30 Grime Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
I want everybody to follow this sound.
Grime has been the UK's most exciting contribution to the music world of the twenty-first century so far. Although its heyday was in the early 2000s, it has seen a huge revival recently with a bunch of young up-and-comers taking the template laid by legends like Wiley, Dizzee Rascal and Kano and running with it in weird new directions. Even US hip-hop megastar Kanye West has been promoting grime, with his infamous performance at the 2015 Brit Awards featuring appearances from Stormzy, Skepta, Jammer and Novelist. This is a beginner's guide to grime, aimed at those who have come into the genre late and want to know more about its classic releases. Although grime is best known for its improvised battles (usually uploaded to YouTube or played out on pirate radio stations) and its excellent one-off singles, there have been plenty of incredible full-length releases put out by its most talented and popular figures. This list compiles 30 of them. It is a wide-ranging sample of the varying sounds and styles that make up the grime scene. There are albums, mixtapes, EPs, compilations, instrumental releases and even one DVD included, with as many artists as possible covered - most from London, but many from elsewhere too. The list includes a mixture of greats from grime's early days and headline-stealing new releases from newcomers to the sound. If this list grabs your attention - and it definitely should - then it's absolutely worth digging further.