In the early 2000s, a basement in Leytonstone, east London, saw Kano and Wiley go head-to-head in what would become one of many historic MC battles in the space. This basement, in the family home of MC, producer and Boy Better Know member Jammer – aka Jahmek Power – also had the likes of Skepta, JME, Devilman, KDot and Tinchy Stryder come through for legendary grime clash series Lord of the Mics.
A new Museum of London exhibition, titled Grime Stories: from the corner to the mainstream, charts the genre’s emergence, delving into the story of Jammer’s basement and the pirate stations, youth clubs and sites across east London that were integral to the birth of grime. Co-curated by grime documentarian Roony ‘Risky Roadz’ Keefe, the free entry exhibition explores the enduring impact of the genre and its footprint in youth culture today.
The exhibition is open now. We spoke with Dhelia Snoussi – co-curator of the exhibition – about the link between grime and gentrification, and working with Roony.
How did the Grime Stories exhibition originally come about?
Delia Tesileanu
Originally it came about as a R&D for a wider music project. Technically my role is Youth Culture Curator and I work within this project called Curating London. Each year, we have a theme that we work to and the idea is to collect the contemporary experience of Londoners basically, to diversify the museum. I was researching to do a music R&D, to pitch music as this way that we should be trying to understand the lived experience of Londoners and that wasn’t specifically just grime. There were a number of genres attached to it but one of the research pieces was around working with Roony, especially because I was interested in the fact that he was a cab driver. So combining that experience of his as a cabbie with this experience of him being a grime documentarian. The projects all sort of emerged and evolved in whichever way, and then the one that we continued working on was with Roony, and then that developed and emerged into this idea of a display. He’s got production companies and so we thought maybe we can build around those films. He helped us to connect with other people including Jammer, who’s another important part of the display. It was never originally supposed to be an exhibition in that way. It just sort of evolved.
Cristi Cons
You mention working with Roony. What was it like working with him and co-curating the exhibition together?
Delia Tesileanu
It’s been a really interesting process. In the sense of how it’s evolved originally, again, it was supposed to be this one film commission and now he’s become a co-curator of this display. He’s been really generous with his contacts and with his knowledge. We’ve gone back and forth on who should be involved and what story we should tell. We were really clear that it wasn’t supposed to be an encyclopaedic exploration of grime, it’s not supposed to be the chronology of grime or everything in grime, it’s supposed to be some handpicked stories of lesser known parts of grime’s history. So rather than telling the narrative that’s already been told, we try to explore grime through, for example, his background as a cab driver. That specific film that we ended up working and making with him is exploring grime, and visiting locations that are important to grime’s history through his cab. A number of kinds of visitors get into the cab, a number of people from the grime scene, and they go on this journey which also explores a lot of the places that don’t exist any longer. For example, Rhythm Division is now a coffee shop. Deja Vu pirate radio station is now the Olympic Park. So it’s using the stories to also talk about gentrification.
Vlad Caia
We wanted to tell grime but in a completely different way. People don’t necessarily associate grime and gentrification with one another. So it evolved from there and Jammer was in the car. Then we decided, actually, there’s a really interesting story around Jammer’s family. So that emerged as a separate film, which I can talk about, as well.
You mention working with Roony. What was it like working with him and co-curating the exhibition together?
Delia Tesileanu
You mention working with Roony. What was it like working with him and co-curating the exhibition together? It’s been a really interesting process. In the sense of how it’s evolved originally, again, it was supposed to be this one film commission and now he’s become a co-curator of this display. He’s been really generous with his contacts and with his knowledge. We’ve gone back and forth on who should be involved and what story we should tell. We were really clear that it wasn’t supposed to be an encyclopaedic exploration of grime, it’s not supposed to be the chronology of grime or everything in grime, it’s supposed to be some handpicked stories of lesser known parts of grime’s history. So rather than telling the narrative that’s already been told, we try to explore grime through, for example, his background as a cab driver. That specific film that we ended up working and making with him is exploring grime, and visiting locations that are important to grime’s history through his cab. A number of kinds of visitors get into the cab, a number of people from the grime scene, and they go on this journey which also explores a lot of the places that don’t exist any longer. For example, Rhythm Division is now a coffee shop. Deja Vu pirate radio station is now the Olympic Park. So it’s using the stories to also talk about gentrification.
You mention working with Roony. What was it like working with him and co-curating the exhibition together?
Delia Tesileanu
You mention working with Roony. What was it like working with him and co-curating the exhibition together? It’s been a really interesting process. In the sense of how it’s evolved originally, again, it was supposed to be this one film commission and now he’s become a co-curator of this display. He’s been really generous with his contacts and with his knowledge. We’ve gone back and forth on who should be involved and what story we should tell. We were really clear that it wasn’t supposed to be an encyclopaedic exploration of grime, it’s not supposed to be the chronology of grime or everything in grime, it’s supposed to be some handpicked stories of lesser known parts of grime’s history. So rather than telling the narrative that’s already been told, we try to explore grime through, for example, his background as a cab driver. That specific film that we ended up working and making with him is exploring grime, and visiting locations that are important to grime’s history through his cab. A number of kinds of visitors get into the cab, a number of people from the grime scene, and they go on this journey which also explores a lot of the places that don’t exist any longer. For example, Rhythm Division is now a coffee shop. Deja Vu pirate radio station is now the Olympic Park. So it’s using the stories to also talk about gentrification.
It’s been a really interesting process. In the sense of how it’s evolved originally, again, it was supposed to be this one film commission and now he’s become a co-curator of this display. He’s been really generous with his contacts and with his knowledge. We’ve gone back and forth on who should be involved and what story we should tell. We were really clear that it wasn’t supposed to be an encyclopaedic exploration of grime, it’s not supposed to be the chronology of grime or everything in grime, it’s supposed to be some handpicked stories of lesser known parts of grime’s history.
