Political/Conscious Grime?

[Diggedy Derek]

Yeah, Purple and L Man certainly do a lot of explitictly political stuff. But I generally agree that a lot of Grime is inherently political. Partiucularly Dogzilla actually- although he has songs about taking lots of pills, his songs about big nights out and losing lots of money ("Where's My Money Gone" or whatever it's called) has a certain edge of desparation that makes it political. This whole angle of "I've done a big tune, I've got a couple of grand" has to be seen in a context where this windfall is seen as almost pure blind luck, and next month he might well be signing on.

On a side note, whatever happened to his tune "who the fuck wanna fuck with me who the fuck wanna fuck with me"? I'm not saying that was political, but it was absolutely awesome. Possibly one of my favorite tunes of the year. Logan?

In fact, isn't the Fire Hydrant rhythm far and away the biggest grime rhythm of the year? Any serious competitors- Dexplicit's "Hench", perhaps?

 

[blissblogger]

couple of years back got a tape from luka with a durty goodz freestyle on it that i titled 'black man freestyle' on account of its reference to 'malcolm x's shooter' and 'powerful black men' and various other black power icons.

never heard anything else like it before or since really -- an aberration, seemingly

most grime i'd said was political with a small 'p' -- pre-conscious -- non-ideological -- if you talked to these guys they'd probably have a pretty sharp sense of how fucked the world, unjust the game is, etc is but they don't have any sense of solutions or a Better Way

i interviewed wiley and roll deep earlier in the year and they had some astute things to say about anger and hopelessness, esp Wiley... but can't really think of anywhere it's actually filtered into their lyrics...

mostly the overt politics of grime is a sort of self-help/pull yourself up by your own bootstraps/it's your own fault if you don't make it cos you ain't got the get-up-and-go -- Thatcherism meets American hip hop cult of initiative/ambition... anti-politics in other words

 

[head]

<< mostly the overt politics of grime is a sort of self-help/pull yourself up by your own bootstraps/it's your own fault if you don't make it cos you ain't got the get-up-and-go -- Thatcherism meets American hip hop cult of initiative/ambition... anti-politics in other words

nicely put

 

[ambrose]

that "WMDs" tune is a bit rubbish. is that the faction g one? thats the most overtly political one ive heard

 

[gumdrops]

the WMDs one is pretty bad.

xpost, grime IS anti political. i know someone who photgraphed dizzee and tried to get him to add his name and image to a campaign of some sort about illegal trading, but he refused, saying he wanted nothing to do with 'political stuff'.

 

[baboon2004]

On a side note, whatever happened to his tune "who the fuck wanna fuck with me who the fuck wanna fuck with me"? I'm not saying that was political, but it was absolutely awesome. QUOTE]

Fantastic.

 

[Superstition]

Doogz has loads of lyrics that could be described as "conscious". If anyone's heard the 2 Fast 2 Ferocious mix CD he did with Skibadee, there's plenty on that. They're mostly spat over hip-hop instrumentals though, so I don't know whether or not that disqualifies them as "grime" bars.

 

[h-crimm]

listening to rinse right now... its target. he just said "the next one its about everything thats happening in the world especially london at the moment" so far its pretty rubbish :S
uhhhh oh its that "everybody's a terrorist suspect..." we just got a rewind it is swag tho
yep the MC is not so good, not at all

 

[mms]

listening to rinse right now... its target. he just said "the next one its about everything thats happening in the world especially london at the moment" so far its pretty rubbish :S
uhhhh oh its that "everybody's a terrorist suspect..." we just got a rewind it is swag tho
yep the MC is not so good, not at all

yeah my girlfriend thought it was rubbish when i poinred out the track on the radio, she thought the mc was wack - but still i was pretty suprised - thats quite a thing to say/recognise

 

[Tactics]

the only political mc's I've actually heard are..

Purple, L-Man, Faction G, Dizzee (in places) and the biggest of them all Durrty Goodz. If garage/grime/nukg actually tackled politics especially from the african/african caribbean perspective I think I could give the music more respect but until then...

 

[mms]

Purple, L-Man, Faction G, Dizzee (in places) and the biggest of them all Durrty Goodz. If garage/grime/nukg actually tackled politics especially from the african/african caribbean perspective I think I could give the music more respect but until then...

why would they tackle politics from an african/ caribbean perspective and what do you mean?

why would that get more respect from you ?
just interested

 

[petergunn]

that Wiley line

"I know trouble but Trouble says he don’t know you, I know Ghetto but Ghetto says he don’t know you, I know Sufferah bgut Sufferah says he don't know you”

was an interesting line...

i like Grime has alot of IMPLICIT politics, as opposed to EXPLICIT. Something like "sittin' here" on the first dizzee record is to me, alot more interesting than someone yelling "Tony Blair, we have no money, free the ghetto!". I think in some grime songs you get personal politics, someone painting a picture of their world... hopefully grime can get the balanxe dancehall has between high energy club tunes and conscious music...

