The new nu-metal

TRC combine the chagrin and angst of hardcore with some grime-style rapping. Read all about it over on guardian.co.uk/music.

By the way, synth-metal poster boys Enter Shikari are now doing dubstep.

Breaking news: D Double E's favourite Street Fighter character is Sagat

For the latest Bass Odyssey column on thefader.com I had a mole implanted on the Newham Generals' table at the NME Awards, who reported back on the important things like how many cocktail sausages Footsie was eating (the average for the whole night was 48 per hour). The mole (Jack from Friendly Fires) also did a mix of classic house and bleep and stuff, which you can listen to below. Tracklist in comments.

Smutlee mix

I got Smutlee to do a short mix of dancehall, funky and garage stuff for the Vice music blog last week. It's real nice. Tracklist in comments.

Download: Smutlee mix

UrBaN Q&As

(These were supposed to run with a piece in a forthcoming issue of NME but there was no space for them)



FLUKES FROM CRAZY COUSINZ

Why is 2009 gonna be the bestest year that has ever been on a calendar?
Because we have a lot more to offer, we're much more of an established brand now with more fans behind us and a lot more music to drop for '09. And we've got the support of the 'bestest' journo to ever grace NME.

How much money do you estimate you'll earn in the next 12 months?
$20 billion Ugandan dollars.

What do you plan to spend all this money on?
10,000 copies of NME.

How many pairs of trainers will you buy with your earnings?
I've moved up a level – I do shoes now.

How many more girls will you get when you become worldwide famous in 2009?
It's not about the quantity, mate... it's the quality!

ASHER ROTH

How many Top 10 hits will you have in 2009?
14 tracks on the album equals 14 Top 10 hits.

What do you plan to spend all the money you will make this year on?
Psychedelic drugs and prostitutes.

How many pounds worth of gold and diamonds will you own by the end of the year?
I will own my body weight in gold, but no diamonds.

How many times will members of your entourage be wrongly arrested following scuffles with the paparazzi at international airports by the end of 2009?
It doesn't matter as long as Sloane [a character in popular HBO series Entourage] is safe.

How many pit bulls and other aggressive dogs will you be buying this year?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is clearly one of the best movies of all time.

CHIPMUNK

How much money will you make this year?
Triple what I made last year, which was quite a lot.

What will you spend it on?
First thing I'm going for is a mortgage – I'm going for a house this year. I might get a few jewels but nothing too outrageous, and, as soon as I pass my test, a car.

How many magazine covers do you think you will be on in 2009?
Every one that's relevant, so at least 30, man.

How many bottles of champagne will you be poppin' this year?
Hmmm, I don't really like champagne too much, but I drink it. I like Malibu and coke, and Bailey's. I try to stay away from the alcohol, if I'm honest.

Chipmunk interview

Photo by Alex Sturrock

I've put up my old Chipmunk interview on the Fader site this week. There's also some footage of him winning a MOBO and Wiley acting all crazed and desperate.

Wiley the Grimosaur

Electro-grime is dead. Sing and dance-along DVDs for mother and baby with Wiley the Grimosaur are the future of grime.

Roll Deep featuring MC Harvey

Click here for some photos from Roll Deep's album launch party the other night. The club looked like somewhere a South Korean businessman would bring an Eastern European prostitute on a night out. As you can see above, Jordan's kid, Harvey, was there performing on the night.

Photos by James Pearson-Howes

Grime's legacy?

Two things

Photo by Jamie-James Medina

Fader: "MySpace has taught me a lot of things and enriched my life in many ways. I mean, before MySpace I never realised that Lost in Translation was the best movie ever made or that George Lucas was the best director ever to step foot in this part of the galaxy. Without MySpace I wouldn't have been given the pleasure of learning that 65 per cent of the people in the world would like to meet Notorious B.I.G., John Lennon, Martin Luther King and Bob Dylan."


Illustration by Johnny Ryan

Vice: "Hey people at Glastonbury (not that anyone at Glastonbury will be reading this). Are you guys looking forward to watching Jay-Z in the unforgiving rain with lots of people who hate him? I really hope it rains. Please rain."

FrEe MuSiC!!!!!

By giving away Grimewave for free, I am effectively throwing Wiley's money away. Wiley does not look happy about this

You know what, some of you guys are right - this blog needs more grime, more Mr Wong, more Channel U videos, more mad flava from da streetz. So, as a little gift to you peeps, here is the new Wiley album, Grimewave, for free download. Note: illegally downloading music is wrong, so if you have a conscience you can choose not the click the link and instead buy the album where it is advertised in the sidebar.

Download: Wiley - Grimewave

Halcyon days

Today is a very special anniversary. It's almost exactly two years and 11-and-a-third months since I first posted the "Bow for the Wolves" video. This was the "Junior Spesh" of its day. Who remembers grime back then? To quote my friend Jack: it was the nangest of times, it was the aggiest of times. Incidentally, my column in Vice this month contains some "explosive" excerpts from Jack's diary from his recent tour with Tinchy Stryder. Read it here.

A day with Trim

Photos by Alex Sturrock. Words by me.

Spotted

Alex Sturrock spotted Skepta outside the (good) bagel shop on Brick Lane today. He was apparently on his way to Roll Deep's studio to do some new tracks with them. I swear someone needs to do a grime documentary in the bagel shop. Or maybe Dubplate Drama could dedicate a whole episode to it in their next series (if there is another series). There could be a story line about one of the old women in the shop bootlegging mix CDs or something. Just a suggestion.

