Kanye West's performance at The Brit Awards in February was pretty much the talk of the town when he was joined on-stage by grime's finest: Skepta, Novelist, Jammer and more.
It was generally well received by the scene, but one person who wasn't impressed is Dizzee Rascal. Speaking in an interview with Time Out, he praised the current "resurgence" of the grime scene, saying: "People can't look down on grime anymore, it's an established British genre." However, he was quick to dismiss the Kanye effect from this year's Brits.
"Kanye bringing everyone on stage – that's a look," he said. "I'm not taking anything away from anyone. What Skepta has done has been great, it's been good to see him and his brother [Jme] come back so strong. I respect that family unit. But everything people are seeing now: I already did it on my own. People talk about the pop part – they don't talk about me being an independent artist. I made it look easy, that's the problem! I dominated the underground and then I dominated the overground, and I did that on my own."
Bow's finest still maintains that he's the best the UK has ever seen: "No UK rapper has been in my position; there are loads of big rappers like Tinie Tempah or Skepta, but no one has done what I have: had mainstream success with underground music and pop music."
Kanye West performing "All Day" at The Brits Awards this year.
Still, despite grime's supposed comeback (it never went anywhere!), Dizzee isn't interested in retreading old paths and spitting on grime beats. According to him, "it's like wearing the same clothes you did ten years ago."
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[via NME]