 

[Tactics]

cool

why would they tackle politics from an african/ caribbean perspective and what do you mean?

why would that get more respect from you ?
just interested

I should have explained myself more. I mean if the majority of the MC's, obviously those coming from African/African Caribbean backgrounds, spoke about things politically from their own cultural perspective then they would definately get more respect from me and I dont mean that pussyfooting version of 'politics' that Blackdown allluded to earlier. All this shanking and n**** this, that nonsense aint contrustive its deconstructive. 'We' obviously aint learned from America.

I find it a hell of a shame that L-Man is one of the biggest spitters out of a load of MC's. That's a damn shame imo.

 

[gumdrops]

that Wiley line

"I know trouble but Trouble says he don’t know you, I know Ghetto but Ghetto says he don’t know you, I know Sufferah bgut Sufferah says he don't know you”

was an interesting line...

i like Grime has alot of IMPLICIT politics, as opposed to EXPLICIT. Something like "sittin' here" on the first dizzee record is to me, alot more interesting than someone yelling "Tony Blair, we have no money, free the ghetto!". I think in some grime songs you get personal politics, someone painting a picture of their world... hopefully grime can get the balanxe dancehall has between high energy club tunes and conscious music...

agreed. i dont want fist-pumping, head-in-hands blatant stabs at dealing with leftist politics like what dog-z does, especially if its going to be so misinformed or naive. i might as well find my old asian dub foundation records for something like that (which i do not want to do). tracks like sittin here are fine with me. re: that wiley lyric, that sounds like hes borrowed it from some dancehall tunes.

 

[mms]

I should have explained myself more. I mean if the majority of the MC's, obviously those coming from African/African Caribbean backgrounds, spoke about things politically from their own cultural perspective then they would definately get more respect from me and I dont mean that pussyfooting version of 'politics' that Blackdown allluded to earlier. All this shanking and n**** this, that nonsense aint contrustive its deconstructive. 'We' obviously aint learned from America.

I find it a hell of a shame that L-Man is one of the biggest spitters out of a load of MC's. That's a damn shame imo.

i'm still not sure what you mean - i think most grime mcs are teenagers or in their 20s and were probably born or at least brought up in britain.
i think this is more important than the implied assumption of rich perspective cos some of their parents might be from the caribbean or africa.
it's interesting that you mention learning from america cos this is part of what politicises grime in a sense, the british/american/caribbean/african influence and the reality of growing up in dirty old london. that whole conundrum thats invented so much of grimes language and the personal perspective. Rather that than ranting diatribes against george bush anyday i reckon.

 

[head]

was just listening to roll deep's 'people don't know', it's actually got a general political slant; it's not exactly putting forth a solution like people were mentioning earlier in the thread, but drawing attention to the difficulties of the lower classes.

the whole roll deep album is amazing; probably my top album of the year so far

 

[gumdrops]

xpost - correct me if im wrong, but i think tactics just means he'd like to see more grime MCs tackling issues pertinent to the black community in london/the UK.

 

[countryman]

was just listening to roll deep's 'people don't know', it's actually got a general political slant; it's not exactly putting forth a solution like people were mentioning earlier in the thread, but drawing attention to the difficulties of the lower classes.

the whole roll deep album is amazing; probably my top album of the year so far

'People Don't Know' is one of my favourite tracks off that album for the lyrics in the Donae'o chorus. Check out some of Donaeo's (hopefully) forthcoming material here:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=79724

'Tell Me' is really good.

 

[SIZZLE]

there's a few moving on dub with more political ideas:

Silence - Misty Dubs has a purple verse: 'Purple did not vote/cuz the government brings the guns in..." He seems to be one of the more consciously conscious lyricists out there right now and has been for a while.

Moving - The Cream is an anti gun tune, with a first verse from I think it's Bashy (?!) doing an "I have a dream" one-line that's quite good, many of the MCs on there come on a more thoughtful political tip, plus the Danny Weed riddim doesnt hurt either, big tune I reckon.

Donaeo - Bounce is old but pretty explicit 'Don't do druugs, just have sex'.

And there a few other flickers, Skepta shouting out Marcus Garvey on sets lately, JME with his Don't Chat lyrics...

 

[gumdrops]

perhaps this is too cynical, but i admired that song more than i liked it. i thought it was pretty corny. it didnt help that the over-melismatic singing on the chorus reminded me of any number of other melodramatic US hip hop tracks.