Sheets are overly warm

Photo by Jamie-James Medina



MP3: Wiley - Wearing My Rolex (produced by Bless Beats)

I think this is my favourite song right now. I'm pretty sure it is.



When the fuck are Newham Generals going to release something? Right now I'd be satisfied with a spoken word album from D Double. Maybe just him reading some nursery rhymes with the sound of the wind gently blowing in the background.

Bruv, what you sayin'? / It's the word of God that I'm sprayin'

You wait about four years for a new grime anthem, something on the same level as "Pow", and then two come along at once.

"Shout out to Burger King"

I'm pretty over the really bad, cringeworthy jokes about Big Brother so I didn't want to mention it this year. But my friend sent me this clip of Harry Hill's TV Burp and pointed me to 03:50, where Calista is in the studio performing. Have a look. "I love to play my bongos in the morrrrnnning" – that has to be the biggest vocal hook ever. If this gets released it's gonna be like DJ NG's "Tell Me" multiplied by "Pow" to the power of T2. Look out for the Styleslut feature on it in Pimp Magazine in 2010.



Try to ignore Big Narstie's freestyle here but listen out for the constant jibes from Westwood ("Shout out to Burger King" etc.) and look at everyone else's reaction around him. It's basically like the fat kid at school getting picked on. Quite sad really.

Erm... hello?????

Are people honestly trying to tell me grime is dead when there is quality stuff like this still being made?

"I ain't gonna lie, some have got better / Dizzee got worse but he still got cheddar"

Photo by Alex Sturrock

Top 18 things that I heard in 2007 in no particular order (with selected commentary):

1. Trim - Soulfood Vol. 1
2. Apple - Mr Bean
3. DJ NG - Tell Me
Coming out again on Atlantic Records next year
4. Estelle - American Boy (TS7 Remix)
5. Trim - Soulfood Vol. 2
I think I'm the only person who thought this was better than Vol. 1
6. JTJ Productions - It's You
7. Wiley - Apocalypto
Have you heard Wiley's funky house remix of "Night"?
8. El-B - Shorty (Steppa Mix)
9. Mavado - Gangsta For Life
10. Cheeksta - Baby (TS7 Remix)
11. Martyn - Twenty Four
Who would have thought that in 2007 dubstep could still be subtle? Not a cod-Jamaican vocal in sight, too.
12. Burial - Unite
I don't actually dislike Burial
13. Durrty Goodz - Switching Songs Part 2
14. Dizzee Rascal - Dean
This was a B-side on the "Sirens" CD single. Strangely, it's better than pretty much every other track on the album. It's like one of those dreamy, introspective tracks from Boy in Da Corner. I guess it didn't really fit in with the whole "British hip-hop" theme he was going for with this LP. Shame, really.
15. Wookie - Gallium
16. Joker - Gully Brook Lane
Is this ever actually going to come out on vinyl?
17. Wiley - 16 Bar Rally
18. T2 - Why (Mr Virgo Remix)

Top 2 1Xtra DJs who say "The" before every artist name:

1. The DJ Cameo
2. The DJ Footloose

Top 5 people / things / animals Skepta has been photographed with this year:

1. Some Hasidic Jews


2. A camel


3. Trigga


4. Ian from Black Lips


5. The Israeli flag


Top 2 songs of 2007 about penises:

1. Ce'Cile - Prancehall Dub
2. Riskay - Smell Yo Dick

Top 3 screwfaces of 2007:

1. Jammer


2. Jammer


3. Fuda Guy


Top 3 most overrated grime albums of 2007 (in order of overratedness):

1. Skepta - Greatest Hits
2. Dizzee Rascal - Maths & English
3. Wiley - Playtime Is Over

Top 4 slogan T-shirts of 2007:

1. DJ Scholar - I Got It 4 Cheap!


2. Afrikan Boy - I'm Focused, Don't U Get It?


3. Lee Brasco - You Make Me Sick


4. Jammer - Are You Dumb?

"Receipt in the bag, sir?"

It wouldn't be a Prancehall Christmas without a message from Jammer. Last Xmas eve Jammer was showing off his presents and doing karaoke with his dad. This year my friend Jack was round at Jam's getting a 16 for a Black Lips re-work he's making for his forthcoming mixtape. He managed to get this video before Jammer had to rush off.


Ears in some nylon Adidas dungarees. Photo by James Pearson-Howes

My friend James Pearson-Howes AKA Queenie has just put some old school Jammer / Jahmek Da World pics on his blog. Says Queenie: "Dude, I found some great old pictures of Jammer and his crew back in the day - proper '04 business. Jammer still owes me 200 Ps for that shoot."

Grime's not dead, it's just resting its eyes

This video falls somewhere between this and this with some definite echoes of this.



This was done at the room right at the top of the Stratford Rex a few weeks back. If you pause it in the right place you might be able to catch the shadow of the end of one of my fingers on the wall to the right of the screen. You might also have seen the side of my head for 1/10th of a second on Channel 4 on Friday night on the Nike Supersonic programme. So famous right now.


Here is my new regular feature where I list events that grime MCs have been booked to play but were too busy to show up.

Last week the MCs who were otherwise engaged when they were supposed to be performing were:

*Trim in Brighton
*Boy Better Know in Bristol

Have you booked a grime MC who hasn't bothered to show up? Let me know below in the comments or email me. The best story wins a plastic clothes hanger with the words: "Grime's not dead, it's just resting its eyes" scrawled across it in Tippex.