grime
Disc of the Day Celebrates 10 Years of Album ReviewsMonday, 15 February 2021
Ten years ago yesterday, on Monday 14th February 2011, one of theartsdesk’s writers, Joe Muggs, reviewed an album called Paranormale Aktivitat, by an outfit called Zwischenwelt. It was the first ever Disc of the Day, a new slot inserted into... Read more... |
Album: slowthai - TYRONWednesday, 10 February 2021
Slowthai’s debut Nothing Great About Britain was both strikingly intimate and anarchic. He rapped about his childhood and British inequality over grime beats that sounded as if they were falling apart around him. Here "abrasive" and "insightful"... Read more... |
Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative, Royal Court online review – the news, but betterThursday, 24 December 2020
Edition 2 of Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative, an experimental new piece of online theatre from the Royal Court, doesn’t mess around. Within minutes, a cry of "Tory scum" is echoing around the Jerwood Theatre – the refrain of an anarchic... Read more... |
Album: Dizzee Rascal - E3 AFThursday, 29 October 2020
You can’t ever go all the way home again, and for years Dizzee Rascal didn’t want to. His Mercury-winning debut Boy In Da Corner (2003) electrified with the shock of the new, its eccentric, genre-mashing sound topping juddering jungle bass with a... Read more... |
Album: Headie One - EdnaFriday, 16 October 2020
It’s over ten years now since theartsdesk cited Tinie Tempah’s success as marking the start of a revolution for post grime black British rappers conquering the pop charts on something approaching their own terms. And it’s very nearly as... Read more... |
Album: The Streets - None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life AliveFriday, 10 July 2020
Given the collaborator list on this album, it should be a bit of a mess. Brit punks IDLES, Aussie woozy pop auteur Tame Impala, pumping bassline house producer Chris Lorenzo turning his hand to drum’n’bass, as well as Ms Banks, Dapz On The Map,... Read more... |
Album: Footsie - No FavoursThursday, 21 May 2020
Footsie might not have the profile of a Skepta or Wiley, or even his Newham Generals partner and recent IKEA advert soundtracker D Double E. But anyone halfway schooled in grime will know that both as MC and producer he's a key player from grime's... Read more... |
Kate Tempest, BBC 6 Music Festival review - more personal than politicalTuesday, 10 March 2020
For those wondering if performance poet Kate Tempest would be upstaged or introduced by either pandemic panic or International Women’s Day – know that a) she’s fearless and b) she practices equality always. As such, there’s no pre-amble, other than... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Little Simz - GREY AreaWednesday, 08 January 2020
In 2019, music kept its place as a vital means for expression and escapism in an increasingly troubled and troubling world. Happily, there were plenty of brilliant albums to get lost in over the course of the year. Sharon Van Etten’s Remind Me... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2019: Terror Danjah - InvasionThursday, 19 December 2019
This is a bittersweet recommendation to make. On the one hand, it is simply one of the mightiest electronic albums of the year, an exemplar of how grime continues to be a vital part of the British sound palette long after it was pushed aside as the... Read more... |
Kano, Brighton Dome review - simply joyousMonday, 07 October 2019
Kano’s lyrics often sound like a wake, mixing mournfulness and anger as they raise a toast to fallen friends on abandoned estates, casualties of crushing pressures alien to the authorities who pronounce on them in the tabloids and parliament.... Read more... |
CD: Kano - Hoodies All SummerThursday, 29 August 2019
Of all grime's original generation, Kano has a strong claim to being the greatest rhyme-constructor in the old school hip hop sense of dense rhymes packed with multiple meanings. Add movie star looks and a penchant for fur coats in photoshoots and... Read more... |
