GRIME- breaking news, gossip, slander, lies etc

john eden said:

GRIME MIXTAPE SWEEPSTAKE

UKrecordshop reckons these will be out today:

Soulfood 2
Tunnel Vision 6
Are You Dumb 2

Which do you think will actually come out today?

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None!

Trim's is the only one I care about actually care about landing on my door-step this Monday though.

didnt go cos i had to be somewhere else but on the rwd forum it says loads of ppl turned up - riko, skepta, jme and a dozen other guys... wonder if anyone recorded it.

wiley last night

i went. was good fun.. wiley DID make it to the stage.. just, after an increasingly worried JME making plea after plea ..
but he was pretty wasted... strangely introspective and refused to engage the crowd directly, who were theyre for him, to see him deliver, have his moment etc.. but he seemed like a studio geek who couldnt quite deal with the limelight.. it was strange, a bit confusing. does he want this?

We got little more than a handful of bars from him at a time.. he seemed preoccupied with telling the dj what to do (ie: rewinds after just a few bars.. 'no long ting' etc etc) we got about 45 seconds of 'gangsterz'.. everyone went mad for it.. then on to the next thing... not chance for the tracks to reach their points of intensity..

then, half way though the set he practically dissapeared, roll deep et al took over the stage and it turned into a party. Manga was really good. his higher register cut through and he was HUNGRY. really captured attention.
I liked Flo dan too.
then it just seemed to collapse.. and they were all gone.. no sign of wiley.. where was he? by the entrance posing for press shots! ;0
but the crowd didnt even get a chance to make any noise.. really bizarre.
Tons of people turned out for him, but he didnt milk it!

i had a good night, but I left confused about what wiley is trying to do, and concerned that he's shooting himself in the foot, after seeing dizzee last week (which was on point, taut, direct.. even if i don't really like the new record much) the gulf between their approaches couldnt be more pronounced. He needs to step it up.. i mean.. all this 'playtime is over' sloganeering starts to become mere rhetoric..

wish Wiley would take advantage of the opportunities he's got.. he's got the talent, but his mentality?... who knows... a very confusing/confused character.

really glad i got to see him at all though.



ill post some links to my very wobbly footage at some point.

Re Wiley last night

It seemed like he is still in some sort of 'semi' retirement.His act was almost an anti climax after Skepta and JME's set as they seem so intent on taking things to the next level in terms of putting what they do across to a wider audience.

In a way it tied in with what he said in interviews about handing the scene over to 'the youngers'.


http://www.myspace.com/thekandytangerineman

hes never been a very good live performer though has he (or at least not in a good few years)? the fact hes always weeded out or drunk or whatever probably doesnt help but i dont think being a star is what wiley really wants. he just thinks he should want it. he doesnt seem interested in live performing. maybe hes got some sort of conflict, or a thing where he cant help sabotaging himself, but he doesnt seem to find hogging the solo spotlight very easy at all.

gumdrops said:

hes never been a very good live performer though has he (or at least not in a good few years)? the fact hes always weeded out or drunk or whatever probably doesnt help but i dont think being a star is what wiley really wants. he just thinks he should want it. he doesnt seem interested in live performing. maybe hes got some sort of conflict, or a thing where he cant help sabotaging himself, but he doesnt seem to find hogging the solo spotlight very easy at all.

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It would make more sense to me if Big Dada were pushing JME and Skepta.The Eskibeat recording project also looks like an attempt at trying to do the 'Dizzee thing' again when he could be moving on and genuinely reinventing himself.


http://www.myspace.com/thekandytangerineman

doesnt help really that ice kid is a bit crap from what ive heard. or am i wrong? only going by his myspace tracks....

the sorry effect of

too much skunk, drink, stabbings, slewings, wastegirls and being de facto head of an insular scene = wiley, sadly imo

wiley still could do other things if he wanted to

he could do some soundtracking or develop a nice sideline in IGM (intelligent grime music, hawww) or start up some sort of braindance sort of thing for his music rather than follow the more typical hip hop sort of blueprint (although just having your own little label isnt the same as having rocafella or anything). id really like to see what he could do as a producer beyond tracks that are more or less built to be vocalled (although i know thats not for everyone). but being so entrenched in The Scene clearly isnt too good for him at this stage. i think he has genuinely had enough. he needs a careers adviser!

everything audiofelch says is totally on-point.. left with this profound sense that maybe wil didn't *want* this attention/fame/solo-star-status. when manga of all people is the one hyping the crowd and holding their attention, while wiley stands in the corner of the stage with his head bowed, something ain't quite right.

but hey the extended bbk fam (RIKO!!! and flow dan) were on fire. and with the 20 or so mcs who came on after wiley crowding the stage, it almost felt like a not-quite-as-good-but-still-exciting straight outta bethnal.

the unfailingly professional bbk aside (they literally run the show these days, no question), jendor was a personal highlight for me. plus someone needs to confiscate l.man's microphone before it's too late and he puts out any more tunes.

what sort of beats were they emceeing over?? dubstep?

nah mate, straight grime the whole time (loefah was on after the mcs when everyone left) - everything from stageshow riddim, that wicked match of the day tune (name pls?), and all the way back to a glorious few minutes/reloads of ice rink

i want more live grime, have i mentioned this before?

