tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/grime-31449/articlesGrime – The Conversation2023-08-29T16:48:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120432023-08-29T16:48:04Z2023-08-29T16:48:04ZDizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner turns 20 – here’s how it ushered in the era of grime<p>From before their election in 1997, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10518842">New Labour</a> politicians spun an image of Britain that held the promise of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/feb/26/uk-more-middle-class-than-working-class-2000-data">prosperity</a> for all. Then we entered a new millennium. For the black community – especially its boys and men – it became clear the promise was as empty as Tony Blair’s Millennium Dome was eventually left.</p>
<p>They were still being denied equality of <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/still-rigged-racism-uk-labour-market#footnote2_k9riu5l">opportunity</a>. They were still being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/apr/22/ethnic-minority-stop-search-rates-doubled">overpoliced</a>, sometimes <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1449598.stm">fatally</a>. In their quest for economic survival, they were still not regarding each other’s lives as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azac004">sacred</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The video for I Luv U, from Boy In Da Corner (2003).</span></figcaption>
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<p>For many of the generation coming of age at this time, neither the smooth, luxurious, hip-swivelling sound of late-nineties UK garage, nor the heart-rupturing baselines of <a href="https://www.redbull.com/us-en/an-expert-guide-to-drum-n-bass-sub-genres">jungle drum and bass</a> were apt for how they wanted to express themselves. </p>
<p>With no money for advanced music technology, a skeletal sound emerged from the most basic of DIY <a href="https://thesociologicalreview.org/reviews/sonic-intimacy-by-malcolm-james/">music tech</a>. A Sony PlayStation. A mobile phone. A keyboard. Some called it “eskibeat” (cold and emotionless), others dubbed it “sublow” (stripped down and bare). </p>
<p>The tunes were sparse and the vocal delivery raw. Eventually the streets settled on a name: <a href="https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/02/grime-hashtags-feature">grime</a>.</p>
<p>With an MC origin story that begins in the jungle drum and bass community radio scene and ends in pop rap stardom, Dylan Mills – aka Dizzee Rascal – is sometimes overlooked as a pioneering producer of grime. Developed to deliver the reportage of early-2000s east London life contained in his lyrics, grime was perfect for his urgent, high-pitched, staccato delivery.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/25-years-of-garage-review-music-documentary-falls-prey-to-the-same-mistakes-that-killed-the-scene-196329">25 Years of Garage review – music documentary falls prey to the same mistakes that killed the scene</a>
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<p>His first album, Boy in da Corner, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023. The album’s unique production, almost entirely crafted by Dizzee, created new sonic boundaries. The record rightfully <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/10/arts.mercuryprize2003">won the prestigious Mercury Prize</a> in 2003. </p>
<p>The lyrics illustrate what it means to grow up young, black and deprived on the fortress-like council estates of London, many of which have now become <a href="https://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2014/07/bellevue-bow.html">gentrified</a> or sold off and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21338296">demolished</a> to cater more for wealthier residents.</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.redpepper.org.uk/review-terraformed-young-black-lives-in-the-inner-city-by-joy-white/">hyper-local</a> dangers and complexities of the council estate, whether interior (mental health, envy, teenage pregnancy) or exterior (unemployment, racist policing, knife crime), make the tracks sound more like distress calls than semi-autobiographical accounts. </p>
<p>It is clear that Mills is yearning for a better future. His delivery is introspective, brutally honest, audacious.</p>
<h2>Boy in da Corner’s track list</h2>
<p>In the album opener, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlAvh1GpVKw">Sittin’ Here</a>, Dizzee is hanging outside of the local off-licence, watching the world go by and pondering the state of it all.</p>
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<p>’Cause it’s the same old story,</p>
<p>Shutters, runners, cats and money stacks.</p>
<p>And it’s the same old story,</p>
<p>Ninja bikes, gun fights and scary nights.</p>
<p>And it’s the same old story,</p>
<p>Window tints and gloves for finger prints.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tqe3WOFAEc">Stop Dat</a> is an energising rap battle track. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH0KWX2a8zY">I Luv U</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVcseqU8rY4">Jezebel</a> discuss relationships within the noncommittal style of the street. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X_idmIH934">Brand New Day</a> aches with nostalgia and longs for a more peaceful life – delivered over a haunting east Asian melody that make the lyrics sound even more tragic that they are already.</p>
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<p>Looks like I’m loosin mates,</p>
<p>There’s a lot of hostility near my gates,</p>
<p>We used to fight with kids from other estates,</p>
<p>Now eight millimetres settle debates.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUKsoNnTfmU">Wot U On?</a> ridicules the narcissism of wearing your wealth. “Love talks to everyone, money talks more,” it opines.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising that the biggest hits from the album are sample-led bangers. The big beat and rock-inspired <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZGvnI37mxk">Fix Up Look Sharp</a> and the rock opera that is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW0BpMNCjw0">Just A Rascal</a> exude the swagger of a teen who grew up on Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses and Iron Maiden, as well as Nas and Run DMC. </p>
<p>The phone message sample at the end of Just A Rascal would prove <a href="https://www.clashmusic.com/news/dizzee-rascal-on-being-stabbed/">prescient</a>, as in the summer of 2003 Mills was hospitalised after being stabbed several times at a resort where he was performing in Ayia Napa, Cyprus. Allegedly related to a feud with a rival crew, the brutal attack permanently severed his relationship with former Roll Deep Crew member and collaborator, Wiley. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The video for Just a Rascal, from Boy In Da Corner (2003).</span></figcaption>
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<p>Boy In Da Corner made young black men and boys feel seen. On its vibrant <a href="https://www.bendrury.com/work/boy-in-da-corner">cover</a> Mills is dressed all in black right down to his Nike Air Max, sitting in the corner of a white floor, fingers making devil horns. The single other colour – yellow – connotes happiness and hazard. Vulnerable, yet perceived by wider society as dangerous.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.metacritic.com/music/boy-in-da-corner/dizzee-rascal">rapturous</a> reception Da Boy In Da Corner received from both the estate and the establishment illustrated that black British stories (and therefore black British lives) were important. </p>
<p>It ushered in not only a new exciting sound but a generation of black British artists like <a href="https://www.capitalfm.com/artists/tinie-tempah/news/dizzee-rascal-influence/">Tinie Tempah</a> and Tinchy Stryder. Laying the foundation for them to achieve phenomenal chart success in the music industry mainstream. Not bad for a black boy from Bow.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Toppin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The lyrics illustrate what it means to grow up young, black and deprived on the fortress like council estates of London.Julia Toppin, Lecturer, Music Business, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1963292022-12-13T14:59:44Z2022-12-13T14:59:44Z25 Years of Garage review – music documentary falls prey to the same mistakes that killed the scene<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500073/original/file-20221209-35151-hhz31u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C1922%2C1118&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Promotional artwork for 25 Years of Garage.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Platinum Pictures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A host of veterans from the heyday of the UK’s garage scene (including <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi89tXv7uz7AhWDoFwKHfPsBloQFnoECB8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheartlesscrew.com%2F&usg=AOvVaw0UvQ1LMEx7uDMzMafmQ3kQ">Heartless Crew</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiL5Kn87uz7AhXClFwKHar-Bo4QFnoECGYQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fdanebowers%2F%3Fhl%3Den&usg=AOvVaw3R2DlsTzHv9dVc7tmTsHvp">Dane Bowers</a> and members of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiQkMqG7-z7AhWBY8AKHQp2CT8QFnoFCIUBEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fofficialsosolid%2F%3Fhl%3Den&usg=AOvVaw07W1vQ4jFZWpetxU16OjXS">So Solid Crew</a>) star in <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi8_Kmg7-z7AhUKbsAKHXPYAskQFnoECB8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt15612416%2F&usg=AOvVaw0DDMZud8sYPI49-Q_hPt26">25 Years of Garage</a>, a new documentary co-directed by former promoter Terry Stone.</p>
<p>As an academic who specialises in Black music and advocates for its serious intellectual study, I find it encouraging to see active members of the garage scene documenting the culture.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500076/original/file-20221209-40753-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Terry Stone wears a navy blue polo shirt and sits on a green couch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500076/original/file-20221209-40753-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500076/original/file-20221209-40753-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500076/original/file-20221209-40753-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500076/original/file-20221209-40753-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500076/original/file-20221209-40753-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500076/original/file-20221209-40753-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500076/original/file-20221209-40753-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Co-director Terry Stone is a former garage promoter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Platinum Pictures</span></span>
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<p>UK garage was a genre of electronic dance music, which peaked between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Incorporating elements of R&B, jungle and pop, its sound was marked by pitch-shifted vocal samples and a distinctive percussive rhythm.</p>
<p>In 25 Years Of Garage, stars remember the garage scene that emerged in the early 1990s, tracing its expansion from small rooms in Ministry of Sound to its own branded club nights. The focus is largely on Stone’s former business, Garage Nation, which ran successful club nights and events in the UK and abroad. </p>
<h2>A brief history of garage</h2>
<p>This trip down memory lane highlights garage’s ideology of <a href="https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/veblen-the-theory-of-the-leisure-class-an-economic-study-of-institutions">conspicuous consumption</a> and <a href="https://angl.winter-verlag.de/journal/ANGL">“bling culture”</a>. </p>
<p>There’s the champagne lifestyle – Moët as standard. The designer “garms” (clothing) which were colourful and flamboyant, especially for men (think Moschino, Versace, Iceberg Jeans). And the jet setting to Ayia Napa (always with budget airlines) for clubbing at infamous venues such as Pzazz and Insomnia, which at their peak attracted ravers from all over the UK.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for 25 Years of Garage.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Archive footage is included to showcase the “vibe” during the height of the scene, both home and away. These are dispersed with more recent recordings from a post-COVID restrictions event in south London. </p>
<p>Personal accounts recall the scene’s transition from fun, luxurious and carefree to dangerous and disorderly. In London, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870601006579">police intervention</a> through 696 risk assessment forms (advanced notice of events which required organisers to share the names, stage names, private addresses, and phone numbers of all performers) <a href="http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/92164/">decimated the scene</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile in Ayia Napa, Cypriot locals resented the dominance of tourists and their disorderly behaviour in what was once a sleepy fishing village. Media coverage began <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2631401.stm">labelling garage</a> as dangerous, with incidents of shootings and stabbings reported both at home and away.</p>
<h2>Sidelining the issues</h2>
<p>Despite acknowledging negative press around guns, violence and killings in the garage scene, the racialised element of press attitudes is not explored in 25 Years of Garage. Garage is presented as a multicultural scene – and in many ways it was. However, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13691830802364809?journalCode=cjms20">reflection</a> on the impact of racism and policing in criminalising the scene is lacking.</p>
<p>The way the documentary responds to racialised narratives of garage, race and violence, almost reinforces them through <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/for-2016-0009/html?lang=en">dog whistling</a> (using words understood by a particular group of people) and the use of the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315164601/new-ethnicities-urban-culture-back-les-les-back-goldsmiths-college-university-london">racially coded words</a> like “grime” and “yardie” to insinuate that perpetrators of violence were Black.</p>
