if you're into hip-hop I would highly recommend that you watch this video and hear these MCs. the highlight being 7:30 to about 9:00 minutes in, Sparkz's verse and the mix to the track that starts at 8:30.
Also I know it's not strictly hiphop here but I'm linking FB because come on, just look at OV's face. I just want to put him in my pocket and feed him some Trill, the cheeky little chap. Everyone needs a pet rapping tiny Asian in their life.
100s of boys packed in Rex or Sidewinder or some random community centre, a grotty grime girl for ever 10 man you see, everyone walking around with the tongue twister k swiss creps on, make eye contact but don't bog at them, they have more people than you do and this isn't your area. Walk straight past, ignore the stench of African BO, that sub low bass wrecking your ear drums, it's not garage, it's not rap, no one really knows what it is or if you're going home unscathed but there is energy like no rave or shitty club night.
All of the MCs were always clashing, crazy t got a sticky bird and dizzee performed in front of a billion people, there was a stabbing every other week, no one ever knew what would go down but that was the charm of it. Say the wrong mans name in your track, you could die for it. Everyones a wanabe grimestar, everyone with a nokia, a 64 and fruit loops installed. BRAP BRAP I got a big up on deja vu fm, wasn't a waste of credit at all. the Eskimo riddim dropped and there was that quiet hype whilst it went all over Bow and the rest of london. Some twonk on limewire for the functions in the low instro incorrectly named and then it became the havana tune, didn't matter though, ruff squad came out with all the good intros
god i miss grime. and when I say grime, i mean grime grime, not that sbtv nonsense, the actual scene where everyone was making tunes and getting into fights over what someone said and the clashes, oh god the clashes.
Nah, I meant to post this but there's no clean version of the instrumental on Youtube. I have it if anyone wants it, just can't be bothered to upload it now.
>>7390 That sounds shit, give me a metal mosh pit where everyone gets fucked up, helps each other up when they're down and stays/becomes mates after over this pathetic 'gangster I'll merk u rite up m9' shit.
>>7653 Yeah but what if I'm overcome with the compulsion to start furiously masturbating in the hope that maybe one of the hawt alt boys gives me some sucky sucky.
No offence mate, but it's suburban nonsense and you've never lived.
Metal and emo are lovely and convivial because most of the people involved are from secure middle-class homes and have decent prospects. They might have their problems, but most of them are basically play-acting at being troubled souls. Grime and garage was populated by people with no money, no education and no hope. Grime was literally a matter of life or death, because most of the MCs had nothing else but a little bit of rep and a couple of streets to call their own and many were prepared to kill or die to defend what little they had.
Garage raves were a little slice of escapism, a couple of hours in the week where life wasn't about pissy lifts and broken down buses, but about glamour and excitement and freedom. Grime was something darker and bleaker but fundamentally more vital and alive, it was the youngers who couldn't get into a club and couldn't afford the Patrick Cox loafers and the Moschino shirts. People so marginalised that even low-rent escapism was beyond their reach.
I've said it so many times it sounds like a cliche, but it's true: The best MCs sound like a drowning man, like a boxer in the eighth round fighting for every ounce of breath. When you hear an MC like that spitting, you're hearing someone with no reason to hope make a desperate attempt at having something to live for. The badman talk isn't hollow, as Titch so tragically proved.
Not long after this video was filmed, Dizzee (left) became a millionaire and Titch (right) was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Richard Holmes. Even as a relative outsider, I can't begin to describe the intensity of being involved in a scene like that. When you've been so close to such extremes of triumph and tragedy, everything else seems bleached out and dull.
Some people have the tendency to look at the UK grime scene as mindless bragging and posturing (which it did eventually become) but there's a lot more behind it. Most of the crews came from areas which had turf wars which would often spill out into pirate radio stations and clashes. There's a shadowy link between serious crime and grime which Trident and the Home Office were all too aware of, when you hear someone's name getting called out in a track, it did often lead up to some very nasty things happening.
There often is a search for some vague ideal of authenticity in music, hence why grime was able to reverberate out from Bow to dominating UK hip hop for a while. When you have real gangsters talking about real beefs, it has so much more passion and energy in it.
Skip to 2:50 and hear Big H (not harry) talk about watching someone get shot in the head and still left moving. This actually happened, he was a younger in those days but the Meridian lot shot Douglas Mullings in the head, only for him to survive. JME, Big H and other MCs were all in Meridian, this was no mere joke for them.
