Excellent!

I remember so many of the cultural milestones mentioned throughout the book, and it was also about so much more than just grime. I can identify with having my club night shut down by the police in the late organising stages over unfounded security "concerns".

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Educational, informative, entertaining

I can't claim to be an aficionado of grime music or know much about this particular youth culture, but it was a book that caught my eye and having seen the genre character assassinated by the right wing tabloids over the years, I thought I'd have a closer look and get the view from the other side.

Hancox writes about more than just the music and the main players in the genre, some of whom I've heard of. I might be middle-aged but I don't live in a cave..... Stormzy, So Solid Crew, Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Tinchy Stryder. Others are less familiar.

There's a lot about London in the past twenty years and the changing face of the capital.... Cameron, Labour, Tony Blair, Boris Johnson, urban renewal, poverty, surveillance, underground scene, tower blocks, public transport, Grenfell, Theresa May, sexism, machismo, musical rivalries, collaborations and support structures, pirate radio, police powers and abuse, riots, protest, kettling, Corbyn, Canary Wharf, public transport, tuition fees, Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, ASBOs, benefit cuts, child poverty, education, changes to support structures, Form 696, racism, profiling, opportunity - or lack of, persistence, drill music, mainstream acceptance, Garage, Jamaica, Africa, reggae, origins, family, hierarchy, MCing, rapping, beats, "hug a hoodie", public perceptions, and a helluva lot more.

I might have benefited from a print version which I could have run in tandem with some music samples from the artists mentioned throughout the narrative, but that wasn't really an option as this was an audio book. I'm not a student of music so a lot of the jargon about the construction of the music and the pace of it - 140 beats, 16 bars, blah blah blah was just kind of white noise to me.

I liked the information which was imparted. It was educational, informative, angry and an effective counter argument to the shallowness and distorted viewpoint of the mainstream media's depiction of the grime scene.

Looking back I think most forms of youth culture get villified before ultimate acceptance ...... rock n roll, hippies, punk. The point of acceptance might just signify the death of something exciting, energised and vibrant.... possibly.

Narration was good, though the pronunciation of a word or two which recurred during the narrative slightly irritated me.... MACHISMO - is it said MUH-KIS-MOW or MACHISMO? A minor gripe.

Overall very good and a bit of a change from my usual reading.

4 from 5

Dan Hancox is a journalist and writes for The Guardian and other publications. Undoubtedly he does a helluva lot more than that. Narration was by Ash Hunter.

Read - (listened to) September, 2019
Published - 2018
Page count - 352 (10 hours 51 minutes)
Source - Audible after allowing my Edelweiss ARC download to lapse
Format - Audible

https://col2910.blogspot.com/2019/09/dan-hancox-inner-city-pressure-story-of.html

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F'ing brilliant!

If you wanna know what's what in the history of Grime, this is the book for you!

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So good. Full of throwbacks and insight

I loved this. Well read, and a great piece of work that I could not turn off. So many throwbacks to back in the day and Dan goes deep into the roots of Grime and the political context. All the slang and references sounded real because the narrator was clearly from ends, and so it wasn’t awkward to listen to as I expected. I could play it all again. I loved the insights and Dan’s perspectives and comparisons. Totally respected the genre and felt like it was written by someone who, like me, grew up with and around Grime. Amazing work.

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fantastic

Best book I read in 2019. Written with craft, care and a real love for the genre and the many facinating characters within it. Expect a lot of visits to YouTube for more context. such a great experience reading and jumping into that platform to watch the moments described. expertly researched also. I tip my hat to Hancox, incredible work!

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Inaccurate and uninformed

If you’re looking for a book on the actual history of grime this isn’t it, the author just uses grime as a backdrop to discuss the political situation in the UK around the early to mid 2000’s - it’s 20% grime music and 80% leftist politics. It’s also strewn with errors (Wiley producing “Roll Off” by Ludacris is a notable one, it’s “Roll Out”) and it’s clearly written by someone who wasn’t actually involved in the Grime scene but is average at googling. To top it off the Narrator gets it all wrong, pronouncing “Lady Leshurr” as “Lady le-sher” and “67” as literally “sixty seven” - waste of a credit for someone who actually lived and breathed grime music growing up.

How do I get my credit refunded!?

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