<p>Throughout however, the documentary suggests that for promoters of various racial backgrounds “a gangster’s game” was needed, “a certain mentality and attitude” to be in and survive in this industry. For Stone himself, who is white, this included the need to wear protective vests from weaponry. </p>
<p>There’s also reference to the ever presence of cocaine presented in a matter of fact, deracialised way. The challenges around violence, crime and drugs were not the result of “grime” or “yardies”, but an issue for the scene as a whole.</p>
<p>Gendered issues also remain unaddressed. In 25 Years of Garage, women are a footnote. Very few are given the platform to share their stories, despite women being highly visible in both the historical and recent footage included in the documentary.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500072/original/file-20221209-35075-3zmp4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ms Dynamite wears her hair in a punky braid, and stands one leg on an amp as she performs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500072/original/file-20221209-35075-3zmp4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500072/original/file-20221209-35075-3zmp4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500072/original/file-20221209-35075-3zmp4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500072/original/file-20221209-35075-3zmp4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500072/original/file-20221209-35075-3zmp4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500072/original/file-20221209-35075-3zmp4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500072/original/file-20221209-35075-3zmp4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">London’s Ms Dynamite was a major player in the garage scene.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/novi-sad-serbia-july-10-ms-57688723">Nikola Spasenoski</a></span>
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<p>Women in the scene are referred to almost as mere entertainment in the lives of the men. This is despite featuring clips of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiK0v729ez7AhVSZ8AKHY3DDHUQFnoECB4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fmcbushkin%2F%3Fhl%3Den&usg=AOvVaw3_VH7ouA4V9K2U0PHvxCqB">MC Bushkin</a> noting that girls left jungle and drum and bass scenes for garage and <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiC8O6B9uz7AhWMRMAKHTR4B_kQFnoECA4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fra.co%2Fdj%2Fmcckp%2Fbiography&usg=AOvVaw3tvHI4fxdo3CIB5gXZyioV">MC CKP</a> stating wherever the girls were, the guys would follow.</p>
<p>The documentary positions women as passive and largely voiceless in the scene, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/black-music-in-britain-in-the-21st-century-9781802078404?cc=us&lang=en&#">which was not the case</a>. </p>
<p>Women are essential in the survival of participatory music cultures such as garage (where everyone present at a music event is actively participating through playing an instrument, singing, chanting or dancing) in both visible (MCs, professional dancers, administrators) and invisible roles (fans).</p>
<p>This lack of reflection inadvertently erases women from the genre’s history.</p>
<h2>Is there a future for the garage scene?</h2>
<p>What caused garage’s decline? In 25 Years of Garage, DJ Majestic (once one of London’s most popular garage MCs) offers some insight. </p>
<p>He considers the then smaller role of the internet, which later did so much to cement the international success of grime. He also debates the limiting insistence of the UK element of “UK garage”, and the consequences of gatekeeping. <a href="http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/92164/">Not “letting the youngsters through”</a> meant that musicians including <a href="https://www.popmatters.com/031024-dizzeerascal-2496102558.html">Dizzee Rascal</a> and <a href="https://genius.com/Wiley-wot-do-u-call-it-lyrics">Wiley</a> declared that they did not make, nor care about, garage when they built their own sound.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500085/original/file-20221209-29206-95s4o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rapper Wiley performing on stage in a black tshirt, rapping into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500085/original/file-20221209-29206-95s4o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500085/original/file-20221209-29206-95s4o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500085/original/file-20221209-29206-95s4o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500085/original/file-20221209-29206-95s4o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500085/original/file-20221209-29206-95s4o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500085/original/file-20221209-29206-95s4o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500085/original/file-20221209-29206-95s4o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wiley’s Wot Do U Call It makes his feelings about garage explicit, rapping, ‘Garage? I don’t care about garage.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0_Wiley1.jpg">Faisal</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Associations with criminality and violence in the mainstream also decimated the scene’s chances of longevity. Its demise, meanwhile <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KZAkAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Sounds+Like+London:+100+Years+of+Black+Music+in+the+Capital&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQ3-u_yOr7AhVUkFwKHYK_ARAQ6AF6BAgIEAI">opened up a plethora of other genres</a> such as bassline and dubstep.</p>
<p>Without an overarching narrative curating this documentary, it becomes an echo chamber. While it’s important to platform those essential to garage, all these personal accounts do is speak to other people from within the scene. </p>
<p>To push the genre forward, it needed to make the historical, sociological and cultural connections that would render garage accessible to outsiders.</p>
<p>In this way, 25 Years of Garage unintentionally demonstrates and reinforces the role gatekeeping – originally intended to protect the scene – eventually played in stifling it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monique Charles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>25 Years of Garage has good intentions, but this scene-documenting film makes some familiar mistakes.Monique Charles, Assistant Professor, Chapman UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1373502020-05-11T15:56:04Z2020-05-11T15:56:04ZHow grime and drill musicians are helping fight coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333348/original/file-20200507-49550-7n4lt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Grime artist Lady Leshurr has released a song called Quarantine Speech that urges listeners to wash their hands</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/barcelona-jun-16-lady-leshurr-rapper-688098256">Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With lyrics that encourage people to “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW71FKXQwSY">keep your salivas</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg2dmvvew_o">take this ting serious</a>”, a handful of recent grime and drill releases are promoting social responsibility – instead of anti-social behaviour, as their detractors tend to argue. Both musical genres have been vilified by <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-a-symbol-of-broken-britain-grime-has-become-a-voice-for-the-voiceless-92468">the authorities</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51459553">media</a>, who connect them with knife crime and gang violence. </p>
<p>While these civic-minded tracks are in step with the official rules of lockdown, they are also critical of the government. Many strive to cut through the ambiguity of <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-as-the-uk-faces-more-restrictions-the-public-needs-clearer-government-information-134471">unclear government messaging</a>; while also holding the authorities accountable for their perceived failure to properly serve marginalised communities. </p>
<p>Grime and drill form part of what is considered UK “urban” music. Grime emerged from London in the early 2000s as a fusion of garage and jungle and has achieved mainstream success through artists like Skepta, Wiley and Stormzy. </p>
<p>Wanting to step away from grime, around 2014 young MCs looked to Chicago’s drill scene. UK drill has its roots in south-east London and has developed its own distinct British sound. It has become known for balaclava-clad rappers, council-estate scenes and violent lyrics. </p>
<p>Both genres were born out of a DIY <a href="https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/13832/1/Joy_White_2014.pdf">entrepreneurial mindset</a>, which has meant that MCs and producers have been quick to respond to the pandemic. These tracks frequently combine witty and relatable social observations about the hardships of isolation – like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=207&v=_Ud1nPd5oEg&feature=emb_logo">running out of snacks</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9F_bchWcjw">having nothing to do</a> – with public health messages in a short, sharp and entertaining format. </p>
<h2>Wash your hands</h2>
<p>These songs are distinctively UK-centric – “I went Sainsbury’s just to get bog roll” raps Lady Leshurr in Quarantine Speech. They record and represent the ordinary lived experience of people in Britain today – albeit in extraordinary circumstances. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EW71FKXQwSY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Even in the more “underground” COVID tunes, the message is generally a socially responsible one. They might include lines about spending lockdown with a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=207&v=_Ud1nPd5oEg&feature=emb_logo">big bag of weed</a> or bemoan <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9F_bchWcjw">enforced celibacy</a>. However, listeners are encouraged to stay at home, stay safe, heed social distancing advice, and avoid spreading the disease. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg2dmvvew_o">Spreadin’</a> drill MC Psyche pleads:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Please don’t hug me, please don’t spud me </p>
<p>We can make a handshake using our feet </p>
<p>We can make a handshake using elbows, knees </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rocking pandemic glamour in a hazmat suit and a rhinestone-studded face mask in Quarantine Speech, Lady Leshurr encourages her fans to “wash them hands”. This is both sensible public health advice and a nod to her 2015 release Queens Speech 4, which told people to “brush your teeth” – albeit this was talking about metaphorical hygiene, as in no bad-mouthing. Leshurr has also been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52501483">donating profits</a> from music and merchandise sales, which includes face masks, to the NHS, and took part in an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52501483">NHS fundraiser on YouTube called Stream #WithMe</a>.</p>
<h2>It’s about the people</h2>
<p>This echoing of public health instructions appears to put these artists on the same page as the authorities. This is perhaps a surprising consequence of the pandemic, given that these musical genres – <a href="https://gal-dem.com/wiley-mbe/">Wiley’s MBE</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jun/29/stormzy-historic-glastonbury-performance">Stormzy headlining Glastonbury</a> notwithstanding – have continuously been subject to racial and class-based prejudice, and efforts to suppress them. </p>
<p>At one time, they were almost driven out of existence by the London Metropolitan Police’s notorious – and now abolished – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/21/met-to-review-risk-assessment-form-696-stifling-grime-garage-scenes">Form 696</a>. This identified black audiences as “high risk” and made getting club and gig licences close to impossible. These genres have also been demonised for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/09/uk-drill-music-london-wave-violent-crime">encouraging gang culture</a>, criticised for <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5183953/Grime-music-fueling-use-skunk-expert-warns.html">promoting and drug and knife crime</a>, and even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/jan/31/skengdo-and-am-the-drill-rappers-sentenced-for-playing-their-song">explicitly criminalised</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zg2dmvvew_o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But rather than seeing these anti-COVID tracks as agents of mainstream propaganda, they could be seen as a response to the disproportionate impact of the virus on the communities from which these genres emerged – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/british-bame-covid-19-death-rate-more-than-twice-that-of-whites">BAME</a> (black and minority ethnic), working-class, urban – and a desire by artists to reach these people with public health information often more straightforward and <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-us-and-uk-governments-losing-public-trust-137713">unambiguous than government campaigns</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-hitting-bame-communities-hard-on-every-front-136327">Coronavirus is hitting BAME communities hard on every front</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These messages might be perceived as more trustworthy by their audiences, as they come directly from people like them – not politicians or journalists far removed from the daily realities of inner-city lives, chronic poverty and racism. These musicians are compensating for and criticising the government’s perceived failure to support and protect these sections of society. As Psyche says in Spreadin’: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s about the people </p>
<p>Boris is a joke, he won’t close schools </p>
<p>The government’s evil</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These COVID-19 tracks can be seen as part of ongoing criticism by UK urban artists of the government’s perceived inability or unwillingness to tackle inequality and its effects. They are in line with Stormzy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/21/stormzy-asks-may-wheres-the-money-for-grenfell-at-brit-awards">calling out Theresa May’s handling of the Grenfell Tower</a> tragedy and its aftermath at the Brit awards in 2018. </p>
