Graduate School of Social Sciences MSc Conflict Resolution and Governance

Subcultures, State and Society: A Challenge to the London Grime Scene’s Socio-economic and Socio-political Circumstances

A Study of Cultural Practices as Sites of Politics Author: Christy Coulson June 2017 Amsterdam Student ID: 11256923 Supervisor: dr. P.E. Polly Pallister-Wilkins Second Reader: dhr. dr. David Laws Word Count: 23889

1

2 Glossary

The Met – Metropolitan Police COLP – City of London Police Scene – London-based community of actors that actively consumes and produces social and behavioural norms associated with grime music and the demographic of people that use grime music as a part of their identity in London. Grime’s socio-economic circumstances – Poverty, violence, drugs, segregation. Grime’s socio-political circumstances – Segregation, racial and aesthetic profiling, societal disregard, the harsh policing of the scene’s events. CCCS – Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies Locked off – Shut down

Acknowledgements

This research and thesis would not have been possible without the educated, informative and passionate voices of those within the London grime scene. Their understandings of their own circumstances reinforced the importance of this research for me, as a researcher, and London society. I was genuinely shocked in my interactions with these people about the sophisticated manner in which these people articulated themselves and interacted with me, an outsider. It is with this knowledge that I commend my interviewees for their willingness to speak and their vast knowledge.

Finally, I’d like to thank dr. Polly Pallister-Wilkins for her willingness and ability to challenge my thinking, engaging with me in both the complex and seemingly trivial issues of this research project. I’d also like to extend my gratitude to my loved ones and friends, without whose support this would not have been possible. I hope that this final product, my research project, will educate future researchers and illuminate the intricacies of the interactions between the London grime scene, the state, and society.

3 GLOSSARY 3

ABSTRACT 5

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 6

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 13 ARTICULATION OF GRIEVANCES 14 FROM THE SOCIAL TO THE POLITICAL 17 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUBCULTURAL THEORY 18 SUBCULTURAL CAPITAL 20 ‘AUTHENTICITY’ IN MUSIC 21 ILAN’S GRIME ASSERTIONS 22 FORM 696 AND RISK ASSESSMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 24 FOUCAULT AND POLICING OF THE ABNORMAL 25

CHAPTER THREE: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 28 THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SENSIBLE, AGENCY, AND STRUCTURATION THEORY 28

CHAPTER FOUR: METHODOLOGY 34 METHODS 35 SAMPLE 36 PROCESS 40 LIMITATIONS 41

CHAPTER FIVE: FINDINGS 43 DOES THE LONDON GRIME SCENE ARTICULATE GRIEVANCES? 44 BY WHAT MEANS DO THEY ARTICULATE GRIEVANCES? 52 WHAT ARE THE CATALYSTS TO GRIME’S ARTICULATIONS? 60 WHAT ARE THE OBSTACLES TO GRIME’S ARTICULATIONS? 64 IMPLICATIONS 67

CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSIONS 68

4 Abstract

This research sought to understand whether the London grime scene articulated grievances. In addition, it sought to understand how they do so. Finally, it examined any potential obstacles or catalysts to grime’s articulations. This project was undertaken to study the process from the social to the political, and point to any democratic developments we, in Britain, need to make to encompass a demographic of people that do not actively participate in formal political processes. Furthermore, this piece of work sought to understand how internal changes in a subcultures structure could affect how they are perceived by those outside said subculture. This research was conducted using a qualitative discourse analysis of 44 songs from 2004 to 2015. This was then cross-referenced with interviews with members of the grime scene and those that have been in contact with the scene over the last few years. This research found that the London grime scene articulated grievances concerning issues of poverty, segregation, violence, drugs, racial and aesthetic profiling, societal disregard, and the harsh policing of the scene’s events. Addressing these grievances will help alleviate the security threat of delinquency that is commonly associated with this demographic of people. Furthermore, the London grime scene uses lyrical content, social media platforms, protest and formal political engagement in order to articulate their grievances. Current institutionalised practices in Britain do not account for this wide repertoire of action and efforts must be made to develop our stagnant definition of democracy to align it with technological and civic advancements. This means that policymakers must be made aware of the platforms that icons of the London grime scene have. The transition into the digital age has acted as the main catalyst for grime’s articulations. Primarily, it negates artist’s reliance on record labels for exposure, hence allowing the reclamation of creative and lyrical autonomy. In addition, the internet provides a platform for the London grime scene to engage with its followers daily. This is evidence of continued politicisation, and contrasts Ilan’s assertions that commodification acts as the major obstacle to grime’s capacity and desire to be political. Furthermore, policing, not commodification, acts as grime’s greatest obstacle. An outdated link between grime and crime undermines grime’s ability to socialise and consolidate grievances. This research suggests policing resources could better be allocated elsewhere, allowing for the creative expression of grime and prudent reallocation of resources for the police.

5 Subcultures, State and Society: A

Challenge to the London Grime Scene’s

Socio-economic and Socio-political

Circumstances

A Study of Cultural Practices as Sites of Politics

Chapter One: Introduction

“People need to realise that people do this for fun, but it becomes something more, something big, if you let us.1”

The 1950s paved the way for a plethora of African-Caribbean migrants in London.2 With them, they brought social and musical troupes that were set to dominate UK dance culture for at least the next 60 years. The most recent offspring from this long line of genres is grime. Taking influence from genres such as garage, drum ‘n’ bass, jungle and dancehall, grime’s growth and commercial success has been explosive.3 Grime is the newest genre on what music journalist

1 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017. 2 Ilan, J. “’The Industry’s the New Road’: Crime, Commodification and Street Cultural Tropes in UK Urban Music,” Crime Media Culture, 8(1), 2012, 43. 3 Ibid.

6 Simon Reynolds calls “the hardcore continuum.4” Grime features MCs rapping over fast-paced garage, jungle, bashment or drum ‘n’ bass beats, differentiating itself from hip-hop which finds its musical origins in soul, funk and disco.5 A scene has developed around this new music genre, but what constitutes a scene?

The term ‘scene’ was introduced into subcultural literature in 1991 by Will Straw.6 Scholars originally questioned the usefulness of such a concept as such a term designates both the effervescence of a local venue whilst simultaneously addressing the total global phenomena of the music played in venues across the world.7 Such a concept does not put enough emphasis on the local, and gives too much to the global. Straw adds that “‘Scene’ is used to circumscribe highly local clusters of activity and to give unity to practices dispersed throughout the world. It functions to designate face-to-face sociability and as a lazy synonym for globalized virtual communities of taste.8” Under this conception, the grime scene could refer to both the global total of grime listeners whilst also addressing the local grime scene in London. Straw argues the term ‘scene’ is continuously utilized for its usefulness as a label for quasi-cultural groups whose precise boundaries are invisible and malleable.9 It is anti-essentialising and can hence be employed without audiences drawing on assumptions associated with the term. Straw adds that the term scene connotes dynamism in group behavior. It recognizes the inner circles and intimacy of communities whilst addressing the fluidity of globalized urban life and identity.10 This situates it smartly in between postmodern and Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) ways of thinking about subcultures, which is aligned with where I locate myself within theoretical tensions regarding subcultures in sociology and criminology.

For the purpose of this research, the term ‘scene’ refers specifically to the local London community of actors that actively consumes and produces social and behavioural norms associated with grime music and the demographic of people that use grime music as a part of

4 Reynolds, S. “The Wire 300: Simon Reynolds on the Hardcore Continuum #7: Grime (And A Little Dubstep) (2005),” The Wire, February 2013, https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/the-wire- 300_simon-reynolds-on-the-hardcore-continuum_7_grime_anda-little-dubstep_2005_, (last accessed 27 May 2017). 5 Karon, T. "'Hip-Hop Nation' Is Exhibit A for America's Latest Cultural Revolution". Time. 22 September 2000, http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,55635,00.html, (last accessed 27 May 2017). 6 Dedman, T. “Agency in UK Hip-hop and Grime Youth Subcultures – Peripherals and Purists,” Journal of Youth Studies, 14(5), 2011, 509. 7 Straw, W. “Scenes and Sensibilities,” Public, (22/23), 2002, 248. 8 Ibid. 9 ibid. 10 ibid.

7 their identity in London. This helps focus on the sociological, psychological and political elements of grime’s interactions with state and society.

However, some contestation occurs over whether there is a grime ‘scene.’ Bennet & Peterson note that scenes are “kept in motion by a series of gigs, club nights, fairs and similar events where fans converge, communicate, and reinforce their sense of belonging to a particular scene.11” Dedman notes that much of grime musicians’ cultural creative activity occurs “within closed collective groupings, rarely in public spaces.12” Hence, Dedman contests the legitimacy of grime music as a ‘scene.’ I contest this assertion. Grime musicians often refer to their own musical community as ‘the grime scene.13’ Actors identities centre around the production and dispersal of grime music and its associated cultural, social and behavioural norms. In addition, these artists and their associates attribute the lack of activity in public spaces to the policing of their events and hesitant venue owners who associate their music with trouble.14 Grime uses musical events as cultural sites that might provoke politics. Hence, I believe it wise and appropriate to refer to those associated with grime music in London as within the London grime scene as it facilitates discussions about a subcultural continuum from postmodernist to CCCS scholars whilst accurately addressing some of the issues that grime faces in its consolidation.

If you make your way to a dimly lit underground club in south east London, what do you see? Cally, an up-and-coming grime artist thinks you’ll see “tracksuits, all black, one mic, 50 MCs battling for the mic, everyone trying to spit their album, I mean, you just getting in there, saying 'fuck this, it's my turn now.15’” Black tracksuit, black cap, swagger, slang, this is grime. Grime is as much an aesthetic as it is a music genre, it is as much as much an identity as it is an interest.

The aforementioned description is how the grime scene is pictured by some inside the scene and most of those without a detailed knowledge of the scene. However, mainstream financial success for grime and the circumstances of the people who associate with the scene have led

11 Bennett, A., Peterson, R, A. “Music Scenes: Local, Translocal and Virtual,” Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004, 11. 12 Dedman, T. 2011, 509. 13 Hancox, D. 6 December 2012 ; Wot Do U Call It Grime Documentary [online video], 11 April 2009 ; Akala shares his thoughts on the UK Music Scene | Link Up TV [online video], 6 April 2012 ; The Police vs Grime Music - A Noisey Film [online video], 29 May 2014. 14 Ibid. 15 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017.

8 to questions concerning the direction of grime, its aesthetic, its impact, and its purpose. Developments of grime have not been acknowledged by elements of society, including by agents of cultural conformity and authority. A current struggle for grime is challenging the stereotypes associated with it in order for the scene to develop, transform and grow.

This is not a musicology project. This project regards people for whom grime is a part of their daily lives. Grime is the focal point around which these people identify, but they have much more in common than an interest in a genre of music. Generally, those involved in the London grime scene share experiences, socio-economic and socio-political circumstances arising from their class, race, and relationship with state and society. It is these experiences and circumstances that unite the grime scene as much as the music produced and the aesthetic displayed. This project concerns a group of people who actively associate with grime, but attribute their identity to class, locale and disengagement as much as the musical troupes that circulate throughout the estates. The ‘scene’ then, is defined as a group of people from similar geographical locale, with shared experiences and shared circumstances, who socialise and identify with grime music. These shared experiences are ones of poverty, of urban segregation and of political alienation. This project focuses on a group of people whose identity is constituted by grime. This project concerns a demographic of poor young, inner-city, disenfranchised people who occupy the boroughs of London that actively consume and reproduce the social and behavioural norms associated with grime music and the culture of their demographic within the spatial boundaries of London. Grime music is the focal point around which these people socialise and gravitate. The London grime scene incorporates elements of London and inner-city culture such as ‘road’ culture that consolidates the grime identity in London. It is so much more than just music and style.16 It is an identity that continues to develop and challenge itself and others around it. This project sought to understand how the development of the grime scene has affected its ability and likelihood to articulating grievances concerning their socio-economic and socio-political circumstances as a poor, inner-city, and disenfranchised group of people confined to the spatial boundaries of London’s boroughs.

Broadly, this research project concerns cultural practices as sites of politics. It studies the grime scene in London in order to find out whether the articulation of grievances occurs in quasi- cultural groups that are unstudied or dismissed by political scientists and policymakers. It is

16 Ilan, J. 2012, 40.

9 important to understand where and how articulation takes place as our understanding of grievance articulation develops with technologies, in order to appropriately develop our definition of democracy in Britain.17 This project became of interest to me as a researcher because I questioned the notion that disengagement with politics for the poor and young is inevitable. A huge turnout spike amongst young people in the most recent 2017 snap election is evidence of this not being the case.18 Why then, does this specific demographic not engage in formal politics? This research seeks to illuminate any evident catalysts or obstacles to subcultural grievance articulation, which provides further insight into how subcultures interact with the state and society, as well as alternative objects of interest. In doing so, this project seeks to understand how socialization might lead to consolidation of grievances and the affirmation of a collective political identity and purpose. If grievances are not articulated, this research wants to know why a group of people who socialize frequently and share similar socio- economic and socio-political circumstances do not consolidate and articulate grievances associated with these conditions. Hence, the primary research question for this project is ‘Does the London grime scene articulate grievances?’ Additionally, two sub questions are required. The first is ‘By what means does the London grime scene articulate grievances?’ and the second is ‘What are catalysts or obstacles for the London grime scene’s articulations of grievance?’

Research and experts often compares the grime scene with hip-hop in the US and punk in the 70s and 80s in Britain.19 It is from these comparisons that I felt the London grime scene was a prudent example for studying the link between cultural practices and politics. Music acts as a focal point around which like-minded individuals or those with shared experience gravitate and socialise. The same could be said about the anti-establishmentarian hip-hop movement, headed by seminal tracks such as N.W.A.’s “Fuck Tha Police” and Tupac’s “Trapped.” In the same

17 Gomart, E., Hajer, M. “Is That Politics?”, in B. Joerges & H. Nowotny (eds.) Social Studies of Science and Technology: Looking Back Ahead, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, 33-36. 18 Travis, A., Barr, C. “‘Youthquake’ behind Labour Election Surge Divides Generations,” The Guardian, 20 June 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/20/youthquake-behind-labour- election-surge-divides-generations, (last accessed 29 June 2017) ; The Guardian. “Young Voters, Class and Turnout: How Britain Voted in 2017,” The Guardian, 20 June 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/datablog/ng-interactive/2017/jun/20/young-voters-class-and- turnout-how-britain-voted-in-2017, (last accessed 29 June 2017). 19 The Business of Grime: Full Documentary | British GQ | [online video], 26 July 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_2AVogIb5c, (last accessed 9 March 2017) ; Ilan, J. 2012, 39-55 ; Akala shares his thoughts on the UK Music Scene | Link Up TV [online video], 6 April 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwl9RD86EhQ, (last accessed 1 March 2017) ; Dedman, T. 2011, 507-522 ; De Lacey, A. “Deeper Than Rap: Grime is not a Subgenre of Hip-Hop,” Pigeons and Planes, 3 November 2015, http://pigeonsandplanes.com/in-depth/2015/11/grime-hip-hop, (last accessed 15 February 2017).

10 manner, punk rockers actively aligned with the lyrical content found in songs such as the Sex Pistols “God Save the Queen” or The Clash’s “Know Your Rights.” In similar fashion the London grime scene might articulate grievances, although the extent of their sophistication was unknown prior to this research. Much like punk and hip-hop, grime captures “an attitude of fearless innovation,” and has, for some people, become the voice of the anti, of the unheard.20 Conversely, subcultural scholars have asserted that too much credit is given to the political potency and agency of subcultures.21 Hence, it is my desire to fully grasp the extent of grime’s articulations without assuming the use of political agency.

My goal for this research was to acquire a data set that facilitates the examination of the grime scenes perceptions of its own activity and ideas as well as the perceptions of the scene by those outside of the grime scene. In addition, I wished to understand any external or internal factors that facilitated or hindered the articulation of grievances by the grime scene. I also generated a data set that reflected changes and consistencies in the grime scene since its initial inception. Development over time is one of the key reasons for my selection of London as my location of study. Grime’s creation and development occurred in London. Born in East London, it has grown organically over almost 20 years. London puts me in the privileged position of access to individuals who have witnessed the scene develop and change over time. Grime music is prominent in areas of Manchester, Birmingham and Blackpool. However, the genre hasn’t had an entrenched scene for a long time in these cities and hence I would be unable to study the development of said scene. Focusing on grime in London also expedites the study of interactions between the grime scene and an entrenched mainstream societal culture. In addition, London has the greatest number of grime listeners and the inflective interpretation of grime by outsiders is usually focused around a London-based accent. It is with all of this in mind, namely the logical and logistical factors, that I have chosen the city of London as the spatial boundaries within which I define my research. Hence, when referring to the ‘grime scene’ in this works, the reader can assume this definition refers to the grime scene within the spatial boundaries of London.

20 Hancox, D. “The Triumph of Grime,” The Guardian, 14 February 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/feb/14/music-grime-dan-hancox, (last accessed 26 May 2017). 21 Thornton, S. “The Social Logic of Subcultural Capital [1995],” in K. Gelder & S. Thornton (ed.), The Subcultures Reader, London: Routledge, 1997, 201 ; Bennett, A. “Subcultures or Neo-Tribes? Rethinking the Relationship Between Youth, Style and Musical Taste,” Sociology, 33(3), 1999, 599-617.

