tracks. I've got over 100 Ruff Sqwad tracks alone from this period.


Skipping a few years, the biggest track was Next Hype by Tempa T, from a crew called Slew Dem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ6G7qwjom4

This track was everywhere.


Biggest track of the past two years was a track called Wooo Riddim, which was an instrumental. D Double E (Newham Generals) did, hands down the best version of this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWjMiap90Y


Biggest track of this year so far has been Man In The Boot by Chronik, also from Slew Dem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmyx9-RcLhQ

which is a good pointer to current sound. Kinda trancey…

One of the biggest MCs at the moment is Big H :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRj5qk28ss0

The maths of music ;-)