![]() They may not have always called it grime but with similar cultural elements such as freestyles and dubplates, it could be suggested that a derivative of grime has always existed there. ![]() For Brazilian MCs, the style of MCing is very much the same as you’d hear in baile funk or rap, the BPMs are quite similar, therefore there’s little manoeuvring to be done. In the non-Anglophone regions such as Brazil and Korea, sampling of classic beats, or riddims, is one of the ways in which grime has been reinvented. The significance in grime being exported isn’t necessarily in how much of a presence it has elsewhere, but the ways in which the original sounds transmute and take on new shapes depending on the environment it lands in. However, with their own respective homegrown sounds, grime is another import but a significant one, particularly due to the fact that both hip-hop and baile funk derive from Caribbean sound system culture like their British sonical cousin. The same can be said of the US - almost 400 people have been killed by police violence this year - but with hip-hop historically being the protest music of the youth for generations, grime hasn’t been able to gain as much of a foothold within marginalised communities there. ![]() Especially in Brazil where as of May, over 500 people have been killed by police - a number that will continue to grow this year. Politically, Brazil and the US make for the kind of incubators that would allow anti-establishment, street sounds to thrive. Not quite enough to shift and disrupt the local youth cultures but just the right amount to spark a growing movement. The scene in Brazil, much like the one in the US, Japan, Australia and Korea is made up of but a handful of MCs, DJs and producers. You’ll see gunfingers, hear the occasional ‘brap’ and with the country’s political nature and the state violence that has affected the Black population for decades, grime feels right where it belongs in Brazil. The online platform, Brasil Grime Show, isn’t too dissimilar to the likes of NTS and the now-defunct Radar Radio where a host of MCs and DJs appear on air, such as Thai Flow, Diniboy, Juju Rude, Antco and Scarlett Wolf - to name a few - each with their own unique take on what they consider to be grime. And much like the UK, there was an MC on the mic, setting the pace and vibe of the dance for a crowd who were just as exhilarated as the MC himself.Īt that point, I began to ask myself, how had grime arrived here? Even though, I knew deep down that it was via the internet, there was further intrigue into how it was able to maintain a small presence in a city known for its samba, forró and bossa nova. In all of the hidden pockets and back alleys of Rio de Janeiro, where street parties on corners sound clash against one another, I eventually stumbled across a DJ playing grime instrumentals and riddims that I was familiar with in the UK. The BPM of baile funk sits roughly around the 130 mark, ten shy of the traditional 140 BPM in grime, which is difficult to find these days. However, there are a few places in the world, besides the Caribbean, where grime naturally belongs and Brazil is a ready-made ecosystem for the sound and culture. I’ll admit, it was difficult to find specific nights dedicated to grime alone - even hip-hop often shares space with reggaeton and baile funk. Relatively speaking, it’s only about 15 years old and in that time, grime has taken many forms as well as morphing into hybrid sounds in other parts of the world. To witness grime grow from being a sound no one knew what to call to being present in various cultures and countries across the world is much like watching a younger sibling grow through adolescence into maturity. ![]() These are the platforms that helped a homegrown Black British sound such as grime grow wings and fly the coop. We have platforms such as MySpace and YouTube to thank for the homogenising of music and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Underground scenes would rely on tastemakers to purvey the sounds across the world but even then, music was still far more localised than it exists today. Big hits and albums would often be released months or even a year later in the US and Europe, and vice versa. Before I started my career as a music writer, I was always buoyed by the ways in which a sound, or genre, from the farthest corners of the world, found its way to the otherside.īefore the internet, music moved around the world at a much slower rate. But music, one of the many vessels through which sound travels, moves in unorthodox, non-linear trajectories. Light travels faster than the speed of sound.
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