11 This research finds that the London grime scene articulates grievances concerning issues of poverty, segregation, violence, drugs, racial and aesthetic profiling, societal disregard, and the harsh policing of the scene’s events. These themes can be categorised into socio-economic and socio-political issues. The first regards their socio-economic circumstances and the troubles that arise from said circumstances. The second category addresses the London grime scene’s interactions with state and society. These two categories are prominent throughout this research project. Furthermore, the London grime scene uses their social media platform, their lyrical content, formal political procedures and protest to articulate these grievances. This wide repertoire of action is a challenge to current institutionalised practices of political engagement, and attests that a reassessment of the means of identifying grievances should occur in government. This research’s main argument then, is that more attention should be paid by policymakers to alternative means of articulating, such as in lyrics and via social media, to engage a demographic of people often associated with delinquency, and who do not actively participate in formal political processes. This will work to negate the democratic deficit that can be currently attributed to British democracy, as current political procedures have not adapted with technology in order to develop our idea of democracy. The transition into the digital age and a shift in the means for accumulating subcultural capital both act as catalysts for the London grime scene’s articulations. The digital age halts the reliance of grime artists on record labels for exposure, hence enhancing creative autonomy for these artists. The internet also allows grime artists to operate their own social media platform, where they actively articulate concerns and opinions, influencing millions. An internal counter-movement over the last 15 years against the glorification of grime’s connection with crime has facilitated the scene’s ability to articulate grievances as their reactions and commentaries on their socio- economic and socio-political circumstances are more critical and less celebratory. Finally, it was the harsh policing of grime, not commodification of their music genre, which acted as the major obstacle to grime’s ability to articulate grievances. This contrasts with Ilan’s previous assertions about voluntary dilution of content as a result of commodification being the main reason for a lack of association between grime and political potency.22 This ‘policing’ of grime also works to exclude the London grime scene and it’s associated cultural norms from mainstream London society.

22 Ilan, J. “Commodifying Compliance? UK Urban Music and the New Mediascape,” Tijdschrift over Cultuur & Criminaliteit, 4(1), 2014, 67-79.

12 There are numerous practical and theoretical implications of this research. Primarily, this research finds that policymakers should look outside institutionalized formal and informal channels of interaction in order to identify grievances. This will facilitate the development of a holistic democracy that changes in alignment with technological and civic advancements. In addition, shifts in the means for accumulating subcultural capital are indicative of how the inner-workings of a quasi-cultural group can affect said groups interactions with state and society. Hence, researchers should study subcultures over greater periods of time in order to gain insight from internal transformations and how that affects public articulations. Those concerned with the effective policing of marginalized groups should take note of the internal fluidity of subcultural structure and seek to reassess threat associated with these groups on a regular and case-by-case basis in order to avoid unjustly stigmatizing groups.

Primarily this project addresses the importance of the articulation of grievances, followed by a brief outline of current subcultural theory and tensions within the field. It then employs musicology to explore authenticity in music-based groups. Following this, it draws from grime’s primary academic theorist, Ilan, and summarises his contributions.23 Furthermore, it outlines my understanding of Foucault’s ideas of policing and the abnormal individual. I then summarise a Rancièrian framework which is coupled with Giddens’s Structuration Theory in order to interpret findings later in the paper. This research then outlines and justify the methodology used and present any relevant findings with necessary analysis. Conclusions and implications are then drawn from this process, resulting in a holistic view of the London grime scenes articulations and the means and objects that affect it.

Chapter Two: Literature Review

In order to address my research problem, this research must first address literature that denotes why the articulation of grievances is important. This utilized an interpretation of theory in subcultural literature in order to explain primarily why articulations of grievance matter. Secondarily, it addresses why these articulations within this specific subculture matter. Following this, this project should seek to understand the internal workings of other quasi- cultural groups that have become political. For this, this research summarises Schwartz’s works on the links between the social and the political. Furthermore, in order to understand grime as

23 Ilan, J. 2012 ; Ilan, J. 2014.

13 a subculture, research must address the development of subcultural literature and reconcile arguments in order to approach this research holistically. After using Sarah Thornton’s assessment of subcultural literature to reconcile these differences, we examined her concept of ‘subcultural capital.’ This is important as changes in subcultural capital actively affect the way subcultures interact with themselves, as well as state and society. As this is a music-based subculture, this project must draw on musicology and the importance of ‘authenticity’ for dictating the actions and reactions of those within the scene. This links to subcultural capital as authenticity in a music-based group, according to Thornton, often results in the accumulation of subcultural capital.24 Following this is an outline Ilans’ assertions concerning grime’s capacity and intention to behave politically. Next, we address the governance of the grime scene by the Met Police and City of London Police (COLP), again identifying an analytical node where the scene and state interact. This is then followed by a summary of Foucault’s work on police and the ‘abnormal,’ this acts as a bridge between current understandings of grime’s interactions with the police and the theoretical framework that is employed for the analysis of this project’s findings. All of this is done in order to 1) address the significance of this research problem, 2) illuminate current understandings of internal interactions within subcultures, and 3) create a foundation for understanding how the grime scene currently interacts with both state and society.

Articulation of Grievances

I chose to focus on the articulation of grievances in the London grime scene to examine whether such a subculture has the ability and desire to express informed political, economic and cultural desires. Why does this articulation matter though? Paying attention to the grievances of a subculture that is commonly associated with a demographic that consistently fails to engage in formal and informal political practices has its benefits.

Primarily, there are security-based implications associated with crime that are evident when addressing the articulation of grievances by drawing on Albert Cohen’s concept of ‘status frustration.25’ Policymakers looking to bolster social cohesion and reduce criminal activity and

24 Thornton, S. 1997, 203. 25 Cohen, A, K. “Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang,” New York: Free Press, 1955 ; Ilan, J. 2014, 77 ; Roach, J, L., Gursslin, O, R. “The Lower Class, Status Frustration, and Social Disorganization,” Social Forces, 43(4), 1965, 501-510.

14 delinquency should pay attention to these articulations. Evidence of links between a lack of addressal of economic and political grievances and criminal behavior can be seen in prime examples such as the 2011 London riots.26 Some people blame the inception of the riots on the suppression and subjugation of a group of people who are in status competition with the middle-class and as such utilize delinquency as a means of rebelling or accumulating wealth that they have not been able to obtain due to the dismissal of their prior articulations.27

Cohen also asserts that delinquency within a given subculture associated with the working class is a response to general disenfranchisement with political and economic systems of governance and an inability to express these dissatisfactions through alternative means.28 Hence, criminologists should take interest in the articulation of grievances by subcultures as a means of negating any perceived criminal intent associated with a subculture. By addressing articulated grievances policymakers can actively engage with subcultures through means credited with more social merit than criminal or delinquent activity. As a result of this perceived connection between grime and delinquency by the general public, as asserted in LBC’s interview with Stormzy, policymakers should utilise grime’s articulations to address concerns that might otherwise be expressed through alternative, less socially merited means if these grievances are ignored.29

The potential articulation of grievances within this specific subculture is important to those concerned with boosting political engagement. Renowned people within the scene have a major influence on those who associate actively or passively with grime. The demographic that is said to actively engage with the scene are working class, young, disadvantaged people, typically associated with housing estates and disenfranchisement. The group that grime represents also happens to be a demographic of people that are not inclined to voting, as shown

26 Kawalerowicz, J., Biggs, M. “Anarchy in the U.K.: Economic Deprivation, Social Disorganization, and Political Grievances in the London Riots of 2011,” Social Forces, 94(2), 2015, 673-698 ; Lewis, P., Newburn, T., Taylor, M., Ball, J. “Rioters Say Anger with Police Fuelled Summer Unrest,” The Guardian, 5 December 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/05/anger-police-fuelled-riots-study, (last accessed 13 June 2017) ; Lewis, P., Newburn, T., Taylor, M., Mcgillivray, C., Greenhill, A., Frayman, H., and Proctor, R. “Reading the riots: investigating England's summer of disorder.” Reading the riots, London: The London School of Economics and Political Science and The Guardian, 2011, 4. 27 Reiss, A, J., Rhodes, L. “Status Deprivation and Delinquent Behavior,” The Sociological Quarterly, 4(2), 1963, 135. 28 Cohen, A, K. 1955. 29 Omari, M. “Stormzy v Shelagh Fogarty,” LBC, 1 March 2017, http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/shelagh-fogarty/stormzy-called-out-lbc-on-his-album-invited- him-on/, (last accessed 17 May 2017).

15 by voting statistics at every general election for 18-24 year olds, except 2017.30 By engaging with articulated grievances, those concerned with political engagement could effectively address issues of politics and culture that are not articulated through mainstream political processes. In addition, addressing these articulations might contribute to the melding of grime and the mainstream, encouraging said group to engage in formal and informal political practices more often and more vigorously.

Gomart & Hajer assert that it is a constant state of flux and reflective practice that facilitates the transformation of democracy in response to changing demands, technologies and times.31 A constantly changing democracy should be able to negate the democratic deficits acquired from stagnant institutions or when current political practices do not suit current contexts or involve all people. It is with this in mind that I suggest that the articulation of grievances by the grime scene must be paid attention to as, if they do articulate grievances, it might be clear that current political institutions do not account or facilitate involvement from this specific demographic and hence our concept of representative democracy must change so as not to inhibit their political agency. Constant reflection and renegotiation must occur to ensure that the current state of democracy is what best suits the state of society at a given time. As such, if the grime scene is perceived to articulate grievances through new or alternative means, then policymakers must seek to identify these grievances and take these articulation practices into account when attempting to identify political agency in the future. This must be done to ensure proper democratic representation.

The articulation of grievances by this subculture also matters because the state considers the London grime scene a problem, as evidenced by the policing of said community. Articulations concerning police practice will inform policing practitioners on the potential issues with their practice, hence facilitating reflection and improving service provision for London communities. Addressal of these articulations might also facilitate a step towards an amicable working relationship between the London grime scene and policing agents so as to potentially promote cohesiveness between state and society. In addition, if it is found asserted that the link between grime and crime has become tenuous over time, this research might suggest a reallocation of police resources in order to address more prominent threats.

30 Ipsos MORI. “How Britain Voted in 2015,” 26 August 2015, https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en- uk/how-britain-voted-2015?view=wide, (last accessed 27 June 2017). 31 Gomart, E., Hajer, M. 2003, 33-36.

16

It is important to study the London grime scene as a quasi-cultural and potentially political entity, allowing its inclusion into political arenas. To do so, one must seek to understand the processes that lead it from the social to the political, to facilitate the study of future quasi- cultural groups that seek to involve themselves politically. I have employed the works of Schwartz to gain further insight into the continuum that is the social to the political.

From the Social to the Political

Schwartz’s study on cotton tenancy and the Southern Farmers’ Alliance (SFA) analysed the transition for those who worked on the cotton farms from a work-based social group to a highly politicized cohesive alliance that articulated grievances and acted to nullify concerns.32 Schwartz piece is interesting as he studies the factors that affected the consolidation of shared grievances, the articulation of these grievances, and the actions the SFA took to address these issues. The main factor affecting the consolidation of grievances was the rate at which farmers socialized.33 He also studies the disintegration and failure of the movement in lieu of structural and social restraints. Although these restraints were context specific, structure might also affect how the grime scene articulates grievances. His work informs my understanding of the process I seek to examine and the grime scene as a social and potentially political entity. I kept his case in mind when examining the London grime scene. It too was formed from a group of people who experience shared circumstances. Socialisation occurs everywhere, from bedrooms, to events, to online. Has there been the development of any incipient consolidation and articulation of grievances from this socialization? If not, why? If so, in what form? Gomart & Hajer tells us we don’t need to limit ourselves to only a few forms of politics, instead we must ask those involved whether they perceive themselves to be political.34 Hence, by studying the potential consolidation and articulation of grievances, one can attempt to understand whether those involved in the grime scene make their grievances known via pre-existing or new forms of articulation. This contributes directly to literature on where politics does and does not occur, as well as providing a subcultural insight into the development of this articulation. If found to

32 Schwartz, M. “Radical Protest and Social Structure: The Southern Farmers’ Alliance and Cotton Tenancy, 1880-1890,” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. 33 Ibid. 34 Gomart, E., Hajer, M. 2003, 33-36

17 be articulating through new means, this case would be a prime example of policymakers needs to pay attention to grievance rhetoric in avenues other than formal politics.

The political and cultural dismissal of subcultures in the past has led to ignorance over how quasi-cultural groups, particularly subordinate ones, can develop into entities with a great deal of political potency. In order to fully grasp the extent to which subcultures exist and interact with state and society, one must delve into subcultural literature and attempt to reconcile any potential theoretical conflicts.

The Development of Subcultural Theory

Hebdige, a scholar of subcultures, claims he is interested in “in the expressive forms and rituals of those subordinate groups … who are alternately dismissed, denounced and canonized; treated at different times as threats to public order and as harmless buffoons.35” In addition, Hebdige notes that a subculture is an opposition to culturally accepted normalcy, a direct or indirect nature of criticism to the dominant societal culture.36 He also asserts that subcultures are occupied by individuals who are like-minded or share experiences, who feel forsaken by societal standards, and hence consolidate a group identity within a given subculture.37

Dedman, a subcultural scholar and criminologist ascertains that the grime scene is a subculture due to their unheard nature in mainstream cultural dialogues and their sub-status with regards to their socio-economic and socio-political circumstances.38 There is a tension to be confronted and settled before one can solidify the interpretive position this research places itself within subcultural scholarship. The tension lies between CCCS scholars and Postmodern theorists, who occupy either end of a spectrum that links ‘politics’ to subcultural behavior.39 Postmodern subcultural theorists claim that the fragmentation of society directly links to the fluidity of cultural boundaries and identity.40 Hence, postmodernists argue the term “neo-tribes” might be a more accurate definition of what CCCS scholars call ‘subcultures.’41 This term is used to

35 Hebdige, D. “Subculture: The Meaning of Style,” London: Methuen & Co, 1979, 2. 36 Hebdige, D. 1979. 37 Ibid. 38 Dedman, T. 2011, 507-522. 39 Thornton, S. 1997, 201. 40 Ibid, 507 ; Blackman, S. “Youth Subcultural Theory: A Critical Engagement with the Concept, its Origins and Politics, from Chicago School to Postmodernism,” Journal of Youth Studies, 8(1), 2005, 1. 41 Bennett, A. 1999, 599.

18 describe groups which facilitate the entry and exit of individuals in a fluid system of identity salience relevant to context. Individuals change their group membership dependent on context, and hence are not fixed in specific group identities by socio-economic and socio-political circumstances. As identity is increasingly fluid as society fragments, postmodern scholars claim that neo-tribes are not typically political when interacting with a dominant culture as individuals can enter and exit with ease, meaning that there is no continuity of personnel or socio-economic or political circumstances in a neo-tribe as individuals can come and go as they please.42

My understanding of the literature, music, and videos produced by grime scene members leads me to question this assertion.43 Socio-economic and socio-political circumstances limit members of the grime scene’s ability to enter and exit their designated identity grouping. Socio- economic and socio-political circumstance dictate that these member’s identities are more fixed than postmodern scholars would assert.

The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies,’ (CCCS) founded in Birmingham, historically associated subcultures with politics and ‘resistance.44’ These subcultural theories have been primarily developed in Britain and tested on British subcultures.45 The CCCS asserted that to understand a subculture, one must interpret its creation of meaning as a collective force.46 Blackman claims “the basic assumption is that youth subcultures belong to the working class, deriving from the experience of subordination.47” CCCS scholars claim that subcultures are inherently linked to class and are inherently subordinate to a dominant culture, and as such adopt an oppositional stance to mainstream or ‘subterranean values’ found in a dominant mainstream culture.48

42 Bennett, A. 1999, 599-617. 43 Hancox, D. “A History of Grime, by the People who Created it,” 6 December 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/dec/06/a-history-of-grime, (last accessed 25 March 2017) ; Wot Do U Call It Grime Documentary [online video], 11 April 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cyNn_MW81k, (last accessed 1 March 2017) ; Akala shares his thoughts on the UK Music Scene | Link Up TV [online video], 6 April 2012 ; The Police vs Grime Music - A Noisey Film [online video], 29 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW_iujPQpys, (last accessed 20 March 2017). 44 Dedman, T. 2011, 509 ; Hall, S., Jefferson, T. “Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post- war Britain,” 2nd edn., London: Routledge, 1993. 45 Ibid. 46 ibid. 47 Blackman, S. 2005, 6. 48 Matza, D., Sykes, G, M. “Juvenile Delinquency and Subterranean Values,” American Sociological Review, 26(5), 1961, 712-719.

