GRIME- breaking news, gossip, slander, lies etc

[petergunn]

Wiley was WILDING.

Evidently he was saying the truth when he said he couldn't stop sending. Although this may be bad for Wiley's physical health I think it'll probably keep pushing the stakes in the music up, which I think is a good thing. Still, hope it hasn't escalated too badly outside of music.

shit is beserker...

considering these cats all live within like 10 miles of each other...

the bring "God'S Gift back to life" thing is interesting... when i was in Rhthym Division, God's Gift was hanging out and the dudes working there played him that newish Jamakabi garage thing and was like "why don't you make something like this? that shit will sell, i'm trying to make YOU money" and he seemed uninterested... i talked to him for a bit and i got the vibe he's not that bothered about making music one way or another, if you get me... so, yeah, i hope this shit stays on the music level...

 

[petergunn]

Wiley

wiley on The Movement, this killed me:

"hold tight the people who leave grime thinking they'll achieve something

don't work

i tried it way before all of you...

bye

STAY GRIME!"



fucking awesome!


(oh, and he just sounds drunk...)

 

[SIZZLE]

HAhahahahaha yeah that was wicked

'bye!' I almost pissed myself.

That is one of the reasons Wiley is so stiff in war, he's fucking FUNNY!

 

[bun-u]

Gift and wolfpack highjacking the studio & Wiley at the end - um....it's panto season innit

 

[Sick Boy]

wiley on The Movement, this killed me:

"hold tight the people who leave grime thinking they'll achieve something

don't work

i tried it way before all of you...

They say the first stage to solving a problem is admitting you have one.
Maybe there is a future for Wiley.

 

[captain easychord]

i gotta say i'm really enjoying these shows where wiley goes on by himself and says hilarious shit for an hour and a half

 

[elgato]

it's called being realistic. i'm well aware that broadsheets could cover a much wider spectrum of music. you've obviously all been frantically pitching your ideas (hands up who's put their ideas forward for a hyphy article) so why haven't I seen many interesting music articles published in the broadsheets this year? answer: the editors just run what they think their readers will like. i'm not justifying it, i'm just saying. and anyway what newsworthy stories have there been in grime recently apart from crazy titch murdering someone?

to be fair you did say "you cant complain" which indicates that theres some kind of justification rather than just explanation. and i dont think anyone was wondering why it is, but rather questioning whether it ought to be

there are plenty of articles which could be written about grime (interchange with many other underground/non-guitar-based scenes) which are worthy of media coverage, at least as worthy as the dull pieces you see about indie or more accepted forms of music. thats almost the issue, its like it has to be something monumental before they'll take note and see as worth discussing.

theres so much more to write about grime in relation to both social and musical context than the next guitar based band

 

[elgato]

It's not really fair to judge editors' current openness to grime, dubstep etc. until the next time an album comes out which 1. is really good (rules out e.g. Roll Deep) 2. you can buy in a chain shop in a small town (rules out any mixtape, stuff on Hyperdub) and 3. will result in an interesting interview (arguably rules out a lot of producers although obviously not e.g. Kode 9). If Wiley's album comes out and meets all three conditions and still gets no coverage, then it will be worth complaining.

these seem pretty questionable rules to posit. again, theyre more of a description of how it is rather than a discussion of how it ought to be, but by relating it to 'fairness' you seem to suggest otherwise, implying some kind of justification

firstly, why does it have to be an album before its worth discussing? why does it have to be one artist even rather than a movement or a label? or just a general piece on music in its social context? the overwhelming focus on LPs is just another element of the media's closed attitudes to new forms of music, i cant see how it can be used to justify their actions

and why should it need to be available in a small town? its not like people cant shop on the internet...

unless you're saying that it needs to have reached a certain level of popularity before its worth discussing? which to me is a very depressing perspective, like art is only worthy of analysis or celebration once it crosses a certain (arbitrary) threshold of success?!

furthermore, why is an interview the required format? there are surely excellent and relevant articles which can be written without such an emphasis (if any at all) on interview...

 

[mos dan]

to be fair you did say "you cant complain" which indicates that theres some kind of justification rather than just explanation. and i dont think anyone was wondering why it is, but rather questioning whether it ought to be

there are plenty of articles which could be written about grime (interchange with many other underground/non-guitar-based scenes) which are worthy of media coverage, at least as worthy as the dull pieces you see about indie or more accepted forms of music. thats almost the issue, its like it has to be something monumental before they'll take note and see as worth discussing.

theres so much more to write about grime in relation to both social and musical context than the next guitar based band

totally nailed it on every count.

i had something run on hyphy in g2, five days later later hattie c also had something run on hyphy in the guardian (in 'the guide' i think) - two articles in the space of a week ffs - and do you see mistah fab in every record shop in britain, e-40 storming to the top of the charts? of course not: it's got novelty value (in the uk anyway). same reason the press went mad for dizzee.

 

[Logos]

firstly, why does it have to be an album before its worth discussing? why does it have to be one artist even rather than a movement or a label? or just a general piece on music in its social context? the overwhelming focus on LPs is just another element of the media's closed attitudes to new forms of music, i cant see how it can be used to justify their actions

Good point - this is another aspect of how music journalism is tightly tied into the industry pr machine. And I suspect, reflects the general laziness of journalists, who'll only write about something when its shoved pre-packaged down their throat in the form of new LP + press release.

