Any grime fans on MA?

I'm sure most non-UK users (and probably a lot of UK users too) won't be familiar with grime, so I'll explain. Grime's a post-2000 style of Urban UK music with roots in hip hop, garage and dancehall. However, it's a lot less dancy than those genres, and has been compared to music that should be played in boxing gyms. The music generally has a much darker tone, with sublow bass (usually around 40 hz), "creepy" synths, and off-sounding beats. The vocals are sort of like rapping, although less rhythmic and not as sensibly structured. The vocals often go in all different directions, being similar to regular rap although sometimes they don't rhyme, sometimes they change flow mid-verse, or sometimes grime artists will just yell stuff.

The great think about grime is, it's only had a little mainstream success with artists like Wiley, Dizzee Rascal and Lady Sovereign but they don't represent the "true" sound of grime very well. Most music produced in the grime scene is D.I.Y., made by kids on council estates and released on cdr/dvdr mixtapes. It's made by the youth, for the youth most often...Kano and Dizzee Rascal, two of the pioneers, both released their first singles at 16.

Some examples...
Ghetto (now known as Ghetts) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh9FJjbsHuY

Slew Dem Crew http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfGYfn7zPRI

Napper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8nmSwOE ... re=related

Lethal B (featuring about 8 other MCs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwfikgc6vs4

Ruff Sqwad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aol-GvJy39o

Neckle Camp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BppjoLTdYU

And for an idea of what really D.I.Y. stuff sounds like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ekxebsu ... re=related

I've listened to Ghetto - Freedom of Speech before. Real nasty shit.


A lot of those examples give off that mainstream hip-hoppish vibe though. I prefer the dark atmosphere that Necro, dalek, and some Cunninlynguists give off.

I listened to Dizzee Rascal and a couple other grime acts during the height of my interest in dubstep. Didn't care for it at all.

I tried to listen to Grime a while ago, didn't like it, and this really didn't change my mind.

It's just rap. Calling it a new genre with influences in hip hop, garage and dancehall... is just embellishment.

Not really - there's a difference between grime and crunk just like there's a difference between death and black; they're similar sub-genres of a larger genre, but still have enough individuality to warrant a different name.

I'm not a huge fan but I do like some of it; didn't like Lady S.'s first Def Jam record, but I liked the EP she did before that. I've got the "Run The Road" comp, every track except for The Streets' is awesome (don't care for them); don't really care for Dizzee's albums, but the cuts on this comp are tits.

I haven't really gotten "into" the genre as I'm very selective about rap and only listen to it rarely. I do really like the first two Dizzee Rascal records though and they get spins pretty regularly. Especially since the harsh beats are closer to metal (which obviously I've been listening to a lot recently) than other rap that I like, such as A Tribe Called Quest.

Is Aphex Twin considered this?
They are pretty damn good.

Uh, no. Grime happened to come out of a completely different social context than hip-hop, therefore the sounds are markedly different. It borrows its beats from Jamaican dancehall and early jungle and garage, and the vocals are more indebted to "toasting" that Jamaican MC's would do, rather than the traditional rhyming of Rap. IMO it's totally plausible to think that Grime could have arose if it were not for American rap at all.

Anyway, I have to say I do enjoy a bit of grime myself, but I much more prefer the precursors (jungle, 2-step garage etc) and what it warped into (dubstep etc). It's great to think that all around the UK there are kids makin' their own DIY grime mixtapes, I'm really curious to see what they sound like.

whut

Yeah, Grime is much easier to enjoy when you don't think of it as a form of hip hop. Most of the detractors tend to compare it to hip hop, which misses the point entirely.

Has anyone heard the Heavy Meckle mixtape? Probably the best grime release I've heard, released in 2004 and features most of the essential singles from that era and before, aswell as a bunch of freestyles from all of the important acts (including the Roll Deep crew and Merkle crew). It has a seriously dark, aggressive tone and is pretty much the opposite to the Run the Road comp. It never stops, every track blends into the last so it's just non-stop, hard, dark grime from start to finish. Highly recommended for people interested in grime, especially if you come from a metal background and are more interested in the more evil/psychotic/street sounding stuff.

Really, how silly. I suppose death metal is just rock music aswell. No point in calling it something different eh?

Whoa, wicked sick underground!

Wait, isn't this So Solid Crew?

Edit: does anyone remember Blazin' Squad?

This is a grime thread. Talk about your favourite boy bands elsewhere.

