Hype's effect on Grime

none of the majors are going near whole crews at the moment. it's solo mcs only. marketing wise it's easier to convey one person's personality over several, crews cost loads to support and often carry some less strong lyricists. that's not my justification, merely an analysis of why they dont sign crews.

on the positive side no one from grime has managed to pick a fight with the british tabloid media, the way so solid did, which is a good start.

i was talking more about the UK. grime's developed under the noses of most Brits/Londoners without them realising. now that the general music media think the genre's worthy of attention (garage was "dead" 5 minutes ago...) i'm curious to how people think things are going to evolve.

from this point at late may '04 the mainstream grime charge seems likely to be lead by Wiley's second single, Dizzee's second LP, Doogz, Kano and some one-off singles from Terror Danjah.

I can't see it going big in the UK because it'll never appeal to scotland, the north or wales. It's almost got more chance of breaking the US, but realistically only as a production style. Americans just cannot take british rappers seriously...

A working knowledge of Casio FM synthesis and Apple GRIMEULATOR(TM) technology are an explicit must.

Yeah but c'mon, it's still a minority pursuit...

I can't see it going big in the UK because it'll never appeal to scotland, the north or wales. It's almost got more chance of breaking the US, but realistically only as a production style. Americans just cannot take british rappers seriously...

That was what Chris said in the first reply, and I daresay both of you are completely right. The few Americans on here or wherever that *can* take it seriously are representative of no demographic to speak of. For my part, I live in Cardiff and there's I think one shop that sells grime white labels, and two or three MCs tops.

I'm not sure that the idea that grime hasn't reached the provinces. There's fewer big crews and the pirates aren't so prevalant outside London but I know of producers operating in Bristol, Cardiff, Leicester, Manchester etc and I guess there's far more besides. The fact they're not getting records on the racks in London shops doesn't mean they're not there.

I think a lot might hinge on whether Showtime disappoints - there could well be a lot of 'emperor's new clothes' bollocks in the media if it does. The next Wiley single and any Lady Sovereign releases could also be key.

I think Dizzee has signaled the start of something bigger for uk acts in the us. And hopefully all the uk hype will serve to the benefit and not the detriment of the scene. I think the female mcs, espcially Lady Sovereign, have got the potential to blow up in the uk (at the end of the day it is pop music) and possibly have a decent crack at the us.

I'm not sure that the new wiley video will go any way to remove the preconceptions about the 'seriousness' of uk mcs though!

I guess you can claim a relationship, maybe casual, between interest in the music, it's popularization resulting in it's commercialization, or if i would dare to predict in grime: its sanitization. if that makes sense??!

In the brief garage/2-step pop period in, what, 99/00, the actual pop landscape seemed to shift towards it. Can you really see anything happening in the charts at the moment that suggests a grime movement? Rascal will be the lowest selling Mercury winner since Talvin Singh. The spike on his album sales after winning it were dreadful. Something like... #23?

Hasn't the grimey, nasty garage been around for quite a while though? Sort of the flip-side of the pop 2-step thing 99/00? Sure it's developed a lot recently and gained exposure.. but i kinda feel it's like saying "well jungle had some overground success.. will there be a drill n bass pop hit?"

fuck.. my keyboard has changed layout on me..

So with reference to all the hype are people getting precious about grime? or are you happy it's getting the exposure it is. And why?

i just heard talk of a very catchy Danny Weed produced, Roll Deep track. could this be the single you're looking for?

>So with reference to all the hype are people getting precious >about grime? or are you happy it's getting the exposure it is. >And why?

question otm!

me too. gutted :(

Seriously, what about Donae'o? Not really "grime" per se, but I was thinking he had a great deal of UK Top 40 crossover potential.

I think grime will stay as a fairly underground thing, as i say, i don't have a problem with mainstream acceptance, but at the same time i don't think that envelope-pushing music gets that sort of acceptance. Which is fine.

I'd love to be wrong though.

So, who knows if it'll happen, but he's in a position where he could cross over if one of his tracks caught fire.

Comparing grime's chart success to pop-2-step's is somewhat fallacious I think; the charting 2-step was a lot more poptastic than any grime has been, and there was a sufficient possibility that a large portion of its audience could buy it without realising that it was '2-step' rather than 'that song about flowers' etc. I can't imagine someone buying a grime album or single without being vaguely aware of grime's existence as a separate genre.

And Jamelia and grime aren't as far away from eachother as you might think - see her work with JD for example.

The most important thing for grime I think is for some middleground to be established between dodgy mixtapes and actual major-label signings. The problem at the moment is that artists and tracks currently have the choice of either not getting released properly or being snapped up by majors and slept-on and/or buffed up 'n' watered down. Where are the Locked Ons and Pure Grooves of grime - labels from within the scene that can put out comps and releases with proper (even international!) distribution.

re: grimes success. i was thinking why dont more labels sign people up, and it seems to be that grime, in its present state, just isnt a recordable type of music. the only formats that it makes sense are in a live context (radio/raves) or mixtapes, which are just simulacra of the former. the tracks that get released are something slightly different, and although they come out pretty well, they are kinda something else to what i associate with grime viz. people chatting over about a million different tunes in 10 mins (and all the tunes bootlegs of other ones), rewinds, mashed up mixing etc. that jujst isnt a 12"/cd/lp formatable type affair. so commercially it wont work for that reason - its true nature cant be sold on plastic (?! bit pompous, but still)

72 results found:

I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane.

wtf is grime.

"kano's next to blow this year... trust."

rofl. 'being next to blow' = 'being next to become totally shit'.