It’s no secret that grime has finally pushed through the mainstream market in a powerful way over the last year or so, but now the numbers are matching the movement.
According to the Official Charts, “Sales of grime albums have risen over 100% in the last year”. The discovery came from the BPI’s study of grime’s ascent and 2016 sales numbers.
Artists such as Dizzee, Wiley and Kano shaped the scene back in the early 2000s, however grime as a genre seemed to faded somewhat from the mainstream’s mind, with its original artists all moving on to other genres.
However 2016 saw a plethora of groundbreaking grime albums including Skepta’s Konnichiwa and Kano’s Made in the Manor – both of which were nominated for the Mercury prize with the former taking home the prestigious award.
This year Stormzy made history with his album, which was primarily grime orientated, reaching the official number one spot in the charts.
Stromzy and Skepta are pegged to take part in Simon Cowell’s charity single for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, you can read more about that here on GRM Daily.