As an artist, we can only assume one of the most difficult tasks you have ahead of you before starting out, is finding your own voice. Too often, emcees opt to simply be the loudest, fastest, or the most shocking. What they tend to forget is their forebears, the first wave of grime MCs, who put more effort into being different than they did being the most extreme in any sense. This was a time that saw Wiley spitting about pies, it was a time when Prez T's off-kilter, over-running style dominated, and when someone called Jevan "Trim" St. Prix would figuratively burst into tracks to spray surreal, dark, hilarious, occasionally offensive bars with a marked sense of relaxed, wry amusement.
Trimothy's voice is so instantly recognisable you can't help but completely devote your attention to him. Even in posse cuts with five or ten other rhymers, he outmaneuvers and draws all of the attention — often with only a quick 16 in which to do it. They say less is more, and if Trim's well-measured and often spacious spitting style is anything to go by, he's the grime superlative. Grime MCs today seem just as terrified of dead air as radio broadcasters are. Trim, on the other hand, revels in it. His bars are so good that they need the time to sink in. So with that in mind, we cast our eyes and ears back across Trim's prolific career to take a look at his best guest spots.
Ruff Sqwad — "Jampie" f/ Trim (2005)
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Swooping in right at the end of the track, Trim has his work cut out matching what comes before him. Hyperfrank once said that Stamina stole the show on "Jampie", but I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with her. An unstoppable force of tumbling rhymes and verbal gymnastics, Trim holds his own against the formidable Sqwad with breakneck bars and quick-snap wordplay: Any crew that's trying a ting, soon I'll be buying a ting / No beef, just trying a ting / New leaf, just trying to bling.
Chase & Status — "Top Shotta" f/ Trim (2005)
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One of Chase & Status' earlier singles, "Duppy Man" (which featured the legendary Capleton), was backed up by the b-side "Top Shotta" which, although often credited to Roll Deep, featured only Riko, Scratchy and of course Trimbal. Released in 2005 on Breakbeat Kaos, this isn't just a reminder of how quickly Chase & Status earned their stripes, but a reminder that even when he's up against Riko and Scratchy, Trim is more than capable of stealing the show.
Virus Syndicate — "Major List MCs" f/ Trim, Fallacy, Ears, Jammer (2005)
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"Major List MCs" was one of the first big hits in grime to come from beyond London. Nowadays, MCs regularly come down from Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and even Glasgow to spit bars with London's finest, but back then Virus Syndicate were on something of a frontier. "Major List MCs", where they invited Jammer, Trim, Ears and Fallacy to join the three Mancunian spitters (Goldfinger, JSD and Nika D), was a hell of a lead single with infectious, club-banger production from Mark One. It saw pretty much every emcee at their best, and yet, Trim still stole the show with bars like: Word in your ear is I've been doing for years. Wait — who is he? Why is here? and You weren't listening / this things a pond, I'm fishing in. Colourful, witty and noticeably slower than the others, this is a prime example of Trim saying more with less.
Skepta — "Duppy" f/ Trim, Wiley, Creed, JME, Jammer, Footsie, Bossman, Bearman (2006)
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Everyone knows "Duppy", aka "Doin' It Again". One of the most iconic posse cuts in grime's history, "Duppy" was produced by Skepta (and featured on his Greatest Hits album from 2007) and with Wiley, Jme, Footsie and more on the track, making yourself noticed was never going to be easy. But in just 16 bars, Trim put his stamp all over this one when he deployed his verbose, over-running bars and unusual syntax: And some chicks like bros with no fro' but I keep it real like feds in plain clothes, hate those. Even with limited time, Trim's able to work wonders: I'm proud of my trim and my origin if you hate you won't win. Quite right.
Frisco — "Ayia Napa" f/ Skepta & Trim (2007)
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One of the many threads in the oral history of the infamous Ayia Napa incident, Frisco's Skepta and Trim-featuring cut from the second Back 2 Da Lab tape lays things out pretty frankly. Frisco and Skepta both pull no punches but, as we all know, Trim is at his all-time best when he's given something controversial to talk about; and in grime, few topics are as controversial as what happened in Napa. Naturally, Trim revels in the controversy and uses the opportunity to fire off a few shots of his own (See Flowdan and them, I'm on a different program to them). He begins by setting the scene: Marcus' babymum's from the ends / Their crew's dead out, we're not friends and then I'm hearing Fris, Jaybo and Skep are in pen / Riko lost some p's at the airport so he ain't on this ting again, all the while they're just looking for Scratchy who may or may not have been stabbed. From there it just gets more and more intense as we're given a view into the craziness that, in 2016, is still a bit of a mystery.
Dusk + Blackdown — "The Bits" f/ Trim (2007)
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In a perfect example of symmetry in beats and bars, Dusk & Blackdown provide a hypnotising beat that plods back and forth while Trim's looped bars respond in kind with repeated bars and call backs. Then there's the bars themselves. They combine the playfully surreal (I got chips on my shoulder and a fish that ain't even battered yet) with God-tier boasting (On the 18th morning / 1984, April, it was said / that this was not the world I was born in / I fell from the sky and was kept) for a picture of Trim at his weirdest and greatest.
Harmonimix — "Confidence Boost" f/ Trim (2012)
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There's a little history behind James Blake's "Confidence Boost": it first appeared as an accapella on Trim's Soulfood Vol. 2 in 2007 before the vinyl version was committed to dubplate in 2010, and it was another two years before it saw an official release. Despite having done the rounds in various forms for five years, its impact was no less potent when it did finally drop on R&S Records, and it's easy to see why. Grime wasn't in the rude health it is today, so a record so vastly different to anything either artist had produced was leapt on by fans of both with equal hunger. Trim's awkward vocals, almost spoken word in delivery, were uncharacteristically reflective and Blake's striking vocal treatment made for a truly memorable record.
Last Japan — "East" f/ Trim (2012)
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The past couple of years have seen Trim at his most forward-thinking, hopping on weirder and weirder beats to test the mettle of his flow. This one from Last Japan, "East", is so closely associated with Trim it's easy to forget this was just a guest spot. Last Japan's beat is as iconic as anything that's been produced in the last few years and Trim's bars more than meet the task. They say I'm playing with other people's flows, but they belong to me, he spits. It's typical grime fair (laying waste to the fakers) but no one does it like Trim, mixing the humorous with the violent: He said that's his car in the video, I bet it's not / I don't pose with a strap, I set it off and always with a smirk.
Anushka — "Kisses" f/ Trim (2014)
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"Kisses", the flagship single from singer/producer duo Anushka, was a gentle, electronic-laced R&B jam for sunny afternoons. Not exactly Trim's natural habitat, but he makes light work of his guest spot here, changing up his flow once more to be more thoughtful, introspective and even melancholic. He still manages to slide in verbal trickshots like I call her Gretel 'cause she's messing with my bread.
Asa & Sorrow — "Up To Speed" f/ Trim (2016)
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Production-wise, it's one of Asa & Sorrow's hardest and not exactly the kind of track you can sit back on. Naturally, Trim came correct with some of his most forceful bars to date like the now-classic Man said beef and turned up with chicken and chorizo / Better than me? I really didn't think so... As soon as he spits that on radio or at a rave, it's game over. Surefire reload every single time.