<p>Grime and allied genres continue to function as a vital voice for segments of society often denied access to the conventional institutions of power and public debate. Long regarded as <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/london/2018-05-29/what-is-drill-music-and-why-is-it-seen-as-a-problem/">“problem” music</a>, they might well be part of the solution to tackling the coronavirus.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Adams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Releases created in lockdown have included messages to stay home and save lives.Ruth Adams, Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1287922020-01-16T13:20:14Z2020-01-16T13:20:14ZWhy you don’t see many black and ethnic minority faces in cultural spaces – and what happens if you call out the system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309448/original/file-20200110-97134-zmp13r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You're great, just don't get too big for your boots.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/18-august-2018-campingflight-lowlands-paradise-1161729769">Ben Houdijk/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever been to the theatre, looked around, and thought about how predominantly white the audience is? Does the same impression come to mind when visiting museums? If it does and the answer is a resounding yes, then you’re not alone. There is a major problem in Britain’s cultural industry and it’s time we all took a hard look at why. </p>
<p>For years now, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/Arts/all-the-world-s-a-stage-the-struggle-to-bring-ethnic-and-gender-diversity-to-british-theatre-a7242826.html">there has</a> been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/dec/01/andrew-lloyd-webber-warns-diversity-crisis-british-theatre">a growing recognition</a> of the ethnic inequalities in the creative sector. Arts Council England found it to be <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Diversity_report_1718.pdf">prevalent and persistent</a>, particularly in theatres and museums: 12% of the workforce in national organisations in the council’s portfolio were from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, and just 5% across its major partner museums. In positions of leadership, this fell to only 9% of chief executives and 10% of artistic directors in national portfolio organisations. On executive boards at partner museums it was 3%. <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2020/slow-progress-on-diversity-exposed-as-the-stage-survey-shows-90-of-top-theatre-bosses-are-white/">A recent survey</a> showed that 92% of top British theatre leaders were white.<br>
In TV, <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/diversity-uk-television-industry">a report</a> from communications regulator Ofcom showed that ethnic minorities were also considerably underrepresented. It highlighted “a cultural disconnect between the people who make programmes and the millions who watch them”.</p>
<p>This is all despite a number of leading institutions introducing action plans and policies to improve their diversity. While Arts Council England launched the <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/diversity/creative-case-diversity">Creative Case for Diversity</a> in 2011, to emphasise the importance and value of diversity in the arts and its significance in enriching artistic practice, leadership and audiences, leading broadcasters the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/diversity">BBC</a> and <a href="https://www.channel4.com/corporate/about-4/operating-responsibly/diversity">Channel 4</a> have ramped up efforts to increase diversity. Yet change of the status quo seems to be minimal and in some cases static. The cultural sector remains steeped in ethnic inequality.</p>
<h2>Failing strategies</h2>
<p>There are many factors for why Britain’s cultural sector appears to be circumscribed by whiteness in ideology and practice, production and consumption. Diversity strategies <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2018/bame-disabled-staff-still-significantly-underrepresented-theatre-arts-council-report/">seem to be failing</a> so far, partly because “diversity” itself is a problematic term that can often dilute the problem and <a href="https://lithub.com/marlon-james-why-im-done-talking-about-diversity/">depoliticise the issue</a> of racial discrimination. In the creative sector, it has morphed from an aspiration to tackle racial inequality into a drive for better business and economics – a rationale that downshifts the social impact of ethnic inequality, as film studies fellow Clive Nwonka <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/15/arts-diversity-arts-council-england-inequality">argues</a>. </p>
<p>The business case for diversity can help campaign for ethnic equality, but using it merely as a business tool can mask discriminatory practices and shift focus away from deeper issues of structural racism – for example, in embedded attitudes about art production, its consumers and its exclusivity; attitudes that enforce creative hierarchies that align with racial and class hierarchies. </p>
<h2>Myths about high art and its audience</h2>
<p>Many a myth still exist about cultural creation, what constitutes high or low culture, and the attitudes of ethnic minorities towards cultural participation. Commonly held opinions include, for example, that audiences from black and ethnic minorities are hard to engage – a view that ignores the lack of ethnic representation in the sector, among other realities pertaining to education and class. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310297/original/file-20200115-134764-1j4t7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meera Syal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/meera-syal-arriving-daily-mail-inspirational-119475376">Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2014, and in response <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/08/meera-syal-theatre-film-asian-audiences-diverse-appeal">to calls by actress Meera Syal</a> for theatres to cater to Asian audiences, distinguished actor Janet Suzman was staunchly criticised for claiming that theatre was a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/dec/08/actor-janet-suzman-criticised-calling-theatre-white-invention">white invention</a>”, that “runs in their [white people’s] DNA”. Consciously or not, statements like these contribute to a segregation of culture, and a hierarchy of cultural production. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203993262/chapters/10.4324/9780203993262-35">What is this “black” in black popular culture?</a>, Stuart Hall articulated how the ordering of culture into high and low serves to establish cultural hegemony: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is an ordering of culture that opens up culture to the play of power, not an inventory of what is high versus what is low at any particular moment.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Take grime</h2>
<p>Ethnic and racial hierarchies get reproduced through cultural hierarchies. For example, grime music is tolerated, even celebrated, as long as it remains an ethnic genre, confined to a black experience, and so subject to hierarchical cultural positioning. </p>
<p>The outrage that a number of public figures (such as presenter <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/18/piers-morgan-attacks-stormzy-telling-schoolkids-pm-is-bad-man">Piers Morgan</a> and academic <a href="https://twitter.com/MrPaulStott/status/1208673532676325376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1208673532676325376&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2019%2F12%2F24%2Fpeople-ethnic-minorities-power-doesnt-mean-racism-11957399%2F">Paul Stott</a>) showed towards Stormzy when he recently affirmed that racism exists in the UK, appeared to stem from their sense that the grime artist has succeeded courtesy to whiteness, its tolerance and patronage, as <a href="https://twitter.com/MrPaulStott/status/1208673532676325376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1208673532676325376&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2019%2F12%2F24%2Fpeople-ethnic-minorities-power-doesnt-mean-racism-11957399%2F">a tweet from Stott</a> suggested: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1208673532676325376"}"></div></p>
<h2>It all starts with education</h2>
<p>Attitudes about culture are also produced and reproduced through education. Theatre departments are probably one of the first and most essential blocs in the chain of supply for the theatre sector and cultural industry in general. Yet a <a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-characterises-higher-education-institutions-so-why-are-we-surprised-by-racism-93147">predominantly white curriculum</a> continues to be the norm in arts and theatre subjects – that is because for the most part, the canon has been constructed in the image of whiteness. As a consequence, most theatre students will study the works of Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht, for example, but not many will consult the plays of Nigerian Nobel Laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/soyinka/biographical/">writer Wole Soyinka</a>, or <a href="https://world-theatre-day.org/saadalla_wannous.html">Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310282/original/file-20200115-134768-7qhjg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wole Soyinka: we don’t know either.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/8ac23bc1-75ec-4656-a41c-e74c4f7fe783">jdco/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Black and ethnic minorities are underrepresented as students, academics and authors on reading lists. <a href="http://scudd.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Chairs-Report-from-the-Diversity-in-the-Discipline-Working-Group.pdf">As one notable report</a> put it: although a welcoming environment, the discipline remains monocultural in terms of both its staff and curricula.</p>
<p>The few taught modules that focus on non-white theatres texts are offered as part of an optional stream, to add “flavour” rather as part of the core canon. This reproduces the hierarchy of knowledge with whiteness on top, and ethnic contributions valued through their proximity to whiteness. It also exoticises and exceptionalises non-white modules, created to appeal to non-white students. While these texts, and those who consume them, are both kept part of and inside the institution, they remain outside its frame of cultural influence and power.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whiteness-characterises-higher-education-institutions-so-why-are-we-surprised-by-racism-93147">Whiteness characterises higher education institutions – so why are we surprised by racism?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some scholars and activists are taking bold actions to decolonise the discipline from within. Campaigns such as <a href="https://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/why-is-my-curriculum-white/">Why is my curriculum so white</a> challenge the lack of diversity in UK universities and the dominance of white eurocentric teaching materials. </p>
<p>Yet attitudes towards cultural production remain set within a frame of mind that centres whiteness as the custodian of high art. When the principal of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was asked about quotas as a potential way to boost diversity in 2018, <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2018/central-school-principal-quotas-reduce-quality-student-intake/">his concern for the school’s standards and reputation</a> implied that black and ethnic minorities might not possess the finesse required to meet such “standards”.</p>
<p>Others, such as the Black British Classical Foundation, <a href="http://bbcf.org.uk/">aim to nurture interest and participation</a> in art forms <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/2017/the-voice-of-black-opera-how-diversity-is-helping-to-build-operas-artistic-strength/">often seen as exclusionary</a>.</p>
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<h2>It plays out in institutions</h2>
<p>Our representations are created in cultural institutions, and it is within their daily operation, structures and processes that ethnic inequalities are either perpetuated or mitigated. </p>
<p>For the last two years, my colleagues and I have been researching how institutions <a href="https://www.ethnicity.ac.uk/">reproduce or mitigate ethnic inequalities</a> in cultural production. Throughout our research and interviews, the idea of exclusivity has been reiterated again and again by both majority (white) ethnic and minority ethnic staff. </p>
<p>Although some institutions have introduced diversity initiatives, progress seems slow and tied up to arts funding structures that are temporary and one directional – ultimately serving the institutions rather than the ethnic minorities they seek to engage. Organisations may gain funding by appealing to funders’ diversity agendas, but their engagement with ethnic minority communities and artists is rarely sustainable or lasting, leaving creatives feeling exploited and perhaps further marginalised. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309467/original/file-20200110-97183-1yzguup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bafta: still struggling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-june-19th-2018-bafta-1378472708">Lorna Roberts/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Many theatres and TV production companies also aim to increase representations on stage and screen, but that really only serves as window dressing. Ultimately, creators, writers, producers, senior management and commissioners remain mostly white. The stories they tell are therefore also mostly white. The lack of diversity in the <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/baftas-2020-joker-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-and-the-irishman-lead-nominations-11902779">2020 Bafta nominations</a> is an example of a film culture that struggles to produce, represent or celebrate ethnic minorities.</p>
<p>Of course, class plays a major factor in perpetuating ethnic inequalities in the cultural sector, but it is also sometimes used to camouflage structural racism in its institutions. Race and class can work in tandem to marginalise ethnic minorities in cultural spaces, but racism in cultural spaces has a direct link to racism in social spaces and that has an impact on how the nation imagines itself – dictating who belongs and who doesn’t.</p>
