Run the Road 2

[Logan Sama]

Run The Roads 2 may have failed to live up to expectations, but to say that Grime's bubble had burst and it could not be successful as Roll Deep just got a number 11 position with what was essentially a warm up single was nonsense.

As someone else pointed out, the review was less an actual review of the music on the cd, and more some sort of bullshit social commentary on the wider reaching tenets of the Grime scene as a whole.

Run The Roads is a tool for 679 to promote their artists and the acts that the people compiling it have ties to. It is not a "Now That's What I Call Grime" compilation.

That's yet to be made.... no one's coming up with the money to fund me doing it yet.

 

[Grievous Angel]

"it seems a bit too eager to pronounce the death of grime on the strength of one major label comp on 679."

This is probably true - I wrote the review quick in response to RTR2 completely bumming me out though. I do think the things that I really liked have been lost in grime tho'.

Big up for having the balls to post here -- and even more for admitting that your review is too quick to pronounce the death of grime.

For to me, that review was the worst sort of hipster trendiness. You don't like one compilation so you become just another journo looking for a new trend to hype. I think the attitude expressed in the review was vacuous nonsense that borders on poisonous, and the argument was fatuous.

What I find really crazy is that to my ears, Grime has produced better records and radio shows than ever. Now is not the time to write it off.

 

[Woebot]

Run The Roads 2 may have failed to live up to expectations, but to say that Grime's bubble had burst and it could not be successful as Roll Deep just got a number 11 position with what was essentially a warm up single was nonsense.

As someone else pointed out, the review was less an actual review of the music on the cd, and more some sort of bullshit social commentary on the wider reaching tenets of the Grime scene as a whole.

Run The Roads is a tool for 679 to promote their artists and the acts that the people compiling it have ties to. It is not a "Now That's What I Call Grime" compilation.

That's yet to be made.... no one's coming up with the money to fund me doing it yet.

Though if people are coming to this kind of conclusion it ought to be remarked (as you've done here Logan) that it was fabulously selfish of 679 to use RTR2 as a vehicle for their own acts.

OK they have no responsiblity to the Grime scene in general as such, but it struck me as an act of monumental stupidity that they chose to effectively hijack their own hype. It'd have been not a little smarter to have made that comp 90% hits (for crying out loud wheres the shame in that!) and 10% artfully-disguised spin-off.

Grime is alive and kicking (I'm as partisan as anyone I can assure you, if it ceases to ring my bell then I'm off!) Just got a package in the post yesterday from Independance:

Young Dot EP
Dogzilla's "Hello"
Kray Twinz "What We Do"
Countdown Jammer Rmix
TNT Feat Maihem "Get Loose"

All BOOM tunes in the shops.

 

[simon silverdollar]

Though if people are coming to this kind of conclusion it ought to be remarked (as you've done here Logan) that it was fabulously selfish of 679 to use RTR2 as a vehicle for their own acts.

OK they have no responsiblity to the Grime scene in general as such, but it struck me as an act of monumental stupidity that they chose to effectively hijack their own hype. It'd have been not a little smarter to have made that comp 90% hits (for crying out loud wheres the shame in that!) and 10% artfully-disguised spin-off.

Grime is alive and kicking (I'm as partisan as anyone I can assure you, if it ceases to ring my bell then I'm off!) Just got a package in the post yesterday from Independance:

Young Dot EP
Dogzilla's "Hello"
Kray Twinz "What We Do"
Countdown Jammer Rmix
TNT Feat Maihem "Get Loose"

All BOOM tunes in the shops.

yeah i think grime has never been better than it is now. it's getting super-hard to keep up with all the good stuff again...

 

[luka]

that plan b thing is the worst piece of shit i've ever heard in my life, sub-emienem 'sicko' lyrics over an acoustic guitar, what the fuck! that is awful, the rest of it is alright though and the dvd is entertaining still.

