It's all quite romantic at first. Floating and swirling in the air, descending with poise and elegance. The snow wraps up all below, and your understanding of the environment - roads, car-parks, maybe a patch of grass - merges into an indistinct mass of whiteness.
Lovely isn't it.
Guys have to make the standard snowballs, trample a bit, drive about town, and the atmospheric scene turns into a slosh. Grime's novelty, feeling and atmosphere of a former time, one in which 'Treddin' On Thin Ice' belonged, has thawed. Puddles form and the sparse beats, so indicative of the time and place in which they were created, have sunk to the bottom.
Dot Rotten is, to me, one of the very few who has a sense of emotion and atmosphere in his music and, continuing with the frosty thread, here's a brief clip of the tune he played on his Genesis Radio show. The hook is basic, but I like the tune.
Ice Kid (Feat. Dot Rotten) - Respect
Wiley's eski-beat classics, and even the former battle with Doogz on the Igloo riddim, are now housed in Club 5 as the scene slides ever more to the dancefloor.
================THE WAR REPORT===============
Wiley - Conspiracy
The dub isn't characteristic for Wiley, since the reply wasn't immediate. The Australia tour may be partly the reason for that, but this is still the the obligatory reply for credibility.
There's nothing wrong with a draw. Two of the best slugged it out, kicked up some excitment and showed the scene's levels in the process.
'You want your name in the king of grime conversation they ain't saying it'.
But in terms of competition between Wiley and Goodz, is this the last word?
I don't know. New Year's always comes as a bit of an anti-climax. Building up for a new start, expectations of a new dawn. It never turns out like that though; a nasty hang-over and other fuckery that suggests the same as always.
Fuck it though. January 1st is just a day that follows 31st December; time's relentless move forward. I'm currently listening to Kano's This Is The Girl though so the disillusionment is slightly allieved. Remember when the tune adorned the front page of the 679 Recordings website? When Vectra used to play it so often that you thought 'London Town' would be the real deal?
Logan's show last Monday sums up '08 really. He may have had glazed eyes during his retrospective look on grime last year, I don't know. But remembering particular moments of last year perfectly, and then its start seeming like ages ago, is a bit odd. I feel a bit ashamed with my preoccupations of Rolex-sweeping, which eclipsed the brilliant Dark from early '08. I only forgot about the tune after deleting the radio rip because I played it about fifty times. Double S's Pot Of Gold nearly joined the annals of anonymity as well. That was a banger. And what happened to Skengman Mode? It was played on nearly every set early this year, only to then vanish like President T.
Anyway, a couple of token predictions for 2009. Might as well.
Double S may have had an alright year, but he's only been a big, recognisable name for just over twelve months. He has a good flow and similies, but most importantly he makes good songs. As a crew, Marvell seem to be moving as a more unified unit now, but he can still individually build on what he's done this year. There's been a few steps, but they're solid ones.
Wiley is a highly unoriginal choice, but the Manchester air is obviously doing him good, since everything he's touched recently has turned to gold. His flow is flawless, and his spitting is the best it's been for a while. The straining for the elusive, classic release must be a burden, but with recent signs, off the back of one of the best vocals of his career in Where's My Brother, there's abundant promise. 'Race Against Time' now has even bigger expectations.
Ice Kid is also an unoriginal shout. He's the wildcard of 2009; not yet complete, with more proof of his song-writing skills and work-rate needed, yet he has the raw skills and intensity that raise him above the large majority. It's about time he made his mark on the scene.
What are your predictions? Surely yours are more original and interesting than mine. The truth is it's half five in the morning and I'm pissed.
A Happy New Year to you all, and hopefully a good year for grime. Twelve months is a long time. Or is it?
I'm painfully aware that Wiley has been the topic of the day for probably too many days, so surely one more won't hurt before I have a little rest and write about something else. On the other hand, there is interest in See Clear Now from places because I've been getting a ridiculous amount of hits recently. I thought I didn't care about that sort of thing but, apparently, it appears I do.
