Grime "essentials"

run the road comp may a be good place to start, its a newy so it has a lot of fresh stuff

otherwise check all the net shops for tapes n dvds,

thats if your buying.

otherwise check for any of the streams currently up, rinsefm is up, there are others too, and there are loads of sets about on the net to give you an idea, just check any of the forums, just trawl about and see what about, there is heaps,

run the road
aim high volume 2

WOEBOT said:

run the road
aim high volume 2

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i'll add to that the Logan Sama mix CD too, which will be online somewhere.

everything mentioned above plus:

- <i>lord of the decks</i> 1 & 2
- the jammer/n.a.s.t.y. deuce magazine cover-mount mix cd

proto-grime:

- <i>garage rap</i>
- so solid - <i>f**k it</i>

but the newer stuff really is the most exciting.

my boy compiled a "grime essentials" cd. He's been passing em out as an educational tool

not mixed

http://www.unitoneonline.com/Temp/Grime Essentials - Volume 1 - Unit One Unlimited.zip


"Grime Essentials Volume One is now put together. If you would like a copy email info@unitoneonline.com with your name and address. This compilation mix CD will be sent free of charge for PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY. The CD was compiled to help promote and educate the Dallas music scene about Grime music. The CD includes New video from Kano, P's & Qs, and Dizzee Rascal's Stand up Tall. It also includes written commentay by Simon Hampson's entitled Grime:Survival Guide. Tracklistings are as follows:

01 Pay as you go Kartel - Know we (original) – 2001
02 Wiley - Eskimo - XL – 2004
03 More Fire Crew Platinum 45 ft. More Fire Crew - Oi! - Polydor – 2002
04 Jammer ft. Kano - Boys Love Girls – 2003
05 J Sweet - Gutter - Sweet Beatz – 2003
06 Lethal B - Forward Riddim - Relentless – 2004
07 Ruff Squad - Misty Cold – 2004
08 Wiley - Wot Do U Call It - XL – 2004
09 Donae'o - Bounce - Social Circles – 2003
10 Musical Mob ft. Lorraine Cato - Pulse X Vocal – 2003
11 Endz Production - R U From The Endz – 2003
12 Dizzee Rascal - I Luv U - XL – 2004
13 Dr Venom Ft. Carly Bond - Not Wise (Vocal Mix) – 2004
14 Kano - P's & Q's - 679 – 2004
15 DJ Oddz - Strung Up VIP - Black Majik – 2004
16 Terror Danjah & Skepta ft Kano & KT - Love Is Here 2 Stay - AfterShock -2004
17 Davinche ft. Kano & KT - Leave Me Alone - Papaerchase – 2004
18 Skepta - D.T.I - Dice - 2003
19 Dizzee Rascal - Stand Up Tal - XL – 2004"

In around 1999 So Solid crew formed and started spitting lyrics which at the time were pretty different to the lyrics of the mc's who were hosting raves like Garage Nation and Exposure. Their lyrics would talk about their experiences with girls and stuff - quite story like. They were the first real crew to do this over UK Garage, closely followed by Pay As U Go Cartel. Heartless Crew were also on a similar vibe back then.

Some tunes I remember them spitting over back then...

Groove Chronicles - Stone Cold
Groove Chronicles - 1999
Groove Chronicles - Millennium Funk
M Dubs - Over You
M Dubs - I Got The Music
Strickly Dubz - Realise

Then they tried their hand at production, which pretty much flipped the scene on it's head....

So Solid Crew - Dilemma (the first ever stripped down dark ukg track) around 2000
So Solid Crew - Wooh 2000/2001

Then mc's would be riding stuff in 2001 like

DJ Zinc - 138 Trek
DJ Zinc - Kinda Funky
DJ Zinc - Hold On
Livewire - Devistate
Bump & Flex - All I Do

Later in 2001, DJ Narrows released a track called Saved Soul which was a 4x4 take on dark UKG... There was a massive influx of 4x4 dark ukg including...

DJ Narrows - Want It Back
DJ Narrows - Dreams
DJ Narrows - G.A.R.A.G.E.
Bogeyman - The Wobble
Paleface + Stonecold GX - Danger

This movement didn't last very long but it was gathering interest from outsiders, there was also a compilation by the Pure Garage team entitled "Bass, Breaks & Beats" which sums up the 2000/2001 era pretty well.

Sticky got pretty big, his tracks were tearing up dancefloors in the scene - some noteable ones were...

Sticky f Miss Dynamite - Boo
Sticky - Triplets 1,2 and 3
Fyrus - Jaws

Pay As U Go Cartel were filling the void left by So Solid when they got signed, getting big in all the raves and getting on the tape packs. They began releasing a lot of vocal stuff on vinyl including

P.A.U.G. - Know We

This was perhaps the first "aggy" mc track and it tore up every rave.

The second half of 2001 was the biggest turning point...

Musical Mob drop Pulse X, the simplest of all UKG tracks, which at the time sounded so underproduced when put next to the likes of DJ Zinc, Narrows and Harry Lime.

But this is what made the track stand out. The sheer simplicity of it was unbelievable yet it had such a huge impact whenever it was played.

Musical Mob - Pulse X

Sold around 10,000 copies on street level - and probably still sells to this day.

This gave thousands of young UK Garage fans the confidence to try and emulate the simplicity of production on Pulse X, by downloading simple software packages like Fruity Loops and trying their hand at it themselves.

