The gentrification of Grime

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
There's something in the air, I'm seeing a lot of tweets about this. Not solely the gentrification, the bandwagon jumping. What's going on?
 

luka

Well-known member
Plus things like dirty canvas or straight out of Bethnal were going on a long long time ago.
 

luka

Well-known member
That cunt prancehall was writing for vice about 10 years ago too and who do you think was reading vice?
 

john eden

male pale and stale
There's certainly a bunch of people in the provinces who seem keen to pay good money for the grime dvds and mixtapes I am offloading on discogs.
 

paulynch0

New member
This is what happens with music. A scene develops, the media develops consciousness, a corpsey writes about it for it for pack London (for example), the wider masses accept it, the audience picks up, the artist's fees and awareness increases, eventually it reaches saturation, interest decreases, the next thing takes its place, ad nauseam

The only new difference is every cunt talks about it on twitter now
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Haha did anyone read that pack London article I wonder?

It's true though, you can't have it both ways - you either get buzz, and bandwagon jumpers (many of whom will become champions of the music), or you stay underground and nobody makes any money.

Also, isn't it a positive thing if posh kids from the provinces get into grime, if it teaches them to respect a different culture to theirs? But maybe the point luka is making re: prancehall is that grime is treated like a novelty by certain people.
 

Pandiculate

Well-known member
But maybe the point luka is making re: prancehall is that grime is treated like a novelty by certain people.

I remember getting in the lift at Ace Hotel when Tim & Barry had an event on with a few young white guys as a black guy walked out, first they mistaked him for Stormzy then as soon as the doors closed they proceeded to joke about how blick he was. It's like they feel like they're on a trip to the zoo.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
the hipster events a decade ago were diff. it was still pretty small, interest-wise. it was there, but the scene was less interested in/aware of outsiders. or rather, the 'outsiders' were less important. saying outsiders seems wrong though. it just means the audience isnt who it used to be. i think its just that theres a lot more fans of it (prob starting around the time instrumental grime became a thing and you got all those singles in the charts)). and most of them are outside the working class base it used to be. and when that happens, youre always going to get people liking the novelty/otherness of it.

comments like this though are idk, just stupid -

The middle-class university students who attend live grime shows now, in 2015, probably don’t even recognise the form of cultural appropriation they’re actively taking part in: wearing a North Face snapback to a rave and singing along to Stormzy probably doesn’t sound out any alarm bells - but it should.

whats the alternative? people sitting there reverently like theyre at some sort of anthro-musicology conference?

if youve ever been to a hip hop show, where the rapper invites white ppl to rap along to the n-word, youll know this sort of thing can be awkward. and theres obv some things that white m/c fans should be aware of, that goes without saying (expecting them all to be however, is going to be a bit of a struggle -most people dont care about paying that price of admission). but people are so quick to pull out the cultural appropriation card these days, and engaging in this sort of over vociferous cultural policing, the phrase is soon going to start losing all meaning.

Through art, we have the ‘Army of Instagram’ that sees no issue in taking #VSCO shots of council estate tower blocks, even though they’re not derelict symbols of an old Britain, but the homes of thousands.
what, like this?

OriginalPirateMaterial.jpg


anyway, obv grime is working class music, but i think that independent piece sort of tries to state its political credentials harder than most of the musicians would (or perhaps be confident in explaining). poppy strikes me as one of these middle class students she spends the whole piece criticising, except shes just trying to show she knows better, and is more culturally aware than the next middle class student. she wont be caught engaging in call and response at a grime show unless its something spoken in standard english. though ok, i suppose its nice shes trying to make them aware of some of the social barriers they might not be aware of.
 
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john eden

male pale and stale
Also, isn't it a positive thing if posh kids from the provinces get into grime, if it teaches them to respect a different culture to theirs? But maybe the point luka is making re: prancehall is that grime is treated like a novelty by certain people.

Well the thing is that neither of those things (posh kids from the provinces and "culture") are monolithic things.

On the one hand, posh white kids get into grime for all sorts of reasons, some of which will be reductive safari-like stereotypes as mentioned on this thread. But others will be more nuanced.

On the other hand, grime presents a pretty reductive version of a "different
culture" anyway given that it is largely about blokes of a certain age from a very specific time and place in London etc.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
In a different but related development, Logan Sama causing (minor) Twitter storm by saying that grime is not black music
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
logans a funny one.

but im sure theres plenty of white people involved in black music genres who have difficulty calling them black music genres. even on dissensus.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
ha yes, possibly true. In this case I think he's backed himself into a corner with a flimsy/obviously false argument, through trying to defend to 'newcomers' his own importance to, and longevity in, the grime scene...it's all got a bit mixed up
 

john eden

male pale and stale
There's a good point to be made about grime's multi-ethnic origins, but saying it's not black music isn't it.
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
im a fan of logan, and think hes got really good taste actually. not seen the twitter stuff, but hes always been a bit defensive hasnt he? i think he oscillates between knowing the reality (grime being made by a majority of young black males and how this may affect its perception/reception) and wanting to ignore it perhaps because of what he might have to think about if he acknowledges it. id like to know how logan feels about it actually. there are prob more white DJs in grime than white MCs though right? so hes not alone.

lot of races in grime -
theres a few asian (south and east asian) producers
white people
but obv, the majority is black artists
 
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