Jammer for The National

Another long piece for The National's 'Review', in which I introduce grime to the UAE, chart Jammer's history, discuss the zeitgeist trade-off between grime's underground and the charts, and - somewhere in there - review his debut album.

To concentrate on grime’s darkest reaches is to miss out on at least half its raison d’être. It was – and still is – a style of contradictory extremes; situating squalor and glittering aspiration side-by-side. In its flush of youth, songs detailing lurid acts of violence would be performed in opulent clubs with strict dress codes; brutally avant-garde rhythms accompanied by sugar-sweet female vocals and baroque melodies.