there ain't a pie that I ain't got a hand in

It's a good job most people don't appraise music based on YouTube comments otherwise this one would be in trouble. Osama Trim Laden links up with James Blake for the second time (their previous project was under James' Harmonix alter-ego), bringing us two tracks on Blake's 1-800 DINOSAUR label, who yesterday announced what should be a massive forthcoming album alongside the East London MC.

When I think of grime MCs pushing boundaries (and some of the time, their luck), I think of guys like Riko and Flow Dan and their efforts on labels like Glacial Sound and Hyperdub, going forwards perhaps what Novelist is doing with his Ragga Sound project - having already experimented alongside Mumdance. But I reckon Trim supersedes most in terms of some of the stuff he takes on and ultimately puts his name against: last year's Funk x Trim, 07's The Bits and 11's Stereotype all thinking-outside-of-the-box alternatives to any traditional grime sound.







It shouldn't be any sort of surprise though, really - listen back to the early mix tapes. The Soulfood's and Monkey Features, they all exhibit the foundations Trim required to exert himself beyond what your average-joe MC would be prepared to do, utilising nonconforming producers like Balistiq and Jersey (Inside Looking Out, from Volume 3, anyone?)



If there is such a thing as organised mess, then RPG fits the bill. Bars that have no real timing and sounds that clash all over the place bizarrely makes for the sort of satisfying listening that you would envision having taken the above examples into account, it's honestly a winner.

RPG is like Trim issuing another middle finger to the listeners who are stuck in grime-only mode. I mean, there isn't necessarily anything wrong with that mindset of sticking to one genre as such, but surely where grime is concerned your options are far broader than the standard model of lyrics and rhythms - I often struggle to comprehend those who criticise MCs for having the front to leap out of their comfort zone, particularly when it sounds as good as this. Out here.

So a Wiley book is happening

and as it's set to be a biography, some insight into a few career defining times would be an incredible read. Over the next few weeks I'll be covering some of my favourite Wiley moments, and the first one sees us as far back as 15 years ago.

The Slew Show

There's a plethora of incidents I could cover when talking about Wiley and radio, but I cherry-picked this one due to it's significance in Grime history. This is the radio show that followed on from the [now] infamous night at Destiny Nightclub, Watford, where the first of Wiley's widely acknowledged crews, Pay As You Go Cartel, had an impromptu clash with Heartless Crew.  and were (eventually) verbally ushered off stage by the crowd.

Listening back as I often do, I sometimes think the bars are childish and almost nothing more than juvenile re-workings of either their's or Heartless' bars, but to hear one crew directly addressing the other in the unswerving fashion Wiley and co did the following Sunday on Rinse (the accapella moment at around 23 minutes is a delight) was fresh not only to me, but many of the early Grime pirate-massive also.  With Grime now having two dozen photographers and a video crew at every rave, information on the dance finds it's way to the internet within minutes of people getting home. In them days, if you wasn't there yourself or didn't know someone who was, you had no idea what had gone down and naturally this fuelled the mystique of that set for me.

Knowing Wiley as most of us do, it isn't hard to conceptualize the time period between the rave ending and the set starting: the blue touch paper being lit and his inability to let things lie - the nothing to lose approach that has set him that well throughout his career, he's managed to outlast the majority of his adversaries - he outshines his crew on this set as well. Maxwell D epitomises the infantile nature of the lyrics I mentioned before, and whilst God'sGift strikes listeners over the radio as a man who would ask a Lion what it thinks it's looking at, he too gets lost in the hysteria.

This would be the first of almost literally a hundred lyrical incidents involving Wiley over the years but it sets the tone brilliantly, and was the door-opener for years of radio clashes to come. Discussion about any pre-existing rivalry between the two biggest Garage crews of that time (Grime not being the in name yet and So Solid victims of media assassination) is scarce online, so any revelations from Wiley that stretch further than his or Buskin NFTR interviews would be great.