Within this essay I will be exploring how youth culture in the UK, and particularly London has been affected by Grime culture and music. I have become more interested in the effect of grime in today's youth culture, I am particularly interested in the music, fashion, media portrayal and politics behind the grime genre.
Grime is defined as a genre of electronic dance music that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It developed out of earlier UK electronic music styles, including UK garage and jungle, and draws influence from dancehall, ragga, and hip hop. The style initially spread among pirate radio stations and underground scenes before achieving some mainstream recognition in the UK during the mid-2000s. The genre has been described as the 'most significant musical development within the UK for decades.
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The name 'grime' was coined by journalists who initially termed the music's sub-bass heavy sound as 'grimy', which subsequently became 'grime'. It has also been suggested by artists themselves that the term fits as the music frequently talks about 'grimy goings-on' in deprived areas. As grime originated from deprived areas of London, this meant the majority of lyrics and artists were associated with crime and drugs, and was often closely linked with the police. Grime began to get the reputation as being fairly aggressive and political.
Police intervention in UK club culture, concerts and raves is not new, but, fewer genres have seen more targeted discriminatory procedures forced upon it than grime. In 2016 grime had a revival and started making its way into the homes of middle-class England and is still arguably bigger than ever before. Artists like Skepta and Stormzy have raised the profile and have helped the grime genre go global. Grime attendance has been on the increase since 2014, with more people attending each year. This looks set to continue with 69% (Ticketmasters State of Play, Grime report) likely to attend another grime event in the next year. Grime audiences have become more varied, with an increase in White and female attendees over the years.
With this wider heard music and new middle-class love for a genre born in London estates, it would be thought the genre, people and artists would be better understood by the police.
The infamous Form 696 often aided the police in their discrimination of grime artists. 'One year at Carnival the police just told us we couldn't come,' explains Sam Adebayo of Parallel Music and manager of Angel and WSTRN. 'They said that our 'lives were in danger', ‘that they'd had some intelligence'. We asked why and they'd simply say 'oh, we can't tell you.'' These were again shown by the cancellation of a Just Jam event at the Barbican in 2014. 'Public safety concerns' were given as the reason why the likes of Omar Souleyman, JME and Big Narstie were unable to perform at the venerable arts institution.
‘In my day job as a promoter and booking agent I've been asked to give the private information for a literal list of artists provided by the Metropolitan police that only consisted of black, grime acts on an otherwise diverse line-up’, says Sam Adebayo. This obviously forms a problem in how the black music scene in the UK is viewed as a whole by the police, stopping both artists performing, and fans being able to see them perform. By grime artists being consistently targeted by the law, it is apparent why so many song lyrics state hatred against the police and the law.
On 10 November 2017, it was announced that the use of Form 696 was to be discontinued in London following a review called for by Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Reporting the decision, the BBC noted, 'The Met denied the form had been used to target particular genres but said it had decided to drop it after a fall in 'serious incidents' at music events'; however, the BBC also reported that a Freedom of Information request earlier in 2017 had discovered that 16 other English police forces were using forms similar to Form 696.
Politics has often been at the forefront of Grime music. With lyrics from;
Skepta’s song Shutdown;
'We don't listen to no politician. Everybody on the same mission. We don't care about your -isms and schisms”
Stormzy’s Hear Dis;
“They said I can’t tweet about the government, why can’t I be free anymore? / I’ll expose these racist clubs and feds who can’t move me anymore.”
Daves Question Time;
“A question for the new Prime Minister
And please, tell me if I'm being narrow minded
But how do we spend so much money on defence
And weapons to wage war when the NHS is dying?
…. Increased uni fees, is this what they're selling us?
Well, let me remind you just in case you've forgotten
That we live in Great Britain, not in Donald Trump's America
…. I've got a question for the new Prime Minister
At Grenfell Tower, your response was ridiculous
You hid like a coward behind your five million”
Ticketmaster under took a report (State of Play, Grime) looking into the influence of Grime in the UK, and particularly politics. A major conclusion from the report was the impact of the #Grime4Corbyn Labour party campaign. With 58% of grime fans voting for Labour during the 2017 election, one in four said that the campaign directly influenced their vote. The role of a series of influential grime artists like JME and Stormzy, who were not traditionally known for their politics yet came out in full force, working to galvanise the youth to vote and specifically supporting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Stormzy's headline appearance on the Pyramid Stage at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival was widely praised. The performance featured a speech by the politician David Lammy that discussed the proportion of black and minority ethnic people in the British criminal justice system and, during 'Vossi Bop', Stormzy encouraged the audience to join him in chanting 'Fuck the Government and fuck Boris' being a reference to Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party leader. Stormzy wore a Union Jack stab vest designed by the artist Banksy, which was Stormzy raising the awareness of the rise in knife crime in London. This repeatedly proves the stance of Grime artists in showing issues surrounding politics and crime to an audience and demographic that has not been known to be passionate on these issues.