19 However, Sarah Thornton, a subcultural scholar, notes that while postmodern scholars do not attribute enough potency to subcultural identity, CCCS scholars always sought to associate subcultures with resistance due to their inherent subordinate nature.49 Thornton claims that CCCS scholars give too much merit to subcultural ideology as the driving force behind the development and maintenance of a subculture.50 She claims “where young people have denounced the ‘commercial,’ scholars have criticized ‘hegemony’; where one has lamented ‘selling out,’ the other has theorized ‘incorporation.51’” The CCCS’s constant strive for associating subcultures with resistance applies too much merit to what subcultures claim as their ideology, and less to what they actually do. I seek, like Sarah Thornton, to place myself somewhere in the middle. I attribute meaning to grime’s norms for member’s identities whilst trying not to apply too much merit to subcultural ideology, instead attempting an unbiased project whereby I study how grime members behave rather than what they say they think. Hence, identity is fixed but ideology should not be overstated. The phrase ‘actions speak louder than words’ would be a sufficient way of explaining how I’ll assess grime’s desire and capacity to articulate grievances. It is not whether they say they do, it’s whether they actually do it.

Using subcultural theory to understand the London grime scene is crucial. In addition to Thornton’s observations on the development of subcultural theory, she makes an insightful connection between what is valued within a subculture, how members behave, and how that might affect the perceptions of said subculture by mainstream cultures. Her concept of ‘subcultural capital’ is important because it, as a concept, affects how those within a subculture behave. Hence, any changes in said subcultural capital might influence behaviour, which this research is primarily interested in.

Subcultural Capital

Thornton contributed to subcultural literature with the concept of ‘subcultural capital.’ Borrowing from Bourdieu’s cultural and social capital, Thornton observed “sub-species of capital operating within other less privileged domains.52” ‘Hipness,’ she claims, is a form of subcultural capital within the British raving communities.53 Those seen as knowledgeable

49 Thornton, S. 1997, 201. 50 Ibid. 51 ibid. 52 ibid, 202. 53 Ibid, 200.

20 about the rave scene such as DJs, producers and alternative pockets of niche rave-related activities have accumulated subcultural capital and as a result are respected, maybe even revered, within this specific subculture.54 The accumulation of subcultural capital within any given subculture “confers status on its owner in the eyes of the relevant beholder.55” Much like cultural capital, subcultural capital can be objectified in the form of relevant subcultural objects, such as rare vinyl records or a fashionable haircut, in conjunction with alternative objects.56 In addition, in can be embodied by a fluent command of slang terms, by behaving in a way deemed status-worthy amongst subcultural members or with a vast knowledge of a subculture and its workings, among other things.57 Subcultural capital matters when studying the grime scene because it dictates what members do and how they do it. Fluctuations in what subcultural capital is attributed to throughout the development of the grime scene might affect whether grime articulates grievances, hence it is important to understand the inner subcultural workings to interpret their outward articulations.

In music-based groups, ‘authenticity,’ and being ‘true’ to a specific genre or style could be conceived as a means for accumulating subcultural capital.58 But what does ‘authenticity’ mean? What does it mean to be an authentic grime artist? If what it means to be authentic changes, how does that effect the behavior of those that associate with that music genre? My findings will address this, but first, I need to explore the concept of authenticity in music.

‘Authenticity’ in Music

‘Authenticity’ as a concept has deep roots in music scenes, especially those associated with a particular demographic of people. ‘Authenticity’ within a music scene is associated with status, with respect and with being acknowledged for contributing to a music genre.59 Within American hip-hop communities, authenticity is discussed around a number of issues that include “racial identification, the music industry, social location, individualism, and gender and sexual roles. Profanity and slang are used in discourse often to emphasize the claims about

54 Ibid. 55 ibid. 56 ibid, 203. 57 Ibid. 58 ibid, 203 ; Barker, H., Taylor, Y. “Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music,” London: W. W Norton & Company, 2007 ; Hill, P. “‘Authenticity’ in Contemporary Music,” Tempo, 159, 1986, 2-8. 59 Taylor, C. “The Ethics of Authenticity,” Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

21 authenticity.60” With grime, authenticity touches on elements of location, associations with crime, the music industry, socio-economic and socio-political circumstances.61 The promotion of authenticity within a music scene is an attempt to counter assimilation into mainstream pop musical cultures.62 The same can be said about authenticity and the grime scene’s attempts to preserve cultural norms associated with the subculture. Changes in authenticity and what is considered authentic might therefore alter the proposed ways in which the scene might seek to combat assimilation. Hence, authenticity alters the behavior of those within the grime scene which ultimately addresses the research problem at hand. The inner-workings of the grime scene, with regard to authenticity, affect how and what is publically expressed and is hence important when studying the articulation of grievances.

To be authentic then, it seems, has something to do with using discursive tools that are relevant to the context of a specific music genre. In addition, relating to the socio-economic and socio- political circumstances of the demographic associated with a specific music genre bolsters the authenticity of an artist. Authenticity within a music-based subculture seems also be a desired characteristic. Why then, according to Ilan, have grime artists diluted their lyrical content in order to accumulate financial wealth?

Ilan’s Grime Assertions

Ilan asserts that grime artists have voluntarily surrendered their artistic autonomy to record labels in order to accumulate financial wealth.63 Grime music has become a financially viable product, hence the commodification of said genre. The commodification of grime has resulted in a lack of autonomy in track production and hence a dilution of content typically associated with grime, such as references to poverty, drugs, violence and other social realities that these individuals face. With this surrender in mind, Ilan claims that the grime scene cannot be accurately associated with ‘resistance’ as they do not actively resist an identifiable entity.64

60 McLeod, K., “Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened With Assimilation,” Journal of Communication, 49(4), 1999, 138 ; Pennycook, A. “Language, Localization, and the Real: Hip-Hop and the Global Spread of Authenticity,” Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 6(2), 101-115 ; Solomon, T. “‘Living Underground is Tough’: Authenticity and Locality in the Hip-Hop Community in Istanbul, Turkey,” Popular Music, 24(1), 2005, 1-20. 61 Frere-Jones, S. “True Grime: A Genre’s Magic Moment,” The New Yorker, 14 March 2005, http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/docs/2005-03-21_newyorker_grime.pdf, (last accessed 23 May 2017). 62 McLeod, K., 1999, 138. 63 Ilan, J. 2014, 74 64 ibid.

22 Instead, commodification of grime has reduced grime’s political agency to ‘defiance,’ a passive form of resistance that is not articulated as resistance and not perceived by many as vocal opposition to a specific object, institution or organisation.65 He claims, “the word ‘defiance’ does not share with ‘resistance’ its implied association with transformative politics.66” My research addresses whether grime does actively contribute or involve itself in the pursuit of politics, hence Ilan’s assertions are addressed.

The second observation Ilan made was both informative and accurate. He claims that ‘road culture’ is inextricably linked to the grime scene, and hence it’s associations with crime and delinquency are celebrated and pronounced. He drew on a blatant connection between the grime scene and ‘road culture,’ which he refers to as “the British accented variant of street culture.67” Ilan claims this culture calls for a “display of tough, rugged masculinity, consumerist acumen and distinction, as well as crimino-entrepreneurialism to produce the means of participating in it.68” Gunter also notes the importance of ‘badness’ within London youth subcultures, a concept that celebrates violence and associations with criminal enterprise.69 Road culture is celebrated in grime music, and is referred to constantly. Road culture also interacts with authenticity and subcultural capital as Ilan assumes that authenticity and subcultural capital is attributed to those who actively engage in behaviour associated with road culture, such as violence or drug distribution.70

The ‘road culture’ that Ilan refers to has resulted in the London grime scene being the target of tight policing, risk assessment and regulation. The use of infamous risk assessment ‘Form 696’ has, in the past, been used to shut down grime events in and around London. Form 696 acts as the most noteworthy object via which the London grime scene interacts with the state and police. As such, it is important to understand said relationship to examine how grime is affected by these regulations. These regulations could either act as an object of their articulations, an obstacle to their articulations, or both.

65 Ibid, 69. 66 Ibid, 76. 67 ibid, 70. 68 Ibid. 69 Gunter, A. “Growing up Bad: Black Youth, ‘road’ culture and badness in an East London Neighbourhood,” Crime Media Culture, 4(3), 2008, 349-366. 70 Ibid, 352 ; 70 Ilan, J. 2014, 73.

23 Form 696 and Risk Assessment in the United Kingdom

Many journalists and grime enthusiasts have pointed to the improper and racist use of ‘Form 696’ by the Metropolitan and City of London Police for policing events associated with grime music.71 This form originally requested information regarding the ethnic groups that were expected to attend events and the music style to be performed, among other things, whilst specifically targeting events involving DJs and MCs. These musical troupes are typically associated with African-Caribbean origins and hence the targeting of these particular styles of expression has been deemed racist by journalists, lawyers, politicians and those within the grime scene.72 Grime events have been shut down in the past or, despite a lack of violent or criminal activity, events associated with grime have been branded ‘high risk.’ As a result of such risk, grime events require more financial capital to create. This has led to exclamations such as “I want to know why the police are suppressing our culture,” and “When I was at school… I was in the choir and I performed at the Barbican, but obviously I was in my school uniform and it was bless, now I wanna go there in my hoodie and my hat and it’s not bless.73” The policing of grime is imperative to the study of the scene’s articulation of grievances because it actively affects what grime’s articulations identify as the source of their grievance. In addition, the policing of grime events as cultural sites might affect grime’s ability to consolidate grievances during socialisation and hence affect the actual articulation of grievances. Risk assessment in the United Kingdom has been used to deal with organisations, individuals and events. It’s use in policing Orange Order marches is well-documented, as is its

71 Ilan, J. 2012, 46 ; The Independent. “How Form 696 Could Pull the Plug on the Capital’s Music Scene,” The Independent, 21 November 2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts- entertainment/music/news/how-form-696-could-pull-the-plug-on-the-capitals-music-scene- 1028240.html, (last accessed 13 March 2017) ; Hancox, D. “Public Enemy no 696,” The Guardian, 21 January 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jan/21/police-form-696-garage-music, (last accessed 13 March 2017) ; Lowkey. “The Met Police are Stigmatising Hip-hop with the 696 Form,” The Guardian, 10 January 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/10/police- stigmatising-hip-hop-696-form, (last accessed 13 March 2017) ; Taylor, M. “Culture Minister says Met’s 696 Form Discriminates Against Grime Artists,” The Guardian, 27 March 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/27/matt-hancock-mets-696-form-discriminates- against-grime-artists, (last accessed 23 May 2017) ; Olutayo, V. “Form 696 and why Grime is not the Enemy,” 6 April 2017, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/form-696- police-uk-music-venues-grime-music-discrimination-comment-a7670436.html, (last accessed 23 May 2017) ; Izunda, C. Furst, J. “Form 696: Concern Over ‘Racist’ Police Form to be Raised,” BBC News, 27 March 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-39181672, (last accessed 23 May 2017). 72 The Police vs Grime Music - A Noisey Film [online video], 29 May 2014; Taylor, M. 27 March 2017. 73 The Police vs Grime Music - A Noisey Film [online video], 29 May 2014.

24 use during anti-globalisation marches.74 The policing of said events is done through regulatory channels, enforcing legal structures in order to ‘reduce risk’ and control populations. It is interesting that risk assessment is so prominent in the policing of said competing organisations in the United Kingdom despite such little success in predicting violent offences.75 This research drew on a history of risk assessment when analysing findings in order to fully understand the policing of the London grime scene and its associated events.

If form 696 acts as one of the primary interactions between the London grime scene and the state, Foucault’s concepts of police and the ‘abnormal’ individual should be examined in order to demonstrate how the state constructs this regulatory relationship between state and subculture. Foucault was chosen here as he illustrates state intentions and the means for obtaining results. This then interacts with the theories of Rancière and Giddens. These three are simultaneously utilised during analysis to paint a holistic picture of the relationship between the London grime scene and the state, and how this relationship affects the scene’s interactions with society.

Foucault and Policing of the Abnormal

Foucault develops his idea of what constitutes ‘abnormal’ in a given society, and how the ‘abnormal’ is policed and maintained outside a dominant culture. The development of his concept of the ‘abnormal individual’ is a crucial part of this interrelationship between what is accepted behavior and nature and the policing of those who behave outside that domain.76 Foucault comments on the construction of the “dangerous individual” by the state and its developed social structures.77 Individuals that are different to the socially accepted way of being and acting are labelled abnormal, and are hence shunned by society.78 This abnormality

74 Braiden, G. “'Fragile relations' with Orange Order at risk over police parades demands, says Government report,” Barhead News, 4 October 2016, http://www.barrheadnews.com/news/trendingacrossscotland/14779704._Fragile_relations__with_Ora nge_Order_at_risk_over_police_parades_demands__says_Government_report/, (last accessed 24 May 2017).

75 Fazel, S., Sign, J, P., Doll, H., Grann, M. “Use of risk assessment instruments to predict violence and antisocial behaviour in 73 samples involving 24 827 people: systematic review and meta-analysis,” BMJ, 2012, 1-12, doi: 10.1136/bmj.e4692 76 Foucault, M. “Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France 1974-1975,” trans. G. Burchell, V. Marchtti., A. Salomoni (ed.), London: Verso, 2003. 77 Foucault, M. 2003, xix. 78 Ibid.

25 is related to the notion of danger, of the “dangerous individual” against whom it is necessary to employ regulatory and legal institutions so as to nullify the threat from these dangerous abnormalities.79 The state’s employment of these strategies seek to normalize cultural, social and behavioral norms so as to entrench the exclusion of those they deem abnormal or dangerous.80 Hence, Foucault comments that the state and its associated institutions and practices seek to criminalise the nature and behavior of individuals and groups “on the basis of what is no more than an imperfection, a deviation.81” This deviation is one away from a state- sponsored normative view of society. Upon criminalizing these groups and individuals as abnormal, the state has created a socially acceptable apparatus of exclusion through the normalization of accepted culture. Thus begins the process of reproduction within society, as society consumed and produces norms that have been historically entrenched. However, the presence of these abnormal or dangerous individuals affirms the need for a body to police it.

Foucault notes that the definition of police has changed substantially since the 16th century.82 Foucault’s latest understanding of police refers to the management and regulation of what is desirable and what is not. Policing does not refer simply to organisations occupied by police officers, an example of which might by the London Metropolitan Police (Met). The Met is an institution that is actively involved in policing, but is just one element of the process. Police refers to the state employing tactics such as regulation, suppression, discipline, exclusion etc. to maintain the desired order of things within a given society. As such, the function of police is to maintain optimum productivity within a society by excluding abnormal or dangerous groups and individuals. Foucault states that “what police has to govern, its fundamental object, is all the forms of, let’s say, men’s coexistence with each other.83” The difference between Foucault’s concept of police and Rancière’s concept of police is that Foucault only refers to state apparatus when conceptualizing police, whilst Rancière’s definition is broader. Although Foucault’s definition informs this research, it is Rancière’s concept that is primarily utilize due to its flexibility, which will be explained further in the following theoretical framework.

79 ibid, 34. 80 ibid, xix. 81 Ibid, 73. 82 Foucault, M. “Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-78,” trans. G. Burchell, M. Senellart (ed.), London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, 407-409. 83 Ibid, 420.

26 This research seeks to understand the London grime scene’s internal workings and its interactions with state and society. This research has highlighted why these articulations matter. There are security, democratic, and practical implications of dealing with the London grime scene’s articulations of grievance. Schwartz’s work illuminated the link between the social and the political, and how sites of socialization might affect a group’s ability and desire to be political. Hence, it is relevant for understanding any potential obstacles or catalysts to grime’s articulations. CCCS scholars and postmodern scholars oppose each other’s conceptions of subcultures, subcultural identity and the nature of subcultures concerning entry and exit. Sarah Thornton notes this and this research seeks to reconcile these differences by noting the fixed nature of subcultural identity whilst not attributing too much merit to subcultural ideology. It is more important to understand what subcultures do rather than what they say they do. This understanding of subcultural theory and this research’s position between subcultural theory’s two polarities informs this research’s methodology, hence enabling this project to address both internal interactions within the scene and the scene’s interactions with state and society. Subcultural capital dictates how people behave within a given subculture. The accumulation of subcultural capital is linked to authenticity within a music-based group, the more authentic, the more subcultural capital. However, what is ‘authentic’ can change from group to group. In hip hop, ‘Authenticity’ is attributed to social commentaries with social merit. Hence, drawing on these two concepts might highlight how internal changes in authenticity or the means for accumulating subcultural capital might affect the London grime scene’s external articulations. Ilan, in his previous research, asserts that grime has voluntarily sacrificed political agency to commodification. He claims that commodification acts as the major obstacle to grime’s association with ‘resistance.’ One seeks to test these assertions. If one found that an alternative object is a greater obstacle, this will add to the limited understanding of grime as a social and potentially political entity. Addressing Form 696 is important because it is the newsworthy object by which grime interacts with the state. As such, this research seeked to examine its effect on grime’s interactions with state and society. Foucault and his concepts of police and the ‘abnormal’ effectively link Form 696, an actual practical document, to theory. In addition, it acts as a bridge for which to connect Rancière’s distribution of the sensible to current policing practices in the United Kingdom regarding grime. Hence, all the above literature is interlinked and works in tandem to address the research questions proposed.