 

[gumdrops]

Run The Roads is a tool for 679 to promote their artists and the acts that the people compiling it have ties to. It is not a "Now That's What I Call Grime" compilation.

That's yet to be made.... no one's coming up with the money to fund me doing it yet.

its not quite a 679 promo tool (it doesnt have annie on there for one thing!), but yeah, the first RTR had kano on there more times than any other artist. this time theyve stuck plan b on there (only once but who the fuck wants to hear 'acoustic grime' apart from the people at the OMM and time out?) i think most people outside the scene's supporters DO think its a now thats what i call grime compilation. thats why the RTR series is important.

 

[Grievous Angel]

Just want to make clear that it really is big of Raw Patrick to venture back in here after seeing the reactions to his review. Lets not scare him off, especially if RTR2 is generally perceived as flawed.

 

[stelfox]

Grime is alive and kicking (I'm as partisan as anyone I can assure you, if it ceases to ring my bell then I'm off!) Just got a package in the post yesterday from Independance:

Young Dot EP
Dogzilla's "Hello"
Kray Twinz "What We Do"
Countdown Jammer Rmix
TNT Feat Maihem "Get Loose"

All BOOM tunes in the shops.

with all due respect, that kray twinz track isn't really grime, although i dunno what mixes have been made of it. to me it's desi hip-hop with a grime MC guesting on it and a splash of dancehall. this is in no way a criticism - it's fucking great and has been rocking my world for a few weeks now. it even made my pitchfork column, which, on strictly musical remit alone, it shouldn't have done. the thing with that track is that there's something for everyone on it. this is maybe the sort of thing grime mcs should be doing to cross over and broaden their appeal, rather than making schoncky blazin' squad r&b tosh (j'accuse, rolldeep! however, this happens quite a lot, people watering down what they do in order to fit in. it also seems to be voluntary, too, not down to record company pressure.) - showing their versatility, working with american rappers who can boost them, reaching out to new audiences, you know, making connections...

 

[Fiddy]

I'm running out so will reply to this properly later but I'm amazed at some of the ignorance displayed on this board to the point... Grime isn't a big enough scene to just sell to 'newcomers' and if you knew how much time and effort it took to get these tracks (I'm not even going to get started on why we didn't use 'big' tunes) then maybe you'd have a clearer understanding of the product in hand. One thing I've learnt over the years is you can't please everyone, but I'm happy with it. Naturally.

 

[gumdrops]

this is maybe the sort of thing grime mcs should be doing to cross over and broaden their appeal, rather than making schoncky blazin' squad r&b tosh - showing their versatility, working with american rappers who can boost them, reaching out to new audiences, you know, making connections...

no thanks - these type of 'something for everyone'/marketing dream collabos are everywhere in urban music. they stopped being special or surprising years ago. personally, im sick of collabos - posse cuts, R&B singers guesting on rap records, rappers dropping sixteen bars on a R&B hit, its all really quite boring and knackered. half the time, these tracks arent even recorded together, and the artists 'collaborating' could give less than a shit about who else is on their record. working with americans would be possibly the worst thing grime artists could do i think - the last thing they need is to be in the shadow of a big name american artist or getting 'americanised'. working with americans hasnt exactly helped ms dynamite - she sounds like any other run of the mill american R&B artist/rapper now.

 

[stelfox]

no thanks - these type of 'something for everyone'/marketing dream collabos are everywhere in urban music. they stopped being special or surprising years ago. personally, im sick of collabos - posse cuts, R&B singers guesting on rap records, rappers dropping sixteen bars on a R&B hit, its all really quite boring and knackered. half the time, these tracks arent even recorded together, and the artists 'collaborating' could give less than a shit about who else is on their record. working with americans would be possibly the worst thing grime artists could do i think - the last thing they need is to be in the shadow of a big name american artist or getting 'americanised'. working with americans hasnt exactly helped ms dynamite - she sounds like any other run of the mill american R&B artist/rapper now.

