Words: @Dan_KhanUP
The past 18 months have seen Grime music make the transition from underground sub-culture, to established urban genre. Sure, it’s still seen as an underground sound, and sure its artists are still widely deemed unworthy of award recognition by mainstream award shows, but that’s another story – and ultimately, their acceptance is only as important as we make it.
Grime music has relentlessly pressed forward, collecting stamps across borders and taking its sound to an international platform. I was in Reykjavik, Iceland earlier this year in a local chippy and heard “Man Don’t Care” blasting out the speakers- fucking mad.
This international appreciation for Grime is becoming more and more common. People are buying into the sound, and people are connecting with the artists and understanding that behind the gun fingers and reloads. There is a voice of a city, and a nation that is finally being given the chance to express itself properly.
Stormzy is the ripe fruit of over 12 years of hard graft and labour within Grime. His charm, his musical ability and his persona have fast tracked him from rising prodigy to flag bearer for the UK. He has ticked off sold out tours across the UK, Germany, and Australia and is set to embark on his first U.S tour in a few weeks – which WILL sell out, of course.
But that information has been written about many a time, he’s used to it now – and he joins a host of Grime scene trail blazers that are travelling the world, performing to sold out crowds that are singing (or spitting) back every word.
One list that he stands alone on, however, is being the first Grime artist to be invited to speak at one of the world’s most prestigious student gatherings.
Two days ago, fresh from tearing down Austria, Stormzy travelled straight to Oxford University, where he had been invited to give a talk about his career so far and take on questions from some of the brightest young academics in the world. As I write this, it still doesn’t really add up – I still can’t come to terms with the fact that a Grime MC from South London has been invited to a stage that has been graced by the likes of the Dalai Lama, Diego Maradonna and Stephen Hawking.
But it has happened, and it’s fucking incredible. Stormzy spoke on all things Stormzy; what music he liked, his Ghanaian heritage, the lack of representation for black people at the BRIT awards, and even the use of the “N” word in his music. He was funny, honest and incredibly humbled by the reception. The boy whose mum had hoped he would study at Oxford one day was there giving a speech to a packed room of people that were keen to take in every bit of his opinion and savour every bit of his company.
As much of a victory as it is for the 22 year old, it is perhaps the greatest victory for a scene of people that for years was labelled aggressive, irrelevant and stupid. We can all clearly see that this is a huge achievement, but to what extent? Perhaps what we don’t recognise as apparently, is that Big Mike’s talk at the Oxford Guild is the most important moment in the history of Grime.
I’ve thought about this, and I don’t say it lightly. In the short time of Grime’s existence it has constantly broken its own boundaries. Bigger shows, more money, higher chart positions, established Grime platforms; all of these things have been vital to the genre’s development and will continue to be so…But a talk at an academic establishment opens up a door that Drake co-signs couldn’t.
It isn’t just about the awareness it creates for Grime music, it’s so much more than that. His talk at the Oxford Guild legitimises the artistry that we as a scene have celebrated and committed to for so long. It confirms that Grime music and its relentless mercenaries are not just hood rats that repeat the same bar over and over – they are social commentators, they are story tellers, and they carry a voice that speak on matters that are just as British and just as important to the culture of this country as tea and crumpets.
This academic seal of approval is not a sure-fire thing, there is work to be done, but it is a huge step forward towards changing perceptions of young, urban Britain – where the young boys in tracksuits and old men in 3 piece suits can be polar opposites, and still share the same stage as their literary works are discussed and explored equally.
As I start to wind this article down, I find myself looking back to the days of GCSE English, where we would study the “AQA Anthology”. There was a poem in there called: “Two scavengers in a truck, two beautiful people in a Mercedes”. It talked about the social class divide in America and how both types of people, the scavengers at the bottom and the beautiful at the top, were brought together as equals as both their cars stopped at a traffic light. I think of that poem and it reminds me of this moment, the scavengers of Grime, stumbling along in the school of hard knocks, undervalued and undermined versus the beautiful, pretentious and alien academic world. Stormzy’s speech at the Oxford Guild was the figurative red light that will hopefully steer the academic system towards listening to and analysing exactly what these young kids in tracksuits are trying to tell us.
Grime has had many historic moments. From Dizzee’s Mercury prize, to Drake’s allegiance with Boy Better Know. Those moments and the countless other ones we celebrate will maintain their place in the history books. But one moment that stands taller and prouder, is the moment when 22 year old Michael Omari from Thornton Heath, was invited to share his views with a group of elite academics, and was accepted, flaws and all, as someone worth listening to.
Man try say Grime isn’t for me…Tell my man shut up.