No one in grime bothers with pirate radio sets anymore, which is maybe the reason why the scene has been so boring and lacking life this year. So, just as the music press were penning another round of obituaries and preparing to make way for a new electro-influenced, chart friendly replacement, along come Boy Better Know and friends with a stupendously good studio set (the next best thing to a radio set) to bring back all the naysayers. It's got classic old beats, amazing new beats by people like Rude Kid, excitement, brand new bars, energy, Jammer screaming and making retarded noises—everything that is good about grime. I don't see why MCs continue to put out rushed mixtapes, when they could much more easily bang these sets out with all the best new beats and their best bars and sell them as downloads. They'd be a lot better quality and probably sell a lot more too.
Download: Boy Better Know, Microphone Champion
Logan Sama has also just given grime a much needed shove back from the edge of the cliff with his new mix CD of grime specials, Oneaway Style. Despite it being possibly the most self-fellating CD ever made (Logan adds adlibs to parts of tracks "bigging him up", agreeing with what the MC is saying), it's yet more evidence that there is genuinely great grime music being made. Btw, what kind of a phrase is "over seventeen grime artists", on the CD cover? Why not say "almost twenty grime artists"? Or why not just give the exact number?
Lethal B, always quick to hop aboard anything he thinks will take him to the charts, has made a grimey 4/4 dancey number in the vein of Wiley's top 3 hit, "Wearing My Rolex". As much as I like Dexplicit's production on "Keys to My Bentley", it's hard to see the song going anywhere, though.
Wiley has jumped on his own bandwagon and made yet another "Rolex" copy (this is at least his third tune in this style). His latest is called "It's Alright" and it's alright, if more than a slight bit unimaginative.
Finally, after falling off the face of the RWD forum (AKA the world if you are an aggressive 14-year-old internet-obsessed grime fan) it's good to hear that Ears is back making music and keeping busy. His most recent mixtape, Millionears, was depressingly bad and, I thought, maybe enough to finish his career. But I hear he's been working a lot with the Count & Sinden, getting ready to tour with them and vocalling tracks for their debut album, which also features Ny and Mz. Bratt. Ny has a new song with Wookie—a vocal of "Gallium" called "Summer Rain", which should be massive. The instrumental (below) has been around since before last summer, but it looks like it might soon be getting a major label release.
Wookie - "Gallium"