With it being Monday yesterday Logan Sama was on the radio, even though he's not next week. The tears were about to flow but he promised to do an old-school grime mix instead, so it's all good. For once I actually stayed up for the whole two hour grime extravagaza and, despite no set, the show was decent, which I can only put down to the host's inimitable style and slick radio broadcasting skills. Logan still wasn't finished, putting a caller's number on the internet after the show for saying racist things. Humble pie for the people who doubted the man's cameo appearance on Roll Deep's Racist People.
The show kicked off to a flippant start, with Logan saying that Wiley had a new album out, so 'might as well play some tracks'.
Fair enough.
I was eagerly waiting for the new offerings, until I was interrupted with a message from one of grime's few entrepeneurs, the internet tycoon Hij. Inexplicitly, Hij decided that it was no longer appropriate for me to be a 'Super Shower Moderator' on the grimeforum. Whether the power has gone to his head or not, I painfully accepted the decision against the backdrop of the new Wiley track Can't Stop Thinking which, bar for some elements of the production, was comprehensively deadout. The song has now been inherited with bad connotations, a personal soundtrack of failure, and the realisation that I've been dropped back into the pit of forum runts.
*waves at grimeforum users*
Generally though, the music wasn't conventional pop-music. It was quite bizarre really, and I don't know what to make of it. It wasn't straight pie which is what some may have expected, and there is barring rather than sparse, minimalistic vocals that have little to no worth. I might buy See Clear Now just out of intrigue. Intentional or not, intrigue isn't a bad marketing ploy.
Wiley - See Clear Now
The album being released on Asylum is a one-off, with Wiley leaving and going independent on Eskibeat Recordings. I said a while back what I thought about the label, but at least it has some releases now, if not much else.
Ice Kid was supposedly a member but, after finally making a track, it appears that he's 'Eskibeat Recordings... Director'. Really, you can't get away from why. Wiley can do what he wants, but the idea of giving something to someone for nothing makes no sense whatsoever. The camp has to make movements regardless for the title to mean anything so, as an Ice Kid fan, hopefully being the director of Eskibeat Recordings will get him out of bed in the morning to make some tunes.
The 'I'll melt ya igloo so retire' talk is over. Everyone's happy. They see clear now.
Shorty Smalls is one of my favourite MCs. I don't really know why. His delivery isn't perfect, his bars could be constructed better, and his workrate isn't great. In the current climate maybe that's part of the appeal; an MC who makes no pretensions and with no yearning for wider acclaim. Just like every other grime MC he may have weaknesses, but with a good flow when the bars are on-point, and the anthemic S.H.O.R.T.Y S.M.A.L.L.S that still gets wheels in the gaff, he has enough about him that warrants more attention than he gets.
Generally you won't be high in the grime conscience if you release next to nothing, and the situation takes a tragically comic edge given the 'Non Stop Working' mantra which, even more unfortunately, had to be printed on numerous T-Shirts. I'm not going to slag off the tees because, like most in grime, they're not laughable. Anyway I hope something is coming soon but sometimes hoping is all a bit pointless. I'm not necessarily old enough, but I am wise enough to realise that it's more likely that Ronald McDonald will turn up to Rinse next week to spray a couple bars sending for The Colonel and the Crispy Twister.
Mixtapes seem to be a standard for anyone in the scene who wants to be taken seriously, and Chipmunk thinks you can't be taken seriously if you don't have several tunes to your name. I respect the young man's output and it's propelled him where he is now, but with six promos and three mixtapes saying anything else would seem a bit silly. Nobody wants a punch in the face and Chip stuck to the script, yet Esco and Ice Kid to name a few prove happy exceptions to the rule. Silence has led to intrigue, with fans hyping in the expectation of something, and an over-indulgence on the few freestyles or features they can call their own.
I'm not sure what Esco and Ice Kid have lined up, though I think I do know. Chipmunk's debut album 'I Am Chipmunk' is due for release soon. I wish him every success but, whatever the measure of his future success, I'll always rate Shorty Smalls higher. I don't really know why.
