![]() ![]() On Islands, the MC is given the centre stage, dominating tracks that become actual songs, with a considered variation in tempos and styles. Routes, their debut album together, was pretty much a portrait of London in music, very much in the vein of Keysound label owners Dusk and Blackdown’s Margins Music, with Idehen’s vocals pared down to soundbites dropped around LV’s post-dubstep malaise. In production duo LV, Idehen has chanced upon the ideal collaborators. Idehen comes across on Islands as a romantic, a drifter and a story-teller, a narrator transmitting those same dirty roads, reverberating clubs and cramped council flats to us via his own experiences, emotions and musings. The aforementioned universality detracts from the personal beyond the fleetest of glimpses, but Josh Idehen seems to take little interest in convention or stylistic mores, and his is a vision more coherent and formally narrative than any other MC I’ve come across, at least in these days when the solo underground grime artist à la early Dizzee or Wiley has taken a backseat to (often striking) collaborative efforts such as The Bug’s Angels & Devils and ubiquitous chart-topping bubblegum-hop. It’s rare that an artist will open up to the extent that it feels like you’ve been given access to his or her deepest thoughts and feelings. In grime in particular, MCs spit, yelp and bellow sketches of their day-to-day experiences, allowing a tiny insight of their lives before the songs fade and the shaking bass ushers us towards the dancefloor. These have come to define our city nights like a tapestry culled from the minds of millions of young revellers and city dwellers, a collective database as indefinable and romanticised as it is visceral and universal. ![]() It was the beat that every MC had to have, affirming Rude Kid’s ability to create something for everyone.Over the years, we’ve become used to grime and dubstep as vehicles for a portrayal of the UK’s urban hinterland: the tough inner-city estates, the lonely bus rides through decaying suburbia, the overarching threats of gangs, police and drugs, the heady rush of post-dancefloor euphoria giving way to end-of-the-night melancholia. If you’ve been following grime in the last year, you’ll be familiar with Rude Kid through his unforgettable track “One Take,” an instrumental with a dense web of samples: it takes from Dizzee Rascal’s “Hoe,” Section Boyz’s “Lock Arff,” and Wiley’s “Igloo.” “One Take” was so good that, as well as the version recorded by Ghetts for their joint 653 EP, MCs Chip and Stormzy tackled the beat this year too, in freestyles that have collectively hit over seven million views. He went on to become a crucial figure in shaping grime, producing tracks like “So Nice” for DJ Ironik with an R&G (Rhythm & Grime) vibe in 2008, as well as crossover records like “Sing For Me” for Ghetts in 2009. ![]() He began producing after catching Wiley’s legendary instrumental “Eskimo” on pirate radio station Déjà Vu at the age of 16, and deciding in that moment that he wanted to make others feel the way he did when listening to the track. Rude Kid hails from Essex, a county north-east of London. The tune is savage and infectiously aggressive, and it’s accompanied by a visual that’s a strong contender for one of the best grime videos ever. His latest offering is “Topper Top” with former Roll Deep member Killa P, dancehall/grime MC Lady Chann, and mysterious newcomer Teddy Bruckshot. garage breaks into an epic orchestral drop.Īs well as working with the veterans, Spyro has always had time for younger artists - hear him on “Scary,” Stormzy’s darkest track to date. But in 2016, he returned to production with credits on some of the biggest tunes in grime: Ghetts’s MOBO-nominated single “Ya Dun Know Already,” and “10/10” by P Money, a track where U.K. For a few years he kept his beatmaking on the back burner, touring the world as a DJ for his childhood friend, U.K. After perfecting his craft as a selector, he began producing, tagging the tracks he made in Fruity Loops with a distinctive Sounds of The Sir ident. He began his career as a club DJ, joining the Rinse FM roster in 2005. Sir Spyro has been a cornerstone of the grime scene since its early days. ![]()
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