Whats In A Name?

Apologies to Adrian who asked me to break this down time ago, slapped wrist given, but following banter between myself and the ever entertaining Mr Frere-Jones, here it goes... Eski, grime, sub-lo, 8 bar, G hop, R&G, dubstep, UK garage... what's the difference? Music means something different to all of us and it's likely so will the aforementioned terms. So in my words here goes nothing.

Eski - A name of a style of music which Wiley refers to as Eski. From seminal record Eskimo the temperature's continued to drop, now we're bopping to Colder. Eskimo Dance was born, eski girls and soldiers, then there's the razor-sharp icicles like Igloo, Icerink series, Ice Cream man... Some people argue that Wiley's sound is so unique it refers to this sound in particular but WIley has argued he would have liked the scene to be called that but that it was naturally out of his control.

Grime - When tunes like 'I Luv U', 'Pulse X', 'Woah', 'Know We' were played, asked to describe the sound in relation to the usual UK garage records, grimes mother in-law if you will, the most apt response seemed to be 'it sounds grimy'. And that's literally where the term began. It was picked up on by the media and for a long while fought against stiff sub-lo and eski competition before sealing itself around the grime scene investigation. I say grime, but it's meaning's changed for me. It previously represented a sound, now it's a cultural movement (if such things still exist).

Sub-lo - Never a fan of this one. In fact it sucks like someone going down. 'Sub-lo what?' I'd ask. Still don't know. But it was born from and championed by Jon E Cash and his Black Ops camp. West London seemed to back them to a point and they apparently trade marked it. Again could argue Sub-lo relates more specifically to the Jon E Cash sound. Each to their own of course.

8 Bar/8 Bar Garage - Another stupid buzz phrase the media hooked onto and wrongly interpreted. It simply referred to garage tracks made with loops that changed every 8 bars. Suddenly though anything that was to later become labelled grime was been cited in reviews and such as 8 bar garage. Swaggle, use this now and you'll get laughed out of the youth club (correct context allowed).

G Hop - A buzz term at the moment. G Hop supposedly represents the theory that grime is now a culture. With grime no longer relating to one specific sound, G Hop apparently embraces that and allows for the inclusion of untraditional grime artists, like Klashnekoff & Sway, who in the past have been associated with UK hip hop but are about a whole lot more. The G comes from garage/grime and the hop from the hip hop influence on the music/way of life. Check the G Hop mixtape series for more discussion.

R&G - Another new one, championed by the likes of Terror Danjah, R&G describes the influx of the R&B influenced grime otherwise known as the girls tunes, stuff by Sadie Ama, Katie Pearl etc... Some of Target & Danny Weed's, Wiley's, Kano's and of course DaVinChe would fall into this category. Rhythm and grime not rhythm and gangsta.

Dubstep - Some people think this is still part of grime, or like grimes cousin, I'm not so sure. I used to like dubstep in small doses but now I find it hard to listen to, too hooked by MC's that dominate grime instrumentals, something dubstep doesn't embrace in the same way. A lot of grime heads don't like dubstep for this reason. It's also why I didn't get Rephlex calling their compilation Grime when to me it was 'dubstep', garage/breakbeat/dub/grime mash-ups? A lot of what I hear makes me think of techno but I don't actually know what techno is, yeah, you get what I mean? Don't think they meant any harm and I don't like to criticise the music though because there isn't actually anything wrong with the production values, quite the opposite, but with music you either like it or you don't right? Now watch Martin Clark come and flame my ass.