Academic study into Grime

Grime is the most "significant musical development within the UK for decades", according to the author of one of the first academic studies into the genre.

It's as "powerful and disruptive as punk", says the man behind the Ticketmaster report. Whilst 73% of those questioned are aware of grime, the report found less than half (43%) actually listen to it. There is also evidence that grime fans still feel the genre is perceived negatively by non-grime fans.

Mykaell Riley, director of the Black Music Research Unit at the University of Westminster, says grime is "an outsider". "The genre said 'we're not going to do things in a conventional way'."Grime has challenged contemporary music in its production aesthetic, in its lyrical approach, in its performance ethic." In the 1970s, punk's sound, look and anti-establishment ethos caused disruption by energizing a disillusioned section of youth culture. He says grime has been allowed to evolve far longer than punk did, but the effect on its fans has been similar.

The report looks at grime's impact in the build-up to the 2017 general election when many artists publicly supported Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn under the Grime4Corbyn hashtag. "I would say grime artists are the most intelligent group of individuals I've met in the music industry," says Mykaell. "That's in terms of them understanding how the industry works and their own futures. The way they manage what they say and do in real time is amazing." The report found - perhaps unsurprisingly - that the number of grime events on sale through Ticketmaster has quadrupled since 2010.

In addition, BPI figures show the number of grime streams has more than doubled in a year, from 86 million in 2016, to 206 million in 2017. This massive increase has been due to a variety of factors. Firstly, since 2014 more and more artists have been returning to their grime roots, releasing singles, Ep'S and albums. Including Skepta who released  his Mercury award winning album 'Konnichiwa' with lung-busting tunes “That’s Not Me” and “Shutdown” which became huge anthems on the UK dancefloor circuit. This then drew the attention of Kayne West and Drake two massive global artists. Kanye West’s memorable performance at the Brit Awards with the Grime heavyweight legends highlights this. And on Drake's More Life album there is also a significant British presence with features from UK MC’s Skepta and Giggs, to the use of London slang like ‘wasteman’ and ‘peng ting,’ which Drizzy frequently uses throughout the 22-track playlist. Also the rise of social media now means means the floodgates to fans are open as grime artists realized they could build and nurture fanbases themselves. The previous obstacles could be bypassed. Here, there was no major label interference in your sound, no police to shut down a Youtube video or live stream, no need to validate success by chart positions when you could see your Twitter followers growing exponentially.

“It breaks the barriers down,” Stormzy said in 2015 in an interview with London magazine BEAT. “Whereas labels would take an artist who had no fans and no support and try to gain them, with social media you can do that yourself from the get-go.”

 Spotify says Stormzy is the most streamed grime artist to date, followed by Skepta and Dizzee Rascal.

Skepta won the 2016 Mercury Prize with his album, Konnichiwa