What’s great about the young and developing scene we have in London (and beyond), is the sheer diversity of it. It seems every day a new artist is coming to our attention, sounding new and innovative and original, yet still so distinctly British. Artists are getting weird and artists are getting experimental, and it’s due time we started highlighting some of these creatives that may otherwise slip under our radar. With that being said, we’ve devised this column those looking for something different; Go Left, GRM’s guide to alternative grime, hip-hop and R&B.
We will also be uploading more alternative videos onto our YouTube channel. If you fit in with those who don’t fit in, are part of the Go Left gang and have something wavy for us, send an email to [email protected]
Be sure to check out the last column of dopeness right here and the Go Left interview with Loyle Carner here. Also pree Badside’s “Vampin”, our first video premiere, here too.
Fredwave – “WAR” (ft. Prez T)
Fredwave has been quiet in recent months, having been hard at work on his debut album. It was his birthday this week though and he was feeling generous. He took to SoundCloud to temporarily upload “WAR”, a genre-bending Prez T featuring grime ballad, as well as his album’s 8th track. The response was so good that he decided to keep it up permanently, and boy are we glad he did so.
Peter Xan – “Think To Ya Self” (featuring David XCV)
Producer Peter Xan has brought his eclectic and colourful palette of sounds back to life, releasing a new track as lead artist. “Think To Yourself” contains the kind of glittery production Peter mastered on his collaboration mixtape with JD Cliffe (which we premiered here BTW), and features distorted, longing vocals from David XCV.
Nehmy – “Vamos”
Nehmy, ringleader of South London crew BEVLDN, as well as a generally cold rapper, released a new track not so long ago, despite only having recently released his mixtape ‘South East Experiences’ (another Go Left premiere here). He dropped “Vamos”, an explosive track that has him experimenting with his flow – in Spanish!
ThisisDA – “Over”
ThisisDA is a young and creative artist from Bristol, who’s heavily into photography and art. It reflects in his own musical output, like on this uplifting hip-hop track “Over”, taken from his freshly released ’21 & Done’ mixtape. He’s recently supported Kojey Radical on tour, so expect to be hearing more from him in the near future.
Trim – “Before I Lied”
East London legend Trim this week released a Happa-produced track called “Before I Lied”. The song is to be released by the James Blake-founded collective 1-800-Dinosaur on July 29, and is expected to appear on their forthcoming new album, ‘1-800-Dinosaur Presents Trim’. It’s lyrical, fiery and very left. Big up Trim for continuing to innovate.
by Alex Griffin