27

Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework

The literature review set a foundation upon which one can analyse the London grime scene’s behaviour. This section seeks to illustrate an understanding of theory that has been applied to findings to gain further insights. It links to the above literature as it seeks to understand the London grime scene’s external interactions with state and society, hence highlighting key analytical nodes in the relationship between the scene, state and society. From this, one can further explore grime’s conception as a ‘sub’ culture, which inherently refers to the links between the group, governance of said group, and societal understandings of said group.

The Distribution of the Sensible, Agency, and Structuration Theory

One wished to examine the London grime scenes articulations in a way that compliments how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them. In order to address the research problem at hand, one must understand what takes place inside the scene and how the scene then articulates itself outwardly as a sentient subculture. Following on from Foucault and the policing of the abnormal, this research found French political theorist Rancière to be enlightening when comparing his work to my gathered empirics. Rancière is relevant due to his cultural understandings of inclusion and exclusion and the means for that society to maintain said distribution. With reference to Rancière, the cultural, social, political and behavioral norms of mainstream London society acts as the ‘distribution of the sensible’ that he conceptualizes. This concept is crucial to understanding how grime, as an excluded subculture, interacts with mainstream London culture. In addition, this research utilised the works of Giddens to fully understand how articulations made by the grime scene actively challenged or affirmed current societal structures. One chose Giddens’ structuration theory as it illuminates how political agency can work to alter grime’s socio-economic and socio- political circumstances, which are key themes throughout this research project.

Rancière formulates the concept of the ‘distribution of the sensible’ as “the system of self- evident facts of sense perception that simultaneously discloses the existence of something in

28 common and the delimitations that define the respective parts and positions within it.84” In short, the distribution of the sensible dictates what is acceptable within a given society and what is simply dismissed as ‘noise,’ a murmuring not worth listening to by those who shape society.85 Naturally, ‘distribution’ implies both included and excluded groups and individuals. The distribution of the sensible also includes what can be legitimately challenged, what the means for challenging something are, and what constitutes desirable behavior within a given society.86 Two groups could have similar grievances but could express these grievances and challenge their circumstances in different ways, hence resulting in differing results. The distribution of the sensible dictates the appropriate action for articulating grievances and pursuing political change.87

The distribution of the sensible dictates what is legitimate and ‘heard’ and what is dismissed as “abnormal” and hence not addressed or accounted for.88 This links with Foucault’s conception of the ‘abnormal’ or ‘dangerous’ individual that is excluded from society through legal, cultural or political means. The same exclusions occur from the distribution of the sensible, as those not within the normative view of how a society should be are expelled and excluded.89 What is ‘abnormal’ is called ‘noise’ by Rancière, it does not take the form of legitimate and noteworthy opinion, and hence does not enter the realm of politics and society where alternative solutions to the current structures are assessed.90 The definition of what is ‘heard’ and what is ‘noise’ is constructed by those who construct the distribution of the sensible, those that build and maintain social and institutional structures, and those that normalise specific cultural concepts for the maintenance of their cultural inclusions and exclusions.91 This could be aptly coupled with Albert Cohen’s ‘status frustration’ as groups studied by Cohen felt that delinquency was their primary means of challenging their relative status deprivation.92 Delinquency is defined by governing authorities and their legal institutions and hence can be manipulated. In effect, this means that the grievances of ‘delinquents’ do not have to be addressed as they are simply making noise, not articulating. Grime and crime have

84 Rancière, J. “The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible,” trans. G. Rockhill, London: Continuum, 2004, 12. 85 Rancière, J. 2004. 86 Ibid. 87 Ibid. 88 Ibid, 3. 89 Foucault, M. 2003, 31. 90 Rancière, J. 2004, 13. 91 Ibid, 3. 92 Cohen, A, K. 1955.

29 a connection perceived by governing authorities and society that might maintain the status quo and delegitimise the actions of the London grime scene as they seek to challenge the distribution of the sensible.

Rancière calls a society governed by the distribution of the sensible a ‘police order,’ which refers to “a set of implicit rules and conventions which determine the distribution of roles in a community and the forms of exclusion which operate within it.93” Consequently, actions excluded actors take, be it political or not, can be ignored as noise or dismissed as delinquency by the state.94 Threat, or ‘dangerousness’ is associated with actions of excluded groups and delegitimises their behavior, be it socially merited or not. This dismissal is affirmed by the ability of those that maintain the distribution of the sensible to legally justify the exclusion of these actors as harmful or dangerous to society. This distribution needs maintaining, and those that are excluded need to be kept excluded, which brings up aptly to Rancière’s next concept, police.

Rancière’s conception of police does not solely refer to organization such as the Met Police, with police officers and constables. Instead, Rancière refers to police as the amalgamation of all organisations, institutions and activities that seek to maintain the distribution of the sensible and exclude those that seek to penetrate it. The Met Police is an example of an organization that makes up part of Rancière’s police. Hence, the distribution of the sensible is policed. Police in this instance, is defined as “an organizational system of coordinates that establish a distribution of the sensible or a law that divides the community into groups, social positions, and functions.95” It is a set of objects that seeks to protect the order of what is visible and what is sayable, essentially what is sensible. Police, then, refers to institutions such as democratic elections, legal apparatus, political apparatus, and of course police organisations.

To act outside what is deemed as ‘sensible’ is to be considered abnormal, in Foucauldian terms. Agents of cultural conformity constantly seek to maintain current inclusions and exclusions by managing what is ‘heard’ and what is ‘noise’ within cultural and political spheres. Police seeks

93 Sayers, S. “[Review of the book The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible, by J. Rancière]”. Culture Machine, (n.d.), https://www.culturemachine.net/index.php/cm/rt/printerFriendly/190/171, (last accessed 24 May 2017). 94 Cohen, A, K. 1955. 95 Rancière, J. 2004, 3.

30 to maintain the distribution of the sensible and it’s established exclusions and inclusions in opposition to efforts from the excluded to penetrate said distribution. Rancière’s concept of police is necessary for studying the London grime scene’s articulations because it may be the very entity acting against the scene through stigmatization and dismissal. It could well be then that police are the main obstacle to grime’s ability and desire to articulate grievances, or it could be the object of their articulations. Those excluded from the distribution of the sensible have the agency to attempt to alter the distribution through what Rancière calls politics. This does not refer to involvement in formal or informal political procedures, although that might be an element of politics, instead politics refers to the means of penetrating the distribution of the sensible, the means to move from the realm of noise to the heard, from subjects of policing to subjects of politics. Rancière claims that:

“The essence of politics consists in interrupting the distribution of the sensible by supplementing it with those who have no part in the perceptual coordinates of the community, thereby modifying the very aesthetic-political field of possibility.96”

Rancière asserts that challenging dominant cultural, societal and political norms is the means to bring about social change and to include the excluded.97 To interrupt the distribution of the sensible one must challenge the established order in order to reconfigure the distribution of the sensible. The distribution of the sensible then, is a non-democratic anti-political social order policed by agents of cultural conformity and challenging this is the way to bring about social change and make the excluded included.98 Politics and the social order then, are inherently oppositional.

Rancière’s distribution of the sensible is appropriate for analyzing the grime scene over other theorists who study dominant and subordinate groups for several reasons. It seems more prudent to focus on the distribution of the sensible rather than Gramsci’s cultural hegemony due a lack of a clear dominant group explicitly altering culture and society whilst implementing a legal framework to affirm that culture. Using Gramsci’s framework would require extensive access to agents of cultural hegemony, a dubious expectation. The distribution of the sensible

96 Ibid. 97 ibid. 98 ibid, 64.

31 facilitates the inclusion of societal policing of culture, and instead allows us to focus on the complex myriad of interconnections between grime and society. The incorporation of societal regulations also makes Rancière’s concept of police more useful than Foucault’s in this case, as it is not necessary just the state employing regulatory measures. In addition, Rancière’s focus on ‘aesthetics,’ which he defines as the order of what is visible and sayable, facilitates a discussion concerning which attributes of grime’s identity and behavior are undesirable to those that seek to maintain the distribution of the sensible.99 As such, aesthetics and politics, in Rancière’s opinion, are inextricably linked.100 There is a linguistic link between Ranciere’s aesthetics, and what we consider the aesthetic nature of some subcultures, which refers to how members of subcultures dress, look and act. What we consider aesthetics then, is just a small part of what Rancière’s aesthetics, which is defined by what is visible and sayable, what is desirable and undesirable.101 It has been noted by scholars such as Ilan, Hebdige and Thornton that aesthetics play a crucial role in subcultural affiliation.102 Rancière’s inclusion of aesthetics as a determinant of the othering process facilitates an analysis of grime’s aesthetic nature. This research draws on this link between aesthetics and politics to analyse the London grime scene’s articulations.

Giddens theorises about challenging structures through political, social or cultural agency. This aligns with Rancière’s conception of politics. He first asserts that “to be a human being is to be a purposive agent … purposive action is not composed of an aggregate or series of separate intentions, reasons and motives. Human action occurs as a durée, a continuous flow of conduct, as does cognition.103” With this, he claims that the ability to act, agency, exists in continuity with the past, despite the potential for that action be fresh or new. Every action is relative to actions that have come before it.104 Action that has been normalized and accepted as culture is reproduced through social structures. Giddens claims that a society’s structures dictate the actions of those within a given society.105 However, agency and structure, micro and macro, do not always work oppositionally to each other. Instead, there is a relationship between agency and structure that dictates how people behave.106 He ascertains that “the rules and resources

99 Ibid. 100 ibid. 101 ibid. 102 Ilan, J. 2012, 39-55 ; Thornton, S. 1997 ; Hebdige, D. 1979. 103 Giddens, A. “The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration,” Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1984, 3. 104 Ibid. 105 ibid. 106 ibid, 16.

32 drawn upon in the production and reproduction of social action are at the same time the means of system reproduction (the duality of structure).107” In behaving in alignment with a society’s structures, a person is reaffirming and entrenching those structures, reproducing and strengthening them.108 However, if one was to behave outside what is aligned with structural directions, an individual or group could effectively alter structure.109 By behaving in a different way to what structure attempts to dictate, one can alter those social structures and hence change what structure dictates. I have utilized Giddens in this way as he fundamentally agrees with Rancière that to challenge structure through agency is to change it. However, he adds an additional analytical element in that agency can also reinforce structure. The key point to take from this is that structure affects how a person behaves. However, through agency, a person can either alter or reinforce current structures in place. To alter structure, one must behave in a way contrary to how structures dictate one should act.

In addition to this relationship between agency and structure, Giddens notes that “reflexivity is grounded in the continuous monitoring of action which human beings display and expect others to display.110” Human behaviour, values, norms and identities are policed by societal expectations that are affirmed relative to structure.111 Hence, as well as agents of cultural conformity such as authoritative institutions like the police, society effectively polices itself by excluding those who are deemed to behave outside what is ‘desirable.’ This happens as a result of a normalisation process of the current cultural setting in a society, which results in the abnormal taking place outside of societal dialogues. Like Foucault and Rancière, Giddens recognises that agents of cultural conformity maintain current exclusions and inclusions within a given society. These agents can be agents of authority purposefully attempting to maintain the distribution of the sensible, or unknowing members of society who seek to reproduce desirable behaviour and exclude those that they deem ‘abnormal,’ noisy or ‘dangerous. To conclude, Rancière finds that the distribution of the sensible is a set of social, political and cultural norms that are accepted as desirable within a given society. This distribution defines what can be attested and recognised as legitimate action and what can be dismissed as ‘noise,’ which is not worth the attention of actors that define the distribution of the sensible. Those that are dismissed to the realms of ‘noise,’ are then also objects of policing. In Rancièrian terms,

107 Ibid, 19. 108 Ibid, 17. 109 Gauntlett, D. “Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction,” London: Routledge, 2002, 74. 110 Giddens, A. 1984, 20. 111 Giddens, A. 1984 ; Rancière, J. 2004, 13.

33 policing refers to any actor or action that seeks to maintain the status quo within a given society by excluding alternative actors or actions. This exclusion to the realm of ‘noise’ then justifies the management and regulation, through cultural, political or legal means, of those excluded from the distribution of the sensible. The police that Rancière refers to, who try to maintain the status quo, draws comparisons to Foucault’s notion of police, which seeks to exclude the ‘abnormal’ from a given society in order to maximise societal productivity and remove social deviances. Giddens asserts to the continuous nature of history and how past and future behaviours and events affect current societal structures. He highlights the ‘duality of structure’ which refers to the relationship between structure and agency where neither take primacy. Societal structures affect how a person or group behaves just as a person or group’s behaviour can alter societal structures. This is particularly relevant when assessing when and how the London grime scene articulates grievances because it is through these articulations, this agency, that the London grime scene might seek to alter the structures that exclude them from the distribution of the sensible or reinforce their subordinate status and alter their behaviour and identity. What Rancière calls politics is what Giddens refers to as challenging structure through agency. Both assert that to alter the distribution of the sensible, or structures, the London grime scene must suggest alternative forms of structure or behaviour that includes the scene within mainstream London society. Again, as these efforts to alter structure occur, police work in opposition to maintain the distribution of the sensible, exclude the abnormal, and keep the London grime scene’s behaviours in the realms of policing and out of the realms of legitimate political action.

Chapter Four: Methodology

The above chapters examined the interrelationship between current subcultural understandings and theories regarding politics, policing, society and state. The purpose of this proposed methodology is to extract a data set that illuminates internal interactions within the grime scene in order to understand how any internal changes might affect their articulations. In addition, it seeks to understand the scene’s relationship with state and society in order to attest to any potential obstacles or catalysts to their articulation, as well as shedding light on how to govern said subculture. Hence, this chapter links to the above in that it is the proposed methodology that builds on previous literature, stressing the need for an understanding of both internal and

34 external interactions. In order to obtain the data set I require for analysis, I suggest using the below methods and justify them as such.

Methods

This research utilized a qualitative approach to understandings the grime scene’s articulations, obstacles and catalysts. To approach this specific problem, with its specific spatial, cultural and political boundaries, I chose to complete a discourse analysis and combined it with a set of semi-structured qualitative interviews. Interviews act as a kind of phenomenology, whereby close examination of interviewee experiences facilitates the exploration of meaning as perceived by interviewees.112This is coupled with a careful analysis of language which “can shed light on the creation and maintenance of social norms, the construction of personal and group identities, and the negotiation of social and political interaction.113” Both work in tandem to facilitate the full understanding of the scenes articulations and the events and objects that affect this articulation. I engaged in both practices because I felt they provided a holistic view of the scene from both the inside and outside. From this, I could better understand what affected the grime scene’s ability to articulate grievances. In addition, I could effectively understand how those within the scene perceive themselves whilst paying attention to how this quasi- cultural group is perceived by others within London society. I seek to take a neutral stance when engaging with the scene, in the hope of painting an unbiased picture of its own internal interactions and its interactions with state and society.

The proposed methods were the best fit for addressing this specific research problem of cultural practices as sites of political agency, especially when addressing subcultural agency. This methodology is delicately intertwined to current understandings of subcultural ideology and legitimate political agency. Sarah Thornton emphasized the need to walk a line that balanced CCCS schools of thought and postmodern subcultural theories.114 Briefly, the CCCS school of thought examined subcultures in relation to concepts such as ‘resistance.115’ In contrast, postmodern scholars claimed that societal fragmentation and the fluidity of identity resulted in subcultures having no fixed rhetoric that defined it, and that subcultural rhetoric changed

112 Starks, H. Trinidad, S, B. “Choose Your Method: A Comparison of Phenomenology, Discourse Analysis, and Grounded Theory,” Qualitative Health Research, 17(10), 2007, 1373-1374. 113 Ibid, 1374. 114 Thornton, S. 1997, 202. 115 Dedman, T. 2011, 509.

35 dependent on who that subculture comprised of at a given time.116 Hence, Thornton claims that the CCCS gives too much merit to subcultural ideologies, whilst postmodern scholars do not give enough.117 As such, qualitative interviewing and discourse analysis works to examine between these distinctions in order to give an unbiased view of the grime scene as a subculture. The interviewing process investigates members of the scenes’ perceptions of themselves and their interactions with society and the state. The interviewing process also includes information from those outside the scene, hence facilitating the cross-referencing of the scenes perceptions of itself with society’s perceptions of the scene and their actions. As such, this research walks the line between succumbing to subcultural ideology and not attributing enough social merit to its ideology.

To compliment this, a comprehensive discourse analysis of lyrics from grime music over eleven years allows for the examination of language used and themes mentioned. In addition, this discourse analysis can affirm or challenge any assertions made by interviewees, allowing for a more neutral stance when studying the behavior, identity and interests of the grime scene. This marks a shift away from a quantitative approach in policy-relevant social science research. Instead, I seek to understand meaning attributed to objects and interactions by artists and interviewees. As such, a numerical element of the discourse analysis is combined with constant mention of excerpts that affirm my arguments. When consolidated, these methods allow for the in-depth study of phenomena whilst staying neutral and working with the historical tension in subcultural theory.

