“True Grime”
“True Grime.” Printed in 2005, this was the title of the first Sasha Frere-Jones article I ever read. Thanks, Dad, for having both a subscription to the New Yorker and the wherewithal to identify and foster your son’s interest in hip-hop culture. Regrets?
Grime, a catchall classification for hip-hop that combines elements of dancehall and ragga, emerged from the bowels of South London in the early 2000s. Sasha-Frere Jones and most U.S. “indie” hip-hop heads (who ever liked, or worse, still like, shit like Aesop Rock) got their first taste of grime when Lady Sovereign drunkenly...
