i am not entirely surprised by the wiley numbers (for fucksake if you're going to spend the money signing, pressing, and liscensing an album then fucking PROMOTE it...this is a problem across the board in the industry right now, shrinking promo budgets, and it affects everyone from aging indie rockers to gospel artists not just uk rappers). i am curious, however, to hear how many copies <i>maxinquaye</i> and <i>new forms</i> sold in the US in their first 18 months. (they're the only really comparable albums to the dizzee albums so far.)
luke, stelfox, and david are right: grime is NEVER going to take off in america on hipster support alone. (they are aligned with the same label that's going to pick up the last boredoms record, which, while it makes me happy, is so completely removed from the average grime MC's experience that i wonder if they even research this stuff beforehand.) this seems self-evident, but when you have indie rock bands in the US selling numbers unheard of since the early 90s, its not inconcievable for a grime album to do respectable (aesop rock/madlib/mf doom) numbers over here. a year ago i would have said this was their only hope, but how much of that was down to the sound of the music and the middling ambitions of their creators? forward really did change all that. the aggressiveness of it is what people are responding to, not some half-assed idea of "pop"! when you've got someone like lil jon, arguably the biggest figure in rap right now, or hot97, one of the biggest tastemaking rap stations in the country, showing interest then suddenly the playing field has expanded exponentially. i don't see lil jon jocking el-p right now. there's this tiny window of opportunity and hype around grime that's building in the US right now, but i guarantee it will be gone in less than 12 months. hell, given what i hear about the preponderance of 2-step pirates and lack of sales in the UK, these guys might even have better luck over here.
(this is not to say i think all grime needs to be fwd style bangers to blow here, but "like glue" wouldnt have been as big a hit if sean paul hadnt scored as huge a club hit as he did with "get busy" if you get me.)
daddy yankee is blowing up right now in america with a song that features not a word of english over a latino perversion of dancehall, not exactly a household sound itself a half-decade ago in the states. but he is blowing up because he was on the grind for years and he struck exactly when the iron was hottest. luck and graft...its the key to everything isnt it? he's a fucking hero to millions of people right now, enjoyed by even more, but the key thing is that when his 15 minutes are over here, his hardcore audience will remain (provided he doesn't fuck up with too many concessions to the pop audience.) anyone who says grime couldnt do the same is just being silly, but they gotta WORK IT.