Sample

Two thirds of my interviewees were from within the scene. That means that they actively consume, produce and reinforce cultural, social and behavioral norms associated with the scenes identity. They are active in changing or reaffirming existing norms, and are integral in the scene’s interactions with state and society. One third of the interviewees were from outside the scene, people who have an interest in the scene or have interacted with members of the scene both formally and informally. These people perceive the scene as both similar and different to how the scene perceives itself, and as such act as mediating agents that negate a

116 Ibid, 510. 117 Thornton, S. 1997, 201.

36 reliance on subcultural ideology. I have combined inside and outside perspectives of the scene in order to paint a holistic picture of its interactions and norms. However, the emphasis has to be put on the stories told by members of that specific subculture in order to fully understand the extent of their articulation and how they perceive themselves relative to mainstream London culture. The interviewing process works by learning of individual experiences to illuminate internal and external intricacies which might prove vital to addressing the proposed research problem.

I framed myself as an avid listener who is interested in the musical and social presence of those within the grime scene, as well as the arts as a whole. From this, I was able to build friendly relations with those within the scene and those outside it. This facilitated frank and honest discussions about grime and how interviewees perceive the scene and its interactions with state and society. This helped overcome any potential hostility towards intrusive interviews. I attempted to make the transition from outsider to enthusiast so that potential interviewees would be persuaded to converse. I utilized this framing process to gain access and eventually information from interviewees.118 This framing process was crucial to the interviewing process and ultimately stood out as crucial to painting a holistic picture of the scene which was vital to tackling the proposed research problem. The purpose of the quotes and extracts presented in this works is to show how members of the London grime scene and those outside it perceive its actions and determinants of articulation.

In addition to these interviews, I conducted discourse analysis of grime music from 2004-2015. I analysed 4 songs a year, totalling 44 songs. I chose this 11-year period because 2004 marked the year of Wiley’s debut album. Often called the ‘Godfather of grime,’ this initial album acted as a flagship release that is often credited with the continued commercial success of grime music in the early years.119 This album contained singles such as ‘Wot Do U Call It?’, a seminal single discussing the early identity of grime producers and their sound. This album articulated what it meant to be involved in the grime scene at 2004, and was the first expression of ‘grime’ to an outside audience. The next ten years includes key events that affected London specifically. 2008 saw the economic crisis or ‘credit crunch,’ 2011 saw the London Riots and

118 Weiss, R, S. “Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies,” New York: The Free Press, 1994, 65. 119 Hancox, D. “Wiley: The Enigmatic Godfather of Grime,” The Guardian, 24 January 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/24/wiley-godfather-grime, (last accessed 13 March 2017).

37 2012 saw the London Olympics. These events inherently affected inhabitants of London’s identities. Through the discourse analysis and interviewing process, changes in patterns of articulation or objects might affect the ability of the grime scene to articulate grievances. My discourse analysis ran until 2015 so as to include Skepta’s seminal track ‘Shutdown,’ a track which is often associated with grime’s commercial success and its interaction with mainstream culture in London. From these years, I selected 2 ‘mainstream’ grime tracks and 2 ‘underground’ grime tracks. I chose 4 tracks per year to give a holistic view of the whole scene and hence attempt to cover the musical continuum from its most commercially popular tracks to its most heralded underground tracks. Inherently, this distinction between what is mainstream and what is underground is a difficult line to negotiate. I have relied on musicology to define this distinction. The below summary helps to indicate how I identified my sample for my discourse analysis, hence ensuring the validity of my song selection and sampling. This is an aspect of my methodology as it details how I chose the sample for my discourse analysis.

There is a distinction to be made between underground and mainstream grime music. To an extent, this distinction is blurry and fluid. However, there are some key factors which determine whether a track is considered typically mainstream or underground. A distinction must be made on a song-by-song basis, considering the production value of each song, its lyrical content, its ‘message,’ and its popularity with different audiences. I understand one might think the personal element of this distinction might invalidate the data set acquired from this research. However, by operating within the literature associated with this distinction, my judgement on whether a song or artist is mainstream or underground is educated, unbiased and justified.

The compositional structure of hip-hop, with an electronic beat accompanied by a person speaking harmonically, has been compared to that of grime music. In addition, both have similar socio-economic and socio-political associations. Hence, it seems wise to utilize scholarship on the distinction between mainstream and underground hip-hop to construct a similar distinction for grime. White argues that:

“in hip-hop, distinctions are considerably made stark between music that is considered mainstream commercial and seen as having dubious social merit,

38 and that which aspires to some higher moral or socially redemptive purpose.120”

The lyrical content of each individual song has a role in distinguishing whether said song is mainstream or underground.121 In addition, mainstream hip hop artists are associated with major recording labels.122 These major recording labels are associated with songs of a higher production value. In addition, dubious social merit in a song is correlated with the presence of a major recording label as artists are pressured to produce music that is profitable for the masses. Both distinctions hold true when applied to grime music. In the past, the scene has dismissed former grime artists for shifting from the underground to the mainstream, branding them ‘inauthentic.’ For example, Bugzy Malone’s ‘Relegation Riddim’ addresses Chip, a grime artist, for producing music that was not perceived as authentic grime music. Bugzy Malone says:

“I thought you was the grime scene saviour What's with all this funky behaviour? I heard Chip's new EP And it was about as grime as Maverick Sabre.123” … “Don't do pop and then come back And act like it's the Return of the Mack And please don't mention the School of Grime Cause even the beat on that was trap.124”

This association between a lack of authenticity and the ‘mainstream’ or ‘pop’ affirms my distinction between underground and grime being associated with lyrical content, production value and the funding of a recording label. The idea here is that by assimilating into popular

120 White, M. “From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, Rap, and the Performance of Masculinity.” Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2011, 55. 121 Belle, C. “From Jay-Z to Dead Prez: Examining Representations of Black Masculinity in Mainstream Versus Underground Hip-Hop Music,” Journal of Black Studies, 45(4), 2014, 290. 122 Ibid. 123 Bugzy Malone. “Relegation Riddim.” Relegation Riddim. Ill Gotten Records, 2015 ; Maverick Sabre is an English-Irish singer, songwriter, and rapper who is sometimes associated with the grime scene and it’s musicians, despite never acting as the main artist on a grime track. He has produced music with other grime musicians. 124 Ibid.

39 mainstream culture, Chip had betrayed the grime scene and its cultural norms for the chance to acquire finance. The underground and non-commercial element of the grime scene also contributes to the consolidation of identity for those associated with the grime scene. These include the use of slang, references to locale and references to behaviour associated with grime. The grime scene’s national and global discourses also contribute to the formation of local identities in London. A national discourse associated with grime is one of protest.125 These contentions combine to form my own opinion on the categorisation of tracks.126 Hence, I utilised an in-depth knowledge on the music to carefully distinguish between the two ends of the grime continuum. I also noted that my conceptualisation of mainstream and underground changed significantly throughout the development of my discourse analysis. As musicology is not the focal point of my research, this distinction between underground and mainstream is not pivotal to the validity of my work, but an established understanding of the two terms now is beneficial to justify my choice of songs and highlight any potential objects that affect the London grime scenes articulation of grievances.

Process

First I conducted the discourse analysis. I did so before the interviewing process so that I could utilise the information produced by the analysis to inform my questions during interviews. From the discourse analysis, I produced several themes found within the lyrics and ranked each theme in order of number of references to that specific theme. These themes informed my findings a great deal. I categorised these themes into ‘socio-economic’ and ‘socio-political.’ Following this, I utilised the themes to construct four subject topics that I wished to explore in the interviewing process. One explored any changes, growths or reductions found in the scene over the years. The second identified perceptions of the policing of the grime scene. The third involved grime’s interactions with mainstream societal culture. The fourth focused on the sources of dissatisfaction and the means by which the grime scene identified, consolidated and articulated these grievances. I focused on these four subjects as I felt they would facilitate discussions that would uncover useful information regarding the London grime scene, its

125 Solomon, T. 2005, 1-20 ; Harrison, A, K. “‘Cheaper than a CD, Plus we Really Mean it’: Bay Area Underground Hip Hop Tapes as Subcultural Artefacts,” Popular Music, 25(2), 2006, 283-301 ; Jeakins, D. “Viva the Revolution: British Protest Music is Alive and Kicking [web blog],” Huffington Post, 4 April 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/daniel-jeakins/viva-the-revolution-_b_9608672.html, (last accessed 28 February 2017). 126 McLeod, K., 1999, 134-150.

40 articulations, and the objects that affect this articulation. From the data set provided by the interviewing process, I cross-referenced any themes or recurrent objects of interest with the themes provided by the discourse analysis. From this, I took an interpretive stance, allowing myself to neutrally access the available data set.

In addition, this primary data was cross-referenced with secondary sources such as literature, videos, interviews, social media statements and alternative sources of information. I used a variety of sources that I believe represents the sources that both the grime scene and mainstream society are exposed to on a daily basis. The interviewing process was relied on more to illustrate the complex, inter and intra group relations and interactions that take place between the grime scene, policing agents and mainstream London society. The discourse analysis was primarily utilised to identify sources of grievance and themes associated with the articulation of grievance. The discourse analysis also inherently facilitates the study of the development of lyrical articulation over time, which was used to identify any potential patterns, trends or contradictions between the discourse analysis and interviewing process.

My expectations prior to research were that the London grime scene does articulate grievances. I hypothesised that they utilise their lyrical platform in tracks to make these articulations. I hypothesised that commodification of the grime music genre acts as the major obstacle to articulations. I was unaware of any potential catalysts.

Limitations

This methodology is not without its limitations. One of the major drawbacks of the interviewing process was an inability to access personnel associated with the Metropolitan Police, the City of London Police or any local borough council that holds grime events. This lack of desire to engage with research was justified by organizational policy, an obstacle that I could not overcome. However, the focus of my research was not on the legitimacy of the policing of grime events, and as such an inability to access these agents of authority did not hinder my ability to gather valid and reliable data from the interviewing process. It might however, have added an interesting element to my study, allowing me to explore authority’s perceptions of the London grime scene and understand whether these perceptions have changed over time.

41

Another potential limitation of the research process was the unquantifiable nature of the distinction between underground and mainstream. This changing distinction affected which sample was selected for my discourse analysis and as such affected the data set produced. However, as is the nature of interpretive research, I attempted to work within the confines of musicological distinctions as stringently as possible. In addition, as this is a social science project and not musicological, the distinction did not play a vital role in my interpretation the data set produced and hence did not invalidate or limit my study. Geographical and local cultural context affected the articulations and as such it would be difficult to extrapolate these results onto any other music-based subcultures. Instead, this study could be easily replicated on a case-by-case basis in order to fully understand the nature of subcultural interactions with state and society and cultural practices as sites of politics. I was surprised by the willingness of interviewees to engage with me, despite forewarning of the closed nature of subcultures.

To conclude, London was chosen as a case due to the organic development of the scene over time and the larger number of interactions between the grime scene, state and society than other cities in Britain. I used a qualitative approach that combines a discourse analysis with semi- structured interviews. However, there are elements of quantitative analysis as themes were given greater weight if they recur more within the discourse analysis. This is in order to consolidate a holistic approach to understanding both the internal and external interactions the scene has, as aligned with my reconciliation between CCCS and postmodern subcultural scholars. My sample of songs and interviewees furthers this holistic approach, which essentially combines theory and practice for studying subcultures. Again, with this holistic theme in mind, I have sought to study both underground and mainstream tracks in order to assess the differences each might have on grime’s articulations, and to provide a holistic picture of the genre. Accessing police or governmental personnel might have provided a greater insight into the interactions between grime and governance. In addition, it might have helped explore the stigmatization of grime and its definition as a subculture. Despite this, a reconfiguring of the research issue meant that the focus was not on state interpretations of the London grime scene so this does not detract from the validity of the ensuing results.

42 Chapter Five: Findings

The previous chapters have expedited an understanding of current literature regarding subcultures, policing, society and government. All of this is necessary to extract unique insights from the following results. In addition, each section is a necessary platform upon which these findings build, furthering an understanding of subcultures, grime, politics, police, government and society. The purpose of my research was to examine whether the London grime scene articulated grievances. In addition, I hoped to study what form these articulations took and through what mediums of interaction. Finally, I hoped to uncover any potential obstacles to articulation in a scene of people that share similar disadvantaged and disenfranchised backgrounds. When coupled and cross-referenced with the works of Foucault, Rancière, Giddens and subcultural theorists, there are some interesting and illuminating insights to be drawn that have both practical and theoretical implications.

Primarily, I found that the London grime scene articulates grievances concerning poverty, segregation, violence, drugs, racial and aesthetic profiling, societal disregard, and the harsh policing of the scene’s events. These can be aptly categorised into socio-economic grievances and socio-political grievances. The means for addressing these grievances do not differ. These two categories of themes transcend this research and should be used as analytical nodes for further research into the grime scene. I suggest using these grievances as the basis for potential policy dealing with the grievances of the demographic associated with the London grime scene. Furthermore, I found that the London grime scene employs lyrical content, social media platforms, protest and formal political engagement to articulate these grievances. This is a wide repertoire of action that is not being accounted for by those seeking to identify the grievances of this specific demographic. Therefore, greater attention must be paid to alternative means of articulating grievances, such as social media platforms, in order to develop Britain’s conception of democracy in alignment with civic and technological advancements. There are two catalysts to grime’s articulations. The first and greatest is the transition into the digital age and the prominence of social media. Primarily, social media acts as a platform for artists to market themselves. This leads to less reliance on major record label’s support, who have been known to force artists to dilute their lyrical content in order to be commercially accessible. In addition, grime artists and respected members of the scene have a huge social media following and their articulations via social media influence millions. As such, social media acts as a constant digital

43 bridge between the London grime scene and it’s followers. In addition, an internal shift in the means for accumulating subcultural capital has facilitated grime’s articulations. The link between crime and grime used to be celebrated and glorified, and those that did so accumulated subcultural capital. Now, a shift has taken place where subcultural capital is accumulated by those who make astute social commentaries on their socio-economic and socio-political circumstances. Subcultural capital is now associated with ‘being real’ rather than ‘being bad,’ which affects the lyrical content of artists and makes those associate with the grime scene reconsider the purpose of their subcultural association, towards a more political motivation. This shows how internal changes in subcultures can affect how they articulate themselves to the outside world, an understudied notion in political science. Finally, it is the policing of grime that acts as the main obstacle to grime’s articulations, not commodification. This is contrary to Ilan’s assertions, and indicates the need for a reassessment of how subcultures are dealt with over time by those concerned with security.

Does the London Grime Scene Articulate Grievances?

“Grime ‘has a message of freedom: that one can transcend narrowing horizons by subverting the power of prejudice’.”127

Having conducted numerous interviews and analysed seminal grime tracks for a period of 11 years, this research states that grime music often articulates grievance. Themes of poverty, segregation, violence, drugs, racial and aesthetic profiling, societal disregard, and the harsh policing of the scene’s events are present throughout the lyrics. In the 44 songs studied, there were 35 references to poverty. In addition, the scene identifies poor governance as the source of their impoverished nature, blaming them for the socio-economic circumstances that those that identify with the grime scene find themselves in. Devlin’s commentary on poverty and governance evidently articulates grievance. He raps:

“I represent for the homeless, let down by a nation, more interested in war and invasion, when children are sleeping at railway stations.128”

127 The Guardian. “The Guardian View on Grime Music: Sound of Protest,” The Guardian, 2 January 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/02/the-guardian-view-on-grime-music-sound- of-protest, (last accessed 4 May 2017). 128 Devlin. “Community Outcast.” Bud, Sweat and Beers. Island Records, 2010.

44

This specific reference lays blame at the feet of governmental institutions, who prioritise alternative avenues of expenditure rather than accommodating for those in London who need financial relief. This lyric is adequately affirmed by Daniel Woolf, an interviewee who claimed “guns or butter, which translates down to the individual economic unit, the person themselves … You're a country, military spending or consumer spending.129” The scene articulates that government expenditure could best be designated to address some of the problems associated with poverty in inner-city areas of London. This sentiment was mirrored during the response to the Grenfell Tower Fire.130 Through both lyrics and interviews this theme is prevalent.

Another key grievance that the scene articulates through the means of lyrics is one of segregation, as designed by authorities. 15 references to segregation were found during my discourse analysis. The scene identifies the segregated nature of their existence relative to the rest of east London, both geographically and socio-economically. Primarily, interviewees identify poor inner-city areas as being the grime ‘zone,’ with specific reference being made to the Bow E3 area and its similar counterparts in north, east and south London. The scene articulates that this segregation was engineered by governmental institutions over the years, hence potentially exacerbating any socio-economic or socio-political circumstances that these grime scene identifiers are born in to. Akala eloquently raps:

“Add to that, that the hood that you’re livin’, engineered social condition that breeds crime by design.131”

Grime makes the claim that the segregation of poor inner-city communities into housing estates around London is the reason for criminal associations with the area. Impoverished communities who are separated from mainstream London society inherently breed more crime due to a lack of legitimate alternative opportunity. This is coupled with the fact that these estates are often

129 Woolf, D. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 23 April 2017. 130 O’Connor, R. “Akala on the Grenfell Tower Fire: ‘These people died because they were poor’”, The Independent, 15 June 2017, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/akala- grenfell-tower-fire-people-died-poor-london-rapper-block-flats-deaths-kensington-a7790906.html, (last accessed 16 June 2017). 131 Akala. “Fire in the Booth, Pt..1” 10 Years of Akala. Illa State Records, 2016.

