Mother wrote:Youngsta used to play at Eastwood's night at Telegraph and would have up to 6 grime MC's backing him, people like D Double E and Purple.
That was Filthy Dub - my night, not Eastwood's!!
Grime has heavily influenced dubstep. I started out making straight grime instrumentals but the grime heads said it was dubstep cos it was not built for MC's..... then I started playing at FWD and people called it dubstep.... but the dubstep heads said it had mid range in it therefore it's grime.... people didn't know what to call my stuff.
Until about 2004, anything labelled as dubstep was completely free of any mid range - when the first Rephlex "Grime" compilation came out however, all the grime heads called it dubstep!! We couldn't please anyone!!
But if you listen to the Grime comp now, and put it next to what we now know as dubstep - it fits right in!!
Dubstep was pretty snobby back then, if it wasn't all subs, it was not really accepted. Whereas now, anything bass oriented (at any tempo) is labelled as dubstep. From Rusko, to Burial and even on to people like Flying Lotus are labelled as dubstep.
For me, grime was the major factor that allowed mid range into the dubstep circle. When Skream's midnight request line dropped, the fact a proven deep dubstep producer was not afraid to put a bit of midrange and melodic electronic lines (as opposed to oriental or indian samples) into their production, it meant that a lot of the purists had to accept that dubstep didn't necessarily mean subs and tablas, for one of their own was embracing licks of grime in his productions.
Then we had coki..... for me Coki's early wobblers were to dubstep what Zinc / Narrows were to garage. They definitely shaped the start of the new generation of dubstep.... where mid range and bass collided and merged as one. Finally people were starting to accept that basslines could be made up from midrange sounds - something that people like myself and MRK1 were finding difficult to drum into people's heads a few years prior!
This era of dubstep for me was exactly where I hoped instrumental grime would have evolved to. Unfortunately for me (and probably for grime as we knew it) a lot of grime producers began producing not for the club or rave, or even for the radio sets. They began building beats exclusively for use with vocals for the production of their mixtapes. Which meant a lot of half hearted, simple structured instrumentals which were not strong enough to stand up on their own as instrumental music without the vocals on top of them.
I used to love grime instrumentals released around 2002 - 2004, but that era sadly passed. We do have Silencer, Rude Kid and Maniac still flying the flag for that style of instrumental however - so got to big them up.
There are a lot more grime influenced dubstep tracks now though since Joker was accepted into the scene. Since playing his stuff as far back as 2005, finally this year people started to take note and you can already hear the copy cats creeping up. But I don't think this is a bad thing so long as they take influence from him as opposed to straight up ripping off his style.
I could go on for hours about this subject. Go listen to my mixes circa 2004 to hear the bassy side of grime at its very best.
Good melodic bass music is what I've been into from the start since the dark garage came thru. Some of my fave Grime / Dubstep crossovers would have to be....
Wonder - What (the beginning of half step)
Joker - Gully Brook Lane (the tune that blew him up)
Wiley - Avalanche
J Sweet - Kerb
Macabre Unit - Lift Off
Mark One - Fight
Wizzbit - Breakdown
Wizzbit - Jamhot
Rude Kid - Electric
Sukh Knight - Diesel Not Petrol
Menta - Snake Charmer
Menta - Rubba
Musical Mob - Pulse X (the beginning of grime instrumentals, but ultimately bass driven - which is the same as dubstep right?)
How about some good dubstep-ish tunes with grime vocals??
Breakage feat. Newham Gens - Hard
The Bug - Jah War (Loefah Remix)
P-Money - Look How Many (Ft. Germs & Blacks) (Prod. by Sukh Knight)
Skream - Tapped (featuring JME)
JME - Nothing Goes Past Me (Plastician production)
JME - Ghetto Superstar (Plastician production)
Plastician feat. Skepta - Intensive Snare
Cotti feat. Doctor - Calm Down
Jammer - Burning (Coki's Burning Remix, Remixed!)
Wiley - I'm a Sinner
Frisco ft. Skepta - We Don't Believe You (Plasticman Production)
Virus Syndicate - Talk To Frank
Virus Syndicate - Taxman