- It's strange. (chuckles) It's not what I'm used to.
- What three-year-old put the lyrics of the song together?
♪ (ragtime intro) ♪
- (FBE) So today, we're going to be showing you a series
of music videos that are all part of a music genre called grime.
- Grime.
- The name sounds (chuckles) kind of rough.
Maybe a little more on the metal side.
- Why would you call something grime unless it denotes something dirty?
It isn't a positive thing. It isn't happiness, wonderful.
It's more of a negative connotation.
- This is just a small sampling today,
but we might cover more artists in the future.
Ready to jump in? - Okay. Why not?
- ♪ ...try says he's better than me ♪
♪ Tell my man shut up ♪ - (all) ♪ Shut up ♪
- ♪ Mention my name in your tweets ♪
♪ Oi, rude boy, shut up ♪ - (all) ♪ Shut up ♪
- "Shut up." It is definitely not an American accent.
- And with that accent. It's almost British.
- I like this presentation.
- I like this.
- ♪ I've got a mob like A$AP Rocky ♪
- It's... to me, that's rap.
- This makes me think of rap.
- ♪ They roll deep, I roll squaddy ♪
♪ Got about 25 goons in my posse ♪
♪ They drink Bailey's, I drink Vossy ♪
- This guy's cool.
- It's positive. It's not what I thought it would be.
- ♪ Why? 'Cause I ain't won a MOBO before ♪
- I guess they're his chorus.
- More wholesome compared to some of the other rap.
- ♪ Brown skin girl in the club, I want that one ♪
♪ Who's got Rizla and chip? ♪ ♪ I wanna strap one ♪
- (all laugh)
- (laughs)
You forgot the words!
He was so at ease with the camera
and with his friends there. There's a lot of love there.
- Well, that was much better than I thought it would be.
- I'm so glad I'm not young anymore
to listen to whatever this is.
- (FBE) So that comes from Stormzy.
He got enough attention from this freestyle video,
which was released on YouTube,
to eventually release a professional track
of this song that charted. - Oh, okay.
- I relate freestyle more to dance.
- I thought all rap was freestyle. (chuckles)
On-the-spot poetry like slam poetry.
- (FBE) Did you find what he was doing in the video
impressive enough to have a professional track made from it?
- (chuckles) Not really.
- My standard is a little higher than that.
- Yeah, it was impressive. Most definitely very talented.
- ♪ When it's shutdown ♪ ♪ That's not me and it's shutdown ♪
♪ Ring ring [bleep], it's shutdown ♪
♪ Fashion week and it's shutdown ♪
- What makes grime different from rap?
- So like a group rap is what I'm getting out of this.
- ♪ Take time if a man wanna try me, no time ♪
- You could really dance to this.
- It's strange. (chuckles) It's not what I'm used to.
- Okay, well this is-- I've heard 100 of 'em like this.
I don't know exactly what they're saying.
Maybe the message isn't for me.
- ♪ I was in Paris, shut down l'Arc ♪
- See, see... yeah. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Look at the body language. Angry, defiant.
- They look too gang-y.
♪ ...with no label ♪ ♪ No A-list songs, and I told them ♪
- Interesting.
But I kind of gather this one also was not made in the United States.
It sounds like it was made in Great Britain.
- A lot of violence and encouraging that kind of attitude.
- There's a meanness, a hatred. It's scary.
- (FBE) So this song comes from Skepta.
He's a key figure in the emergence of grime.
Skepta has been praised for his anti-mainstream message.
He left his record label to produce music independently
so he could do it on his own terms.
- Oh, everybody's gonna get praise for that.
In fact, it's so way to go, it's becoming the mainstream.
- (FBE) Would artists do something like this
back when you were growing up, or was there no way
to become popular without the aid of radio and record companies?
- When I was growing up, there was no music like this.
It was always who you know, and did you have some kind
of music or rhythm that was different from everybody else.
- I don't think they could get any of their music out
without a record label and the DJs.
- There was no way to become popular unless you made it big.
This is very encouraging, 'cause young people can do it.
I think it's wonderful.
- ♪ They know that we're savages ♪ ♪ Know that we're cold ♪
♪ We come from the road ♪
- Now, see, this is pretty cool.