45 referred to as part of the “jungle,” referring to the hostile and undeveloped nature of London’s inner-city areas that are commonly associated with the thriving grime scene.132

Of the 44 songs analysed there were 133 references to violence. In addition, 39 references were made to the use and distribution of drugs. The distinction however must be made between those references that are glorifying violence and drugs and those that are articulating grievances concerning physical violence and drugs. Insights from an LBC interview with grime artist Stormzy can shed light on this issue. Stormzy responded to being accused of glorifying knife crime by featuring a convicted murderer in his music, to which he responded “LBC’s tryna’ black ball me and tryna’ blame your boy for knife crime (like what?) I don’t use a shank, I got money in the bank” in the first track to his seminal album released this year.133 Upon being invited to explain his opposition to the assertion that he glorifies crime in his music he claimed “It’s clear that he’s very misinformed, he’s probably just had one glance at grime, … he’s looked at it on the surface, listened to one song, just watched one set and he’s made his mind up. The reason why we speak about these things [violence and drugs] is because these are things that go on in our community, so we’re just being social commentators.134” My own primary research gathered the same self-identification of grime artists as social commentators. Cally, a grime MC, claims “you just learn a little bit about that person or what he's talking about from his music. That's what it's all about, learning about each other through the music. Seeing what kind of story they have, and it's entirely up to you if you want to hear more of the story.135” Grime music is perceived by artists to be a vehicle of self-expression and an articulation of any socio-economic or socio-political circumstances artists find themselves in. Every artist I spoke to perceived their music as a form of storytelling, using one’s own experiences as a point of reference. Hence, the inclusion of references to violence and drugs should, in grime artists’ opinions, be understood as critical reflections on personal circumstance and hence as an articulation of their own grievance. However, as Sarah Thornton asserts, one must not give too much weight to a subcultures ideology, and a researcher must refer to audience opinion on whether grime’s lyrical content is a celebration or condemnation of personal experience.136 As such, I must refer to outside opinion on whether grime’s inclusion

132 AR15 ft. Sqeeks, Sneakbo, Dubz, Stormzy & Mr Bigz. “Out in the Jungle.” AR15 – Concrete Jungle. Alwayz Recordings, 2015. 133 Stormzy. “First Things First.” Gang Signs & Prayers. #Merky Records, 2017. 134 Omari, M. “Stormzy v Shelagh Fogarty,” LBC, 1 March 2017. 135 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017. 136 Thornton, S. 1997, 201.

46 of these messages is celebrating violence or articulating grievance concerning violence. Chris Sharp, who works at the Barbican Centre, claimed:

“The reason I am interested in it is because it seems to me to be a really genuine flowering of a British form of music which … is really rooted in contemporary urban experience here. I think that it's incredibly inspiring that people have found ways to be really creative with their often-challenging urban experience, not universally, but some have had tricky times. And for me anything that channels those experiences into a creative expression rather than another form of expression which might be less socially valuable, is to be applauded and celebrated.137”

As someone who listens to grime and knows people associated with grime. but has no active role in the internal production and reproduction of the scenes norms, Chris still perceives lyrical content to be vivid and expressive as a form of storytelling, of dispersing information regarding the socio-economic and socio-political circumstances of the scene to spread a message. Again, this reaffirms Callys’ assertion that lyrical content is, for the most part, about learning from each other and understanding the artist and their stories. Hence, references to violence and drugs in music can be aptly realised as an articulation of grievance.

Grime as a scene has managed to bridge racial boundaries in a way that punk was never able or willing to do. This is confirmed in both lyrical content and interviewees impressions of the scene as a multi-racial entity. Squeeks asserts to this multi-racial demographic by rapping “Half of my niggas are white, look like them bruddas from TOWIE.138” This reflects the makeup of the scene as a multi-racial community that is divided from the mainstream society through issues of class and experience rather than race. Again, this diversity is affirmed by Mr Myki who claimed “It's not just a black thing, if you live in London and are going through the things we go through, you'll be infused with the culture.139” This statement is reinforced several times by interviewees who stated things like “I think that's why grime music was shunned at one point because they didn't want black and white people from the ghetto to come through and share their message to the world,” and “People were just doing their thing, we weren't just

137 Sharp, C. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 19 April 2017. 138 AR15 ft. Sqeeks, Sneakbo, Dubz, Stormzy & Mr Bigz. 2015. 139 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017.

47 black, I don't think it identified as a black movement but it was a group of working class people.140” When asked who grime belonged to, Mr Myki claimed “I say council estates but not only, its branched out from council estates now. At one point it was strictly council estate type music, the fan base was people in them estates… Before you'd see loads of black people, there'd be white people but they'd be from the manor, white people from the estates. Now yeah, if you go and look at any Eskimo crowd now, there's loads of middle class white people...” This affirms the diversity of those who currently actively associate with grime and those that are exposed to it out of choice.141

Despite these findings, the grime scene articulates grievances about how those who associate with the scene are racially and aesthetically profiled. Mr Myki produced a verse claiming, “I come to my ends see bare things happening, good energies keep channelling, feds stop calling man Gs’, fight the police, come to my streets to harass black man again.142" This lyric is indicative of a wider belief within the grime scene that those who socialise in the estate areas associated with grime are profiled racially and aesthetically. Mr Myki continued to say, “It's not just the black guys, they just come to my ends and harass all the young guys there, black or white.143” This perceived subjugation is linked by the scene to a lack of understanding of the aesthetic of grime, and the nature of the music when performed. Even more famous members of the grime scene, such as Skepta, articulate concern with the way they are perceived by authority. In his track ‘Man,’ he raps “Out there tryna survive on the streets, tryin’ not to get killed by the police.144” This asserts that he is targeted in his locale, but cannot identify why. In addition, the grime scene finds that mainstream London cultural links the aesthetic, speech and attitude that is commonly associated with the scene to antisocial behaviour and an inability to operate within mainstream cultural and political spheres. Jabz claims:

“I feel a lot of people would be shunned, they'd say 'look at that little prick wearing a tracksuit, he don't know nothing about politics or life.' They won't have the same influence as a man in a suit. If Sadiq Khan came out and said grime was sick people would pay attention.145”

140 Ibid ; Cee, S. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 11 April 2017. 141 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017. 142 Ibid. 143 ibid. 144 Skepta. “Man.” Konnichiwa. Boy Better Know, 2016. 145 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017.

48

Hence, although grime has diversified racially and aesthetically since its inception, old stigma linking crime to antisocial behaviour and an inability to contribute to mainstream cultural and political spheres still results in the profiling and regulating of the grime scene. The scene articulates grievance associated with this profiling and policing.

Another theme that is prevalent is grime’s perceived disconnect from mainstream London culture, which results in societal shunning and disenfranchisement. Primarily, grime perceives itself to be outside mainstream culture in London. Skeptas seminal work ‘Shutdown’ includes a skit of a woman responding to his performance at the 2015 Brit Awards, during which Skepta and Boy Better Know danced around with rapper Kanye West. The woman in the skit, which was a direct response to this performance, says “A bunch of young men all dressed in black dancing extremely aggressively on stage, it made me feel so intimidated and it's just not what I expect to see on prime-time TV.146” The inclusion of this skit is evident of a self-identification of grime artists as outside of mainstream culture. Skepta and other artists understand themselves as part of a subculture that is constantly judged and suppressed by authority and society.

Novelist is explicit in his exclamation of disenfranchisement as he raps “They don’t give a damn about the mandem, Who’s criminals? Us or them” which is juxtaposed with a sample of David Cameron saying “Keeping people safe is the first duty of government.147” Cally argues that exclusion from mainstream culture results from a lack of understanding, he asserts “They don’t understand the culture, they don’t understand what comes from it and they don’t understand why we make this music. The media don’t help.148” Again, he finds that this lack of understanding also results in the suppression and management of the grime scene, he says “I think that's another thing that gives the police trouble, they don't understand our lingo. They think everything is fierce. I can go and make a happy song, just go in and spit bars but the police will be like, ah he's talking about killing someone.149” Both interviewees and lyrics illustrated the self-perception of the scene being outside mainstream culture, and the ensuing wrongful treatment of the scene as a result of a lack of understanding.

146 Skepta. “Shutdown.” Konnichiwa. Boy Better Know, 2016. 147 Novelist. “Street Politician.” XL Recordings, 2016. 148 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017. 149 Ibid.

49

The policing of the scenes events was the most common grievance found during the interviewing process. It was mentioned by every interviewee who had contact with the police whilst being involved in the inception of a grime event. The scene articulates grievances concerning the discriminatory policing of grime events, with these events being associated with gangs, violence and crime unfairly. Primarily, interviewees cited a transition in the behaviour and demographic of the crowds attending grime events from the early 2000s to now.

However, they claim that this transition away from criminal affiliation has not been recognised by the Metropolitan and City of London Police. Steven Cee asserts to this transition, he claimed “before … it would attract the wrong crowd … The wrong crowd is people who come to grime stuff for the wrong reasons, they come not just to have a good time but to cause trouble. We had those sort of people in the club back in the day. Now it's completely clean, those sorts of people don't even bother coming to Eskimo anymore, it's not cool for them.150” He now finds that “Grime had come full circle, it was a completely new generation of ravers and it was a new crowd, it was no longer a problem except that the stigma of the past meant that the clubs, councils and local authorities thought it was a problem.151” This transition was mentioned during interviewing numerous times. Despite this transition, the scene is being policed as if it’s events are still riddled with violence and crime. This stigma is difficult to overcome. Steven asserts to this difficulty when he says “It's really hard to get rid of it because someone who is old and has had interactions with grime 15 years ago is very stuck in their opinion.152” This mismanagement of the London grime scene affecting people’s abilities to socialise, perform and interact with each other within the spatial boundaries of a given venue. One interviewee said:

“They will turn up at an event. They don't even have to be marching people around, their presence of just being there scares people away from coming, so they don't turn up. … Some people are like 'Oh I wanna come but it'll definitely get locked off,' and some people are scared of going to an event and it getting locked off.153”

150 Cee, S. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 11 April 2017. 151 Ibid. 152 ibid. 153 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017.

50

In addition, it seems that grime’s actual association crime has substantially dropped. Chris Sharp, who was approached by the COLP regarding Just Jam, a grime event to be held at the Barbican, claimed “We did the event in September and it passed off without a hitch. It was loads of fun, a lot of people came, we had a great time, end of story. In the end, it was about as uncontroversial and as untense an evening as I can remember. I just remember it being fun.154” This separation of the grime scene from criminality and delinquency was mentioned several times during the interview process, and my discourse analysis found that there were 80 condemnations of ‘badness’ as a concept, which again provides evidence of a shift for the grime scene away from its real associations with crime. In fact, condemnation of violence and ‘badness’ ranked as the second most common theme throughout the grime music studied. Despite this transition, grime is being policed in a similar manor to before and hence the scene is articulating grievances concerning this mismanagement of the scenes events.

Grievances were also articulated by interviewees regarding what they perceived as institutionally racist policing of the scene’s events. Grime claims that form 696, a police risk assessment form, targets ‘urban’ events that are commonly associated with a black working class crowd. Urban, Steven claims, is an event that is ‘predominantly black’ and associated with African-Caribbean musical and cultural troupes.155 He continues:

“The reason it's why it is, I think the Met has a system in place which is racist, there's no two ways about it. If you've got a rock band that has a show down the road, I know for a fact that some venues don't even submit a 696 form. I believe it was brought in to shut down the urban events or to control the urban events in a legal manner. Before they were just turning up on the door and shutting down these parties. Now the 696 is seen as a justified way to do it.156”

Chris asserts to this targeting as he found that he was asked to complete a form 696 for his Just Jam event.157 Prior to that, he had never had to complete a form 696 form, despite curating

154 Sharp, C. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 19 April 2017. 155 Cee, S. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 11 April 2017. 156 Ibid. 157 Sharp, C. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 19 April 2017.

51 thousands of events at the Barbican Centre. He found that “They clearly have an issue with events that involve DJs, MCs, electronic music, beats, all of those things.158” When asked if he felt the police were institutionally racist, he added “The thing is, that might just be it. The police are squares. You don’t join the police force if you’re interested in the management of musical forms and subcultural expression, you join the police to manage threat.159” This targeting of ‘urban’ events by the police is another thing that the grime scene articulates grievances about.

Overall then, these themes can be categorised into socio-economic and socio-political concerns. These two categories should be utilised by any researcher seeking to advance politically relevant research into the way to solve the concerns of the demographic associated with the London grime scene. Those seeking to represent this demographic must also look to these categories. Hence, this research has political utility with regards to appealing to voters. Furthermore, addressing any number of these grievances might go a long way to alleviating any of the security concerns associated with the specific demographic of people that associate with the London grime scene. Cohen’s assertions that delinquency, for some, is a means of rebelling against socio-economic and socio-political circumstances have relevance here.160 By addressing these circumstances, one might alleviate the delinquent associations between grime and crime, hence facilitating a fall in criminal activity.

By What Means Do They Articulate Grievances?

The first and most obvious form of articulation is within the lyrics of tracks produced by artists in the grime scene. In the 44 songs examined in my analysis there were 354 articulations of grievance concerning the 7 prominent themes. Lyrics such as “vermin are stressing, I yearn for aggression, burn like a Wesson, I'm serving attention, purging this urban depression” highlight the potency of grime’s lyrical content and its ability to draw inspiration from personal or shared experience and commenting on the injustices of artists’ lives.161 Akala, an artist known for his political acuteness, raps “No cover, it’s all about getting poor people to fight with one another, so it’s logical that us killing our brothers, dissing our mothers, is right in line with the dominant philosophy of our time.162” Additionally, artists such as Stormzy use their live performances

158 Ibid. 159 ibid. 160 Cohen, A, K. 1955. 161 AR15 ft. Sqeeks, Sneakbo, Dubz, Stormzy & Mr Bigz. 2015. 162 Akala. “Fire in the Booth, Pt..1” 10 Years of Akala, Illa State Records, 2016.

52 to spread particular messages. Glastonbury 2017 saw Stormzy articulate concern about government misinformation concerning the Grenfell Tower fire. This, when coupled with lyrical content, is a sophisticated method for reaching people and enlightening them on grime’s concerns. These commentaries are articulate and precise, commenting on a range of issues from violence to engineered social conditions. It is evident that grievances are articulated throughout grime music. However, in a digital age this might not be the main means of articulation.

Those associated with the grime scene also utilise their digital platforms to articulate grievances. Mr Myki claimed “I think the music is like 10 percent. Because of the age we live in, the internet, social media, video access, we can reach so many people.163” The use of social media and other internet platforms to spread messages and articulate grievances is well founded. Grime artists have commented on a variety of issues using social media, from Stormzy’s acclamation of “My man Jeremy Corbyn! I dig what he says,” to Akala’s commentaries on human rights, colonialism, the failures of neoliberalism and the ineffectiveness of government.164 The production of videos supporting political candidates, such as JME’s support of Jeremy Corbyn, is indicative of the wide repertoire of formats that these artists can use as tools for articulation via social media.165 The power of social media as an unmediated means of access to the public means artists can essentially input whatever they see fit. In addition, references can be made to their social media activity in lyrics, creating a cycle of information dispersal. A prime example of this connectivity between the two means can be found in Stormzy’s track ‘Hear Dis’ where he raps “They said I can't tweet 'bout the government, Why can't I be free anymore? I'll expose these racist clubs and feds, who can't mute me anymore.166”

Grime artists expertise lies in a command of social media platforms which they use as their own marketing tools, but in addition they use this platform to spread a desired message.167 Social media is an innate technology that has been used by these young people for many years

163 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017. 164 Wolfson, S. “Stormzy: ‘My man Jeremy Corbyn! I dig what he says’,” The Guardian, 21 May 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/21/stormzy-grime-skepta-kanye-drake, (last accessed 2 June 2017) ; O’Connor, R. 15 June 2017. 165 When JME Met Jeremy Corbyn [online video], 18 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A- rxp_QwjmQ, (last accessed 2 June 2017). 166 Chip ft. Stormzy. “Hear Dis.” Hear Dis. Cash Motto, 2016. 167 Lewis, B. “How Grime Artists Have Become the New Kingpins of Social Media,” 1 May 2015, http://bespokemag.co.uk/how-grime-artists-have-become-the-new-kingpins-of-social-media/, (last accessed 4 May 2017).

53 and they are adept in their command of their own platform. As such, the grime scene utilises its huge social media outreach and expert command of said platform to articulate grievances.

In addition, those within the grime scene have begun to challenge their own socio-economic and socio-political circumstances and articulate grievances through formal political avenues. This, when coupled with lyrics and a social media platform, makes grime a potent source of articulation. Steven Cee said:

“I went to the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sports a month ago to help get this form scrapped. As far as I'm aware, our Mayor didn't even know this form existed and you've got misinformation like that … these artists really have the power, some of their social media reach is crazy, once this becomes a public issue the Met are going to be forced into a stance of having to answer questions.168”

The grime scene is beginning to couple formal political engagement with their lyrical content and social media platforms. However, there is still a tension existing between a desire to articulate grievances through political avenues and the perception that those who associate with the grime scene do not belong in formal political arenas. This uncertainty is illustrated by one interviewee who declared “A lot of people involved in grime or from the estates just don't feel like it's their place to be involved in formal politics. A lot of people feel like they won't be listened to or respected in the same way as other people. Operating a political message through social media and music, just because it's not formalised doesn't mean it's not worth paying attention to.169” Grime understands its own potency using lyrics and social media to reach a group of fans or listeners. However, cultural constraints still bar them from properly engaging in formal political arenas. Despite this, some incipient action can be found, like in the actions of Steven Cee, whereby grime is starting to penetrate and engage in spheres of politics that were formerly desolate of subcultural influence.

