the.com/grime
the sound of London rain, pirate radio, and teenagers turning council estates into kingdoms
means Dirt that has settled and clung — the dark, ingrained kind that needs scrubbing — and, by extension, a UK electronic music genre born in early-2000s East London with rapid breakbeats and grimy basslines.
from From Middle English 'grime,' related to Middle Dutch and Low German words like 'grime' and 'grēm' meaning dirt or soot, and a probable cousin of words for smearing and besmirching. For centuries it meant simply filth ground into a surface; the musical sense is recent and homegrown, the genre reportedly named for its dark, dirty, low-end sound.
- birth tempo
- locked at 140 beats per minute
- radio roots
- born on illegal pirate stations like Rinse FM
- founding king
- Wiley dubbed the godfather of the genre
- crossover proof
- Skepta's Konnichiwa beat Bowie for the Mercury Prize
- weapon of choice
- freestyle clashes won with bars, not fists
wiley — british rapper from east london who pioneered grime in the early 2000s with albums like godfather
dizzee rascal — grime artist who won the mercury prize in 2003 for boy in da corner, bringing grime mainstream
skepta — north london grime mc who dominated 2014-2016 with the album konnichiwa and track shutdown