For about 6 months we had the worst music ever released on vinyl. This forced out 50% of the UKG scene into Funky House and RnB, as it had totally lost it's appeal to them, and the raves were losing their female followings.

THEN

Wiley - Eskimo

Dropped and totally set the standard for production on anything which was being made remotely minimal. By now the name "grime" had been tagged to the sound by the likes of UK Garage DJ's Matt Jam Lamont and EZ. The first half of 2002 saw some decent "Grime" tracks being released such as...

Bigshot - Stomp
Mos Wanted - Hungry Tiger
Wiley - Freeze

Wiley continued to release loads of stuff along the lines of the Eskimo track and coined his sound "Eski". This was around the same time I had my first release on Slimzos Recordings - Venom.

2003 Saw the interest in UKG totally die.... Grime had taken over and was trying to pick up followers on it's way.

2003 was pretty quiet - a lot of labels stopped putting stuff out as sales dropped dramatically. A lot of the big distribution companies had gone bust by now and quite a few stockists were refusing to stock grime. The FWD night was starting to come through, promoting the more ambient and intelligent style of grime as produced by Darqwan and El-B.

But one artist stuck out in particular - Dizzee Rascal was signed by XL as a result of his rise to fame with the Roll Deep crew. His album won the Mercury Music Prize and sold 100,000 copies. This brought a lot of attention to grime, and gave MC's in the scene a chance to shine...

2004 was a massive year, with MC's pretty much taking the entire scene by the horns and claiming it as their own. Everyone was making albums, and shooting videos to be screened on Channel U. Some big tracks of 2004....

Crazy Titch - I Can C U
D Double E - Frontline
Wiley - Wot U Call It ?
Riko - Poppadoms
Donaeo - Bounce
Wonder - What

Wiley was signed and left XL shortly after his album was released.

2005 looks like a very promising year with 679 picking up Kano and Demon.

Sorry for the longness - I could have just written a list of tunes but from scanning the posts on this forum I'm guessing a lot of people think grime was created from dust and has always been MC tracks. I think still to this day Grime would not be what it is without the big instrumental tracks being produced for MC's to ride in the raves and on radio.

that's serious history. big up plastic...

yeah bloody hell that's a good effort, i'd just add supreem team to that history. heartless and supreem team were smashing it lyrically before i ever heard of so solid.

Yes good synopsis. I'd have put Groove Chronicles 'black puppet' at the top of that first list thoguh, pivotal tune ... though I hated it at the time because I thought it might push garage along the same deadend route that had taken jungle to techstep

I remember hearing 'Dilemma' at Notting Hill Carnival in (I think) 1999. Although I'd heard it on radio before, that bassline was rumbling through at least three different sound-systems as soon as I got off the tube. Tune of the carnival for me.
Also, Masterstepz's 'Melody' was big, and has been rehashed countless times.
Groove Chronicles' 'Masterplan' was an MC favourite, even with the ocassional vocal interjections.
A bit later, Platinum 45's 'Deleted Scenes' was an instrumental that was all over pirate stations, and MCs were all over it too.

Plasticman said:

Snip nice history of grime

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Now, I know some people think he's a sellout etc etc, but surely Dizzee comes into this somewhere?

Melchior said:

Now, I know some people think he's a sellout etc etc, but surely Dizzee comes into this somewhere?

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err... he does, doesn't he, if by "this" you mean plasticman's pretty comprehensive breakdown of the landmark records / moments in grime?

erm...

Plasticman said:

But one artist stuck out in particular - Dizzee Rascal was signed by XL as a result of his rise to fame with the Roll Deep crew. His album won the Mercury Music Prize and sold 100,000 copies. This brought a lot of attention to grime, and gave MC's in the scene a chance to shine...

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Thanks for the history Plasticman - I was looking for something concise like this. Nice to see you here too, btw.

hint said:

err... he does, doesn't he, if by "this" you mean plasticman's pretty comprehensive breakdown of the landmark records / moments in grime?

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Well, there you go. I ever 'read' it over... Sorry Plasticman, obviously I should wait till AFTER breakfast to read things here.

2002=best grime year ever. not everyone was doing that angry thug thing j.me has been taking the piss out of recently for a start. nasty crew were at their best. i luv u dropped. eskimo was on every set. wiley was still a good MC. all the big crews could be heard on pirate. jammer was doing his best stuff.

Remember first hearing 'I Luv U' right at the end of 2002, and thinking how different it was from all the tunes on things like the 'Crews Control' comp. That gabba-garridge tag (what a fucking great combination)...

Was Jammer the first to put the 'eastern' vibe (which presumably begins the lineage that today has resulted in descriptions of Target's main instrument as Middle-eastern accordion), or did Target himself initiate that one?

Ah -
Just thought of the strings (?) on 'Know We'...

baboon2004 said:

Was Jammer the first to put the 'eastern' vibe (which presumably begins the lineage that today has resulted in descriptions of Target's main instrument as Middle-eastern accordion), or did Target himself initiate that one?

Ah -
Just thought of the strings (?) on 'Know We'...

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Jammer and Wiley initiated the "Sinogrime" flava i reckon.

"Know We," produced by Wiley, was total proto-eski. Wiley said to me in interview in 2003 he has a different futuristic remix of "Know We." I wonder if we'll ever get to hear it?