And Crazy Titch?
I'm still very sore about that one, as are a lot of people from Plaistow, they still scream out FREE TITCH in their tracks. He lived one hell of a life, was getting done for dangerous driving at 12, got split up with his younger brother (who went on to finally find him when they faced up against each other in a clash supposedly) and didn't run his mouth when he faced 35 years in jail for the murder of some producer who got rude. He wasn't even the one who pulled the trigger, that was his stepfather but as he wasn't willing to implicate him, he got charged with accessory to the murder.
Some say Titch lost to Dizzee, but at least he stayed true to the life he advocated. Diz is a wanker who makes a fool of himself in front of Paxman and dances around for the pound, sold out the scene which made him to make party tunes for coked out clubtwats. Fucker hasn't even come out with anything half decent since the first two albums.
>>That sounds shit, give me a metal mosh pit where everyone gets fucked up, helps each other up when they're down and stays/becomes mates after over this pathetic 'gangster I'll merk u rite up m9' shit.
I saw ICE T once. All the black dudes got on with his rap thing, the moshlads joined in as well. Ice came on with Body Count half way through. The moshlads upped the tempo and all that the black dudes did were either pull out knives or try to punch the shit out of whitey. Bottles were flying, got a suckerpunch in the face, plug pulled after about 30 seconds of 'Cop Killer'. I guess the black dudes just didn't get the Body Count bit.
>>7657 >sold out the scene which made him to make party tunes for coked out clubtwats
The older I get the less sense the cries of "sellout" make to me. You mean he saw an opportunity to make a large amount of money making something that lots of people liked enough to buy? What a monster.
I have never "repped" any "ends", so maybe that's my problem. I promise I'm not a coked up clubtwat though. (As far as I'm concerned only his first album was decent, though I have a soft spot for Street Fighter.)
>>7655 I get what you're saying about it being a completely different demographic but are you really suggesting that threatening to stab some matey for looking at you funny constitutes having really 'lived'? That having nothing to live for except benson, crime and violent garage raves is 'living'?
Anyone enjoying this whole grime revival thing at the moment? The PCmusicish beats from 2004 era grime instrumentals, reminds me of Mr SnoWman and a cloy set of effects really do set this off well. It's a shame a mixture of political posturing and chart mechanics sort of pushed Grime away from having the same success Garage, Jungle and Dubstep did, perhaps now is it's time to blow?
>>9629 It comes back every few years. Every little bubble of popularity is supposedly grime's "time to blow", though 2015 has been pretty good so far. The beef between Chip and Bugzy has been entertaining.
I think there is an actual grime thread floating around in the back of this board but I can't be bothered to find it, so I'll just drop the delicious molasses that is Flowdan's voice here:
>>9630 I don't know, it's been something I've been listening to from back when it was called eskibeat or speed garage or whatever and these past few months have had a bunch of releases that were all very well done. Good production, lyrics and ferocity. You've got a bagga man blowing up, Stormzy got 10 million views on a video and Skepta won the MOBO award for best video cos he bought an £80 greenscreen over a Noisily doc from his Meridian Crew days. Maybe I'm wrong but it feels like it's snowballing into something.
>>9629 >Anyone enjoying this whole grime revival thing at the moment?
Funny you should say that, grime was blaring from all the fairground rides at the bonfire night I went to. The mrs remarked to me how fucking awful it was that grime was making a comeback. I agreed.
I think it's strength in depth. The original dons are still about, but now there's a generation of MCs and producers who were in primary school when Risky Roadz came out. Garage and grime are established enough for people to be nostalgic about things they aren't old enough to remember. The youngers are hearing the old riddims with fresh ears.
Craig David is having a massive comeback, in no small part because a lot of his audience are too young to have seen Bo Selecta. They've heard the records, but without the baggage. Following Twitter during the Kurupt FM takeover on 1xtra was really interesting - there were loads of kids saying "this riddim is massive, what is it?" about classics like Urban Hero or Pulse XYZ. It's weird to think that people are getting a history lesson from a nostalgic parody. I think there's a real energy from that, as a new generation rediscover the stuff we all take for granted.
I vaguely remember jungle going through a similar revival a few years back but not to this level. There seems to be a 15 year cycle in the way things go and come back. Collective reminiscing or something or the other.
