2016: the year of Grime

2016 has pretty much been an abysmal year for most. Highlights of the year include Brexit, Donald Trump becoming US president elect and the loss of industry legends such as David Bowie, Muhammad Ali and Prince. Not a very optimistic year to be honest. But it wasn’t all bad in the UK. 2016 was the breakout year for Grime music and its artists, bursting out onto the music scene and delivering its raw sound to the UK public, while touring all over the globe to showcase what UK underground music is all about.

London based artists AJ Tracey, Novelist, Dave, Chip and Stormzy enjoyed major exposure this year, while Grime veterans D Double E, Giggs, Kano, Devlin, Ghetts and Wiley continued to send relevant ripples through the scene. But the year belonged to Skepta, who released his highly anticipated album Konnichiwa with great success. While artists such as Chip, Kano and Giggs won major awards in the year (MOBO Best Grime Act, MOBO Best Album and KA Best Artist respectively), Skepta brought in the big accolades, winning the 2016 Mercury Prize beating David Bowie and topping Apple’s 2016 Album List.

The Grime scene has been around for 16 years, originating from local pirate radios back in the day such as Rinse FM. MC’s would travel to pirate radios run by DJ’s, located at estate flats, and ‘spit’ lyrics (rap), for all of the locals to hear. From pirate radios, London based crews and duos began forming. Well known crews included: N.A.S.T.Y Crew, Newham Generals, Roll Deep, Heartless Crew and Boy Better Know (BBK). After gaining a large fan base, MC’s began to make albums and singles, which proved to be successful, gaining millions of views from YouTube and appearing in the UK top 10 charts.

One of the key pillars in Grime music is the art of clashing. The art of clashing has been pivotal to the success of grime, and is where the top MC is established. One room. Two mics. One DJ. Two MC’s. Clashing is where two MC’s compete in a rap battle, to secure the title of best MC. The best clashes have appeared on ‘Lord of the Mics’. In 2001, Lord of the Mics was created by Grime pioneer Jammer, who brought two MC’S to his basement to clash each other. Famous clashes included; Wiley vs Kano, Skepta vs Devilman, Footsie vs Scratchy and P Money vs Big H. The best clash of all time is said to be Wiley vs Kano. Although nobody has dared to clash him, Grime veteran D Double E has been credited with being the “Lord of the Mic” by Jammer himself and has been called “the greatest” by Skepta.   

From the success gained, the BBC began to endorse grime music, giving radio DJ Charlie Sloth his own show titled ‘Fire in the Booth’, bringing grime artists to a BBC1XTR studio where they could showcase their talents. Many Grime artists have appeared on the show and have millions of views between them, some even reaching 10 million views per video.

2016 was the year of grime, where new artists gained recognition and the scene was explored more deeply. Many songs were outsourced to other countries and other genres. Rap artists such as Drake, A$AP Rocky and Kanye West have shown interest in Grime music, even turning up to live shows to perform with Grime artists such as Skepta and D Double E. Many breakout stars have been established this year and rightfully so. I believe that 2017 will be even bigger for the UK’s underground urban scene.

Happy New Year to you all.

Maninder Ram

Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College