There is so much I could personally say about grime music – where to begin? From its garage- and jungle-inspired gestation it evolved to the breakthroughs of rapper-producers Wiley and Skepta, and on to the Brit-award winning majesty of Stormzy.

When grime was underground, MC’s spat bars over jungle and UK garage beats in basements and flats in East and South London. A lot of MCs and DJs were influenced by Jamaican soundsystem culture, and hip-hop and R&B from America. Another important part of grime was clashing, where MCs would battle with each other back and forth on the mic across the airwaves of a pirate radio station. Dizzee Rascal’s album Boy in da Corner is probably unrivalled as a document of how a teenage lad feels about the area he was growing up in and the lack of opportunities he had.

In 2019 grime is the UK’s biggest export. The future of grime is being spearheaded by women who are making some of the most exciting music. Lady Leshurr, NoLay and Flohio and many others are female MCs that rap in the male-dominated music industry about its issues of sexism, institutional racism, colourism & white privilege.
– Noor Afshan Mirza