Jamaican music’s, such as Dub, Reggae, Ska, Dancehall/Bashment, all heavily utilise Bass and Dub in their sonic make-up. This element heavily features in Grime music. As a result of Jamaican settlement in the Britain after WWII (Hewitt 1986), Jamaican language, culture and music had a significant impact on British life and music culture. Crude examples were:
Musical preferences of White British Mods (modernists) in the 60s (Back 2000), who enjoyed‘…Ska (as well as rude boy fashion and attitude)...’ (Sullivan 2013:69).
Reggae and Punky Reggae fans in the 70s and 80s (Bradley 2012).
The Jamaican influence on Grime music is a fact that is being increasingly pushed to the fore in public discourse about the genre. In September 2014, Grime collective Boy Better Know (BBK) recorded their journey to Jamaica to pay homage to the significance Jamaican music has contributed to Grime as part of Red Bull’s Culture Clash promotional material43. Sound
clash is also an aspect of Jamaican sound system culture that has been co-opted by Red Bull.
‘…competitions known as ‘clashes’ began to take place. These were a partial continuation of the competitive performance traditions of many West African cultures such as those in Trinidad and Brazil.’ (Sullivan 2013:16).
In varied form, the sound clash informed American Rap cyphering, DJ practices and Hip Hop culture. Cross pollinated influences of this practice from Jamaica and American Hip Hop culture now influence Grime. This prominent practice is an aspect found in the Black Music Stream (Lena 2012) owing to its presence in varying levels across the Diaspora.
When examining antecedents of Grime, respondents from Afrodiasporic backgrounds were more forthcoming and vocal when identifying Grime with the music’s belonging to the Black Music Stream, particularly Jamaican music. This suggests that Grime is a locus (effect/culture bearer etc.) of a larger story (i.e. events/politics) for Black Britons. This is where the visibility of the Black Public Sphere enters the narrative. Respondents who self-identified as being of (African) Caribbean descent, and/or those of any other background with knowledge of Jamaican music specifically, spoke matter-of-factly about where Grime came from, basing this knowledge on having first hand, embodied, experiential knowledge growing up in and around Reggae/Dancehall/Bashment music, and/or sound system culture in Britain or abroad. They immediately identified cultural set ups in live event settings and musical patterns prevalent in the early stages of the Grime scene.
‘That was just Bogle music that was just -- because Steely and Cleevie were my favourite producers. Back then, they were the Timberland of Jamaica. So they're the first Grime producers because they had the simplest beats, they sound full. There sounds like there's lots going on but there isn't. Theirs was (imitates baseline) … Simple!‘ Anon160
‘Like Grime - it’s very much a foundation level thing, it wasn’t complex. It was like creative simplicity.’ Its whole concept was very – it came from the same thing that- it’s mad – it’s Dancehall!’ Aaron Roach Bridgeman
‘I don't like to say it like that, like people might listen and think ‘What’s he talking about?!’, but it's true, that's what it was. It was like that. If you look back to 1994 you get Saxon Sound Clash all them t’ings there at the end of the day. It's the same. If you look it's exactly the same, it's just evolved into Grime. In 10 or 20 years it will be another sound and the same atmosphere. That's what it is; that's what it was...’ TerraMontana365
Older respondents, in addition to those familiar with Jamaican music, were able to link the Jamaican influenced genealogical history of Grime music with British underground music and scenes, such a Jungle:
‘Don’t get it twisted, there are influences and origins of it that we can blatantly see in things like Jungle which then you can also take from Jamaican Dancehall music…’ Aaron Roach Bridgeman
I observed a prominent British Dancehall DJ present the argument that Grime is British Dancehall at the Buma Rotterdam Beats, plenary session conference (Nov 2012). This data and project specifically facilitate a visibility into inside knowledge, cultural and social capital in the Black Public Sphere that respondents experientially and instinctively understand.
The significance of Jamaican music and context
It is worth noting that the genres I categorised A-E identified by respondents all have ties and/or links with Jamaican Music. Sullivan (2013) draws upon the similarities between British Punk and Reggae. Both were influential in 1970s Britain, and Punk incorporated Reggae elements into its sound. He argues that both PunkandReggae were revolutionary with anti- establishment sentiments in the British context particularly, the former expressing angst, a vehicle for anger and a desire for anarchy, the latter seeking to defy Babylon. Both sought to challenge the status quo and social order. He suggests that the relationship between Punk and Dub was fairly fluid during the mid to late 70s and early 80s.