Finally, grime’s association with protest is well founded. In addition, those within the grime scene have utilised protests on occasion to illustrate their grievance concerning issues such as

168 Cee, S. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 11 April 2017. 169 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017.

54 the mismanagement of grime events. Chris Sharp recalls a protest by grime enthusiasts in response to the shutting down of Just Jam in 2014, he observed “There was a protest a week or so later, over there outside the church, there was an impromptu gathering of not that many people, but you know 100 or so people who turned up to express themselves about it.170” This highlights grime’s ability to engage in informal politics in order to articulate grievance.

In addition, grime music has been called the “sound of protest” for its involvement in austerity marches, university fee marches and Black Lives Matter UK protests.171 This connection between protest and grime affirms grime’s ability to indirectly affect grievance articulation, making it a passively active agent of politics. Grime artists actively celebrate the scene’s relationship with political protest, and performed at art exhibitions such as ‘A World to Win,’ an exhibition held at the William Morris Gallery.172 This, when combined with the fact that grime enthusiasts engage in protests regarding grime-specific grievances, denotes the interaction between the grime scene and protest in London.

The London grime scene has actively sought to alter structures through agency. Much like Giddens assertions about neither structure or agency taking primacy, the London grime scene actively alters structures in some ways whilst conforming and reaffirming structure in others, hence highlighting the ‘duality of structure’ that Giddens theorises.173 Societal structures and our British understanding of what constitutes ‘politics’ and ‘democracy’ assert that politics is to engaged with via formal and informal procedures that are socially accepted, such as through voting or mass protest. However, the London grime scene, through its alternative means of articulating grievances, has effectively challenged the generally accepted way of engaging in politics or social change.

By articulating grievances via social media and in the form of lyrics, the London grime scene has highlighted a democratic deficiency. Mainstream political procedures and practices do not facilitate involvement from those who associate with, or are influenced by the London grime

170 Sharp, C. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 19 April 2017. 171 The Guardian. 2 January 2017. 172 Abdallah, R. “Grime Artists to Celebrate Movement’s Relationship with Political Protest at Exhibition in William Morris Gallery,” 23 November 2016, http://www.yellowad.co.uk/article.cfm?id=120942&headline=Grime%20artists%20to%20celebrate%20m ovement%27s%20relationship%20with%20political%20protest%20at%20exhibition%20in%20William%20 Morris%20Gallery§ionIs=news&searchyear=2016, (last accessed 4 May 2017). 173 Giddens, A. 1984, 19.

55 scene. By using alternative modes of political engagement and by engaging others through these mediums, the grime scene actively challenges structures by using themselves as examples of people who are engaging with politics though different means. They have actively altered the structures that previously inhibited their engagement in London politics and culture and have set an example for those to follow. This research is not predictive and does not seek to extrapolate its data set. However, subcultures or those who are prone to non-engagement with formal and informal political practices have utilized these news channels of engagement to articulate grievances and compete claims made by rivalling parties. Altering structure through agency in such a way aligns with Giddens’ structuration theory and asserts to the ability for groups, even those discriminated against, to actively alter elements of their socio-economic and socio-political circumstances. This, however, does not come without a cost.

Whilst transforming some structures that work to dictate action, action is also dictated by structures to a certain degree. Whilst challenging the socially accepted means by which to engage in politics, the London grime scene has surrendered some of its uniqueness with regards to its aesthetic and common language. Primarily, this research asserts that there has been pushes within the grime scene to partially conform linguistically. The London grime scene has chosen to professionalise in a way that dilutes the slang terms commonly used in the areas associated with grime in order to articulate messages more clearly to a wider public audience. This is evident in Cally’s assertions that “it's up to the artists to start being a bit more professional with their work. How they're perceived in interviews, on TV, speak a little bit better, I'm not saying adapt your whole self but we need to learn.174” This statement is indicative of the grime scene realising the need to partially conform to societal standards to penetrate the mainstream and assert their own subcultural practices in other areas of life. By not using London-based slang terms associated with grime, the scene is actively altering public perceptions of the scene, hence addressing their socio-political concerns. However, this change might also hinder the maintenance of a London-based grime identity in the coming years. The ability to balance between engaging a wider audience and staying authentic within the grime scene is a difficult task to manage, a contest that should be observed in the coming years and a balancing act that might indicate the need for subcultures to partially conform in order to retain an identity whilst transforming from subordinate to involved.

174 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017.

56 In addition to language, grime’s aesthetic has changed significantly over the years, facilitating engagement with the public and a wider audience whilst surrendering elements of what makes grime ‘grime.’ Diversification of aesthetic and language is a catalyst to grime’s articulations that is minor to the listed catalysts, but still affects societal perceptions of the scene. The scene claims that this transition to diversity in aesthetics is due to a desire to be taken seriously, to be heard rather than dismissed. Jabz claimed “I feel a lot of people would be shunned, they'd say 'look at that little prick wearing a tracksuit, he don't know nothing about politics or life,” when asked about why members of the grime scene don’t actively engage in formal politics.175 He continued to say “A lot of artists these days don't dress in what people call 'the grime uniform,' The tracksuit and stuff.176” The two assertions clearly link. This is affirmed by Mr Myki’s assertions that “I've seen a kind of Shoreditch grime look recently which is mad old vintage stuff, kicking it like the 90s ravers used to which is sick … Before people might just be in big tracksuits which might have been quite intimidating.177” The scene understands that the typical aesthetic associated with grime over the years has garnered a reputation, possibly one associated with violence and crime in the same way that the grime scene 15 years ago used to be associated with such delinquencies. A diversification of aesthetic facilitates grime’s involvement in mainstream cultural, societal and political spheres as it bridges the aesthetic gap between what is seen and unseen, in Rancièrian terms.178 Again, this facilitates involvement and mainstream penetration whilst potentially diluting identity in the future. A move away from reliance on aesthetics to differentiate between grime and mainstream society for those that associate with the grime scene might facilitate a deeper, more intimate association with the scenes group identity with regards to class, locale or worldview. Only time will tell how this development occurs in the future, this is an intricate and interesting puzzle to observe in the future.

This highlights the duality of structure. In some instances, the London grime scene can be seen actively altering structures through agency to transform accepted sites of politics in London. In contrast, conforming linguistically and aesthetically to a certain degree is evidence of the London grime scene reaffirming structures associating with aesthetics and language. Even a very oppositional subculture like the London grime scene has had to adhere to public standards

175 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017. 176 Ibid. 177 ibid. 178 Rancière, J. 2004, 13.

57 dress and speech to legitimise themselves as political, cultural and social actors. This again aligns with Giddens’ assertions about how, through agency, actors can both challenge and reinforce structure. 179 Here, we can see a prioritisation process occurring. Whilst attempting to address their own grievances of political disengagement, societal shunning and aesthetic profiling, the London grime scene has sacrificed or diluted elements of its own aesthetic identity. Whether these actions were agreed on within the grime scene is irrelevant as socio- economic, socio-political circumstances and shared experience consolidated potential actions and pushed the grime scene to attempt to address some of their socio-economic and socio- political concerns regarding their status as a subculture.

I think it wise to draw from literature concerning negotiations and conflict resolution to outline the decision-making process of the scene. The London grime scene could be perceived to be involved in an interest-based negotiation with mainstream London society.180 This is a type of negotiation centred on interests.181 The London grime scene has three primary interests. The first is to be able to alter their current socio-economic circumstances. The second is to be culturally accepted and to be able to contribute to mainstream cultural, societal and political discourses, essentially altering their socio-political circumstances. The third is to retain elements of the grime identity that they attribute meaning to. In order to address two of these interests, be it challenging their socio-economic and socio-political circumstances, the grime scene has worked towards sacrificing elements of their aesthetic identity in order to facilitate objective completion. This prioritisation might be further explored using prioritisation matrices or using an organisational business model to assess relative gains and losses from these decisions. Alternatively, one could employ Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’, despite being fairly unused in recent psychological scholarship, to highlight how the London grime scene has prioritised an interest in changing socio-economic and socio-political circumstances over group identity.182 This research does not seek to evaluate the usefulness of this prioritisation, it just seeks to highlight its existence. As suggested by Fisher and Ury, the London grime scene has surrendered something of relatively little worth that is valued by mainstream society in order to obtain access to political and cultural institutions in order to alter their socio-economic

179 Giddens, A. 1984, 1-28. 180 Maiese, M. “Interests, Positions, Needs, and Values,” Beyond Intractability, (eds.) G. Burgess & H. Burgess, Last updated April 2017, http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/interests, (last accessed 30 May 2017). 181 Ibid. 182 Maslow, A, H. “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological Review, 50(4), 1943, 430-437.

58 and socio-political circumstances.183 They sacrificed elements of their aesthetic in order to address other interests. The aesthetic of grime is something that is considered outside mainstream cultural aesthetics, in Rancierian terms, and hence was sacrificed to alter structures through alternative means and work towards two of the grime scene’s three main objectives.184 This self-versus-other dichotomy found in these negotiations is something that Rancière seeks to address in his works.185

How does this project’s findings interact with Rancière’s distribution of the sensible and the concept of being heard and unheard, of being seen and unseen? Primarily, the London grime scene and observers of the London grime scene perceive the scene to be actively challenging the distribution of the sensible by articulating alternative views and practices that currently lay outside the distribution of the sensible.186 Rancière claims that “disagreement is … a conflict between a given distribution of the sensible and what remains outside it.187” This research doesn’t assert that digital media is ignored by society today. However, it is to say that the potential societal merit that could be attained by paying closer attention to political articulations via social media and lyrical formats is currently being underplayed. Currently, the intertwinement between lyrical content, social media platforms, and politics is not accounted for in mainstream political practices as agents of cultural conformity seek to maintain current accepted practices of engaging in politics in order to simultaneously maintain the distribution of the sensible. Again, this research does not seek to assess why some practices are undervalued whilst other, potentially stagnant forms of political procedure are promoted. To speculate, it may be due to archaic political structures being unable to adapt to technological advances. It may also, as asserted by Gramsci, be an effort to maintain a cultural hegemony amongst society for what one interviewee described as “a political ruling class which is white male and over 55, that's it.188”

The means of challenging the distribution of the sensible, as asserted by Rancière, is politics.189 The ability to engage in politics, that is to challenge power asymmetries and, as Frödin

183 Fisher, R., Ury, W. “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving in,” New York: Penguin Books, 2011, 42-82. 184 ibid. 185 Rancière, J. 2004. 186 Rancière, J. 2004. 187 Rancière, J. 2004, 4. 188 Gramsci, A. “Selections from the Prison Notebooks,” trans. Q. Hoare & G, N. Smith, London: ElecBook, 1999, 506 ; Woolf, D. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 23 April 2017. 189 Rancière, J. 2004, 3.

59 summarises, engage in “activities through which people and groups articulate, negotiate, implement and enforce competing claims,190” is also the ability and agency to alter the distribution of the sensible within London society. By using alternative sites of politics as their primary articulation medium, the London grime scene highlights inadequacies in society’s ability to provide for a portion of the population. Upon garnering a greater audience, this democratic deficiency is highlighted and grievances spread to those even unaffected by said deficiency. These are the incipient steps taken by groups outside of the distribution of the sensible in order to penetrate mainstream cultural and political spheres. Again, these alternative sites of politics are essentially challenges to the maintained distribution of the sensible illustrated by Rancière.191

What are the Catalysts to Grime’s Articulations?

There were two main catalysts that facilitated the articulation of grievances since the inception of the grime scene. The first is a shift over time for behaviour that subcultural capital is attributed to in the grime scene. During the early years of grime, credibility, authenticity and subcultural capital was attributed to those who associated with criminal activity in their lyrics. Now, a shift has occurred over time which means that subcultural capital is attributed and accumulated by those who are perceived as ‘real’ or ‘deep,’ those that make critical social commentaries in their lyrics rather than celebrating criminal activity. There has been a transition from celebrating ‘badness’ to celebrating and respecting ‘realness.’ This transition is subtle as the subject material in grime’s lyrics still focuses on the same concepts, such as drugs, violence and money (of a lack thereof). However, there has been a shift from a celebratory model to a critical model of analysis.

This transition is affirmed by primary data gathered from the interviewing process. Jabz asserted “They wanna hear about the deeper things, like my bredrin died and because of that this happened, they just want to hear some real shit.192” Cally reinforces this transition. “even though it is grime, we can still have this sort of tempo and talk about some real shit. Back in the day it was all hype hype gas gas gas, oh yeah I'll shoot his head off etc. Now, it's an actual

190 Frödin, O. “The Art of the Possible – The Bullet or the Ballot Box: Defining Politics in the Emerging Global Order,” Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 58(128), 2011, 1. 191 Rancière, J. 2004. 192 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017.

60 genre.193” He adds “I would rather listen to a deep song that is talking about some craziness in this world, Trump, whatever, than sit there listening to someone talking about wanting to behead his next-door neighbour.194” This transition was supported by every interviewee who had knowledge on the subject. This aligns with statistics gathered from the accompanying discourse analysis. A counter-rhetoric to celebrating criminal activity was the second most prominent theme throughout. Grime’s early days were associated with lyrics such as “You don't wanna bring arms-house, I'll bring arms-house to your mum's house, you don't wanna bring no beef, Bring some beef you'll loose some teeth.195” A transition occurred, fuelled by those inside the scene who sought to professionalize the scene, resulting in lyrics such as “We don't need no crime where we're living, youts nowadays are selling grime for a living” and “Of course there was gonna be consequences, when jumping fences, you will get court and sentenced, that's a bad look and entrance, keep it up, he won't see his pension.196” Champions of this counter-rhetoric include JME, Skepta, Wiley, Kano and all of the major grime artists. An example of said disengagement with ‘badness’ can be noted in Skepta’s ‘Can’t See Me Again’ where he raps “I spoke to my mumsy on the weekend, told her I’m gonna be a G to the end, but this time, man are doin’ it legal, the police can’t see me again.197” The amount of lyrical and interview content to support this assertion is somewhat astounding. This shift in the means for accumulating subcultural capital meant that members of the crime scene critically analysed their socio-economic and socio-political circumstances through lyrical content and via other mediums of communication.

The development of social media is the second catalyst and the greatest. It also has the most research implications for further study. Firstly, the use of the internet as a marketing tool for artists means they are less reliant on record labels for exposure. As a result they face less pressures to dilute their lyrical content. Secondly, social media acts as a platform for grime artists to articulate their concerns. Social media acts as a bridge between the grime scene and the public.

193 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017. 194 Ibid. 195 Lethal Bizzle. “Pow! (Forward Riddim).” Relentless Records, 2004. 196 Kano. “Hustler.” 140 Grime St. Bigger Picture Music, 2008 ; Roll Deep. “Badman.” Rules and Regulations. Roll Deep Records, 2007. 197 AR15 ft. Skepta, Bashy & Kano. “Can’t See Me Again.” AR15 – Concrete Jungle. Alwayz Recordings, 2015.

61 There has been a transition over time as technologies have developed whereby grime artists no longer have to rely on major record label to have their track played through mainstream musical channels. In the early 2000s, radio airtime was the primary source of music dispersal in London. Radio DJs needed songs to be commercially accessible, to appeal to a wide audience. Artists needed record labels to act as bridges between themselves and radio stations. As such, record labels put pressure on artists to dilute political or raw themes to facilitate radio airtime for said artist. Now, with the development of social media and streaming channels, artists can disperse their own music to the public without radio airtime, reaching a huge number of listeners simply through self-promotion and independent releases. This causal link is affirmed by interviewees, one claimed “before, the only way to get heard was to go to a Sidewinder, an Eskimo Dance, or go on pirate radio, there was no other method. Now you can sit at home, have a really good social media following, put out a few YouTube videos, you don't even need to meet anyone.198” In Wiley’s ‘Speakerbox,’ Skepta exclaims “There is no money that record labels can offer us no more, it’s dead, it’s just, there’s no point.199” This is interesting because both Wiley and Skepta have, in earlier parts of their career, been criticised for diluting lyrical content in order to sell more records due to a reliance on major record labels. The ability to market oneself facilitates the articulation of grievances through lyrics because artists no longer have to dilute messages in order to earn a living from their music. Hence, rhetoric around socio- political and socio-economic concerns can thrive. One interviewee claimed “social media has helped because we can build our own fan base without rules, without a criteria that we have to fit into just to sell records, get fans, be mainstream.200” Some specific social media outlets were credited with this facilitation, Steven said “Different media outlets like Grime Daily, Link Up, places that are purposefully putting out unsigned talent, that combined with the social media of the past 8-10 years has given artist their own ability to do it themselves. Now, you don't need a label to do anything.201”

As well as being able to articulate grievance in lyrics more effectively due to social media channels, these channels act as their own platform for articulating grievance through direct communication with the public. This has been evidenced above, and social media platforms act as a bridge between the artists and the public, creating an interconnectedness that did not

198 Cee, S. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 11 April 2017. 199 Wiley. “Speakerbox.” Godfather. CTA Records. 2017. 200 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017. 201 Cee, S. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 11 April 2017.

