When someone questions the actual definition of grime it’s often hard to muster up a straight answer. Some people conclude that it's just music set around the pace of 140 BPM (beats per minute), but that fails to prove correct, because that would mean a whole host of tunes such as Rihanna's 'Rudeboy' or a handful of those 90s-era techno tunes would be spun week in, week out, by all the top grime DJs. Other people say it's just 'urban' music, (the term urban is in reference to the inner city) which therefore assumes non-grime artists such as Giggs or Plan B fit the bracket. So what is grime?
In one sense, the reference to urban music is indeed correct, but only as a branch and not as a whole. The sounds and genres from which grime derives its main origins came from the pirate stations and inner city tower blocks, most notably in the form of garage. Perhaps a little cliché to use an already battered metaphor, but the different influences and styles of grime fit together, almost like a transformer. The strong head of hip-hop, the loose and crazy arms of drum & bass and house, combined with the rhythmic and stylish legs of dancehall, add the occasional sample and the voice of an MC and there you go. The very first grime tune is a topic which will forever be debated (in my opinion, So Solid Crew's 'Dilema' started something), but its early pioneering anthems are easily detectable, with fans often nodding towards 'Pulse X' by Musical Mob and Roll Deep's 'Terrible'.
Ever since east Londoner J2K brought out his ‘Heat In The Street’ CD, the main focus was towards MCs as they slowly made the transition from pirate stations such as Rinse and Heat FM to the raves like Young Man Standing and Straight Outta Bethnal Green and then to the ever more professional confinements of Kiss FM and BBC's Electric Proms. The spotlight in all of these situations was never really cast on the producers, until now.
"I would agree that the Internet opened doors for producers everywhere to get involved in the scene and generally network. Websites such as GrimeForum.com helped me out a lot because I was able to get instant feedback on tunes and contact people quickly," says Royal-T. That's what the Southampton based producer told me recently when I asked him about the situation with rising producers. Royal-T shot to grime glory himself after P Money vocalised his video game inspired production ‘1 Up’ and before that he was uploading free EP's and show reels of his material for everyone to see, just like renowned producers such as G-Dub and Low Deep did back in the RWD Forum days.
Davinche is infamous for bringing out the very first CD consisting of only instrumentals, followed by the likes of Terror Danjah and D.O.K, with Rude Kid and Maniac being two of the latest highly rated producers to offer a CD full of top productions for those unable to purchase or play 12" vinyls, where instrumentals were only previously available. DJ Cheeky's Avalanche Music label put out a CD earlier on in the year, packed to the brim with productions from arguably grime's most notorious producer, Wiley. Later this month they're putting out another version which sees the release of some rare JME beats. But why have producers become so big?
Perhaps a small portion of it is down to the rising amount of people willing to push the release of instrumentals from the relevant producers, with labels such as No Hats No Hoods, Butterz and Hyperdub all pushing material strongly. There are huge amounts of websites that allow you to publish and sell your music; even internet streaming based programs such as Spotify have a range of grime instrumentals in their library.
G-Dub is a producer who set his name in stone when he hit the scene with ‘Jezebel,’ a sample of Sade's classic which was used by Neckle Camp, P Money and Little Dee on their respective mix CDs. Since he started back in 2002, G-Dub has gone on to much higher things, including having his work used in it US drama, Bones. "I found it easy to get into, as grime music is a pretty basic and raw sound, which is the whole point of it being called grime, I guess. It’s a very good stepping stone for most producers and it helps you create your sound and find your style, then like me, you start moving on to more genres," G-Dub told me. "These days I find it has somewhat changed, for the better I think. There's more and more producers about these days releasing tune after tune, so it’s good competition."
Overall, I think it's become clear that a producer takeover is imminent. Such things that may seem basic to the normal fan, such as the month of April having no vocal releases and producers starting to have their own videos (see Rude Kid’s ‘Jack Daniels’ for proof). So next time you're locked into Logan Sama or you're checking out your favourite MCs mixtape, remember this, producers are here to stay.
Words: Frankie Frank
Photography: Kristian (Three Fold Media)
Online editing: Joseph 'JP' Patterson