<p>There is a silver lining, though. New modes of cultural production and consumption via avenues like Netflix, YouTube, and Instagram are changing traditional cultural production practices. Netflix’s large investment in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/serenitygibbons/2019/05/21/what-the-rise-of-netflixs-original-content-can-teach-leaders-about-diversity/">original content</a> and its subscription model means that the network is commissioning diverse content to cater for and further attract a receptive diverse audience. Such trends may yet force institutions to properly address their lack of diversity. </p>
<p>A cultural sector that is able to represent Britain’s diverse communities and respond to new digital means of production and distribution cannot happen without a diverse workforce, institutions that conceptualise diversity as a core strength, and funding bodies that facilitate long-term ethnic equality in the sector rather than short-lived diversity initiatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roaa Ali is a member of CoDE research team, which receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>Why shouting diversity just doesn’t cut it if the system is designed to keep people out.Roaa Ali, Research Associate (Cultural Production and Consumption), University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1009982018-08-07T11:56:06Z2018-08-07T11:56:06ZWhy the UK needs its own Black Lives Matter moment to wake up to police racism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230787/original/file-20180806-191047-v1iw29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gang culture, social media, drug-market violence, funding cuts to policing and youth clubs, and poverty and social inequality, have all been blamed for the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/treating-young-people-like-criminals-actually-makes-violent-crime-worse-91723">knife crime</a> “epidemic” in London.</p>
<p>More recently, however, it’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/09/uk-drill-music-london-wave-violent-crime">UK drill</a>, a new black British music genre, that has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-music-videos-is-not-a-criminal-activity-no-matter-what-genre-97472">accused of promoting gun and knife crime</a>, much like <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fatsis+crime+media+culture&rlz=1C1JZAP_enGB718GB718&oq=fatsis+crime+media+culture&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.7621j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">UK grime and garage before it</a>. </p>
<p>In the last two months 30 YouTube videos of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44281586">drill music have been removed</a> by the police, followed by Criminal Behaviour Orders <a href="https://rightsinfo.org/court-says-drill-music-group-banned-from-sharing-music-with-police-permission/">issued against drill artists</a>. Such responses may seem justified especially in the light of some fatal incidents that have been <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/london-stabbing-drill-music-camberwell-killed-incognito-dead-rhyhiem-ainsworth-barton-a8474071.html">linked to drill music</a>. But it remains difficult to prove a direct link between drill lyrics and actual murder(s) beyond a certain degree of speculation and interpretation. </p>
<h2>Controversial crackdown</h2>
<p>Designing crime prevention strategies based on decoding lyrics seems ill-advised to say the least. The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, however, has <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/met-police-chief-calls-on-youtube-drill-music/">publicly defended such responses</a>. As has the Met’s gang crime chief, who also supported the revisiting of the Terrorism Act to <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/police-to-treat-gangs-like-terror-suspects-7zms8gsmr">pursue “drillers” as terror suspects</a>. </p>
<p>The use of the act allows the police to bring convictions against people <a href="https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/nek3qm/drill-knife-crime-violence-london-long-read">featured in drill videos</a> without any proof that the targeted music videos are linked to specific acts of violence. The government’s <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/698009/serious-violence-strategy.pdf">Serious Violence Strategy</a>, also adopts a similar stance. </p>
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<p>The Youth Violence Commission’s <a href="http://yvcommission.com/interim-report/">interim report</a>, however, is a welcome alternative. According to this report, “debates around the potential impact of drill music on youth violence are, in the main, a populist distraction from understanding and tackling the real root causes” of youth violence. </p>
<p>These include “childhood trauma and undiagnosed and untreated mental health issues”. But also, “inadequate state provision, deficient parental support, poverty and social inequality”. This is why the report’s authors have called for an approach modelled after Scotland’s <a href="http://actiononviolence.org/">Violence Reduction Unit</a>, which champions a public health approach to youth violence.</p>
<h2>Racist responses?</h2>
<p>Punitive responses to a public health emergency are clearly counterproductive. As is the reluctance of the <a href="http://yvcommission.com/interim-report/">Youth Violence Commission</a> to treat the issue as a racial justice priority – given that discriminatory responses cannot be separated from the mentality that informs them. Popular “crime-fighting” measures, such as arbitrary <a href="http://www.stop-watch.org/uploads/documents/modern_law_review.pdf">stops and searches</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/09/police-gang-lists-racist-black-matrix">police gang lists</a>, for example, routinely <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-are-using-big-data-to-profile-young-people-putting-them-at-risk-of-discrimination-96683">profile young black people</a> who are logged as suspects in police databases on the flimsiest of evidence. </p>
<p>The same goes for other anti-gang operations such as Trident, Shield and Domain and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jan/21/police-form-696-garage-music">event risk assessment forms of policing</a>, which have been declared racially discriminatory by <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/58/1/243/2623973?redirectedFrom=fulltext">academics</a>, <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/race-britain/stop-and-think">human rights groups</a>, the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23074&LangID=E">UN</a>, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/london-trident-gangs-matrix-metropolitan-police">Amnesty International</a>, and the <a href="https://twitter.com/sadiqkhan/status/928996350330630144?lang=en">London mayor</a>. </p>
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<p>The 2017 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lammy-review-final-report">Lammy Review</a> paints a similar picture although it curiously excluded policing from its remit. Yet in that year <a href="https://www.inquest.org.uk/rashan-charles-opening">five young black men</a> died in police custody, and Avon and Somerset Police police was accused of institutional racism by the <a href="https://www.bristol.gov.uk/documents/20182/35136/Multi-agency+learning+review+following+the+murder+of+Bijan+Ebrahimi">Safer Bristol Partnership Report</a>, following the mishandling of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-42393488">Bijan Ebrahimi murder</a>. </p>
<p>Recent figures by the <a href="https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/news/iopc-publishes-figures-deaths-during-or-following-police-contact-201718">Independent Office for Police Conduct</a> also show a higher proportion of black people dying in police custody after the use of force or restraint. Half a century after the term was used in the <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1981/nov/25/the-scarman-report">Scarman</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-stephen-lawrence-inquiry">MacPherson</a> reports in response to the 1981 Brixton Riots and in the Stephen Lawrence murder, institutional racism within the police seems to be in rude health. </p>
<h2>Fighting fire with ire?</h2>
<p>Seven years have passed since the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/08/were-the-riots-about-race">sparked the 2011 riots</a>. Yet British society does not seem to have recovered from or discovered the reality of police racism. Many were alarmed during England’s “<a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/46297/1/Reading%20the%20riots%28published%29.pdf">summer of disorder</a>”, which echoed the 1970s and 1980s when discriminatory policing sparked disturbances in <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Policing-Riots-David-Cowell/dp/0862450810">Notting Hill, Brixton and elsewhere</a>. However, much of this shock should not occasion surprise. As <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1741659018784111?journalCode=cmca">my research shows</a>, the policing of black British culture claims a long history. </p>
<p>As does the stigmatisation, the demonisation, and criminalisation of young black Britons. This is the reality of “post-racial” or “colour-blind” times. And it should be unmasked to reveal the racism that refuses to be seen. This is why it might take another <a href="https://en-gb.facebook.com/BLMUK/">Black Lives Matter</a> moment to wake up to police racism, and recognise that when <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Policing-Alex-Vitale/dp/1784782890">policing is part of the problem</a> it can’t also be the solution to violent crime.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/knife-crime-i-spoke-to-young-people-who-carry-blades-and-they-want-to-stop-the-violence-98202">Knife crime: I spoke to young people who carry blades – and they want to stop the violence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100998/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lambros Fatsis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The policing of black British culture has a long history.Lambros Fatsis, Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/974722018-06-22T10:04:35Z2018-06-22T10:04:35ZMaking music videos is not a criminal activity – no matter what genre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224399/original/file-20180622-26561-1coa9x4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">YouTube/Harlem Spartans</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>West London music group 1011 has recently been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/15/london-drill-rap-gang-banned-from-making-music-due-to-threat-of-violence">banned</a> from recording or performing music without police permission. On June 15, the Metropolitan police issued the group, which has been the subject of a two-year police investigation, <a href="http://www.nme.com/news/music/drill-group-banned-making-music-without-police-permission-2339547">with a Criminal Behaviour Order</a>. </p>
<p>For the next three years, five members of the group – which creates and performs a UK version of drill, a genre of hip-hop that emerged from Chicago – must give 24 hours notice of the release of any music video, and 48 hours notice of any live performance. They are also banned from attending Notting Hill Carnival and wearing balaclavas.</p>
<p>This is a legally unprecedented move, but it is not without context. A recent Amnesty UK <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/reports/Trapped%20in%20the%20Matrix%20Amnesty%20report.pdf">report</a> on the Metropolitan Police Gangs Matrix – a risk assessment tool that links individuals to gang related crime – stated that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The sharing of YouTube videos and other social media activity are used as potential criteria for adding names to the Matrix, with grime music videos featuring gang names or signs considered a particular possible indicator of likely gang affiliation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Furthermore, recent research indicates that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/29/rise-in-proportion-bame-suspects-met-police-gangs-matrix">almost 90% of those on the Matrix</a> are black or ethnic minority.</p>
<p>For young people who make music, video is a key way to share their work with a wider audience. Online platforms such as SBTV, <a href="http://thelinkup.com/be-on-link-up-tv/submit-music-video-for-youtube-upload/">LinkUp TV</a>, <a href="http://grmdaily.com/videos">GRM daily</a> and <a href="https://www.ukgrime.com/promotion/">UK Grime</a> are all popular sites. Often using street corners and housing estates as a location, these videos are a central component of the urban music scene. But the making of these music videos appears to feed into a continuing unease about youth crime and public safety.</p>
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<p>Fifteen years ago, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2752681.stm">ministers were concerned</a> about “rap lyrics”; in 2007 some MPs demanded to have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/aug/26/ukguns.ukcrime2">videos banned</a> after a shooting in Liverpool. UK <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/23/teeangers-carry-knives-not-drill-music">drill music</a> is only the focus of the most recent crackdown by the Metropolitan police, which has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44281586">requested YouTube</a> to remove any music videos with “violent content”.</p>
<p>The production and circulation of urban music videos has become a contested activity – and performance in the public sphere is presented as a cause for concern. This is leading to the criminalisation of everyday pursuits. Young people from poor backgrounds are now becoming categorised as troublemakers through the mere act of making a music video.</p>
<h2>Tackling ‘gang’-related violence</h2>
