Blogariddims 40 / Grime in the Dancehall

So we've hit a weary but respectable 40 with an absolutely spectacular set from Messrs Eden and Meme, the Jam and Lewis (or maybe the Jam and Spoon?) of Blogariddims: Grime in the Dancehall.

Though its something Ive taken for granted since I first started delving via Deuce magazine some years back, the seemingly intractable connections between dancehall and grime have been debated time and again, with Southern Hip-Hop/Crunk often put forward over dancehall as grime's 'prime catalyser', marginalising yard influences in the process. There are of course wider implications to this debate, as, like Paul Meme ' I tend to see the whole ('ardcore Conti)nuum as essentially the story of how reggae got rooted in (the UK) and mutated', which is point of view probably shared by most ex-junglists who got sucked deep into the whirlpool of Jamaican music.

Of course, crunk and hip hop have had a strong influence on grime along with garage, in fact, with a bit of judicious selecting you could almost produce a similar mix exploring these genealogies without a single reference to dancehall - and thats why this set is so good. Apart from being full of great tunes, nice mixing and fresh edits, it's fleshed out a narrative that was previously (unless you knew the koo) the domain of forum polemics and self appointed (non) scene historians, something substantial to point at the next time someone claims that 'Grime is basically UK Rap'...

All that said, this episode is kind of like an audio version of an issue of Woofah so I wouldn't be surprised if its all an exercise in subliminal advertising on behalf of their burgeoning publishing empire, in fact, I'm almost sure I can hear the chilling sound of John Edens rasping tones whispering 'Buy Woofah... ...You slags' beneath some of those edits...