Given that every time I've opened Blogger lately it has been to report on some war or another, I'm beginning to feel like a poor man's Trevor McDonald. One comment that stuck out amongst the feedback for my last piece was that it appeared to be "rather biased". Well shit the fucking bed, guess what? It's an opinion-slash-factual piece. I post music and I give my opinion on it and if you feel I'm unqualified to do that, tough luck, you've obviously never read my pieces before. If you feel like you don't want my commentary on events, I'd strongly suggest you stop reading literally right now.
Nothing glaringly report worthy has occurred since my last post covering the battles between Grime's emerging talents but it may be worth mentioning once more that the major catalyst in all of the below has been Twitter: at times, you could say responses to dubs and videos were thoroughly more entertaining than the music itself, and in mention of the word entertainment, the audience for the two artists in the spotlight see's two worlds merge.
So, where to begin? Short introductions? Chip: former trailblazing Grime MC who emerged from North London's radio circuits with Always Recording, supported by Wiley along the way and associated with most of the top names of Grime from that era i.e Boy Better Know, The Movement etc. He later went on to become a popstar, churning out forgettable pop-party anthems such as Chip Diddy Chip, Oopsy Daisy and...well you catch my drift. Fast forward another couple of years to the present and seemingly the Grime scene has welcomed back one of it's most promising talents with open arms, something I'll cover a little further down the line. Yungen: rapper from the opposite side of the river, most noteworthy for his much talked about SB.TV freestyle and allegiance to Krept and Konan's crew Play Dirty.
Yungen - Comfy
Chip - One Take Freestyle
Nothing glaringly report worthy has occurred since my last post covering the battles between Grime's emerging talents but it may be worth mentioning once more that the major catalyst in all of the below has been Twitter: at times, you could say responses to dubs and videos were thoroughly more entertaining than the music itself, and in mention of the word entertainment, the audience for the two artists in the spotlight see's two worlds merge.
So, where to begin? Short introductions? Chip: former trailblazing Grime MC who emerged from North London's radio circuits with Always Recording, supported by Wiley along the way and associated with most of the top names of Grime from that era i.e Boy Better Know, The Movement etc. He later went on to become a popstar, churning out forgettable pop-party anthems such as Chip Diddy Chip, Oopsy Daisy and...well you catch my drift. Fast forward another couple of years to the present and seemingly the Grime scene has welcomed back one of it's most promising talents with open arms, something I'll cover a little further down the line. Yungen: rapper from the opposite side of the river, most noteworthy for his much talked about SB.TV freestyle and allegiance to Krept and Konan's crew Play Dirty.
Yungen - Comfy
Chip - One Take Freestyle
Every blogger and his dog has been in a race to see who's AdSense account can pay for a Nandos quickest over the last few days so I'm going to avoid the traditional breakdown of lyrics for the above two tunes - have a look on MTVs Wrap-Up (link) for a brief overview to how this all started. The points I'd like to raise are as follows.
1. Yungen should be commended for the way he jumped onto a Grime track with such ease and given that a few years ago most rappers were slagging the genre off for fun, it speaks volumes for how far the sound really has come. In a lyrical war environment being the first one to fire-off is often hardest, regardless of how sly it was and to further do that outside of your comfort zone, almost nonchalantly, begs praise. I'm not suggesting Grime should be thankful that rappers are embracing it, but it does make for a very interesting UK scene.
2. Chip shows no signs of ring rust. At all. None. Not an ounce. Regardless of how anyone feels about his exploits in the non-grime world, his flows and lyrical abilities are seriously different level and it's not a complete liberty to say that he supersedes at least 90% of the youngsters many of us are currently excited about, in terms of the aforementioned plus more.
Yungen - Punk
Chip - Michelle Riddim
Round one must go to Chip. I did say the MC who goes first is faced with the hardest task and Yungen does slip up a few times here. As later picked up on by Chip, you can't say you're only going to do one dub when we all know that the whole scenario is likely to last forever and a day. Secondly this track and video must have been pre-recorded and in such instances you question the authenticity of the whole issue: how long has Yungen been sitting on this track? Once Chip had released his One Take Freestyle Yungen tweeted something along the lines of Chip having "an hour to take it down". If you're going to send, just send, his previously bar about not being drawn out looks silly now. Having Tinie Tempah appear in the video makes no sense, his role in this whole situation is void having been mauled apart by Chip previously (see Coward) and standing there in his John Lennon-esque sunglasses in the middle of a pitch black night looked more than questionable. Aside from that however Yungen does take some very decent shots, including my favourite "You went from Burberry to Eleese / don't be tricking man like you like them clothes / I know you ran out of Ps". But beat and content wise Chip was strides ahead (temporarily) and "Michelle" was a clever concept referencing Yungen being missing from Krept and Konan's album.
Yungen - Oopsy Daisy
Chip - L
Round two is a much more vicious affair, with Yungens second dub a gritty, direct and venomous slaying. 'Mum' insults always seem to signal the intensity of a 'beef' and he doesn't hold back, insinuating that Chip failed to look after his family when earning a bit from his commercial endeavours. After the initial dubs you'd be forgiven for thinking that Yungen may retreat, but he came back swinging big time and Chip couldn't quite match that on "L" (Lil Clive Diss 2). Interesting though and the point I want to make at the end of the day concerns the reception Chip has received not only during this war but overall since his return.
Skepta, Wiley and - most severely - Kano, all receive constant reminders of awful chart songs they've made throughout their careers. From fans and industry insiders alike though, Chip hasn't received nearly as much flack, despite turning out the most appalling songs, verbally berating the Grime scene and building his return on sending for irrelevant and non war-built MCs (Saskilla and Big Narstie respectively). A lyrical tussle with Yungen may prove a step too far for Chip who has used MCs to rebuild his appalling reputation and it's frustrating that listeners, MCs, DJs and "writers" change the goalposts for what makes an MC better in war. As with the sending season in my last posts, social media was alight calling the dubs which had the most "greeziest" content the best as opposed to those with the more technical lyrical flair, but for whatever godforsaken reason now Chip's involved, it's suddenly about the bars. Yungen has been under-rated so far during this story, and the next chapter should prove the best.
Conclusion: 1-1.
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