<p>The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 introduced the Anti-Social Behaviour Order or ASBO, a loosely defined term that covers any behaviour, such as playing loud music, littering or drug taking, that is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. Local councils and social housing landlords can apply for an ASBO and the breach of an order facilitates entry into the criminal justice system. By congregating in public areas, young people lay themselves open to coming under the watchful scrutiny of the regulating authorities and young people can be served with dispersal notices banning them from public places.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221148/original/file-20180531-69517-j3s5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221148/original/file-20180531-69517-j3s5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221148/original/file-20180531-69517-j3s5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221148/original/file-20180531-69517-j3s5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221148/original/file-20180531-69517-j3s5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221148/original/file-20180531-69517-j3s5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221148/original/file-20180531-69517-j3s5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221148/original/file-20180531-69517-j3s5fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Dispersal order.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joy White</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Then, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/26/contents">Policing and Crime Act 2009</a> defined gang-related violence as actual or the threat of violence that occurs in relation to group activities.</p>
<p>Such “group activities” must be carried out by at least three people who have one or more characteristics that enable them to be identified by others as a group - such as the use of a name, emblem, colour or other characteristic, and an association with a particular geographical area. However, across the public order agencies, there is no agreed working definition what constitutes a gang.</p>
<p>But it is only more recently that some local authorities also sought to remove videos from the internet. In 2013, Newham Council appointed a dedicated member of staff <a href="https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/164007/response/405592/attach/2/FOI%20RESPONSE%20E15688.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1">to monitor and remove videos</a> that they felt had evidence of criminal or illegal activity. According to a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzlx4yn1wZ0">BBC News report</a>, these videos had a “territorial tone”.</p>
<p>The removal of drill and grime music videos is yet another risk assessment tool in a pre-emptive strategy to maintain public order. But the deep seated and complex issue of youth violence is not solved by gestures – such as banning music videos – that merely give the sense that “something is being done”.</p>
<h2>Policing creative expression</h2>
<p>In this way, making a music video has become entangled with legislation and policies that are designed to maintain public safety.</p>
<p>Creating a music video to upload share online is an everyday pursuit for many young people. Despite its emancipatory beginnings, YouTube has become a mode of surveillance and intelligence gathering for the regulating authorities. Music videos are now routinely analysed in terms of both lyrics and behaviour, scanned for evidence of perceived wrongdoing.</p>
<p>The desire to secure public safety means that some creative expressions have been deemed to be out of control and therefore in need of being monitored and policed in an authoritarian way. But this has led to a situation where among the regulating authorities, there is <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1741659011433367?journalCode=cmca">little differentiation</a> between MCs using artistic licence to comment on and reference criminal acts, and those that are alleged to be a visual record of actual wrongdoing or an incitement to wrongdoing. </p>
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<p>Performance personas adopted by MCs may articulate experiences of life on the margins and, as such, reflect a harshness that is seen and heard in their everyday surroundings. As with other genres and art forms, this creative expression may include fantasy and flights of fancy. One reason why some artists rap about violence is <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/music/67-interview-this-is-not-a-gang-this-is-a-logo-this-is-a-company-this-is-a-brand-a3620276.html">that they come from violent backgrounds</a> – reflecting, not shaping, the reality of teenagers from stigmatised areas.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, young people from such communities are often on the receiving end of policy initiatives and processes to tackle public safety issues. Within this context, any “gang” activity is perceived as an issue of crime and disorder as well as public safety.</p>
<p>The police’s uncritical acceptance of the term “gang” and consequent labelling of groups of young men who gather to make music videos as having a high risk of criminal behaviour means that in impoverished areas, three young men wearing the same colour clothes can be constituted as a gang and therefore become subject to regulation and disciplinary technologies. These policies and practices combine at a local level to criminalise the everyday activities of young people who want to meet up, socialise and pursue their hobbies. </p>
<p>The 1011 case may seem like a proportionate response to increasing levels of youth violence. But the majority of young people who make music videos and broadcast them online are not “gang” members or committing any crime, yet are increasingly rendered as troublesome and subject to growing levels of surveillance and censorship.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joy White received funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) in 2015.</span></em></p>West London group 1011 music group have been banned from making music without police permission.Joy White, Visiting Lecturer, University of RoehamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/924682018-03-12T12:23:18Z2018-03-12T12:23:18ZFrom a symbol of ‘Broken Britain’, grime has become a voice for the voiceless<p>Grime music may be one of the most maligned modern musical genres. In Britain, many in political circles and wider society view it as a front for criminal behaviour involving gang violence or drug dealing. Others point to what they see as gratuitous denigration of women. While certain artists do conform to, or at least play up to, this image, others provide a voice for little-heard and disenfranchised communities in a way that can help highlight the issues of inequality and social exclusion they face.</p>
<p>Grime first emerged as a musical genre in Bow, in London’s East End, where young artists led by the likes of Wiley and Dizzee Rascal began to experiment by infusing the beats of garage and house with rapped vocals. This quickly found a home within inner-city estates of London and other major UK cities, where growing numbers of pirate radio stations and raves included grime music among their diet of garage, hip-hop and jungle. </p>
<p>However criticism soon followed, particularly within political circles. Here, many on the political right began to link grime music with the spike in anti-social behaviour that swept Britain in the mid-2000s. This caused the genre to become closely linked to the concept of “<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-48764/A-life-grime-crime.html">Broken Britain</a>” expressed in right-wing media.</p>
<p>This led to a moral panic emerging around grime and other music of black origin popular in cities – particularly the association with violence. For example, grime was implicated in the gang feud that resulted in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/18/ukguns.ukcrime">murders of Charlene Ellis and Leticia Shakespeare</a>, who were gunned down in Birmingham over New Years’ Eve celebrations in January 2003. The roots of this incident lay in a clash between two rival gangs over the lyrics used by an MC (rapper) at the party to mock a fatal stabbing that had occurred earlier in the city.</p>
<p>The fall-out saw grime stigmatised and held as a symbol of a wide range of illicit leisure activities and deviant behaviour – something sometimes referred to as “dark leisure”. Among the consequences was that grime events, and by extension music events featuring music of black origin, became more strictly policed. In London, the Metropolitan Police’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41946915">Form 696</a> was explicitly targeted at music venues and promoters that attracted grime audiences.</p>
<p>However, in spite of the negative attention directed towards grime, the genre continues to provide a prominent voice of hope to those who feel that the political classes have forgotten about them. It’s important to recognise how grime artists have played a significant role in sticking up for inner-city communities, particularly within highly charged media debates about inequality and racism. </p>
<p>In this climate of political activism, artists such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9NWK7VOLig">Akala</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rAvHnCO6yk">Stormzy</a> have played a pivotal role in providing a voice. For example, highlighting the poor treatment of victims of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40272168">Grenfell Tower fire disaster</a> through appearances on current affairs programmes and at public events such as the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/brit-awards-2018-live-updates-winners-nominations-performances-dua-lipa-ed-sheeran-stormzy-paloma-a8221286.html">2018 Brit Awards</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, the artist JME has provided a platform for political debate by partaking in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-rxp_QwjmQ">YouTube interview with Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn</a> to discuss issues relating to social exclusion and deprivation. Both highlight the role grime music plays as a catalyst to spark discussions of important political issues.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209922/original/file-20180312-30972-7mget7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209922/original/file-20180312-30972-7mget7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209922/original/file-20180312-30972-7mget7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209922/original/file-20180312-30972-7mget7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209922/original/file-20180312-30972-7mget7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209922/original/file-20180312-30972-7mget7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209922/original/file-20180312-30972-7mget7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Grime artist Skepta, whose winning the Mercury Prize over David Bowie was another step in grime’s march toward the mainstream.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skepta.jpg">Blue37</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not for the first time</h2>
<p>In its cultural origins and political associations there are similarities between grime and the emergence of hip-hop in the 1980s. Rap groups such as NWA and Public Enemy provided a sounding board for the anger and distrust felt by Afro-Americans in the US brought about by the discrimination faced by black communities. This social commentary continued into the 1990s as artists such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN34EVNkKR0">Ice-T</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXvBjCO19QY">Tupac</a> rapped about police brutality, drug epidemics and political corruption. </p>
<p>In a similar manner to grime, the critical social commentary offered by hip-hop was glossed over by political elites. This was achieved by demonising such music as a symbol of “dark leisure” and so associating it with illicit activities, through emphasising to the wider population the negative images put forward by certain artists, for example the tendency to focus on sex, violence and money.</p>
<p>Grime and hip-hop are two separate musical genres with origins on different sides of the Atlantic many decades apart. However they share a similarity in terms of their capacity to offer critical social commentary and a voice for disenfranchised. Also similar are the tactics used by the authorities to paint grime artists and their fans as deviant in the minds of the wider population. The consequence is that, while grime has struggled to achieve mainstream popularity over 15 years, many of the artists are held as important voices to those whose lives they represent, even as they remain unknown or are considered dangerous by the society that keeps them on its periphery.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Spencer Swain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s not the first time a form of urban music from the black community has been purposefully associated with crime by the powers that be.Spencer Swain, Lecturer , York St John UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/923692018-02-24T09:27:47Z2018-02-24T09:27:47ZGrime artists cannot be ignored – and it will mean a seismic shift in public discourse<p>At the Brit Awards grime artist Stormzy won both best British male and best British album. But it was his acutely insurgent performance at the close of the live ITV broadcast that really got people talking.</p>
<p>Amid the usual glitz, glamour and perfect lifestyles portrayed at such events, Stormzy delivered a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/21/stormzy-asks-may-wheres-the-money-for-grenfell-at-brit-awards">powerful and passionate verse</a> that built up to a direct challenge to Theresa May:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yo Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?<br>
What, you thought we just forgot about Grenfell?<br>
You criminals and you’ve got the cheek to call us savages<br>
You should do some jail time, you should pay some damages</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is not the first time Stormzy has exploited a media platform to state his position on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/grenfell-tower-39675">Grenfell disaster</a>, which claimed the lives of 71 people in June 2017. At Glastonbury festival last summer he criticised the May government’s response to the tragedy, while he also featured on the Grenfell charity single.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207664/original/file-20180223-108139-umyjxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207664/original/file-20180223-108139-umyjxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207664/original/file-20180223-108139-umyjxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207664/original/file-20180223-108139-umyjxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207664/original/file-20180223-108139-umyjxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207664/original/file-20180223-108139-umyjxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207664/original/file-20180223-108139-umyjxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/207664/original/file-20180223-108139-umyjxh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Stormzy takes on the Met.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/stormzy1/status/899959361572921344?lang=en">Twitter</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Grime music provides a means for the younger black generation to deliver first-hand experiences and express their anger toward the disparity of social and political structures. The MCs of grime have developed a strong vocal position and style of their own over the past 15 years. </p>
