It’s barged its way off the streets, swept across the UK, conquered the Brits and now it’s coming for you, America. Grime is on fire right now, and the main players of its new wave – Skepta, Stormzy, Wiley, Ghetts, JME and others – are fast becoming the most exciting names in global music outside of the fast-rising Korean jazz metal behemoths Covfefe. But what is it? Where did it come from? And what bizarre initiation processes does one need to undergo in order to become a ‘mandem’? Here’s our handy idiot’s guide to the biggest UK scene of 2017.

 

What is grime?

 

Emerging from the UK speed garage and jungle scenes of the late 1990s and early 2000s, grime was a more rapid-fire and electronic strain pioneered on East London pirate radio stations like Rinse FM by early adopters such as Danny Weed, Musical Mob and Wiley, the man considered the godfather of the scene (even though he initially dubbed the sound Eskibeat). Wiley’s influence was widespread, as he not only released pioneering early grime tunes such as ‘Eskimo’, ‘Ice Rink’ and ‘Igloo’ - clearly dreaming of taking this new style to the top of the world – but also nurtured like-minded rappers in his Roll Deep crew, which included the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder, Danny Weed and, later on, Skepta.

 

 

How did grime break out?

 

Rather than scrambling around in the underground for a decade, grime took just a few years to invade the mainstream. Dizzee Rascal’s debut album ‘Boy In Da Corner’ was hailed as the first grime masterpiece, winning the 2003 Mercury Music Prize and shunting Dizzee to the forefront of the scene. Kano, Wiley and Lethal Bizzle also received their fair share of acclaim but Dizzee soon became synonymous with grime, showered with awards and hitting the Top Ten with his follow-up albums ‘Showtime’ (2004) and ‘Maths + English’ (2007).

 

 

Why is there a grime resurgence now?

 

By the end of the ‘00s, Dizzee was hitting Number One in the UK with more electropop and dance leaning tracks like ‘Bonkers’ and ‘Dance Wiv Me’ and Wiley was starting to have major hits with ‘Wearing My Rolex’ and ‘Cash In My Pocket’. But the groundswell seemed to have stalled, with few other breakthrough acts in sight and the original buzz growing fainter and fainter.

 

Then, in 2009, a single called ‘Too Many Man’ lit up the grime club dancefloors with its tongue-twisting chorus about how the scene was turning into a massive sausage-fest. It marked the emergence of a blazing new squad called Boy Better Know, founded as a record label in 2005 by Jme and Skepta and now a crew including Skepta, JME, Wiley, Shorty, Jammer, Frisco and Solo 45, representing grime’s seething, underground second wave.

 

 

Over the course of the 2010s, this new swell gained momentum. In 2014 Meridian Dan’s ‘German Whip’ hit the Top Twenty and Skepta’s now-seminal ‘That’s Not Me’ was also a hit, throwing back to the origins of grime. Skepta’s star ascended from there, until his 2016 fourth album ‘Konnichiwa’ was greeted as a latter era grime benchmark, snagging the 2016 Mercury Prize and boasting genre-reviving hits in ‘Shutdown’ and ‘Man (Gang)’ – a track boasting the deathless couplet “my mum don’t know your mum, stop telling man you’re my cousin”.

 

 

At the same time, Kano’s ‘Made In The Manor’ album was garnering rave reviews and, amidst a flurry of new artists emerging, one South London superstar by the name of Stormzy stood out thanks to, well, storming singles like ‘Shut Up’ and ‘Know Me From’ – “If grime’s dead then how am I here?” he asked on the latter, a major part of the scene’s resurrection. By 2017 his debut album ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’ had become grime’s first Number One album, Skepta was collaborating with Drake, A$AP Mob and Earl Sweatshirt in the US and – pow! – grime was on its way to becoming a global phenomenon to rival mocking Donald Trump on Twitter.

 

 

Who are the stars of the second wave of grime?

 

Skepta

 

The Tottenham-based don of the grime revival, Skepta – aka Joseph Adenuga – has come from making extremely NSFW hardcore porn videos for his song ‘All Over The House’ in order to get some attention to being declared the lynchpin of the new grime wave and winner of NME’s Best Male.

 

 

Stormzy

 

Rocketing to the top of the UK album charts with his first album ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’, Stormzy is a veritable grime tornado.

 

 

Jme

 

Brother of Skepta, Jme (Jamie Adenuga) is emerging from his sibling’s formidable shadow thanks to three notable studio albums, some high-profile guest spots and a celebrated hook-up with Labour leader and (at time of writing) potential grime minister Jeremy Corbyn.

 

 

Wiley

 

Of the grime originators, Wiley has best retained his underground credibility, and his records have started to match his scene standing too – this year’s eleventh record ‘Godfather’ was his first UK Top Ten album.

 

 

AJ Tracey

 

Video game culture, football and brutal beats collide in the work of globe-trotting grime sensation AJ Tracey.

 

 

Stefflon Don

 

From London via Rotterdam, Stefflon Don is a champion of a style dubbed ‘bubbling’, a hyperspeed Dutch dancehall sound she’s brilliantly weaving into the bedrock of grime and UK rap. The British Nicki Minaj, anyone?

 

 

Lady Leshurr

 

Grime’s own Queen Bey, Lady Leshurr is making serious inroads into the US rap scene, working with Timbaland and sought after by Akon and Busta Rhymes thanks to many millions of views of her ‘Queen’s Speech’ freestyles.

 

 

Bugzy Malone

 

Proclaiming himself the ‘King Of The North’, Bugzy Malone is the main player in grime’s Manchester arm, making his name with a Top Ten hit in last year’s ‘Facing Time’ EP and a beef with Chip that played out like an AK47 duel.

 

 

Young Yizzy

 

The (relative) baby of the bunch, 17-year-old Young Yizzy is the self-styled ‘Grime Kid’ and the ambitious first blud of the next generation.

 

 

J Hus

 

Working Afrobeats and dancehall reggae into the grime mix, Stratford jailbird J Hus is already crashing into the mainstream – his breakthrough single ‘Did You See’ made Number 12 in the UK.