In September 2017 after being presented with the Solo Artist of the Year award by Corbyn at the GQ Men of the Year Awards, Stormzy called Theresa May a 'paigon', a word used to describe an untrustworthy person. Later the same month, the conservative commentator Iain Dale placed Stormzy at Number 100 on his list of 'The 100 most influential people on the Left', describing him as 'Corbs’ favourite Grime artist'. On 21 February 2018, Stormzy performed a freestyle at the Brit Awards, calling out May for her perceived inaction in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire the previous year. The following day, 10 Downing Street issued a statement defending the Prime Minister.
In November 2019, along with other musicians, Stormzy endorsed Corbyn in the 2019 UK general election with a call to end austerity. He also said 'people led change can be possible under a Jeremy Corbyn Labour government'. He described the Labour leader as 'the first man in a position of power who is committed to giving the power back to the people' and branded Boris Johnson 'a sinister man'.
Stormzy has also heavily advocated for helping people of colour be accepted into universities. The ‘Stormzy Scholarship’ programme has been running at Cambridge University for the past two years. Stormzy announced the scholarship on A-level results day at his old school in south London. 'It's so important for black students especially, to be aware that it can 100% be an option to attend a university of this calibre,' he said. The scholarship will pay for tuition fees and provide a maintenance grant for up to four years of an undergraduate course, all paid for by Stormzys record label ‘Merky’.
Over the past year there have been a number of events hosted under the #GrimeAid banner where artists perform for free and use all funds raised to support important causes, for example the crisis in Syria & Sierra Leone.
Ticketmasters report also showed where in London streams the most grime according to Spotify. Within London, Harrow is the main borough listening to grime, followed by Croydon and Camden. Despite most artists being born out of East London, West Londoners are the bigger grime streamers.
With influencer marketing on the rise, a new culture of power players is emerging from the grime scene. In 2015, brands finally started to realise the power behind the cultural shift the grime scene has had across the country. Brands are starting to use grime as a way to communicate and reach the audiences that listen to it. The grime genres audience now represents a large part of the young demographic in the UK completely influenced culturally in their political views, fashion sense and attitudes. Some of these collaborations include; Skepta X Uniqlo, Stormzy X Adidas, Mercedes x Kano: You Drive. The demographic that grime attracts ranges from children as young as 10 to adults in their mid 30s—a target market for sportswear brands. Once again, this proves after the revival of Grime in 2014-2016, that Grime artists have become much more heard, and are now recognised as influencers on today's youth.
Fashion plays a key part in grime music. Grime practically transformed the tracksuit into a high fashion staple. Skepta even dubbed his all-male crew “the tracksuit mafia” Made in the streets, for the streets, it came from a desire and need for the young black community to speak about their experiences. A quintessential component within grime music is the strong point it makes towards the British class system and its injustice towards the less privileged people of the UK. The tracksuit is more than just a sign of grime affiliation, it’s a garment of protection and force amongst UK youth. It holds the association with being low-key and secretive—as JME spits “I don’t wear no bait designer brands; I spit deep bars in my black top”—the tracksuit allows the wearer to go unnoticed on the notoriously dangerous streets of London.
The video for Lethal Bizzle’s smash hit ‘POW 2011’, (features multiple other grime artists) show the rappers running from police and being followed by police cars and vans. In this video every single grime artist is dressed in a head to toe black tracksuit. This further reiterates the common belief that these garments are a symbol of allegiance and alliance to the genre and its respective advocates.
Grime is often negatively portrayed in the media, much of this is down to TV shows like Channel 4 & Netflix’s Top Boy and People Just Do Nothing. Top boy is a crime drama series, created and written by Ronan Bennett. The series is set on the fictional Summerhouse estate in Hackney, East London. The series follows a gang while they sell drugs, murder and spend time in prison. It shows a very raw and true image of estate life in today’s London. Alongside this, a grime heavy soundtrack is played, with both grime artists Kano and Dave holding star roles.
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