Yesterday I had a funny back and forth with former grime producer Preditah. Preditah is a producer who made a massive impact on the grime scene in 2011/2012. I'm sure you'd know his biggest tune 'Circles' if you heard it. It got hammered at raves all over the country. Not so long after he had made his name in grime, Preditah decided to distance himself from the scene. A lot of people did, this was at a time when grime was in the fucking doldrums. 2009-2012 was a very very dark time for grime. The goal for artists (like Devin, Tinchy Stryda, Wretch 32) it seemed was to get signed to a label, cash in quick and get dropped. Lots of producers went missing and never came back.
Disclosure reopened the door for the garage sound and Preditah followed them through, pledging his allegiance to the garage scene, desperately distancing himself from grime. There is pretty damning evidence scattered around the internet if you care to dig. In November 2012 Preditah featured in a episode of 'Producers House' for SBTV explicitly describing his sound and his music making process. Not once in 18 minutes and 21 seconds does he say the word 'grime.' Infact at 5:15 he says 'I reckon my style is garage, because that's what inspired my music in the first place. Mixed with like RnB, 'cos I like gospel, neo soul, RnB a little bit, sometimes. A little bit of jazz as well. That's the Preditah sound.' later on in the same video he says when discussing how he is looking to work with singers he says 'All MCs can do really is just spit bars.' Sounds like someone with a die hard alliance with the grime scene, right? Sounds to me like a man who is making a very conscious effort to separate himself from an extremely niche culture that doesn't pay too well.
Fast forward another year and Preditah is suddenly a house producer. We are now in 2013 when commercial vocal house is storming the charts from every angle. Preditah has successfully shape-shifted again and is now gaining notoriety and bookings as a house producer and DJ. I specifically remember at the time him replying to comments asking him to make more grime on his Facebook page that he is 'done with grime.'
Now it's 2015 and grime is back alive and well. It's at the forefront of youth culture in our country and artists like Skepta and Stormzy are literally touring the planet selling out headline shows. It's bigger than ever. Cue the ever soulless Preditah crawling over to whatever is the flavour of the month. Yesterday a tweet pops up on my timeline, Preditah saying he was 'Back on the beats.' so I couldn't help but amuse myself with a sarcastic remark regarding what I've just covered.
I think it must be noted that I think it's cool when cross format DJs play a bit of grime, and I have no problem with that. I like hearing grime. But given how Preditah completely 'moved on' (in his own words) myself and a lot of other grime fans felt like he wanted to be part of the grime scene as and when it suited him. In grime, something that is very central to mine and a lot of other people's identities it's almost an offensive notion, not showing the genre the respect it deserves.
Cue Preditah coming into my mentions absolutely furious. He's blocked me and deleted the tweets now, but initially he started by denying the fact he left the scene or that he was vocal about doing so, calling me names and saying he is 'more grime than I'll ever be' (whatever that means hahaha!) Here are the remaining tweets from my side of the altercation, basically just reiterating what I've said so far here.
Then he started to threaten me. Pretty funny stuff, obviously I struck a nerve because he knows I'm talking sense. There is hard evidence all over the place of absolutely everything I've covered.
In hindsight I'm kind of annoyed I didn't DM him my number. I was at work when this all was kicking off so I couldn't really stop to take a call from a wound up former grime producer trying to drive to my city to put it on me. What's the worst he is going to do anyway? Come and stand at the clock tower fuming? I had no interest in scrapping with him, just purely expressing how he left the grime scene and soullessly follows fashion. I could have recorded the conversation or something fun, it is very very rare you get the chance to express how you feel to these guys who pick up and put down grime when they choose how I feel.
A lot of people who got into grime around 2010 hold Preditah very close to their heart. He really was the golden boy of the producers in that era and irrespective of whatever genre he is making he is a talented musician. People who got into grime in 2010 are the ones funding this new wave of attention the grime scene is getting. They were brought up buying 4 track releases from iTunes and continue to fund the scene outside of it's pirate roots, unlike the people from my generation. These 2010 fans are the people buying the tickets to sell out grime raves all over the country. You can't blame them for holding Preditah close to their hearts and welcoming him back to the grime scene with open arms. He is their era. But the cynic in me saw this whole thing pan out, saw the stuff he was saying and saw that he wasn't screaming 'grime' when it was on it's knees and he was a tastemaker in the UK. Now that the pot of gold is back at the end of grime's rainbow sure enough he has tagged along trying to get his hands on it. I wonder what his identity will become when this new wave of grime fades and something bigger comes along.
PS. If you're somehow reading this Preditah, unblock me and tweet me. I'll DM you my number and I'd love to have you on a podcast to talk this out mate.
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