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04.07.05 09:25 PM
gettin' grimy
grime is not as new as the label mongers - also known as the mainstream american media- would have us believe
case and point: so i'm in london - it's the early 90s - and i'm living it up in peckham - it's the bloody hood right - so i'm mainly doing some tourist attraction shit - until one day a native takes me up to this jam in the park - i don't know maybe it's brockwell park or something - maybe i was in brixton - i don't know - but it's the music scene where everything is happening - you know that soul II soul sound - so i hear some interesting music coming from this awesome sound system (more awesome than some systems i've seen in kingston even ) - it's like reggae, it's like dub, it's like house, it's like hip-hop - all mixed together - it's just music man - the people are jamming - and it's peace
in fact it sounded a lot like what rephlex calls grime - or a little of what roni size does mixed with a little of what slaughter mob does - but just not that futuristic yet - but definitely on some acid tip intermingled with some heavy electro soul
but if you like your grime in some caribbean patois/cockney hardcore biting east coast/west coast rhyme flows over skitter skatter breakbeats (a la dizee) or some lame nelly-flowing limey bloke rhyming every other stanza cat (a la the streets) then you can get your grime elsewhere
maybe you can go and cop that vice run the road ish - actually it ain't bad at all - but truth is it ain't new - damn stop labeling things already and propping them up like there's some new latest thing just b/c you've only recently discovered the sound
oh no, the music critics are coming to get me
posted by lynne | link to this |
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Comments
Lynne,
I think you've made a good point here. Too often critics jump on some 'new' thing and don't really give context to what its roots or origins are. Having grown up in the UK it's obvious to me that grime is a logical progression of recent musical developments.
When the context is ignored, it removes the music from its roots and before you know it the scene peters out and then critics tag it as a fad. It's a pattern I feel repeats itself far too frequently.
Personally I'm hoping this doesn't befall the artists in this scene, aand I'm definitely feeling Kano for one, but the history doesn't look that good.
posted by Del | April 10, 2005 11:44 AM #
Bah, I'll disagree with this one here. I've been following the UK scene for almost a decade now and it's pretty easy to see the progression of musical ideas to what it's become right now. It's also fair to say that in the last four years or so, it's actually evolved into a full movement, with people building on what's been done and creating new things pretty damn regularly. Yeah, UK's mashup of Hip Hop, jungle and electro has gone by a range of names from 2-step to urban to garage. I think grime is as fair a name as any other to call it and it's having it's moment. Pooh pahhing it's current stars, whether the Streets or Dizzee, seems to me a chance for some gleeful music snobbery on your part rather than the desire to add any particularly insightful commmentary to the conversation about the music. And, yeah I'm playing the big, bad music critic. I ain't a critic, I'm a fan and it's good shit, so join in or back off. Peace.
posted by japanesefish | April 13, 2005 2:13 PM #
well japanesefish, for most of my professional writing career - which has been for over a decade, i've been a music crtic, so i was even taking a backstab at myself with my commentary - but since you don't know me, you wouldn't know that.
the truth is what i was trying to express was this - I never said I didn't like them - I was simply trying to express that they didn't just pop out of nowhere - that there is a history and a progression of music
it's like the same people who act like reggaeton popped out of nowhere - like there was no reggae espanol in the 80s
my point- to music critics-including myself-is to do your research
trust, dizzee is in my ipod - but i should have made that clearer (but he, nor grime, just came out of thin air)
posted by lynne | April 13, 2005 2:42 PM #