im quite aware of the differences between grime production and hip hop, or at least the diffs between grime when it IS grime (say, footsies scars) and not when its stuck in between trying to be hip hop and grime (wiley's gangsterz, ruff sqwad's guns n roses), but everyone saying it sounds nothing like hip hop seem to have an odd notion of what hip hop is. its not all traditional stuff that sounds like tribe called quest or de la soul anymore, and it hasnt sounded like that for about a decade. you can pretty easily make a connection between southern rap, as well as timbaland, swizz beats and neptunes-type stuff to grime. not saying grime has no sonic trademarks of its own (or that it doesnt have any relation to british dance music), it does, but hip hop stopped being about crusty old samples years ago and all those cheap and nasty low budget, high end sounds and FX used in grime are obviously influenced by hip hop producers to a pretty large degree.