Grime is an urban music genre that has been in existence since 2000. The scene is essentially British, starting off in London and emerging from the UK garage scene.

Buckwild, an entrepreneur who manages Allgrime.com describes grime as: “The hip hop of the UK that represents the streets and engages the youth as they play it on their phones, listen to pirate stations and are the ones making the music in home studios”.

Grime music has received some bad press coverage of late; from the recent link with the gang, gun and knife cultures developing in urban areas to the Timeout report which tried to book a night featuring grime artists and was denied access to numerous venues in London.

MC Storming, a member of the Nasty crew, which he states helped to start the Grime scene spoke about the bad elements: “There are a lot of wannabe bad boys who attach themselves to the scene. People looked towards America and Jamaica but they need to remember that England is not the same”. Storming, who has been in the scene since it started, speaks highly of the scene’s more positive aspects: “Grime has many influences, from raga, hip hop, jungle, so many different styles that merge into one. When you see people in the raves, feeling the music, that is a good thing”.

Jendor, a former member of Essentials, who has been in the scene for a while describes his view on the Grime scene at the moment: “It is hard for people from south London trying to break through, mainly due to So Solid Crew, now everyone from south has been tarnished as bad. It is very selective and seems to be focussed on east London”. But when it comes to the music he is not so pessimistic: “The best part of Grime music is that the fans are not just black people. Fans now come from all over the world and people are actually buying the music”.

Buckwild states his grievances: “Grime has been stigmatised by the media as they do not really understand it. Just because certain tunes get people excited, we are not being allowed to hold raves in clubs”. So with a vibrant scene being stifled how can it possible move forward?

There are many mainstream disc jockeys that are now supporting the scene, the likes of Westwood (Radio 1), Logon Sama (Kiss FM), and stations like 1xtra and Choice are leading the way to help Grime become more popular.

Storming believes that: “We need to do more work, and get more stations playing the music and for people to not be scared to support a home grown scene”.

Jendor feels that: “There needs to be less bitching and people need to stop blocking others from coming through”.

Buckwild states: “People need to be more creative, start taking influences from different music genres and then we might get somewhere. Also Grime is more than just street music; it is about a journey of life”.