This is a new section to the blog which puts the spotlight on the defining moments and/or movements which changed the game. If you have any suggestions or feel someone or something deserves an honourable mention, leave a comment against this post.
Let's start the series with what is no doubt universally recognized as the classic grime album since it's conception...
1. Album - The Impact of Boy In The Corner
Unless you had your ear firmly nailed to the ground, the sounds, feel and style of this album had never been heard before. Dizzee stated at the time that he felt his music sounded like 'the end of the world' in which you can see his point. At the time of release, NME described it as 'balaclava-clad gangs of teenagers wiring London's tenement blocks with dynamite and razing them to the ground.' which is difficult to disagree with considering the use of harsh, relentless synth/drum combos, crisp snares and stadium rock-like bass which feel have been put together as if they're fighting for speaker space.
It's a pure unabashed tale of real life struggles as a youth growing up under the pressures of the bright lights of LDN. Topics such as street robbings, under age pregnancy and general street life are all explained with such brutal honesty and transparency.
Now, almost six years on, Boy In The Corner is seen as inspiration for any rising Grime mc. Despite numerous attempts, this album has yet to be bettered and is seen as the ultimate reference point when introducing a listener to the genre.
Boy In The Corner went onto sell over 250,000 copies and was nominated for (and then won) The Mercury Music Prize later that year. It's with this in mind, how strange it is that the general public choose to dismiss Grime as a musical genre when it produces masterpieces such as this.
