Oh my days, what is happening with this grime ting, its all over the fucking place? It all went a bit tuffthug-slowjam while all the MC’s tried to kick it as hip hop artists but that didn’t really work out, so be thankful that the the peeps from the Boy Better Know and Roll Deep camps are still rocking the alien beats as good as ever before.

Skepta – Stageshow Rhythm

Skepta rides in on camel-back, flanked by his N17 armies clad in neon green Cassette Playa samurai armour on scooters, rocking the kind of attitude the bikers have at the start of Akira. Skepta’s fire coated scimitar is pointed toward the enemy, a line of wasteman new rave fools who think that that sound they can hear with its laser blasts and rave klaxons is headed to an indie-disco near them real soon. How wrong they are as the firey blade of Skepta slashes and slices through swathes of these bored looking boys and girls. The armies ride off into the night leaving the bloodbath for a secret SW1 multi-storey carpark grime-rave where junglist beats clash and osmose into subwoofing bass drones and laydeez pop pneumatically to the bongo claps.

What sound strikes up when these warriors enter the rave? Its the ninjitsu riddims of Roll Deep’s ‘Celebrate’, which I swear samples TENCHU: Stealth Assassin for the Playstation 1. I used to play dat in ma endz, back in’a day.

Roll Deep – Celebrate (Instrumental)

But by now Wiley has left the party, cloaked in his hater-reflecting hoodie that lets him slide through the crowds unseen to the naked eye ‘Ghost In The Shell‘ style. The word on the streets (ok, Pitchfork news section) is that he just produces now. He has retreated to the jungles of his home planet, working on soundtracks to reconnaissance missions held in treetops and on dense jungle floors where camouflaged operatives silently creep past the gigantic mechanical guards of the enemy base to claim the planet.

Wiley – Rock & Roll

Weird then that this bootleg series, Tunnel Vision, still goes on regardless of any resignations. Maybe retiring is hard to stick to when you have too many good ideas rolling around your New Era cap? Clearly this years idea of choice is the bongo-drum in all its weird sampled forms, from the 45rpm played at 78 speed of the above Skepta track to ‘Rock & Roll’s’ subtle underpinning. Grime kids: keepin’ it rustic.

Epilogue -
This post is tagged with grime rave