- ♪ We're digging for gold ♪
- They all sound the same. (chuckles)
- ♪ She wanted to roll ♪
♪ She's getting down with the gang on the low ♪
♪ Down with the gang on the low ♪
♪ Yeah, don't you know we don't play-ay-ay-ay ♪
- You look like you're playing.
You got toys and you got a gal there.
- ♪ Don't you know we don't play-ay-ay-ay ♪
- I wish I had his body!
- Boy, he's got a nice body.
- This guy's a stud, though.
- ♪ No [bleep] boys in my section ♪
- He's got the jewelry, the diamonds, the cars, the chicks.
- ♪ No [bleep] boys in my section ♪ - Don't like that.
Don't like that at all.
- This is more materialistic type of music.
I like the beat. - It's all that you should
want bling, cars, jewelry, sex.
I mean, come on.
- ♪ Don't you know we don't play-ay-ay-ay ♪
- What three-year-old put the lyrics of the song together?
- What are they so angry about?
You know, why couldn't they just sing a pleasant song?
- The machine gun stuff I could probably do without,
but you know, overall, the guy's a performer.
He moves exceptionally while fun to watch.
- (FBE) So that was Bugzy Malone.
He's one of the most successful independent British MCs.
And being from Manchester, he's one of the few grime musicians
who did not originate from the London area
where grime really started to emerge.
Bugzy has spoken about coming from an impoverished youth
and spent some time in jail, but considers grime
to be an outlet for him. - Yeah, a way out.
It was a way out, and he got lucky.
- (FBE) What do you think about how music and creativity
can at times turn people's lives around?
- Well, I think music can turn a person around,
but I don't know that this could.
- Any form of creative endeavor that would help a person recover
from something bad that happened in their life,
I think it's-- no price can be put on it.
- That's what gives them the ideas. That's how they got the ideas
to do it in the first place. They had these experiences
that they're expressing through grime.
- (FBE) Grime is a relatively new genre
that started in London in the early 2000s,
and it's characterized by its heavy bass
and the double time rhythm and not produced to be
what some would call "commercially mainstream."
- Right. - (FBE) But some have said
that grime is too similar to hip-hop to be considered a new genre.
From the hip-hop and rap that you've listened to here
or in your life before, are you able
to notice a difference with grime? - It's all the same to me.
- I couldn't tell you the real difference,
but to me, it's very similar.
- It all sounded pretty much the same
except the ones that had a good beat you could dance to.
Now that I like. - It's got a slight difference
with the lyrics itself and with the performers.
It's not hip-hop and it's not rap, but it's close.
- (FBE) Many say that grime music initially spread through
pirate radio stations, live performances,
and online outlets like YouTube
before achieving mainstream recognition in the UK.
For you, growing up, how were new genres and music discovered?
- Well, most of it was done on record.
- Going to see live bands.
I was going to see bands all the time.
- A lot of the artists became famous through church.
That's where you got the blues and the jazz and so forth
and the ballads. - It came on the radio.
I remember how difficult it was for people
to get their music played on the radio.
Now, you know, you have all these other outlets
that you can go through.
- (FBE) And so finally, with grime being a relatively newer genre,
there likely aren't too many elders on our cast or otherwise
who are aware of it just yet. After today, do you think
you'll tell your friends about grime music
and become an ambassador of the genre?
- I doubt it, because it's not my type of music.
- No. I mean, from what I see, I don't think it's worthwhile.
- My grandchildren, yeah. My children, yeah.
But my generation, no.
- I probably won't become an ambassador of it,
but I would certainly listen to it if it came on.
Takes you to a place where you haven't been before.
There's adventure there, and who doesn't like adventure?
- Thanks for watching this episode of Elders React.
Shoutout to Sophie Hargens. - Subscribe if you want
a shoutout like Dougie's Life.
- Want a shoutout like Bianca Garcia?
Leave a comment below.
- Thank you so much for watching this episode
of Elders React. Let us know in the comments
if you have a favorite grime artist, because we here at FBE
just can't get enough of grime these days,
and maybe it'll be in the next episode.