 

[Logan Sama]

The music industry in general not just the media isn't interested in working on something that is a risk. They want everything vacuum packed in a nice little box with a bow round it so they can plant it on the shelf and sell it without doing anything at all other than ringing their friends and getting some free promotion on TV, Radio 1 and whatever leftie newspaper people without a clue read to try and stay "trendy".

It is most demoralising.

And while I do not deny that people in underground scenes, most notably Grime, do not make it easy for themselves by being unprofessional and difficult to contact when they are given a chance to do something, they aren't even light years close to such wastemen as Pete Doherty who seems to only have to be found with enough Heroin to get any of these Grime kids a 5 year sentence and he gets more column inches than one would know what to do with.

My point is that the system assists and guides young new talent through and basically holds their hand in the indie and other guitar based scenes as they have the time and inclination to develop these artists into cash cows. In underground scenes which don't involve the latest cast of 'Student Union-Factor', there is no time or money invested into these kids.

And then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy wherein of course people don't make money like 50 Cent here. You can't make money without investing it in the first place.

 

[DJL]

i gotta say i'm really enjoying these shows where wiley goes on by himself and says hilarious shit for an hour and a half

agreed

 

[tox]

firstly, why does it have to be an album before its worth discussing? why does it have to be one artist even rather than a movement or a label? or just a general piece on music in its social context? the overwhelming focus on LPs is just another element of the media's closed attitudes to new forms of music, i cant see how it can be used to justify their actions

Grime still seems to be doing alright in the style press. Dazed reviews grime releases regularly, had an interview with ruff sqwad (from dissensus's very own mos dan I think) and had a feature called Grime Footballers earlier in the year (a good 8 pages of text and good photography). They also had a feature on Channel U quite recently.

The thing that's refreshing about their coverage of Grime is that it doesn't keep shouting "it's new! it's British! there's violence around the scene!!!!" but actually just deals with the music as if it's an established part of UK culture. Almost 4 years after Boy in da Corner dropped, surely thats how the scene should be approached?

At the risk of angering certain Dissensians, I think Dazed's coverage of Grime can actually be more useful to the scene than Vice's. I respect that Vice puts on Grime shows and has a fair amount of coverage, but there's always an air of irony around their coverage, making Grime feel like a novelty. The feeling I get from Vice is that Grime is just a little amusement at the edge of the hipster scene. Perhaps I'm just being paranoid.

 

[mos dan]

Dazed grime coverage

The thing that's refreshing about their coverage of Grime is that it doesn't keep shouting "it's new! it's British! there's violence around the scene!!!!" but actually just deals with the music as if it's an established part of UK culture. Almost 4 years after Boy in da Corner dropped, surely thats how the scene should be approached.

this is definitely what needs to happen, my sentiments exactly. it's music. it's not a new toy.

 

[bun-u]

Gift rushing Wiley ....reportage/WWF commentary here

 

[mos dan]

Gift rushing Wiley ....reportage/WWF commentary here

fucking hilarious - that thread and the mp3 of the show last night are pure class. hold tight the 'grime is boring now' crew.

 

[Sick Boy]

I really didn't know how to feel about the whole Gods Gift bumrushing the show palaver.

I love the soap opera element of grime as much as the next man, and all these organized clashes have certainly got people excited about grime again, but organizing things like this is just so theatrical it's basically self-parody.

I can't believe even Logan got called out on that show too. Everybody dead.

 

[captain easychord]

I dunno, I'm a bit skeptical about the lack of mainstream grime coverage hindering the genre's progress all that much. Actually i'm pretty sure bemoaning a lack of broadsheet articles is putting the cart before the horse and reflects the critic-centric mindset of a lot of people here. Does London really need any more magazine articles? If I type "grime" into google it takes me about 2 seconds to find more internet grime coverage than I can shake a stick at. The genre's been around for a few years, anyone with even the slightest interest in it and knows what it's called can track down about a million sources of information on it.

I think the lack of grassroots promo options is more pressing; ie lack of radio shows and live events. Grime artists have to do more to convince London (and England's) black music fans that their scene is good enough to get behind.

The widespread perception amongst a lot of black music afficionados in London is that grime is for little kids. Not even, say, college age kids. Little hype yutes. On one video shoot i was working on one of our runners was making fun of this 20 year old girl for being into grime, saying she should "grow up, leave that shit behind". 20 years old! For whatever reason, I dunno if it's the conduct of the MC's, the production values, the songs, the lyrics, a lack of mystique about the artists, whatever it is, something is keeping grime from achieving its potential as the voice of the streets.

And the people who should be helping artists out, bringing them up, grooming them etc. are shutting the door (e.g. the major pirates purging grime a couple years back). Compare this with indie rock where you have the same saddos who played in bands in the 80's working away behind the scenes on some svengali shit trying to engineer the next big thing.

 

[mpc]

1. the wiley / gift thing was not staged. it wasn't a big deal, but it wasn't staged.

2. that 8 page grime feature in dazed was an advertorial paid for by nike. nike came to dazed and said: hey we're gonna give you loads of money to come up with an idea. dazed said: ok let's get these hot, fresh totally cool grime kids to tell us about football. they got footsie in there ffs - look how fat that guy is. how can he play football? vice have given grime a lot of coverage. it's never that serious because that is the tone of vice.

3. this whole thing of grime not getting enough coverage in broadsheets is just another way of writers on here saying: please give me some work.

 

[nomos]

there's a sendspace link for the "altercation"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/gomzgl

people need to grow up i think. (and these guys are old already in comaprison.)

EDIT darkside has the whole set http://www.getdarker.com/?id=145