Really? That seems strange, because most of the main people at the start were West Africans, not Jamaicans, and they all used to rap about being the next 2Pac and stuff.

Anyway, this music sucks. I can't see how music could be made by any less talented people (other than drone doom).

Death metal sounds different from the other sub-genres. This stuff sounds like rap, even with the spooky keyboards. The fact that some guy took your description for Aphex Twin means you're embellishing it. Call it "grimy rap" or some other adjective which maintains its link to rap music. Calling it grime music is just confusing conisdering it doesn't sound much different from rap.

And yes, of course death metal is a form of rock music. What's your point?-

Except it doesn't sound like rap. It might do to someone that doesn't listen to hip hop or grime (as someone who doesn't listen to metal might say that death metal and black metal are the same), but grime isn't part of hip hop. There isn't even any 'rapping' involved, the MCing is rooted in the MCing you'd hear on old jungle and garage records, such as this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YVRX7X2sus. It might sound like rapping to an outsider like yourself but it's not, just as black metal shrieks might sound like death metal growls to an outsider. You probably use "rap" as a blanket term for any type of MCing, but that's the wrong term. Fact. It also has nothing to do with "spooky keyboards", and the fact that that's what you think defines it shows you have no experience with this music and don't actually know what you're talking about.

Enough on that anyway. If you're insisting that it's a part of rap then good for you, but it's not. That's not what this thread's about anyway.

Come off it, I have it from a reliable source that that is exactly what grime is about:

Yes, a common feature that doesn't define the music.

Edit: I'm not continuing this conversation, it's getting really silly. If you're convinced that this is just rap, then so be it.

Obviously certain cultures in close proximity (ie London) intermingle and they got their whole production techniques from the people making garage/ jungle music, which has a very Jamaican influence.

Fucking A, I'll have to try tracking this down.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EGNCB5KH

The Heavy Meckle mixtape. Quite an old link now, not sure if it definitely still works. Non-stop grime, 41 tracks. Starts of a little slow (not that the first few tracks aren't great) and gets more batshit as it goes on.

Aphex Twin is pretty much IDM. And yes, he is very very good.

Yeah, Aphex Twin isn't grime at all, but his music is excellent.

I hate it when mixes aren't just one big file.

This is alright, certainly better than Dizzee Rascal. But I'd rather listen to some proper jungle or dnb.

Used to listen to some hip-hop (just Eminem and D12 actually) so this kind of stuff holds some degree of appeal for me. Listened to some Necro a while ago and found it rather cheesy. Hopefully that mixtape will be better.

And oh yes, Aphex Twin is awesome.

Anyone download the mixtape then?

Downloading it now, I'll let ya know what I think.

The Heavy Meckle mixtape is pretty great, but for me this stuff really comes into its own on pirate radio sessions, check out www.grimetapes.com for a pretty hefty archive, my top pick is probably the Mak 10 - last ever set on Deja Vu, has a bit where Ghetto keeps repeating "still young, still black, still unemployed" which sounds fucking vicious. Oh yeah, and the sound quality should appeal to black metal fans.

Track-wise, current favourite of mine is this 9 minute Stormin slew of Trim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOdT-L7zurc

Ewww, that Heavy Meckle mixtape is awful. The rapping is an immediate turn-off and the music itself wasn't so great. It's all about dubstep; intrumental, slow, filthy electronic music. Artists like Caspa, Rusko, and The Others are the best, screw this grime stuff.

Caspa's full length was shitty. I dug it for a few listens, then I realized how painfully mediocre it was. It had a couple of decent songs, but nothing as good as his Where's My Money remix. You should listen to this mix: http://www.getdarker.com/audio/exclusiv ... usive_Mix/ it's basically all the good shit from the album, and it starts off with Skream's remix of It's Not Over Yet which is fucking great.

Thanks for the input, you actually got me interested in grime with those links you posted in the 'dark hip hop' thread.

yeah his full length was pretty bad, I hated all the guest rappers. All his other singles are excellent though, and Where's My Money is mediocre compared to tracks like Big headed Slags, Well' Ard, and Hear Dis Style.

I liked the rapper on Ratatatat, that's about it. The song just wears out its welcome quickly.

I think having a bad trip while listening to the first song also contributed to my negative feelings for the album, haha.

I absolutely adore Hip-hop, but Grime is probably my least favourite music genre of all. Dizzee Rascal has some of the most abrasive, grating music I've ever heard, and I listen to Cybergrind, Drone and Ambient.