Eskimo Dance: The Essential Grime Experience

It's important to experience grime music IRL live in the flesh.

eskimo

All images by Blaow

eskimo

Grime is an energy, and the icy synths, raging bass and braggadocios bars are the elements that compel you to screwface as a sign of appreciation. It's the way the MCs battle for the mic to generate the most chaos from a crowd—it's that Who's got a Nokia? Take that what! attitude. You're in the midst of a grime renaissance—can you feel the sweat dripping down your neck? That lingering smell of clammy adolescents with a forgetful fear of deodorant? If not, then you're probably in the wrong place and may as well be watching a Coldplay gig.

Eskimo Dance, one of the biggest and most iconic grime events, has been on a tour of the UK's major cities this year—with our highlight being London's March 5 stop, where they delivered the sound to the masses one reload at a time. Since the alleged signing of Drake to BBK—and that globally-reported appearance at a Section Boyz show—most London club nights that play only a sprinkling of grime have been jam-packed (and even shut down) with the excitement of a potential Aubrey arrival. Eski freezed up that hype and left it outside for the foxes, with no 'take care' notes in sight.

Fans were there to witness President T shell and welcome back Solo 45 with a flying gun-finger. It was also refreshing to see a room full of just-turned-18-year-olds step out from behind their computers and experience grime IRL, live in the flesh. Here are some of our favourite moments from the March 5 event held at Building Six.

The DJs

es

The New Kids: Big Zuu, Jammz, Mez

new

The Return Of Ruff Sqwad

rs

Top 2 Selected: Ghetts And Kano

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

Ghetts took to the stage with his usual hyper-energy and venomous delivery over Rude Kid's "One Take". Surprisingly, he dropped in his Freedom Of Speech "Buss 1" chorus to completely spellbind the crowd. Justin Clarke then brought on Kane Robinson, who gave us a sneak-peak performance of "3 Wheel-Ups" and "Garage Skank" from his new Made In The Manor album. The two then propelled us back to 2006 and went back-to-back with classic bars like G-H-E-double-T-and-O and K-A blowin' up roads, K-A-N shottin like Os. Emotional times.

 

President T's Presidential Stance

"God Forgive Me If I Buss My 9"

skepta

Solo 45 Fed Us To The Lions

solo

The Godfather

Latest in Music