Strange, because manga was the standout star of the Roll Deep launch party at cargo a few years ago as well. I remember the live feed from the decks on stage cut out and Manga started spitting acapella to a big response.

mos dan said:

everything audiofelch says is totally on-point.. left with this profound sense that maybe wil didn't *want* this attention/fame/solo-star-status. when manga of all people is the one hyping the crowd and holding their attention, while wiley stands in the corner of the stage with his head bowed, something ain't quite right.

but hey the extended bbk fam (RIKO!!! and flow dan) were on fire. and with the 20 or so mcs who came on after wiley crowding the stage, it almost felt like a not-quite-as-good-but-still-exciting straight outta bethnal.

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I wasn't sure if it was that Wiley didn't want the attention, or that he was trying to showcase grime- and the wider picture of grime- as the main issue tonight. He probably spent a combined total of what, ten-fifteen minutes on mic? Even when it was his own tunes, it was usually Manga and Little Dee MCing over them (neither of whom I really like, but I thought they did a really good job at keeping the crowd interested considering they were there for Wiley and he was anonymous. Manga particularly felt like the glue that held the whole thing together.)

Either way, like you said Dan, it was fun in a big rave set way, but Wiley looked like he didn't know what he wanted. Or if he did, he wasn't sure if it had worked - he just slipped away to the other room once Neckle Camp and all that got on stage. Nice outfit though...

the unfailingly professional bbk aside (they literally run the show these days, no question)

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BBK's set was easily the most well-organised live grime performance I have seen. I feel like they really raised the bar with the timing (Flowdan getting to the stage just in time for his verse on You Don't Know, JME appearing from nowhere to do his solo songs), the selection of what they played and the quality of the MCing (Flowdan was seamless!) I think them and Ruff Sqwad are the only grime acts I've seen this year that genuinely seem to have put a lot of effort into organising their stage show.

jendor was a personal highlight for me. plus someone needs to confiscate l.man's microphone before it's too late and he puts out any more tunes.

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Hahaha. L.Man wasn't quite as bad as I thought he'd be; I was dreading it when I saw him clamber into the stage. Jendor was great.

gumdrops said:

wiley still could do other things if he wanted to

he could do some soundtracking or develop a nice sideline in IGM (intelligent grime music, hawww) or start up some sort of braindance sort of thing...

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why the fuck would an artist of his level of vision and ability want to do that?

Manga was v good at the RSMD/RD bash at Rhythm Factory couple of months ago.

Blackdown said:

why the fuck would an artist of his level of vision and ability want to do that?

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what the fuck IS wrong with him doing more experimental stuff? when i say braindance i mean, develop his label on par with something like rephlex, not actually make music LIKE rephlex, although opening his beats up a bit and doing some purely instrumental stuff could be great. i love his instrumentals but sometimes listening to something for 4 mins straight with only two changes in the beat is a bit boring. not what the tracks were made for really.

gumdrops said:

what the fuck IS wrong with him doing more experimental stuff? when i say braindance i mean, develop his label on par with something like rephlex, not actually make music LIKE rephlex, although opening his beats up a bit and doing some purely instrumental stuff could be great. i love his instrumentals but sometimes listening to something for 4 mins straight with only two changes in the beat is a bit boring. not what the tracks were made for really.

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The radical and inventive nature of Ice Rink, Ice Cream and various Eskimos etc. was enough to sustain their simple structure. But I agree that his recent beats are not inspiring enough just to have a simple switch-up every 8 bars or so. They may sound great with an MC or chopped quickly into a mix but I would never listen to them in their own right like i would with the old classics.

gumdrops said:

what the fuck IS wrong with him doing more experimental stuff? when i say braindance i mean, develop his label on par with something like rephlex, not actually make music LIKE rephlex, although opening his beats up a bit and doing some purely instrumental stuff could be great. i love his instrumentals but sometimes listening to something for 4 mins straight with only two changes in the beat is a bit boring. not what the tracks were made for really.

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would be nice to hear him stretch out instrumentally/production-wise, condense ideas he might spread across 5 tracks into one..