http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.com/2005/03/go-on-then.html
"I was listening 1Xtra's audio of dancehall's Sting event in Jamaica yesterday and was really struck by the lyrical differences between grime and dancehall. Although Jamaica may well have more guns, through religion there is still a conscious voice in dancehall, telling the gunmen to put their weapons down. The lyrics, on the whole, are fixated by/directed towards women.
Grime, perhaps London's equivalent voice, on the whole has no conscious side, especially live, and lyrically is almost without exception fixated by/directed towards other men.
I'm also haunted by something drum & bass artist Klute said in a biog interview with me late last year. Drawing on his experience of punk yet describing the current state of d&b, he commented on how scenes that rev themselves up often find it a dead end. Ultimately, revving is a cul-de-sac, where as the energy levels rise, the only thing left for them is to rise yet further before ultimately stalling.
Apply this to grime and you wonder where we're headed. Dynasty's set on Cameo the other week just descended into shouting. Roll Deep on Westwood has had me mesmerised for the days since it happened, but Skepta's lyrics - that generated huge response from the Entourge - are of concern. How can "go on then/go on then/Go on then/GO ON THEN/GO ON THEN!!!!!" be adept lyricism? Sounds like revving to me… and no one wants grime to stall."
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Personally, I don’t think grime MCs prize lyricism as highly as dancehall DJs or hip hop mcs. There isn’t much emphasis on saying something of worth, coming up with content. Arguably hip hop MCing is all about repeating the same themes over and over but in fresh ways, the triumph of saying something utterly vacuous as inventively as possible, but grime MCing, like previous pirate/rave MCing, is still more about style, rather than substance.
I suppose the problem for me comes when the MCs don’t maintain such high standards of style. I don't find Riko nearly as brilliant on record as I do when seeing him at raves or hearing him on Rinse. It seems that when making songs, this becomes most apparent. Here, most Grime MCs lose what makes them such compulsive listening on pirates - the energy, the frenzy, the endless room to MC as long as they can without interruption, except another MC to do the same, etc. Tunes that have kept the energy - SLK's Hype Hype remix or Lethal B's Fwd Riddim somehow sound a bit ridiculous out of the confines of a pirate session, even though one of their calling cards, at least in Lethal’s view, is to transfer the pirate format into a song. But strapped into less than five minutes on record away from the electricity of Rinse or Freeze or Déjà vu, they don’t sound so ephemeral anymore. So to me at least, the MCs sound a tad silly as they have little to say for themselves, or little to say with anything resembling panache. Many of them don’t sound that amazing as pure MC poetry either (even D Double, who usually, I don’t care what he says as he just sounds so good spitting complete gibberish isn’t at his best IMHO).
I think grime MCs are kinda like freestyle-oriented MCs in hip hop - Craig G, Supernatural, Juice, etc - who are fantastic running with the vibe and improvising on radio sessions or live on stage. Placed within a song format though, they generally flounder within the limits of the verse-chorus-verse pop song format. In this respect, grime MCs are maybe like early hip hop MCs, who were used to rapping for half an hour at a time, with no hook or chorus or break, before they had to compact their rhymes into pop song formats. Most of those MCs were lyrically somewhat superficial too and like UKG MCs, started off hyping the DJ or the party, then became the stars themselves. Perhaps the next wave of grime MCs will react to this current school, and come with more ‘content’ (for lack of a better word), but considering the stance of the ‘youngers’ that are emerging, it seems that somewhat vacuous lyrics will be the preference. In a way, the priorities of the post-rave MC continuum remain intact.
"I was listening 1Xtra's audio of dancehall's Sting event in Jamaica yesterday and was really struck by the lyrical differences between grime and dancehall. Although Jamaica may well have more guns, through religion there is still a conscious voice in dancehall, telling the gunmen to put their weapons down. The lyrics, on the whole, are fixated by/directed towards women.
Grime, perhaps London's equivalent voice, on the whole has no conscious side, especially live, and lyrically is almost without exception fixated by/directed towards other men.
I'm also haunted by something drum & bass artist Klute said in a biog interview with me late last year. Drawing on his experience of punk yet describing the current state of d&b, he commented on how scenes that rev themselves up often find it a dead end. Ultimately, revving is a cul-de-sac, where as the energy levels rise, the only thing left for them is to rise yet further before ultimately stalling.
Apply this to grime and you wonder where we're headed. Dynasty's set on Cameo the other week just descended into shouting. Roll Deep on Westwood has had me mesmerised for the days since it happened, but Skepta's lyrics - that generated huge response from the Entourge - are of concern. How can "go on then/go on then/Go on then/GO ON THEN/GO ON THEN!!!!!" be adept lyricism? Sounds like revving to me… and no one wants grime to stall."
-----
Personally, I don’t think grime MCs prize lyricism as highly as dancehall DJs or hip hop mcs. There isn’t much emphasis on saying something of worth, coming up with content. Arguably hip hop MCing is all about repeating the same themes over and over but in fresh ways, the triumph of saying something utterly vacuous as inventively as possible, but grime MCing, like previous pirate/rave MCing, is still more about style, rather than substance.
I suppose the problem for me comes when the MCs don’t maintain such high standards of style. I don't find Riko nearly as brilliant on record as I do when seeing him at raves or hearing him on Rinse. It seems that when making songs, this becomes most apparent. Here, most Grime MCs lose what makes them such compulsive listening on pirates - the energy, the frenzy, the endless room to MC as long as they can without interruption, except another MC to do the same, etc. Tunes that have kept the energy - SLK's Hype Hype remix or Lethal B's Fwd Riddim somehow sound a bit ridiculous out of the confines of a pirate session, even though one of their calling cards, at least in Lethal’s view, is to transfer the pirate format into a song. But strapped into less than five minutes on record away from the electricity of Rinse or Freeze or Déjà vu, they don’t sound so ephemeral anymore. So to me at least, the MCs sound a tad silly as they have little to say for themselves, or little to say with anything resembling panache. Many of them don’t sound that amazing as pure MC poetry either (even D Double, who usually, I don’t care what he says as he just sounds so good spitting complete gibberish isn’t at his best IMHO).
I think grime MCs are kinda like freestyle-oriented MCs in hip hop - Craig G, Supernatural, Juice, etc - who are fantastic running with the vibe and improvising on radio sessions or live on stage. Placed within a song format though, they generally flounder within the limits of the verse-chorus-verse pop song format. In this respect, grime MCs are maybe like early hip hop MCs, who were used to rapping for half an hour at a time, with no hook or chorus or break, before they had to compact their rhymes into pop song formats. Most of those MCs were lyrically somewhat superficial too and like UKG MCs, started off hyping the DJ or the party, then became the stars themselves. Perhaps the next wave of grime MCs will react to this current school, and come with more ‘content’ (for lack of a better word), but considering the stance of the ‘youngers’ that are emerging, it seems that somewhat vacuous lyrics will be the preference. In a way, the priorities of the post-rave MC continuum remain intact.
