With grime making its way over to the US, there’s been a lot of interpretations about what the genre is. One of grime’s brightest young emcees, AJ Tracey, caught up with Mass Appeal while in New York to lay down his own definition.
He talks about how energy plays a big part in grime, for example how the DJ brings the deck back when the venue is going wild. For him, that and 140bpm, wearing tracksuits and hanging on the streets makes grime what it is. While he says grime is more like dancehall than rap, he can relate to people like Waka Flocka and Chief Keef who have a big stage presence.
AJ also breaks down the different areas of London.
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