there just isn't the ground-level support for grime in london (and the "in london" part is the most important bit here) that there is for hip-hop in the US. it's an entirely different animal. in northern california people like mistah f.a.b and keak da sneak are HUGE local stars - everyone knows them and they're written about in local papers and heard on local radio. in houston the SUC rappers and folks like UGK, chamillionaire, slim thug, mike jones and paul wall were more or less household names (despite the fact that the local press didn't actually cover them much and they weren't on radio a lot pre-, and even after, breakthrough). this is because hip-hop is a massive, looming cultural behemoth out there and while fiddy and the game are pretty listenable to most people, they don't reflect the lives of everyone.
most of the artists who have come up through regional scenes actively speak to their own specifically regional fan base, giving them a stake in the larger game and talking about the lives they live. this is necessary in the states because it's such a huge place, with each state like its own mini-america-within-america... given this, you'll see that while the beats and rhymes on a bun-b mixtape might be banging, the issues and lifestyle it illustrates and discusses aren't going to go over and make sense right the way across the country, either, in the beginning.
this is a hurdle that every regional US scene has to jump before it crosses over into the mainstream and most artists manage to do it successfully, making major records while still keeping it real with mixtapes for the streets. grime is similarly locally centred, but the crucial thing is that it's appealing not to an area the size of texas (which i think you can fit the british isles in three times or something) but to a specific set of ends in east london, which makes its catchment in audience terms pretty fucking tiny.
that's why it won't go "ghetto platinum", because it continually paints itself into a corner and its core audience is just too damned small to sustain it. i love the stuff, it talks to me because i live here, but if i were living in newcastle or norfolk, i'm pretty sure it wouldn't have a huge amount to offer other than pure sonics. the reason grime won't go any other sort of platinum is because it's just not proved itself able to adapt itself and become relevant to any broader national/international concerns/identity. this stuff frustrates me a lot because, as much as grime's belligerence is right at the heart of its appeal for me, it's got the potential to be so much more than it allows itself.
