[REVIEW] Grime Aid

People may have thought a grime event supporting and raising funds for the Syrian Crisis would be an unlikely reality. Maybe due to the seemingly ‘aggressive’ nature of grime music. Some people may see it as ironic, me on the other hand it shows the strength and power of music. Music of ANY genre can unite people under one roof for a noble cause. The show was sold out,  tickets were £5 each , with all the proceeds going to food and hygiene provision to those refugees in Serbia. The event was hosted by Julie Adenuga, who is fast becoming a key figure in the world of music.

The night was blessed by the supreme sounds of Logan Sama, one of the elite pioneers in the UK music scene. As usual he stayed true to the origins of UK grime. Bumping tracks from Dizzee Rascal’s ‘I Love you’ to Kano’s ‘Pz and Qz’. The atmosphere was bubbly and chilled out. The crowd appeared to be in good spirits waiting for the acts to appear on stage.

The show started with Underground Rapper Jevon. He performed a few tracks from his upcoming project. He brought a lot of energy on stage and interacted from the crowd at all times. Although the whole room didn’t sing each song word for word, he brought a good vibe and positive energy. Following Jevon, Cadet came on stage. Cadet has been releasing fire freestyles on social media on a consistent basis. Just giving grime fans a little teaser of his ability. The whole crowd were familiar with his material. Now it was a question whether he could deliver on stage, which he did with ease. His ‘story telling’ style rap is runs parallel with an almost spoken word style. He got the crowd jumping from when he touched the stage to when he left the stage.

Young Teflon took to the stage (in a Man United Top sadly enough) and killed the stage. What I found interesting was before he came on stage, he was at the bar mingling with everybody else. Almost as if he himself was part of the crowd. Did this contribute to his energy on stage? Possibly, but one thing that is certain is that he killed his performance with songs from his ‘Jungle Book’ Ep. The highlight of the performance was his track with WSTRN entitled bestie. Certified banger, very catchy hook and a crazy beat. The crowd went mad over his cheeky line ‘You call that girl your wifey I just call her my bestie!”.   

Shystie and Mercston took to the stage shortly after. Even though  they are seasoned artists in the field of grime, their response from the crowd was a bit subdued. I feel this may be because the audience are from a different generation. So perhaps they could not identify with their music as much as anticipated. However, they did not hold back when on the stage. Logan Sama provided good mixes from Mercston’s renowned ‘Back to 95’ project. He also brought out Chipmunk to perform his latest track ‘All Now.

The headline act was Chipmunk. The whole night the crowd was yearning for him to touch the stage. When he touched the stage he did not disappoint. Sama provided the heat for Chipmunk to spray over. We already knew Chpimunk has the bars but when he has the right sounds he is a match for any grime artist in the game. Logan Sama and Chipmunk as a duo shutdown the stage. He performed all of his diss tracks for Bugzy Malone and Tinie Tempah. The crowd knew his lyrics bar for bar, it got to a stage where he couldn’t finish some of his songs because he kept on getting reloads. The crowd was buzzing. To top it off he performed ‘Coward’ (Tinie Tempah diss) exclusively for the audience. This was an epic moment as Tinie had called him out the day before at the 1 Xtra concert 24 hours before. After his performance he shot his video outside with the fans. I felt this was a positive gesture from him and also in some ways encapsulates the air of unity from Grime Aid.