<p>Since the early noughties, the genre has matured into the UK’s principal expression of rap culture, but its cultural roots are firmly anchored in the urban sounds of British hip hop pioneers prolific at the turn of the 1990s. Artists such as London Posse, Katch 22, and MC Mell‘O’ embraced their own accents and vernacular, and developed the first true sounds of UK hip hop coupled with a strong socio-political agenda. </p>
<p>These artists drew upon African and African-Caribbean heritage and the context of living in Britain, sonically inspired by reggae sound systems and the power of American hip hop. Tracks including London Posse’s Live Like the Other Half Do, Katch 22’s Final Judgement, and Subtraction by MC Mell’O’ carried messages of awareness about one’s cultural history and identity, and the blatant racism and police harassment regularly suffered by black British people. </p>
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<blockquote>
<p>Another day of racist police brutality<br>
And this reality is changed my personality</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This voice of revolutionary UK hip hop may have remained too underground and marginal to permeate mainstream media and have much impact on broader society, but it has had a lasting influence on the grime MCs of today.</p>
<h2>MCs control their own message</h2>
<p>Grime is immediate – and it is its closeness to its audience that supports the dissemination of the new voices of working-class black culture. An artist’s output can be delivered, captured and presented within minutes to an almost limitless audience – and established artists such as Skepta, Wiley and Fekky draw literally millions of YouTube views and Soundcloud hits. </p>
<p>By embracing the speed and impact of social media, music production and everyday sonic technologies, grime MCs take a lead <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/19/stand-up-tall-dizzee-rascal-grime-extract">from Afrofuturist thought</a> to frame their position within the socio-political context of present-day Britain.</p>
<p>The big grime artists are paving the way for more MCs to convey their own message, often anchored in the veracity of working-class life. The fluid delivery of <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/octavian-party-here/">Octavian</a>, and emerging “<a href="http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/35706/1/uk-drill-artists-and-crews">UK drill</a>” stars such as K-Trap and Zone 2, extend much of the vexations expressed by their predecessors, and are also gaining huge hits online. </p>
<p>It is here these new voices have subverted the tradition of media representation. Grime extends past the metropolis – and MCs in the north such as Afghan Dan epitomise the working-class nature of this genre. During a Noisey YouTube special on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXFQsnbN0NQ">Blackpool’s grime scene</a>, and on the question of broader talent in the town, Afghan Dan replies: “That’s survival. That’s what you see there. You know, families are devastated by drugs and drink. That’s what happens.” With more than 5m views, the video shows the messages of the marginal can no longer be ignored by mainstream. </p>
<p>Through its success as a music and its modes of delivery, the narratives carried by grime artists are bringing the issues directly to a much broader audience. In turn, this is contributing to a seismic shift in public discourse, illustrated by the <a href="http://www.capitalxtra.com/artists/stormzy/news/brit-awards-performance-reaction/">positive reaction</a> to Stormzy’s Grenfell comments.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"966466015583522816"}"></div></p>
<p>This is no longer about how grime artists might be heard by the British media – we’re past that point. Now it is about how artists, society and the media ensure that the arrival of these new voices is maintained and developed to make real social and political change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92369/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam de Paor-Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stormzy and other grime artists are speaking up, and their messages can no longer be ignored by mainstream.Adam de Paor-Evans, Principal Lecturer in Cultural Theory / Research and Innovation Lead, School of Art, Design and Fashion, Faculty of Culture and the Creative Industries, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/864932017-10-31T14:57:47Z2017-10-31T14:57:47ZIt’s not just grime – council estates produce all sorts of art
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192272/original/file-20171027-13378-gb7s7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dreary-london-housing-estate-pedestrian-footbridge-688177909?src=bDzvtEGHvToCGQSVhN86kw-2-32">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The music video for grime artist Skepta’s <a href="http://www.mobo.com/winners/2015">award-winning</a> single “Shut Down” is shot in the concrete courtyard of an inner city council estate. With an army of baseball cap wearing peers, dancing, smoking and tapping at mobile phones, the video celebrates the spirit of community and resistance that exists in urban working class communities. </p>
<p>Similar messages of survival and resistance – with estate imagery forming a backdrop – can be seen in many British hip hop and grime videos. They include Plan B’s Ill Manors, Skinny Man’s Council Estate of Mind and Tricky’s Council Estate. </p>
<p>The roots of this <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137454263">“hood” aesthetic</a> can be traced back to the hip hop culture that emerged from marginalised, black urban communities in late 20th-century America. When I ask my students what kinds of culture they associate with the words “council estate”, grime and hip hop are the most common answers. </p>
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<p>It is true that these forms of estate expression do dominate popular music. But residents of estates are engaged in a range of other cultural endeavours. And by paying attention to this range of creative possibilities we can challenge the <a href="http://leftfootforward.org/2014/06/its-time-to-defend-social-housing-against-media-stereotypes/">negative perception</a> that has contributed to the well-documented <a href="https://theconversation.com/theresa-mays-speech-and-the-challenge-to-expand-english-social-housing-85218">crisis of social housing</a>.</p>
<p>Yet estate artists who receive critical attention are often positioned as exceptional. For example, the playwright Andrea Dunbar, who created the cult-classic <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091859/">Rita, Sue and Bob Too!</a> has been called a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/andrea-dunbar-a-genius-from-the-slums-2105874.html">“genius from the slums”</a>. Coverage of her work often suggests that the home she grew up in was an unlikely place for such talent to develop. </p>
<p>Similarly, when the artist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/17/khadija-saye-artist-was-on-cusp-of-recognition-when-she-died-in-grenfell">Khadija Saye</a> died in the horrific <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-disaster-how-did-the-fire-spread-so-quickly-79445">Grenfell Tower fire</a>, much was made of the fact that her estate residency was unknown to the gallery directors who showed an interest in her work. </p>
<p>Without wanting to downplay the achievements of Dunbar and Saye, and the obvious barriers that exist for working class people attempting to make a living from the arts, the idea that creativity is an exception on estates is not borne out by the richness of the artworks produced in and about these spaces. </p>
<p>Just like those living in other types of homes, working class estate residents make a positive contribution to cultural life. They express their humanity by making and taking part in art works that reflect the struggles and joys of their existence.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://architectsforsocialhousing.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/mapping-londons-estate-regeneration-programme/">threat to social housing</a> posed by demolition and regeneration increases, residents turn to art to fight back. On the estate where he lives in Bethnal Green, London, <a href="http://www.jordanmckenzie.co.uk">artist Jordan McKenzie</a> performs as his alter-ego, “Monsieur Poo-Pourri”, an aristocrat who has fallen on hard times and treats his council estate like a country manor. </p>
<p>By playfully traversing his estate on a hobby-horse, McKenzie – who has exhibited work across the world – subverts ideas about estates. He draws attention to the green spaces of his home, illuminating the potential for play and exploration offered by his surroundings. </p>
<p>Andrea Luka Zimmerman, working with the <a href="http://www.fugitiveimages.org.uk/about/">Fugitive Images collective</a>, has documented the painful experience of displacement in the moving film Estate: A Reverie. She shows how the regeneration of her London estate was experienced by her neighbours, displaying the human side of the housing crisis. </p>
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<p>Director <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/16/dispossession-great-social-housing-swindle-review-paul-sng-documentary-britain">Paul Sng’s film</a> Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle, also focuses on the voices of residents, revealing how the systematic destruction of social housing for profit affects communities and individuals. </p>
<p>In the theatre, artists including <a href="https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/production/20-b/">Jane English (20B)</a> and <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2017/denmarked-review-battersea-arts-centre-london/">Conrad Murray (DenMarked)</a>, recall their experiences of growing up on estates. Murray’s mash-up of Shakespeare, song and beat-boxing reflects the richness of his upbringing, while English poetically demonstrates the lasting connection to others fostered by estate life. </p>
<h2>Artistic benefits</h2>
<p>There are also writers including Bola Agbaje (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/feb/09/theatre">Gone too Far!</a>), Caitlin Moran (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/may/29/caitlin-moran-raised-by-wolves-sitcom">Raised by Wolves</a>) and Michaela Coel (<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/08/chewing-gum-third-season">Chewing Gum</a>), who have created screen dramas that draw on their experiences of estates to examine and celebrate these spaces. </p>
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<p>Negative representations of estate residents (and of working class people generally) in “<a href="http://www.socresonline.org.uk/19/3/3.html">poverty porn</a>” shows such as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r76ws">Channel 4’s Benefits Street</a>, have an impact on how the public views government policy aimed at these groups. </p>
<p>In the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster many people pointed out how constant representations of estate residents as drug dealers, benefit cheats and feckless single mothers had created a culture where those living on estates are no longer treated as fully human. </p>
<p>For those of us who understand access to safe, decent, secure housing as a basic human right, emphasising the humanity of estate residents is a priority. </p>
<p>The artworks made on estates reveal in no uncertain terms how the destruction of social housing threatens not only the lives of residents, but the cultural life and the <a href="https://beinghumanfestival.org/event/art-loss-social-housing/">human spirit of our cities</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Beswick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Self-expression from the streets.Katie Beswick, Lecturer in Drama, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/855442017-10-12T14:58:54Z2017-10-12T14:58:54ZGrime is the new punk – here’s why<p>If you’re British and don’t know much about grime, you’re in the minority. The influence of the music genre has ballooned in the UK in the last year, and it’s on track to become as disruptive and powerful as punk. </p>
<p>In the last year, album sales of grime music have grown significantly faster than the total UK music market (<a href="http://bit.ly/grimereport">93% vs 6%</a>) and the number of grime events on sale through Ticketmaster and Ticketweb has quadrupled since 2010. Our <a href="http://bit.ly/grimereport">new study</a> into the public reception of grime music found that 73% of Brits are aware of grime, with 40% having listened to it at some point.</p>
