Grime

It is 2002 in the South Bow council estate within the East End of London, England. The urban environment is made up of grotty beer can-strewn flats, mobile telephones running out of credit, bets on football matches, and televisions that are in need of repair. Away from the tower blocks are streets made up of corner-shop off-licences, pizza and burger establishments, and visits to cashpoint machines: “a lived culture rooted in a recognizable up British social reality” (Barron, 2013: 536) Rewinding the clock another fifty years or so will reveal how Black British populations have been forced to live on the social, economic, and cultural margins of London. Groups of migrant families from England’s Commonwealth formed tightly knit localities in
Some of these children have grown up to be recognized as the creators of a new form of music. Grime, as it has been called, acts as an aural expression for the distinct set of socio-economic conditions they face. The genre combines elements of hip-hop from the United States, dancehall from Jamaica, as well as punk, rave, drum and bass, and garage from England. As much as one can try to describe the genre in words or compare it to other styles of already existing music, it is next to impossible to define. Matthew McKinnon for the CBC writes, “Grime is a music that was born in East London, lives in East London ... and maybe only makes sense in East London” (2005: 1). With that being said, its artists are increasingly vocal about the animosity and anger they feel towards a system that relentlessly oppresses and marginalizes them. It is appropriate then, that this paper will critically examine the ways in which grime music acts as a catalyst to politically engage its
One could go as far as to say that grime increases awareness about critical issues. It makes sense that grime is the soundtrack to London’s civil unrest. It was the accompaniment to a number of protests, demonstrations, and uprisings that occurred in response to the UK Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government’s plans for public spending cuts and university fee increases (Thompson & Biddle, 2013: 3). Voices drowned out the grime music as young people roared with frustration, rage, and bewilderment in front of the Whitehall entrance to Parliament Square. The entire crowd had felt as though their chance at gaining anything more than a high school education was being threatened by a small group of elderly, poncy men in expensive suits from