62 exist before. This facilitates the dispersal of information from artists to the public, inherently increasing the scenes ability to articulate grievances.

With independent labelling and self-promoting came the professionalization of the scene. Artists and those associated with the scene are now beginning to engage in mainstream political and cultural practices. In doing so, the scene has begun to articulate itself using common language, adapting one’s speech and aesthetic to the mainstream and as such penetrating mainstream cultural spheres. Cally asserts to this transition, he claims “it's up to the artists to start being a bit more professional with their work. How they're perceived in interviews, on TV, speak a little bit better, I'm not saying adapt your whole self but we need to learn. That's what Stormzy has done.202” This quasi-conformity allows the scene to be heard within mainstream cultural spheres whilst retaining the potency of such articulations. A diversification of aesthetic has also facilitated inclusion in mainstream cultural spheres, which expedites socialisation with mainstream culture and articulation. Jabz claims “A lot of artists these days don't dress in what people call 'the grime uniform.' … I think now it is easier to be different, be accepted, and do grime. Back then if you went somewhere bad in London or tried to go pirate radio 10 years ago in skinny jeans man would laugh at you.203” This diversification of aesthetic has, in a way, succumbed to mainstream aesthetic pressures but in doing so has facilitated articulation of grievance to those within mainstream culture.

Grime events act as sites of socialisation from which grievances are consolidated. Cally asserts to the social elements of these events, he said “When I go, I'm like 'ah what's going on I haven't seen you in ages,' it's nice, it's like that unity, that family pack.204” One interviewee claims that this social element has been present since the inception of grime, he claimed “The first and second generation of grime associates, that scene was a very big unified scene where everyone was friends together.205” From this socialisation, grievances are consolidated and articulated. Here, at these cultural sites, one can see signs of politicisation.

Finally, in a way, the harsh policing of the scene has facilitated articulation of grievance because the Met police and COLP institutions can be identified as agents of cultural conformity

202 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017 203 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017. 204 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017 205 ibid.

63 and as such targeted as responsible for the suppression of the scenes activity. Without this interaction, the scene might not have identified the cause of their upset and hence might not have articulated grievances concerning said upset.

What are the Obstacles to Grime’s Articulations?

The targeting of grime events by the Met Police and COLP has limited socialisation of the grime scene, which has effectively limited the scene’s ability to consolidate grievances on a regular basis. Grime events act as sites of socialisation where grievances are discussed and those at these events realise that they share experiences, socio-economic and socio-political circumstances with other grime associates. This consolidation, much akin to Schwartz’s work, eventually led to articulation of grievances through the aforementioned means and about the aforementioned subjects.206 The policing of said events limits the abilities of the London grime scene to engage in critical conversations regarding their commonalities and as such reduces the capacity for the London grime scene to transform these individual grievances into a collectively articulated line of reasoning. Hence, the strict policing of the grime scene, specifically in the use of Form 696, actively hinders grime’s ability to express itself outwardly by hindering socialisation, consolidation and articulation of grievances. Some of those associated with the grime scene attribute these continued policing efforts to an inability or lack of desire to recognise the changing demographic of the grime scene. If there is an ability to see this development then organisations such as the Met Police and COLP should seek to develop their means of assessing subcultural threat. If this harsh policing is due to a lack of desire to acknowledge grime’s new demographic, then external efforts should be made to re-assess the institutional practices within these policing institutions and the motivations that drive the continued harsh policing of said events.

Interestingly, this particular finding has illuminated a link between Albert Cohen’s articulations on delinquency, Rancière’s concept of what is said and what is ‘noise,’ and Form 696. This is an important analytical node to draw on and as a result must be examined. In short, by associating grime’s actions and articulations with delinquency, agents of cultural conformity push these actions from the domain of politics, into the domain of policing. This means that grime’s actions do not have be addressed as they are not deemed legitimate by

206 Schwartz, M. 1988.

64 policing actors. Risk assessment is applied to the grime scene in order to discursively, practically and cognitively associate the grime scene with the need to be policed, not the need to be heard.

This highlights a link between Rancière’s concept of policing and its practice in the form of risk assessment. This policing is done to ensure the normative vision of society that dictates the distribution of the sensible is fulfilled. Actors who seek to maintain the distribution of the sensible have established linguistic and cognitive links between the London grime scene and forms of delinquency such as knife crime.207 To call grime’s actions delinquency is to disqualify it as a feasible political activity. Policing agents can draw on societal stigmas associated with the early grime scene and as a result dismiss any recent political activity by the grime scene, despite the scene’s actions developing into viable political activity. What might have genuinely started as ‘noise,’ or delinquency in the grime scene has developed into politics through socialisation, consolidation and articulation. Celebrations of criminal activity have been left behind, instead one of the main purposes of grime now is to challenge socio-economic and socio-political circumstances through the articulation of grievances. However, the maintained discursive link between grime and delinquency justifies the continued use of targeted risk assessment against grime events in order to control the socialisation process of those involved in the grime scene whilst expelling the London grime scene from political arenas and regulating them to issues of ‘noise’ or the unheard.208 Linking the London grime scene to forms of delinquency is an active attempt to delegitimise a group that is actively pursuing inclusion in the distribution of the sensible.

This assertion would be supported by Cohen, who noted the dismissal of young men in the 1950s who were associated with delinquency.209 Cohen found that delinquency was often the means for young men to challenge their circumstances. Furthermore, ‘delinquency’ as a term is defined by authoritative agents. Hence, the construction of ‘delinquency’ can be dealt with using legal apparatus rather than political apparatus. This is an attempt by agents of cultural conformity to maintain the current exclusionary and inclusionary status of groups within and outside of the distribution of the sensible. Grime’s challenge to current societal structures is an

207 Omari, M. “Stormzy v Shelagh Fogarty,” LBC, 1 March 2017. 208 Rancière, J. 2004, 13. 209 Cohen, A, K., Short, J, F, Jr. “Research in Delinquent Subcultures,” Journal of Social Issues, 14(3), 1958, 20-37 ; Cohen, A, K. 1955.

65 attempt to move from the domain of ‘noise’ to the heard, and constant challenges to the link between grime and threat are the means by which the scene does this. Going forward, questions need to be asked about the constructed association between grime and threat. Constantly questioning this link will result in a more accurate policing of crime and subcultures. Furthermore, reallocation of resources away from the policing of grime is necessary.

This research and analysis asserts that grime is actively attempting to alter societal structures through agency. In doing so, they have also sacrificed elements of their aesthetic that constitute the grime identity in London. Furthermore, Rancière’s distribution of the sensible can be aptly mapped onto this case, and numerous implications can be drawn from it. Primarily, it highlights a democratic deficiency where sites of politics are not being identified by societal agents. Grime’s attempt to penetrate said distribution and the ensuing resistance against it highlights the robustness of said distribution, as well as the potency of grime’s penetrative strategy. Finally, by regulating grime's activities and working on a link between grime and threat, those who seek to maintain the distribution of the sensible do so through the targeted use of risk assessment. This policing is reminiscent of Foucault’s policing of the abnormal.210

To conclude my findings, the London grime scene does articulate grievances. It does so using social media, lyrics, protest and formal political engagement. This wide repertoire of action is not accounted for by current political institutions and hence adaptation is required to ensure the negation of a democratic deficit. Technological advances and the digital age have acted as the main catalyst for the London grime scene’s articulations as social media provides a platform for articulation and halts artist’s reliance on record labels to pursue careers in music. Furthermore, a shift in the means for accumulating subcultural capital from badness to realness has facilitated grime’s articulations. Grime events act as sites of socialisation where shared experiences are discussed and grievances are consolidated. Despite this potency, the harsh policing of grime events has suffocated grime’s abilities to socialise at events. Hence, consolidation has been stifled by said policing. Harsh policing, not commodification, acts as the main obstacle for the grime scene to overcome in its efforts to articulate grievances.

The policing of the distribution the sensible excluded the London grime scene’s actions to the domain of policing and noise by emphasising abnormal elements of the scene’s behaviour and

210 Foucault, M. 2003.

66 identity. The police draw on a historic link between the London grime scene and delinquency that no longer holds true. Work must be done to ensure that the London grime scene is not dealt with as it was 15 years ago. A reallocation of resources away from its policing would be prudent. Furthermore, the Met and COLP should seek to reassess their perceptions of subcultures on a more regular basis in order to get a more valid picture of subcultural activity. The London grime scene’s efforts to exit the domain of policing and enter that of politics are surprisingly intelligent, and this challenge to their exclusion utilises numerous methods. These challenges are an assault on the distribution of the sensible by suggesting alternative means of engaging politically and alternative ways of behaving. In doing so, the London grime scene has sought to alter structure through agency, particularly that of their own socio-economic circumstances and the means by which subcultures can feasibly engage in the domain of politics. However, in doing so they have reinforced some societal standards and structures by partially conforming linguistically and aesthetically. This highlights the duality of structure theorised by Giddens.

Implications

There are a few unexpected points of interest here that can be drawn from my findings alone. Primarily, this research finds the sophisticated nature of articulation and the diversity of means of articulating grievances impressive for the London grime scene, considering its definition as a juvenile subculture. The London grime scene articulates numerous themes that are inextricably linked and uses personal experience and narratives in order to illustrate social critiques that are suitable for the grime audience. This audience has diversified and the scenes ability to translate these stories to relatable narratives is surprising. In addition, the means by which grime articulates messages has diversified to combine new and old technologies with institutionalised formal and informal political procedures, which is indicative of a sophisticated and diverse approach to articulating grievances that prior subcultures failed to attempt.

Furthermore, this research contains evidence of continuing politicisation, a process. I cannot say whether commodification will halt this politicisation in the future due to the qualitative nature of this research. However, currently commodification is being significantly outweighed by the ability for grime artists to retain creative autonomy as a result of the internet. Commodification might have been the greatest obstacle to political potency for both punk and

67 hip hop, with dilution occurring as a result of said commodification, but not for grime211 Hebdige asserts that commercialisation is a necessary step on the way to incorporation into mainstream society for subcultures.212 Grime has commercialised but this commercialisation has timed itself with the development of new technologies, nullifying the degrading effect this process has on a music-based subcultures ability to challenge society and articulate socio- economic and socio-political grievances. Instead, commodification and the internet has acted as a potential future amplifier of influence for grime in the coming years. This is indicative of how technology alters societal structures and highlights the need for greater attention to be given to the link between the internet and politics. In the same way the old printing presses facilitated political agency, the internet should be tested in order to capture the extent of its effects.

Another interesting and unexpected finding is the fluidity of the means for accumulating subcultural capital. The nature of subcultural capital, whether it be fixed or fluid, was not articulated in Sarah Thornton’s works. However, this research provides insight into the fluid nature of subcultural capital over time which might help illuminate alternative puzzles that have challenged subcultural theorists over the years. This small piece of information might indicate why subcultures change aesthetics, motivations, behaviour etc.

Chapter Six: Conclusions

“I actually just feel like a lot of people involved in grime or from the estates just don't feel like it's their place to be involved in formal politics.213”

The London grime scene articulates grievances concerning issues of poverty, segregation, violence, drugs, racial and aesthetic profiling, societal disregard, and the harsh policing of the scene’s events. These themes can be categorised into socio-economic and socio-political concerns. It would be wise for future researchers to use these categories when conducted

211 Clark, D. “The Death and Life of Punk, The Last Subculture,” pp. 223-36, in D. Muggleton and R. Weinzierl (eds.), The Post-Subcultures Reader, Oxford: Berg, 2003 ; Ide, D. “How Capitalism Underdeveloped Hip Hop: A People's History of Political Rap (Part 1 of 2),” The Hampton Institute, 4 June 2013, http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/capitalismhiphoppartone.html#.WS6rBhOGPR0, (last accessed 31 May 2017) ; Sabin, R. “Punk Rock: So What?: The Cultural Legacy of Punk,” London: Routledge, 1999. 212 Hebdige, D., 1979, 94-96. 213 Myki, R., Jabz, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 14 April 2017.

68 research exploring the best avenues for alleviating the concerns of poor, inner-city people in London who associate with the grime scene. In addition, by addressing a number of these grievances, one might alleviate delinquent behaviour associated with this demographic. This research has highlighted a link between Rancière’s police and Cohen’s ideas on delinquency. Discursive associations between delinquency and the London grime scene justifies the policing of said group. Furthermore, those interested in winning the hearts of a group of people who do not actively participate in elections should utilise these themes. Policies addressing these specific concerns might work to engage this group of people.

More attention should be paid to the grime scene by policymakers and those who seek to bolster political engagement. The icons associated with this scene and those within it influence a huge number of people. In addition, this demographic of people that the grime scene engages is the same demographic oft associated with political disengagement. It would therefore be wise to address these grievances in order to engage said demographic and simultaneously tackle any issues of security created by their delinquencies.

“Operating a political message through social media and music, just because it's not formalised doesn't mean it's not worth paying attention to.214”

The London grime scene uses lyrical content, social media, protest and formal political proceedings to articulate their grievances. This is a diverse and sophisticated repertoire of action. Furthermore, these new means of articulating grievances indicate a democratic deficiency in our political institutions abilities to engage and provide for the demographic associated with the grime scene. Our definition of democracy in Britain has become stagnant. As asserted by Gomart & Hajer, a constant reassessment of political institutions is needed to develop our concept of democracy simultaneously with civic or technological alterations. The London grime scene’s sophisticated use of alternative means of articulating grievances and the lack of addressal of these grievances suggests that our current concept of democracy needs to develop to facilitate the inclusion of these means. Politics is associated with institutions such as voting, but little thought is given to cultural practices as sites of politics, or alternative means for articulating political grievances. This research suggests that policymakers should seek to identify politics in technological formats that are alternative to formal and informal political

214 Ibid.

69 proceedings, such as in lyrical content and on social media platforms. In doing so, policymakers would be actively developing our democratic practices in order to align with technological developments. Delays in addressing these means of articulation simply deter further engagement in political processes and highlight an inability or a lack of desire to address the grievances of said specific demographic.

Through the London grime scene’s articulations, the scene has actively attempted to alter structure through agency as theorized by Giddens. A prioritisation of interests has occurred which has led grime to sacrifice elements of its aesthetic identity in order to alter structures dictating their socio-economic and socio-political circumstances. Further research using prioritization matrices and Giddens structuration theory might help illuminate how subcultures prioritise interests and how those priorities interact with state and society.

“Social media has helped because we can build our own fan base without rules, without a criteria that we have to fit into just to sell records, get fans, be mainstream.215”

“With the growth of technology, you can market things through social media and artists have platforms that they simply would not have had before. The power relationship is less asymmetrical and artists have seized creative control over their music.216”

Furthermore, the internet and a shift in the means for accumulating subcultural capital are two catalysts for the London grime scenes articulations. The use of the internet as a tool that disengages the scene from record label censorship and as a platform for articulation makes it prominent in facilitating said articulations. However, without a shift in the means for accumulating subcultural capital from celebrating ‘badness’ to celebrating ‘realness,’ said articulations might not have been expressed in the form of lyrical content or via social media platforms. The internet has facilitated the continuation of politicization, although such effect has not been quantified. Quantitative work should be done to quantify the effect the internet has had on citizens’ abilities to engage in political activity.

215 ibid. 216 Christie, J. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 12 April 2017.

70

“I had a conversation with a police officer and she said they don't understand it, which is why they're so onto it. That's not a good enough excuse to shut down our shows. They manage our area, our sound, and they don't expect the backlash to be that we don't like them?217”

The harsh policing of grime events, not commodification, stands as the main obstacle to grime articulating grievances. This is contrary to Ilan’s assertions. This is because Ilan did not account for transitions over time. He failed to account for a new generation of grime artists who are experts at utilizing digital platforms. Therefore, any future research into subcultures should keep the continuous nature of history in mind. This adequately fits into Foucault’s policing of the abnormal and as a result sites of socialization are blocked, hindering consolidation and eventual articulation of grievances. Evident comparisons can be drawn between Rancière’s police and Foucault’s police. Furthermore, the targeting of grime and the association between grime and delinquency is an attempt by agents of cultural conformity to expel grime from the distribution of the sensible and dismiss grime’s articulations as ‘noise.’ More academic research should be conducted so as to properly explore the relationship between subcultures and delinquency. It should not be left for people to frame the link between the two, and researchers should constantly question the discursive connection between subcultures and crime as it limits a subcultures expressive capacity.

This research bridges a gap between postmodern and CCCS scholarship in order to present an unbiased and holistic view of the London grime scene’s articulations. The process and results are valid and reliable. As a result, I recommend that subcultural theorists seek to borrow appropriate elements from either side of the theoretical continuum in order to address future research problems associated with music-based subcultures. This methodology can be used by those who seek to do so in the future.

217 Cally. Personal Interview with C. Coulson, 9 April 2017.

71

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