The Museum of London presents Grime Stories: from the corner to the mainstream, a new display honouring the music, people and places central to the grime scene and its roots in east London from 17th June to December 2022. Partnering with those who were there at the scene’s inception, the display considers how the east-London area has changed in the 20 years since and the impact of these change on the future landscape of grime.
Grime is a culture in itself and uniquely houses London’s attitude and DIY spirit.
In two decades, it has given so much back, not only to the city, but to an international audience. Grime’s influence has changed music forever. This Museum of London display makes me feel proud to see grime’s legacy acknowledged, knowing how far the scene has come and how essential it is to London’s culture. Grime continues to push boundaries and Grime Stories: from the corner to the mainstream will bring its history and pioneering work to a whole new audience.
Roony ‘Risky’ Keefe, display co-curator
Grime music started emerging in the early 2000s, flourishing through an informal network of record shops, youth clubs and pirate radio stations, and by 2004, London’s grime scene had reached mainstream success thanks to albums like like Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Boy in da Corner’.
Now defined as a cultural phenomenon, grime’s journey “from the corner to the mainstream” is now being celebrated by the Museum of London with its free exhibition Grime stories, which opens on June 17th 2022.
Co-curated by one of grime’s early documentarians, Roony ‘Risky’ Keefe, the display features a series of newly commissioned films that explore the community at the heart of grime’s success, as well as a large-scale illustration from artist Willkay and personal artifacts from the MCs and producers who developed grime’s unique sound.
In one of the films that make the core of the exhibition, Keefe tours through east London in his black cab with influential figures from the UK grime scene, such as grime MC and producer Jammer, Ruff Sqwad’s Rapid and Slix, and Troy ‘A+’ Miller from Practice Hours, digging into memories which tell grime’s story of Black and working class ingenuity.
With an eye both to the past and the future of grime, the exhibition displays footage featuring once emergent artists like Skepta and DJ Slimzee, and examines how they were able to find an outlet to share their music through pirate radio networks such as Rinse FM.
Alongside the stories of the scene’s pioneers, Grime Stories: from the corner to the mainstream also puts the spotlight on the future of grime and how the younger generation creates music in the face of the city’s gentrification, featuring young east London artists of today such as Eerf Evil, TeeZandos and other young people from Ruff Sqwad Arts Foundation.
A central feature of the exhibition will be a nod to the Leytonstone basement of UK grime pioneer Jammer. This iconic space, nicknamed ‘The Dungeon’, was the birthplace of Lord of the Mics, one of the most important battle platforms to ever exist in the UK music scene. An installation featuring the keyboard on which Skepta’s ‘That’s Not Me’ was produced and graffiti from the basement walls in the home of Jammer’s parents, details the illustrious names of east London grime, accompanied by an interview film from the legendary Dungeon recording studio.
To visually frame the exhibition, a newly commissioned large-scale illustration from artist Willkay will also be on display, depicting the changing face of east London, as the concrete of the city’s council estates sits beside the glass buildings of Canary Wharf.
Grime Stories: from the corner to the mainstream tells the story of grime in the fabric of London’s history: one of place and community, all built without the support of mainstream radio and friends in high places. The global success of the scene could not have been achieved without the social and physical infrastructure underpinning grime music. By honing in on significant landmarks that nurtured the music, Grime Stories explores the relationship between sound and place and questions what the sonic consequences of urban gentrification might be for music in east London.
Dhelia Snoussi, the Museum of London’s Youth Culture Curator