wonderfully dismissive as ever, but have you actually heard the record?
i ask this because it's blatantly obvious you know nothing about the story behind it. and are you honestly saying that records like this mean nothing, even when they're bloody good and are going to open people's ears to new stuff?
this track is getting played by desi djs, on the pirates and even by dancehall selectors, not to mention US mixtape DJs being really interested in it because of the twista component.
also, like it or not, twista is more poplular here than any grime artist, so these collaborations are worthwhile and open doors.
this is about the ONLY record featuring a grime artist that has a hop in hell of really breaking in america - forget the bullshit about kano, lady sov etc. a few parties run by cornerstone and a fader cover do not break artists in any meaningful way. this sort of stuff does.
what about dizzee going into the studio with bun b in houston, twista and lethal b hanging out in LA together, these guys being hungry and really interested in what's going on over here?
how is this not positive - or do you want this music to be ghettoised and never achieve any real success?
this is where the primacy of authenticity jars with me. what's more important, "realness" or music that works?
think about what you're saying. then again, i really can't see anything pleasing you, to be honest. it's really worth remembering that embittered cynicism and constant bitching DOES NOT add a veneer of knowledge or understanding to your pronouncements. it just makes for boring reading.

 

[Grievous Angel]

if you knew how much time and effort it took to get these tracks (I'm not even going to get started on why we didn't use 'big' tunes) then maybe you'd have a clearer understanding of the product in hand.

Now this could be really interesting. The implication here is that RTR2 is not just a promo for label acts. And, please DO get started on why you haven't used big tunes -- that's the sort of compilation the people here really want to buy, including the experienced Grime heads who already have a lot of vinyl -- and we think that a "Now that's what I call Grime" compo is what's needed to make the grime scene bigger. If you think that's not the case we'd love to hear why -- and if you think it's simply not possible to put the big tunes together, that would be even more interesting...

... gonna start a thread where we ID the tracklisting of the ideal Grime compilation...

 

[gumdrops]

wonderfully dismissive as ever, but have you actually heard the record?
i ask this because it's blatantly obvious you know nothing about the story behind it. and are you honestly saying that records like this mean nothing, even when they're bloody good and are going to open people's ears to new stuff.
this is about the ONLY record featuring a grime artist that has a hop in hell of really breaking in america - forget the bullshit about kano, lady sov, dizzee etc. a few parties run by cornerstone and a fader cover do not break artists in any meaningful way. this sort of stuff does.
what about dizzee going into the studio with bun b in houston, these guys being hungry and really interested in what's going on over here.
think about what you're saying. then again, i really can't see anything pleasing you, to be honest. it's really worth remembering that embittered cynicism and constant bitching DOES NOT add a veneer of knowledge or understanding to your pronouncements. it just makes for boring reading.

ive heard it thanks, ive read the interview on chantelle fiddy's blog, ive heard the low deep remix. if you read my response you'd see i wasnt dismissing the low deep or kray twinz record, but your suggestion that reaching out to do more collabos like this, to appeal to everyone or to guest with american artists was 'the way forward'. i think its great that bun b is interested in dizzee, ditto for lil jon, it means hes getting respect from the americans in a way thats quite rare for MCs outside the US, im just against UK artists ending up going the same way as craig david or ms dynamite, where virtually all traces of what made them exciting and stand out in the beginning are eliminated. funny that you are preaching the virtue of not being constantly embittered or cynical after making a post purely dedicated to how much 'cobblers' the new damian marley record is. youre not exactly a beacon of glowing positivity either, you know. when i see your name i think of someone who slams other writers or magazines/papers at every given opportunity.

 

[stelfox]

well, the damian marley record isn't very good and is being hailed as a work of genius, largely because, as jeff chang has said before me, the marley name is given a free pass. save one single, the i wayne record is much much better and hasn't received half the shine. still, this is quite besides the point. i just get a little bit bored with people who can only criticise or be eyerollingly disinterested in everything.

