The Emperor's New Clothes? Funny, Logan, that's what many on the west coast are saying about grime (the most embarrassing example being Eric Arnold's essay <a href="
http://music.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2005-05-18/music/close2thaedge_1.html">"Waiting for the Grime Wave"</a> in the East Bay Express last month).
I think screw's the most sonically interesting music being made in the United States right now. Beyond the initial sense of disbelief one has on the first few listens--my initial reaction when I heard it four years ago was laughter--is an entire, other, time-bent world. When it's done manneristically, as it is with these Roll Deep screws, it can be tacky and underwhelming. But I'd be surprised if someone with a broad, curious ear couldn't hear something unique--and, in some ways, morphologically similar to grime--going down in the Swishahouse mixtapes. Even the Roll Deep screws click sometimes: compare the versions of "Show You", and listen to the pitched-down flute line.
Stelfox's dub comparison on the proper Screw thread could be right, but screw reads to me as something discovered in the genetic code of hiphop--was it David Toop who wrote that hiphop's major musical achievement was fucking with time?
Of course, once you're used to screw's drowsy tempo, grime sounds chipmunk-y, bewildering, and neurotic. This slow shit ain't for everyone.