Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime
The Story of Grime
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Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime
Buy Now for $26.99
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Narrated by:
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Ash Hunter
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By:
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Dan Hancox
About this listen
A GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, PITCHFORK, NPR, METRO AND HERALD SCOTLAND BEST MUSIC BOOK OF 2018
‘The definitive grime biography’ NME
’A landmark genre history’ Pitchfork
This audiobook is narrated by Ash Hunter, stage and screen actor who is currently playing Hamilton in the West End production of the musical.
The year 2000. As Britain celebrates the new millennium, something is stirring in the crumbling council estates of inner-city London. Making beats on stolen software, spitting lyrics on tower block rooftops and beaming out signals from pirate-radio aerials, a group of teenagers raised on UK garage, American hip-hop and Jamaican reggae stumble upon a dazzling new genre.
Against all odds, these young MCs will grow up to become some of the UK’s most famous musicians, scoring number one records and dominating British pop culture for years to come. Hip-hop royalty will fawn over them, billion dollar brands will queue up to beg for their endorsements and through their determined DIY ethics they’ll turn the music industry's logic on its head.
But getting there won’t be easy. Successive governments will attempt to control their music, their behaviour and even their clothes. The media will demonise them and the police will shut down their clubs. National radio stations and live music venues will ban them. There will be riots, fighting in the streets, even murder. And the inner-city landscape that shaped them will be changed beyond all recognition.
Drawn from over a decade of in depth interviews and research with all the key MCs, DJs and industry players, in this extraordinary book the UK’s best grime journalist Dan Hancox tells the remarkable story of how a group of outsiders went on to create a genre that has become a British institution. Here, for the first time, is the full story of grime.
Critic Reviews
‘Grime is the sound of 21st century protest. Inner City Pressure is essential reading from a superb writer on the political awakening of a generation’ Owen Jones
‘Dan Hancox charts a remarkable story from pirate radio to the front pages. This is a story that deserves to be heard’ David Lammy MP
‘Unputdownable and bristling with insights about grime and the city it was born in. Anyone with any interest in grime, you need to be reading this, trust me’ Jeffrey Boakye, author of Hold Tight
'It says something about the last two decades that the first real history of 21st century London comes in the form of a book about grime. Hancox tells the story of a city and a music scene with restraint, humour and anger’ Owen Hatherley, author of A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain
‘Riveting… Grime, black music’s rawest response against social injustice, has the chronicler it deserves. Hancox is a tremendous guide’ Kitty Empire, Observer
‘An extraordinary pop music story. Hancox’s deep knowledge of London illuminates the music … just as you could tell the story of the US in the Sixties via rock music, Hancox sees 21st Century London through a grime lens, from the 2011 riots to Grenfell Tower’ Dorian Lynskey, GQ
‘A vivid and serious study of grime, stretching from its earliest stirrings through to its unexpected love-fest clinch with Corbyn’ Simon Reynolds
‘A terrific achievement and an instant London classic’ Leo Hollis, author of Cities Are Good For You
‘An absolutely brilliant read’ Tom Dyckhoff
‘A must read’ DJ Slimzee
‘A dazzling book’ Ellie Mae O’Hagan
‘An excellent, thorough history’ Wire
‘An exhaustive, thrilling account of one of UK music’s most fascinating and complex musical experiences’ Clash
Brilliant cultural history
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This, to me, is The Grime Bible. Cox has referenced all the iconic events and songs in grime to give the 'tabula-rasa' the most accurate and insightful historical experiences of this scene. It is clear that Cox has to be a fan of the music from the very beginning. Otherwise, how is it such a person can document all the influential cultural moments so accurately without leaving anything historical out.
To the fan, this book is such a pleasure to see, IN PRINT, in that all the classic events that took place become documented as a historical piece of literature. I am so glad to see that this book is written consisly as I would never had thought such a book existed. I am also pleased by Cox's journalism to present contemporary British society before it be about the music.
Cox has certainly done a huge service to Grime by making this an ethnography text of multicultural modern London. His writing been a resourceful cultural experience backed up songs with what was actually happening at the time in Britain bringing about justice to the genre and to the demographic. In essence, Cox has written a factual report on this unrepresented British culture... whether you like it or not.
This audio book was a pleasure to hear as the narrator pronounced all the slang terms perfectly and was read with expression along with a suitable accent. It was masterfully edited without a hick-up in sound... Well done, Ash Hunter!
This is what I have been waiting for... for years. I will definitely be quoting and referencing Cox as this is a laudable piece of cultural studies.
Spot-on Journalism
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I absolutely loved it.
Nice one Dan.
Grime + Uk culture
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