<p>In line with this trend, between this award season and the last, the genre has attracted more red carpet appearances, awards and accolades than any other. We’ve also witnessed the usual grime attire of baseball caps and designer tracksuits become more interchangeable with dinner jackets and bow ties. And why not, if you can have your brand enhanced by Emporio Armani (in the case of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DizzeeRascal/photos/pb.23440376442.-2207520000.1506175770./10155154222911443/?type=3&theater">Dizzee Rascal</a>), or feature on the front cover of GQ magazine (as did <a href="https://gq-images.condecdn.net/image/9Bj4VwqnVEn/crop/405">Stormzy</a>).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189972/original/file-20171012-31395-by9u1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189972/original/file-20171012-31395-by9u1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189972/original/file-20171012-31395-by9u1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189972/original/file-20171012-31395-by9u1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189972/original/file-20171012-31395-by9u1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189972/original/file-20171012-31395-by9u1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189972/original/file-20171012-31395-by9u1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189972/original/file-20171012-31395-by9u1z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social media report and average listener.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mykaell Riley</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the first time, our research corroborates these claims. We surveyed 2,000 grime fans and 58% of these said they voted for Labour during the 2017 election, with one-in-four (24%) saying that the #Grime4Corbyn campaign influenced their vote. It’s clear that #Grime4Corbyn gave a voice to the younger generation and influenced the way they voted. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"856094352912916480"}"></div></p>
<p>Those more familiar with the genre will know that this success is hard-won and reflects the efforts of an underground, predominantly black British music community, that has pioneered this scene since the early 2000s and beyond. Back then, in the bedrooms of East London council estates, the next generation of young producers and MCs were creating a brutal, edgy, uncompromising music. It was the sound of social deprivation emerging from the shadows of reurbanisation and gentrification.</p>
<p>Leap forward to the present and the genre once dubbed the sound of London’s social underclass has blossomed. With its successes in both the singles and album charts, its arrival on the festival circuit and its growing international following, grime continues to defy industry assessments of its potential. </p>
<p>This is why it still could provoke the most disruptive cultural transformation of the British music industry since punk. With the leading names now regulars on the festival circuit and capable of packing London’s Wembley or the O2, grime has verified its credentials. Grime still has some distance to travel with regards to its international profile but within the UK, it has already secured recognition from the music industry as the most successful black British music genre – and not unlike punk, transformed perceptions and approaches to popular music.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189973/original/file-20171012-31418-19il6yc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189973/original/file-20171012-31418-19il6yc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189973/original/file-20171012-31418-19il6yc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189973/original/file-20171012-31418-19il6yc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189973/original/file-20171012-31418-19il6yc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189973/original/file-20171012-31418-19il6yc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189973/original/file-20171012-31418-19il6yc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Favourite artists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mykaell Riley</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Live shows have also transformed ideas about grime’s audience, often seen jostling and bumping into each other in response to the performance. At early gigs, primarily attended by young black men in small venues, this activity would have been described as aggressive and potentially violent. But today, at larger venues and festivals and with it’s change of audience it’s more likely to be described as “moshing”. </p>
<p>So the tide, it seems, has turned. Or has it? Grime is still struggling to transform negative perceptions within the London Metropolitan Police force, who use the controversial <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/form-696-police-uk-music-venues-grime-music-discrimination-comment-a7670436.html">Form 696</a>. This is a risk assessment form that is applied solely to events that “predominantly feature DJs or MCs performing to a recorded backing track” – and is therefore seen by many as discriminatory. It has been used by the police to shut down a number of grime events on the grounds of “public safety”, negatively impacting on the income streams of performers and promoters alike.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, in 2017, grime demonstrates the promise of a complex and diverse music industry. It also shows that a journey fuelled by enterprise, entrepreneurialism and creativity has the potential to overcome such lingering negative perceptions to achieve even greater things.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research behind this article was conducted in collaboration with Ticketmaster.</span></em></p>Grime could provoke the most disruptive cultural transformation of the British music industry in decades.Mykaell Riley, Principal Investigator, Black Music Research Unit, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/792362017-06-12T13:26:47Z2017-06-12T13:26:47ZGrime launches a revolution in youth politics<p>It became clear on June 9 that Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election was ill judged. This election has highlighted the disregard for the “many” that government should serve, and after an election in which the youth turnout was around <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/09/youth-out-in-full-force-as-72-of-young-people-vote-in-general-election-6696890/">72% of those aged 18-24</a>, the impact of the youth in Labour’s surge of popularity is obvious. </p>
<p>Of particular note is the role of a series of influential grime artists, who are not traditionally known for their politics yet came out in full force, working to galvanise the youth to vote and specifically supporting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. In a <a href="http://www.nme.com/news/music/so-solid-crew-30-1381968">2003 radio interview</a>, then MP Kim Howells laid into the grime scene, calling its artists “macho boasting idiots”. In the aftermath of the election, who are the macho boasting idiots now? Those in power should never underestimate the collective power of the masses. This is particularly true of the grimy kind.</p>
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<p>The relationship between grime and politics has been an interesting and evolving one. Grime is a genre of music that emerged at the turn of the 21st century in London’s inner boroughs. Early on, its sound was most closely likened to US hip hop and rap. But those in the know appreciate grime’s deep connections to its UK predecessors, which include music from the British underground scene such as garage and jungle, in addition to Jamaican dancehall, electronic/experimental music, and British punk. The grime “sound” developed as it grew, eventually being acknowledged as its own genre at the MOBOs in 2015 and iTunes in 2016. But grime has always been more than music. It is a culture, and this is key to its significance in this last general election.</p>
<h2>Generation grime</h2>
<p>Although now considered trendy in many strata of society, grime is a working-class scene. It originated from the very people and places government legislation has hit the hardest in its austerity measures over the last ten years: the bedroom tax; underfunded schools; tuition fee rises; zero-hour contracts; dwindling prospects of owning a home; and increased job insecurity. From this perspective, the relentless spread of gentrification and London’s role as a global financial capital can make David Cameron’s profession that “we are all in this together” simply farcical.</p>
<p>Grime originated as a predominantly black British musical form, yet appeals to young people irrespective of race or ethnicity. The common ground in its appeal was the focus on <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/UK_Hip_Hop_Grime_and_the_City.html?id=nDesCQAAQBAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">class based oppression</a> and British cultural references. While racism remains pervasive and impacts young people in different ways, we live in a time of diverse multiculturalism, particularly in the inner city home of grime. There is a level of commonality in the British working class experience. </p>
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</figure>
<p>This is all the more powerful given the collective nature of the grime scene. Success achieved by individuals in the scene is viewed as success for all. Individual achievement produces collective pride. This collectivity contributes to the solid sense of identity and culture that grime promotes. The collective experience of hardship and navigating it fosters community. </p>
<p>And middle class youth also see their futures in less certain terms. Grime, as with the appeal of other genres of music, is also a method of identity formation, which helps them to separate themselves from “older” generations, most notably parents.</p>
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<p>Quite possibly for the first time, this election provided what I term “generation grime” (those predominantly under 30 who have grown up with it as a soundtrack to their lives) with an opportunity to engage with a political figure whose values align more closely with their lived experience, personal values and aspirations. Corbyn’s understanding of working-class issues, racial oppression and homelessness struck a chord. While the lyrical content in much grime may not be political, lived realities and hardships are a common theme to this work. </p>
<p>Prominent grime artists openly supported Labour and worked hard to encourage their supporters to vote: in response to their lived experience; the government’s disregard of their future; and the disconnection they felt to this government. Stormzy was one of Corbyn’s first grime supporters. In a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/21/stormzy-grime-skepta-kanye-drake">2016 interview</a>, he said: “I dig what he says. I saw some sick picture of him from back in the day when he was campaigning about anti-apartheid and I thought: yeah, I like your energy.”</p>
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<p>JME, Akala, and Rag'n'Bone man, all influential artists to generation grime and all of whom admitted to not voting before or having little interest or faith in the political system, also got behind Corbyn. Recent protests about government decisions which affected the future of generation grime led to minimal change and kettling, heightening apathy. This election offered a new approach. For scene members and fans not politically minded or disengaged from political processes, grime artist endorsement was the much needed push to look into Corbyn’s track record and manifesto. Young people suddenly felt they could do something to influence British society and their futures.</p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>This election provided the opportunity for generation grime to really see the collective power in working together for the society <em>they</em> would like to create and the things <em>they</em> want to preserve. Although Labour did not win the election, a new energy has been injected into politics and political engagement among young people. It has given them the opportunity to realise their political power, and how to use it.</p>
<p>Significantly, this last election has also reignited the music-politics relationship of British punk in a new, 21st-century way. Grime artists made particular use of social media in order to galvanise generation grime into political action through the use of hashtags such as <a href="https://twitter.com/Grime4Corbyn">#Grime4Corbyn</a>. And it doesn’t stop here. After the election, artists encouraged each other and scene members to engage with their local MPs. Grime artists tweeted about the success and the importance of staying involved.</p>
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<p>This movement could be the start of something huge. The challenge is to maintain the momentum. While grime content is largely apolitical, this shift could open a space for more political lyrical content and imagery for both new and established artists. It may also lead to more systematic civic engagement, as artists can see first-hand the power of their influence on generation grime to push for social change. </p>
<p>For more than a decade, the government undervalued and strategically implemented policies to decimate the life chances of generation grime under the banner “we are all in this together”. We are not. Government must govern <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ForTheManyNotTheFew?src=hash&lang=en">#ForTheManyNotTheFew</a>, and now generation grime realise the potential of their political power they can push for it strategically.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"873088396738023424"}"></div></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monique Charles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Who are the ‘macho boasting idiots’ now?Monique Charles, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/739782017-04-25T11:57:01Z2017-04-25T11:57:01ZHow electro and techno could help to revolutionise school music lessons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166619/original/file-20170425-25594-nzgm56.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many British children, the music they grow up listening to with friends, family, parents and relatives is often not reflected in school music lessons. So while their teacher is trying to get them to listen to Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, back home in their bedrooms the radio is often tuned into a very different station.</p>
<p>Improving access to classical music for children from deprived backgrounds has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/05/julian-lloyd-webber-music-school-birmingham">a priority for music education</a> and rightly so. Because there is no good reason why the daughter of a brick layer or the son of a shop assistant shouldn’t be enthralled by Mozart. </p>
<p>But it is likely that for a lot of these students, rather than Chopin or Vivaldi, they will be much more familiar with a musical education in hardcore <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-yZJk9O96g">electronic dance music</a> (EDM). </p>