I'm finding it hard to believe that a track whose entire purpose is to glamorise robbery and home invasion just received the Best Song Award at the supposedly prestigious Mobos. I mean, what? This is the pinnacle of black culture? Okay, I guess.
>>10311 I don't think you understand what's actually going on here. Abra Cadabra has been using West African Juju magic to gain fame and success. Everyone is aware of this, his rise in the UK scene has been astronomical. He went from a Blackbox to a feature with Konan in the space of a few months. A literal unknown making it that far in such short time is impossible, even in our age of viral marketing.
This entire song is a diss aimed at Abz from Tottnarm about his use of Juju magic but funnily enough, a week or so after being released, A1fromthe9 is now in jail, hiding in his wing because Tottenham wogs want to kill him. Abz got called out on his witch doctor shenanigans so he put a spell on his enemy (tbf, his enemy deserved it for tainting the UK scene with American drill/trap influences). Whilst the gang beef between Tottenham and Edmonton has been going on for decades now, somehow Tottnarm has the upper hand even after fracturing over some top figures getting arrested.
This death happened a few weeks ago and it's one of the Edmonton lot being killed, which was a major victory for Abra Cadabra's people. A series of wins in such a short succession is highly unlikely, he must be getting help from the supernatural.
He is called out on it here and you could tell by how his face changes that he didn't like it one bit. It's clear to see from his drawl and zombie expression that he is using some kind of Mbiam. I guess the award really did go to WSTRN before Abz pulled it back onto himself with his magic words. The label he is with is Ounto nation, which means food in one of those African languages, it probably has something to do with that.
Everyone is being hoodwinked, he uses the same Robbery verse from his original Blackbox in every single one of his major hits. It's literally the same bars. It must be Juju, I'm sure of it.
>>10316 Ounto (spelled Cunto in Somali) means food, and we know what food means. Besides, Ghanaian Juju is different to Somali Sixir. Somali Sixir is more Arabic than the African juju. So mate, you are chatting wet.
>>10317 Yes. Sixir is a variant of Ruqyah which is more like white magic anyway. Funnily enough, ISIS were beheading the practioners of Ruqyah, regardless of the colour of their magic. There's varying degrees of evil within magic, so there is both good Juju and bad Juju. These evil spells, amulets and potions are intricately linked to crime. The rise in knife crime within that area is probably due to increased warlock activity. It's far too easy for gang members to put a curse on their enemies to get them stabbed, it reduces the likelihood that they will be linked to the crime itself. You can find a witch doctor in most afro-carribean inner city areas, they exist in an informal network. The most recent black magic knifing was done to Adeyinka Adebarimo.
Muti men from South Africa can heal others but they'd maybe kill you for your body parts, especially if you're an albino. The Numbers gangs have conflict over the use of Muti as the 27s dislike the 28s for their sodomy and violent incantations. Nongoloza, a mythical gang member, was able to drink a horn of poisonous juju drink which should have killed him so now the 28s use their magic to overpower their rivals.
There's a myriad of magic throughout the African continent which has a murky relationship with crime. I am not chatting breeze. You've never been road you mug.
>>10321 It might be strange but it's all deadly serious. Magic plays a huge role in some cultures. 75,000 people starved in the Cape Colony because some cow bitch saw a prophecy and told them to kill all the cattle.
>>10320 The Ruqyhah you are on about is the South Asian one, which isn't Ruqyah, it is just white magic. They even use good/bad Jinns to aide them. Normal, real Ruqyah (practised by Middle Easterners, East Africans, and North Africans) is not white magic and is used to destroyed both good and evil. It destroys even good Jinns. It uses religious texts to destroy everything. It is like an Atomic bomb.
As for the increase in crime, it is widely known that a greater tragedy will befall any practitioner of black magic, if that were not the case, then Africa would have been the richest continent in the world. All these warlock morons and magic will destroy themselves.
What's funny is that I think a new form of juju is being born. Juju is know for absorbing new magic and increasing its power. All these warlocks from different parts of the world, all with their different styles of magic being locked up in prison will probably create something new soon.
In Any event, it is unlikely that a silly Ghanaian can utilise magic on such a wide scale as to hoodwink everyone into liking his music. Maybe he just done it to Konan and Krept.
>>10324 >In Any event, it is unlikely that a silly Ghanaian can utilise magic on such a wide scale as to hoodwink everyone into liking his music. Maybe he just done it to Konan and Krept.