Grime: Criminal subculture or public counterculture? A critical investigation into the criminalization of Black musical subcultures in the UK

Abstract

This article sets out to (re-)introduce Black urban musical subcultures as valuable forms of creativity and public expression in an attempt to resist, criticize and expose their criminalization by the London Metropolitan Police. Focusing primarily on grime, a host of unfair and illegitimate practices adopted by the London Metropolitan Police will be discussed. This will demonstrate how the routine monitoring, surveillance and curtailment of Black people’s public identity (re)produces stereotypical associations of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups with violent, criminal and problematic behaviour. In order to challenge openly discriminatory attitudes towards Black urban cultural forms by the police, a counterargument which calls for their understanding as viable sources of positive and constructive public engagement will be offered.

Policing the beats: The criminalisation of UK drill and grime music by the London Metropolitan Police

“…Despite its soaring popularity and gradual absorption into the pop mainstream, drill’s equally ‘dangerous’ predecessor, grime, was just as hotly pursued. Other Black music genres and cultural events have received a similar treatment, in a continuum that spans the last six decades from blues dances, early reggae soundsystems and Carnival celebrations to UK garage, grime and drill (Coon, 1976; Fatsis, 2018; Gilroy, 1987, pp. 95–104, 115–116; Gilroy, 2007, p. 152).…”

“…On the contrary, the relevant literature on the topic exonerates grime but finds the police guilty of misconduct (Barron, 2013; Bramwell, 2015, pp. 63, 127, 141–144; Fatsis, 2018; Talbot, 2011). In fact the policing tactics used against both drill and grime provide excellent case studies for demonstrating the persistence of institutional racism within the Met.…”

“…Drill and grime lyrics will therefore feature here as chronicles of the violence and disorder that young Black rappers suffer from rather than cause in the spatial and social milieus they inhabit. Instead of facilely blaming both genres for glamorising violence (Fatsis, 2018, p. 6; Ilan, 2012, p. 47), it will be argued that rappers are victimised by the violence they are accused of promoting. This tendency to interpret the violence in lyrics as a desired individual lifestyle , instead of an ugly fact of social life , is seen here as an expression of ‘racial neoliberalism’ (Goldberg, 2009; Kapoor, 2013).…”

“…While some illuminating academic research on drill’s stylistic predecessor, grime, has been undertaken within sociology and criminology, the criminalisation of both genres by the Metropolitan Police remains largely under-researched. Notable exceptions include two journal articles and a book which explore the ‘mediatisation’ and ‘commodification’ of crime and street culture through new media (respectively, Ilan, 2012; Pinkney & Robinson-Edwards, 2018; Irwin-Rogers & Pinkney, 2017), and another two articles that discuss the ‘juridification’ of nightlife and alternative culture (Talbot, 2011), and reintroduce grime as a ‘public counterculture’ rather than a ‘criminal subculture’ (Fatsis, 2018). All other relevant research on the topic fails to address the criminalisation of Black ‘urban’ music in the UK, specifically or at any adequate length, focusing instead on other aspects of grime, rap and hip-hop.…”

Smart Festivals? Security and Freedom for Well-Being in Urban Smart Spaces

“…Hancox has argued that Grime should be understood against a larger background of gentrification and urban development, reducing the spaces where Grime is produced and subjecting them to surveillance (Hancox 2018). Grime addresses the criminalization of members of these communities by the London Metropolitan Police through monitoring and surveillance (Fatsis 2018), where the influence of the police on quality of life and the public identity of black youth is felt in lyrics such as "It was only yesterday, there was less bobbies on the beat" [Dizzie Rascal's Sittin Here (Boy in Da Corner)] and "Out there tryna survive on the streets / Tryin' not to get killed by the police [Skepta's Man (Konnichiwa)].…”