WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT OF VIDEOS IN THIS POST, IF YOU WATCH EVERY VIDEO FROM BEGINNING TO END, I HAVE WORKED OUT THAT YOU'LL BE ON MY POST FOR THE NEXT 2 HOURS OF YOUR LIFE. JUST WATCHED A FEW MINUTES OF EACH. FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
Okay, this is just going to be a short(ish) post. A shortish post that should educate you more about the grime scene, outside of London. Yes, yes, yes, we've all heard of Skepta, Wiley, Frisco, P Money, K Koke, JME, to name a few. BUT how clear a bell do these names ring? Marshy, A9, KB, Dorris, JayKae, Gino, Mez, Eyez, Dankz..... Hmm, I thought so. Well these are the names of MCs who have been representing their 'ends' for the past few years now, all with different flows, bars, styles, fashions and goals not too mention accents. Without London and the Godafther, Wiley, the whole idea of grime theoretically may have never started, London has done very well to give the grime scene one demographic, one face. With the help of social media channels, grime now has many faces, many different demographics and a lot of accents.
The main grime following outside of London can be found in the Midlands, east and west but predominantly in Birmingham and then in Nottingham. Awareness has been raised in these areas mainly via YouTube and the work of online grime media channels, such as, JDZ Media and P110, that operate on YouTube. Both have emulated characteristics of the father of all YouTube media channels, SB.TV.
I personally am a huge advocate for The Midland's grime music, what attracted me to it was the individually that each rapper possesses. Crews like Invasion from Birmingham are a team of talented MCs coming in all in different shapes and sizes, MCs are solely judged on talent and how much their bars are believed, no matter what the bars are. This is better than being judged on what clothes you're wearing and how many times you've 'banged a strap', no?
Anyway let the lessons begin! I'm going to kick it off with some videos of artists from Birmingham..
Invasion Alert - Vader, Hitman, C-Dash, Tazzle, JayKae (LOTM4), Depz (LOTM4), D2(LOTM5), Sox(LOTM3), Villain (In Order)
Here's some more talent from Brum..
Jaykae (Invasion)
KB & SafOne (StayFresh)
Devilman, the grime veteran of Birmingham who was banned from MCing, after an incident in which he was found to have snitched on a close friend. Devilman famously clashed Skepta (BBK) in LOTM2!
P110 have definitely been the main advocates for Birmingham, with JDZ raising awareness for surrounding parts of the Midlands. Other media channels have been around for a while as well, doing the same thing that the three platforms mentioned are currently doing. Here's a cypher from one of those channels.. UGX (UndergroundExposure).
These are MCs from Nottingham, Derby and Manchester.
In Order - D Flowz (NSB), Rikkers (NSB), Mez (NSB), Jay Eye (NSB), Don Dyno (Str8GzENT), Baz Brown (NewCamp), Wariko (LOTM3 & NewCamp)
Now let's have a look at Nottingham and what's going on there?..
Firstly, Wariko. Wariko is one of the first non-London MCs to really blow in the UK scene, with appearances on Westwood 1Xtra in 2009 and LOTM3, Wariko is DEFINITELY a grime veteran AND.. he has the lyrics to match the reputable career.
Mez (NSB), one of the hottest younger's in the country, beating Grimsta on Sunday to claim SilkCity Radio's Prizefighter award. Please look out for, for your sake.
You cannot forget Gino. Defintely Nottingham's most commercial MC.
This #SPITFIRE from A9, had to feature in this post. This is probably my favourite freestyle on any YouTube channel, MAD VERSES. 'I don't wanna hear man chat chat..'
Okay.. Now we'll have a look at Walsall, I think it's time to get the map out.
Walsall, is extremely close to Birmingham.
Here's Walsall's best MC, Marshy representing Higher Stakes and Young Guvament. Amazing flow and only 17 years old!
Flawzz from Walsall has his Story Teller shot by JDZ.
And finally. to rap things up.. we have Eyez (LOTM5) and Dankz representing Derby. And representing Manchester we have Dorris, accompanied by more Notts man in 'Deya'.
The scene is also exploding up north, so obviously, I'm going to show you more videos.
From Liverpool, now representing a K Koke's crew, USG. We have Aystar. Then we to MCs that both broke through via DON'T FLOP rap battles, Blizzard (LOTM5) from Manchester and Lunar C from Bradford, yorkshire's first big grime name.
BANG!.. Aystar.
Blizzard!
and Lunar C, who's popularity is ever growing!!
Now, I hope it didn't take you 2 hours to read all of this. I also hope that you are now more enlightened on the exploding grime scene and that you all understand that good grime music is not solely produced by one demographic. If this is still the case and you're not convinced, have a look at my absolute FINAL vid.
This is Cee Major, straight out of East London, the home of grime.
Have a great day! Listen to more videos on YouTube and follow and subscribe to the channels I've mentioned throughout! Here are the links..
SBTV
JDZ
P110
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram and anything else you can think of @ZachEkpe, it'll be worth it. Stay Locked for more GRM News and videos, and stay blessed.
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