What is grime?

Grime is a fast, jagged UK sound: rapid syncopated beats around 140 BPM under aggressive electronic riddims and MCs. It sits in the same 140 world as dubstep, but with the rhyme at the centre.

It came out of East London in the early 2000s, from the bedrooms of Bow and Newham, built on UK garage with jungle, dancehall, and hip-hop in its blood. Wiley shaped the early “eskimo” sound and formed Roll Deep, and Dizzee Rascal took it mainstream when Boy in da Corner won the 2003 Mercury Prize.

Grime grew straight out of UK garage, one of several sounds that split off from it.