<p>For these young people, this is “our music”, and overlooking this in school music lessons misses an opportunity to help these pupils engage with something they are already naturally interested in. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166627/original/file-20170425-12629-4sk645.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166627/original/file-20170425-12629-4sk645.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166627/original/file-20170425-12629-4sk645.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166627/original/file-20170425-12629-4sk645.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166627/original/file-20170425-12629-4sk645.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166627/original/file-20170425-12629-4sk645.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166627/original/file-20170425-12629-4sk645.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hardcore electronic dance music has great potential for student engagement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For a lot of these kids, they’ve grown up with this music – their aunties, brothers and friends are into it, too. And their parents were probably ravers in the heyday of “acid house” or the subsequent years when “happy hardcore” and other forms of harsh, repetitive EDM provided the soundtrack for the lives of countless young people.</p>
<p>School music lessons, however, very rarely even acknowledge the existence of such music within British culture. In many schools, coverage of dance music might stretch from the Galliard or the Pavan to Disco via the Viennese Waltz, but no further in most cases.</p>
<h2>Modern music making</h2>
<p>Serious engagement with rave and post-rave EDM in the classroom is rare in the extreme. Even your classic mainstream dance music seems to be way off the agenda in most schools. </p>
<p>This much was clear to me when I provided training on using DJ decks in music teaching for a group of <a href="https://www.teachfirst.org.uk/">Teach First</a> trainee teachers back in 2013.</p>
<p>Teach First sees young graduates recruited into tough, under-performing, inner-city schools for their first teaching placements. And yet despite the strong prevalence of youth culture and niche music scenes in many of these cities – grime in London or bassline in Sheffield – none of these young teachers had seen such equipment used in the schools where they were on placements.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166624/original/file-20170425-27254-1yee0mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166624/original/file-20170425-27254-1yee0mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166624/original/file-20170425-27254-1yee0mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166624/original/file-20170425-27254-1yee0mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166624/original/file-20170425-27254-1yee0mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166624/original/file-20170425-27254-1yee0mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166624/original/file-20170425-27254-1yee0mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bassline in Sheffield.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.exposedmagazine.co.uk/organiser/donuts-at-dq/">Facebook</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was with one exception: one trainee admitted that his school had DJ decks but, disappointingly, he explained that they were never removed from the cupboard where they were gathering dust as “nobody knows what to do with them”.</p>
<h2>Face the music</h2>
<p>I, too, had little or no experience of using DJ decks when I became a secondary school music teacher in 2003. MC rapping was alien to me and I had never been much of an enthusiast of EDM. </p>
<p>But because of the inner-city character of the North East of England school I was working in, I soon realised that a large minority of the learners were passionate about a form of happy hardcore EDM known as “<a href="http://www.factmag.com/2014/09/04/geordie-shore-this-aint-introducing-makina-the-northeast-scene-keeping-the-hardcore-flame-burning/">makina</a>”. This is a <a href="https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/makina-the-youth-culture-phenomenon-taking-over-newcastle">sub genre of hardcore techno</a> – which originates in Spain. It is similar to UK hardcore, and it includes elements of bouncy techno and hardtrance.</p>
<p>The bulk of the pupils that were into this type of music at my school were considered to be some of the most disaffected and “at risk” learners. But I actually learned much of what I now know about DJing and MCing from these young people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166623/original/file-20170425-12662-1jf286e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166623/original/file-20170425-12662-1jf286e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166623/original/file-20170425-12662-1jf286e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166623/original/file-20170425-12662-1jf286e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166623/original/file-20170425-12662-1jf286e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166623/original/file-20170425-12662-1jf286e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/166623/original/file-20170425-12662-1jf286e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A makina rave in Newcastle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monta Musica Facebook</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I also made a little effort to learn from expert local DJs and MCs about this form of music-making and the attendant skills so that I could give it coverage in my lessons.</p>
<p>I have seen first hand the <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-boys-dislike-school-or-just-what-theyre-learning-23400">transformative effect</a> the use of DJing and MCing in the classroom can have upon learners. And yet the creative use of DJ decks coupled with MC rapping – an international musical tradition for around 40 years – is barely recognised as a musical discipline even in many of the inner-city schools. </p>
<p>Conversations with the large US provider of music education <a href="http://www.littlekidsrock.org/">Little Kids Rock</a> have indicated that a similar situation pertains across the US.</p>
<h2>Lost in music</h2>
<p>While this kind of music gets some coverage in <a href="http://yuaf.org.uk/">pupil referral units</a> and youth clubs, and some schools employ visiting specialists for extra-curricular learning, it is extremely rare to find it employed in mainstream classrooms for everyday lessons with the regular music teacher. But given the availability of more affordable technology such as “DJ controllers” and CD decks, this situation may hopefully begin to improve. </p>
<p>Making our classrooms relevant to students is vitally important, because if
school feels culturally alien and alienating – as indeed it does for a significant minority of typically inner-city youth – then as educators we are leaving behind a whole group of keen and passionate music lovers.</p>
<p>Engaging pupils with music they know and love is one way to make school feel more familiar and more welcoming. And it could even help to change a few <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/08/chavs-demonization-owen-jones-review">stereotypes</a> about what “types of people” listen to “what types of music” in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pete Dale has provided advisory consultation to Little Kids Rock in an unpaid capacity. </span></em></p>When the classroom is your dance floor.Pete Dale, Senior Lecturer in Popular Music, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/656112016-09-21T10:03:49Z2016-09-21T10:03:49ZSkepta, grime and urban British youth language: a guide<p>Skepta’s <a href="http://www.mercuryprize.com/news/skepta-wins">Mercury Prize win</a> brings grime back into the mainstream, and in doing so shines a spotlight on the ever-changing language of Britain’s urban youth. Perhaps this is the beginning of a more linguistically tolerant age.</p>
<p>Grime is a style of music that developed out of early 2000s East London, and spread through <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mixtape">mixtapes</a>, word of mouth, and <a href="http://pigeonsandplanes.com/in-depth/2015/11/grime-hip-hop">London’s vibrant pirate radio stations</a>. Sometimes mistakenly viewed as a subgenre of hip-hop, its real roots lie in UK garage, bashment, drum and bass, jungle, and dancehall. Yes, there are similarities to hip-hop – both involve rapping for a start – but grime has a specifically British flavour, both in style and attitude, that separates it from its US-dominated cousin.</p>
<p>For some, grime, by its very nature, can only really exist at street level; enjoyed and shared by a like-minded community of urban youth, a <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/resurgence-grime-music-exposes-new-form-political-disillusionment">disenfranchised community</a> who can relate to each other’s experiences, struggles and realities. “Selling out” by gaining commercial success at the perceived expense of the art form is, to put it mildly, frowned upon among <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEwv8xOLUI0&feature=youtu.be">certain established artists</a>. </p>
<p>For a grime artist to win the Mercury Prize, therefore, is a potential double-edged sword. Can an individual ever really stay true to their roots (and continue to rap about those shared experiences) when success has elevated them into the mainstream?</p>
<p>In Skepta’s case, the likely answer is yes. Skepta preaches a message of independence and self-belief; independence from the music industry, and a belief in one’s own abilities and entrepreneurship that goes beyond making music. In this, above all else, he embodies an <a href="http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/video/the-business-of-grime-chapter-one">important and recurring theme of the genre</a>. </p>
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<p>Skepta’s winning album, Konnichiwa, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/15/skepta-konnichiwa-a-mercury-winner-few-can-argue-with">resolutely British</a> in style, both in terms of content and language. And it is this language of grime – the <a href="http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fss/projects/linguistics/multicultural/index.htm">Multicultural Urban British English</a> that can be heard in cities across the UK – that adds a whole extra layer of interest to the genre. It’s not just the words, <a href="https://theconversation.com/dinter-bitz-and-gwop-a-guide-to-british-youth-slang-in-2016-52037">such as bro, bruv, fam, bare, peng, gwop</a>, that can be heard throughout grime that serve to identify it, but the pronunciations, too – the “t” for “th”, the “flatter” vowel sound in words such as “like” and “price”. Often mistaken for a faux Jamaican accent, it is in reality so much more complex.</p>
<h2>Music of the streets</h2>
<p>There is always a question around the extent to which musical performers of any genre “put on” the speech style in which they sing, be that in relation to <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/explainer/2012/11/skyfall_theme_song_by_adele_why_do_british_singers_sound_american.html">The Beatle’s accent experimentations</a>, or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/04/how-a-white-australian-rapper-mastered-her-blaccent/">Iggy Azalea’s “blaccent”</a>. Yet grime, for the most part, is performed using the same linguistic repertoire as the source material – the language of the streets and neighbourhoods of multicultural urban Britain. </p>
<p>This is not to say that there is not an element of linguistic performance when rapping, or that <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBugzyMalone?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Bugzy Malone</a> talks to his mum in the same way that he talks to his mates. Far from it – this is all part of the natural stylistic variation that we all possess, and grime artists are no different. But what sets grime apart from other musical genres is the participatory nature of what is, essentially, a social practice. Grime is, for the most part, not something that is passively consumed, it is something that is actively engaged in and interacted with. In many ways, it is one of the most democratic and equal forms of music there is, open to anybody with a phone and access to YouTube.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/this-is-grime-the-new-book-exploring-the-most-urgent-british-music-subculture-since-punk">history of grime</a> is one of young men going round to each other’s houses and making tapes of themselves spitting lyrics, and it is no different now. The people I’ve worked with through <a href="http://www.urben-id.org/">my own research</a> into the language of young people who have been excluded from mainstream education are doing exactly the same. But more than this, the spitting bars (rapping) is part of their everyday interaction, with the more accomplished individuals switching seamlessly mid-conversation. </p>
<p>Break-time can see them huddled around a tinny phone speaker trading lightning-fast lyrics over a familiar beat. It’s no wonder, then, that speech styles are so interwoven. With no clear line between “normal conversation” and “performance”, it’s impossible to assign particular speech features to either style. After all, isn’t all speech “performance” to some degree?</p>
<p>This participatory nature is often negatively portrayed in some <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/ghetto-grammar-robs-the-young-of-a-proper-voice-6433284.html">sections of the mainstream media</a>. The narrow-minded will then likely maintain the link between language and criminality <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/aug/13/david-starkey-claims-whites-black">that is so often</a> (and so thoughtlessly) made, and continue in their belief that there are good and bad (or right and wrong) ways of speaking. </p>
<p>But the broad-minded, and those who take the time to engage with the young people themselves, will appreciate how articulate, eloquent, and linguistically inventive many of them are. </p>
<p>Skepta winning the Mercury Prize is a good thing for him as an individual (definitely), for grime in general (probably), and for increased awareness and acceptance of the language of young people (hopefully). So next time you hear some spitting in the street, pay attention and show some respect – you may be listening to the next big thing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65611/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Drummond receives funding from The Leverhulme Trust</span></em></p>Skepta’s Mercury Prize win has put grime – and youth culture – in the spotlight.Rob Drummond, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.