 

[Pearsall]

I like RtR2; I think it might have a slightly lower good track:bad track ratio than the first one, but there's still plenty of decent stuff to listen to (although I gotta echo the comments on the Plan B acoustic track - what horseshit!).

I'm guessing that there was more new stuff than the first one because a lot of the core audience complained about the first one containing lots of stuff they already had (that's what I remember from reading RWD at the time - that lots of the kids were complaining about already having most of the tracks).

 

[Blackdown]

I'm guessing that there was more new stuff than the first one because a lot of the core audience complained about the first one containing lots of stuff they already had (that's what I remember from reading RWD at the time - that lots of the kids were complaining about already having most of the tracks).

i'd stand by that analysis too...

 

[Melchior]

that's what I remember from reading RWD at the time - that lots of the kids were complaining about already having most of the tracks.

To be fair, a bunch of people here were doing the same thing, esp. when discussing the US release date.

 

[Logan Sama]

3 points....

The *real* story behind the Kray Twins single is quite obvious if you have followed the grime scene for over a year.

And Jr Gong's track Welcome To Jamrock was a massive single before he was sold to the world as the son of Bob. Admittedly the album is being marketed heavily as such, but the single showed genuine talent and had a real cutting edge quality to it which meant the success it garnered originally was nothing to do with name brand recognition.

A Grime Hits style cd would cost a lot of money to put together, and people don't like spending money on things which aren't a cast iron guaranteed success in the UK.

 

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

What do people think of the Plan B contribution? I think it's fucking excellent, and watching him on the DVD is even better. That and 'Up your speed' have been the highlights for me.

Kano is wearing thin though.

 

[Raw Patrick]

I wasn't really gonna return to this thread, but in the spirit of me putting off what else I gotta do, I will.

Re: my Run the Road 2 review, I wasn't proclaiming the death of grime, but rather that I can't see it crossing over in it's present form, which a lot of people once believed that it could and would and were justifiably excited about. I think it maybe sez something about current above parapet grime vivbility that it was a review on Stylus that people got upset about rather than something in the more established, famous print media! I really haven't seen reviews of RTR2 anywhere, except, I think, FACT (by someone from this board.)

Re:grimey chart success, Roll Deep may have got a number 11 w/'The Avenue' but I don't think a lot of people who bought it particularly bought it as a grime record or associate it that strongly w/the grime scene. Similarly if 'Shake a Leg' gets to number one for 11 weeks I don't think it'll be a victory for grime per se bcz it's as much a Chas'n'Dave style novelty track as a grime track, or at least that's how it'll be received/consumed (and that's not a diss, I really like it!) Plus other grime chart success - Kano 22 and 25 (and that for one ft. Mike Skinner), Mitchell Bros nowhere, Lady Sovereign 33. 'Pow!' got to eleven after I heard loads of talk about how it was gonna be number one and Bizzle's last single got nowhere. So I don't think The Avenue counts for too much. Of course Trim or whoever might come through with an album that is fucking great or sells fucking great or both and I hope they do...

Is it not fucking insane though that you have someone like Wiley, whose ice cold titles Eski period was prob. the best body of work being made at that time, in the WORLD not just in grime, and it isn't readily available, except on p2p (well, I know some pieces turned up on his XL lp but it's not the same.) Why isn't there a 2cd comp., vocal versions and instrumentals. Just on the basis of THIS IS WHAT I'VE CREATED he should get it out there! Tons of amazing music is going almost undocumented and I think that this'll continue until in 10-20 years it'll start getting bootlegged. Just like the 60s garage punk scene, or a lotta 70s UK and US punk until those Killed by Death comps, or 70s funk seven inches or etc. etc. etc. It's nuts.

Also, everyone on Dissensus is polite! Almost unheard of on the internet, eh.