DJ Kool Herc, a Jamaican immigrant residing in the Bronx New York, is credited for significantly contributing to developing Rap and Hip Hop culture in the USA as a result of his attempts to recreate ‘home’ (i.e. Jamaica - by playing his music out on the street - Rose 1994). So whilst
influenced. Jamaican influence in 1980s and 1990s Britain should not go unnoticed. Respondents spoke of the influence of Jamaican musicians on British music outside of Grime. Citing the success of Black British group Musical Youth, Smiley Culture, Maxi Priest and the genre Lovers Rock all being influenced by the sonics of Jamaican music, Jamaican born Reggae artists Half Pint’s‘…album, also called Raggamuffin Hip Hop, was released in 1988 and had an influence on the early ragga Jungle scene.’ (Sullivan 2013:119)
‘UK rave culture has been defined by a compulsion to use house with reggae and hip hop… You could argue that UK rave was in large part the direct transposition of Jamaican dancehall culture into Britain - the competing sound systems, the all-night parties…the bass worship… hardcore evolved into Jungle…’ (Reynolds 2007:261)
Jungle music has significant Ragga/Dancehall/Bashment influences. As outlined previously, Jungle was a source of inspiration for Garage and Grime artists who used and applied it to UK Garage, changing the Garage sound (reducing the melodic nature and re-introducing low frequencies and increasing tempo).
Finally, Jamaican Dub was one of the first genres to employ experimental techniques to music consistently (Reynolds 2007, LaBelle 2010, Goodman 2010) applying sound effects such as echoes, reverb and non-musical sounds such as foghorns to tracks (Reynolds 2007).
British group Soul II Soul were referenced specifically by one respondent in relation to the British application of Jamaican sound system culture in the late 1980s and 1990s. This respondent based their own musical career on the Soul II Soul sound system model, having seen them successfully apply it to another genre in Britain and achieve commercial success.
‘But I took the influence from Soul II Soul because they started as a sound. They started as this -- they had that guy in Camden built their crowd, playing their
own tunes – got a deal, sold three millions albums in The States. So I kind of took that model roughly when I started [DJ collective] – thought – well – well let just start a sound then. We start a crew, playing what they want, build an audience eventually playing my own stuff to the audience -- and the rest is history. So that was kind of the idea (laughter).’ Anon348
Emulating this approach, in addition to this respondent’s specialist knowledge of Dancehall and Bashment music, (their primary DJ sound specialism), these sounds influenced their own musical productions of ‘Garage-like’ music which were ‘labelled’ and marketed as Garage in order to promote their work. This influential sound was eventually called Sublow, Grimy Garage or Dark Garage, but at the time of production, did not have a name.
‘…well when I did it, I did it as a Garage record and somehow it kind of, along with Eskimo and a series of other tunes, just started the Grime sound…And the rest is history. So it wasn't something where I said I'm gonna do Grime music. It was just -- it kind of evolved into it.’ Anon 689
This respondent outlined how elements of Jamaican music culture found its way into Grime:
‘…like Wiley took the Jamaican culture and put it into Grime to a generation that didn't know about that or part of it; took elements of clashing, riddim tracks but made it British… he embraces the new, that sort of cockney British flow and made it popular.’ Anon 346
Sim Simma, incorporated the familiar musical elements she listened to growing up in her own music. These were a source of inspiration:
‘And decided to incorporate a rapping style with a little bit of singing style. Kind of Jamaican and English Grime mix with a little Dancehall …and a bit of Hip-Hop.’ Sim Simma
Many respondents that were involved in music making were either part of a sound system or had family members that were involved in sound systems. Some respondents even referred to other Grime artists who had direct or familial links to sound systems.
‘My dad was in a Reggae band so he has a bit of equipment already.’ Dexplicit
Wretch32 spoke of his father being involved in sound system culture at TUS201244 and
Jammer’s (BBK) father was also a soundman that had involvement in the culture (Bradley 2010, 2012).
Whilst I have made links to the significance of Jamaican music here, this section also illustrates the point stressed in the introduction of this chapter - that genre is always open and that there are never clearly defined lines distinguishing one genre to the next. The musics identified here are a cross pollination of (and in some cases with) a Black Atlantic identity (known to many active in the scene, or who understand the Black Public Sphere - its norms and all/parts of the collective histories that inform it). Sociologically, it is also of note that the genres identified A-E, are also marginal and/or controversial genres and represent people who are constructed as marginal by mainstream British society.