Music Dump Friday: Grime & Drill

Audrey Morrison, Features Editor

Installment 6 of Music Dump Friday: Friday, September 24, 2021.

Check in with For the Record each week for Audrey’s music recommendations and reviews. 

Over the weekend, I started watching the webseries “Chicken Shop Date” with English comedian/youtuber Amelia Dimoldenberg. Although I’m incredibly late to the phenomenon, I immediately fell in love with her series (and her Chicken Shop Date Arrdee), where she plays an offbeat yet diffident interviewer/date to a succession of various musicians, youtubers, and athletes. If you haven’t seen the series, check out my favorite interview here. If you already have, watch it again, I don’t care.

Countless artists have graced the chicken shops she frequented such as: KSI, Aitch, Chunkz and Yung Filly, and slowthai. Watching her series, I got started to fall back into English grime and drill music. If you’ve ever listened to grime or drill, you know that they have a very distinct sound. It’s harder to describe the genres in qualitative terms. They take aspects of hip-hop, trap, EDM, even afrobeat, and create something brash and impressive. These genres are greatly influenced by UK politics, ethics, and issues, and can be heard loud and clear in many songs of the like. Where seeds were planted in England’s underground rap scenes have blossomed into a globally recognizable anthem of youth. All I know is when I hear it, I know it’s grime.

Songs:

British rapper slowthai makes allusions to classic horror flicks like Scary Movie in his music video “CANCELLED.” (Photo via YouTube music video)

The first shot in British rapper slowthai’s music video for “CANCELLED” (feat. Skepta) paradoxically features that famous phone call scene from “Scary Movie”. But instead of saying “wazzup” for 2 minutes straight they say “wagwan” which is basically the English slang derivative. On some weird, universal level, it sort of works. This is probably my favorite music video by slowthai, maybe even one of my favorite music videos ever. It references loads of classically American horror films like “Candyman”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “American Psycho”, and of course: “Scary Movie.” slowthai has some of the strongest vision and execution in the game. His music videos and collabs are incredibly eccentric, masterly crafted, and intentionally shot cinematic masterpieces. And to top it all off, he concludes the video with a reference to his episode of “Chicken Shop Date” (which I highly recommend watching – it’s a trip). If you’re a fan of his style, you might also want to check out his music video for “Inglorious” (feat. Skepta). Fair warning: I wouldn’t watch his stuff if you have an aversion to blood.

A classic grime anthem, “Back to Basics” by Headie One (feat. Skepta), is elevated by Floating Points’ 2019 remix. If you’re on TikTok at all, you’ve probably heard the original. The initial release is already super beat-heavy and syncopated, but the remix manages to accentuate all the great things about the song and amplify them. It’s weird and sonic and very dance-able. Listen to “Back to Basics” by Headie One (feat. Skepta) (Floating Points Remix) and more on my playlist linked below.

Check out Arrdee’s album, Oliver Twist. (Photo via Arrdee)

How could I talk about talk about grime without mentioning Arrdee? His recent single “Oliver Twist” is the perfect encapsulation of the innovation and caprice of Britain’s underground rap scene. Complete with a offbeat violin sample, a centuries-old literature allusion, and cheeky lyricism, “Oliver Twist” is so bad it’s good. There’s a sense of impulse and humour in a lot of grime/drill that’s so attractive and refreshing to hear these days. It seems like everyone’s just trying to have a good time and create the weirdest beats. If you need a break from those heavy, acoustic fall tracks, unwind with some grime.