This is an article I stumbled upon from November 2006 regarding the unfairly reported link that Grime and Violence share. It's an interesting piece by Guardian blogger Jamie Collinson.
"While MC Crazy Titch's shooting of producer Richard Holmes is unforgivable, grime is a lot less violent than its predecessor, UK garage. Rather, it's a sonically exciting music which must re-ignite its spark.
Boy in da corner. Grime's shining hope Dizzee Rascal.
It's a popular complaint amongst the legion of grime fans, artists, promoters and generally interested parties that much of the mainstream coverage the genre receives tends to connect it with violence. In my experience as a sometime grime promoter and now as label manager to the grime artist Wiley, I would argue that, largely, these complaints should be upheld.
I would certainly dispute Ned Beauman's assertion that grime is more violent than its 'sexy' predecessor, 2-Step garage. In general, the garage explosion in the late 90's was notable for its slightly older and far more glamorous, moneyed audience; champagne, bling and dressed-up girls all being features. Grime nights are usually a polar opposite. It's hard enough to keep the clubs' bars happy with the minimal takings they get from an audience of keen, if impoverished teens. Grime is grimy, dirty, admittedly aggressive lyrically, but gangsters prefer glamour.
Crazy Titch's shooting of another young man is unforgivable, but I'd wager that grime had little to do with it in the end. Insiders like Logan Sama claim that the dispute had escalated far beyond song lyrics, and Crazy had extremely heated lyrical battles with fellow MCs Dizzee Rascal and Bruza that never led to horrific crimes like this. The crime appears more related to the worrying, wider obsession with respect.
To my knowledge there have now been three significant examples of violence rumoured to have a connection to grime. The stabbing of Dizzee Rascal in Ayia Napa, the beating of a journalist by a crew at Plastic People's dubstep night FWD, and now Crazy Titch's shooting of Richard Holmes.
That's three too many, especially in the short three years since the term 'grime' was coined. It's important to point out, however, that only the latter is directly related to a 'lyrical beef.' Outside of a few of the genre's inner core, no-one really knows why Dizzee was stabbed, and the crew at FWD reacted violently to being asked to pay for an advert they'd run in the journalist's magazine. Since that happened, most of the grime artists and community members I've spoken to have shunned the crew in question.
Ned Beauman is right to raise the recent dispute between Razorlight and The Kooks; an example, if a contrived one, of rock's chequered history of violence. Punk and its aftermath saw blood spilled by the gallon as right-wingers and rednecks clashed with their rage-filled foes. The Jesus and Mary Chain spent as much time fighting and running as they did playing at their early shows, and The Pistols and The Clash suffered similar scenes on their infamous 'Anarchy' tour. All this has become the stuff of legend and seductive myth. Of course, shooting someone down in cold blood is vastly different, but luckily it hasn't been a regular feature in grime, unlike UK Garage.
At its best, which often it hasn't been of late, grime is the most sonically exciting, highly evolved movement in black music in a very long time. What worries me more than violence is the lack of interest it's been inspiring recently. The police have never shut down my grime nights, but their turnouts have decreased over the last 12 months. Dizzee Rascal's debut album Boy in da Corner was one of the very best black records this country has ever produced, but its excellent sales were partly down to it becoming a hyped, 'must-have' purchase. Now it languishes on the shelves of many as something they'd rather display than listen to. Let's face it, most people would rather be comforted than challenged by music.
With a bit of luck, this is all set to change. Next year will see full-length releases from Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Kano and Lethal Bizzle, some of the brightest stars in the genre. It's shaping up to be a stellar year, lets just hope that the spark is re-ignited, and that a tremendous musical scene manages to ensure that its violent episodes remain few and far between."
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