Observations on the State of Grime and Brits in General as Told Through a Timeline of Eskimo Dance

As a grime fan, the original Eskimo Dance events from 2003-04 were legendary to me. I have repeatedly watched grainy footage on Youtube where future stars like Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Tinchy Stryder, and Lethal B trade bars and battle with each other. A New Yorker during business hours, I found myself on the British Isles the same weekend as the return of Eskimo Dance to London last week.

Such was my enthusiasm for the event that when my flight landed at Heathrow on Saturday at 8:15pm, I legged it straight to Eskimo Dance at the O2 Arena, which started at 10. This is what followed:

11:50pm: The line to get into the O2 is longer than the customs line to get into the UK was. There is a metal detector, each person gets frisked, and they even do the hood club thing of checking inside your hat, so possibly it's more thorough than immigration as well. In the 20 minutes I am waiting, I hear the word "bruv" more times than in watching "Kidulthood" and "Adulthood" combined.

12:10am: I get in and see Newham Generals, (Footsie and D Double), on stage. They are killing it, doing more of a straight PA of their songs than the usual rave style of spitting random bars. For some reason D Double's mic level is really low, but still when he does "Streetfighter", the place explodes.

12:30am: The Newham Generals set is over. Logan Sama tries to get the crowd to have sing-alongs to "German Whip" and the Fekky version of "Sittin' Here." Not feeling it. This is redeemed by a sing-a-long of "Next Hype" which ends up with me in the middle of a churning crowd of dudes screaming "DUN KNOW WE GOT THE SHOTGUN THERE!" Since everyone in England wears cologne this is not as unpleasant as it should be.

1:00am: the first big MC set starts with Wiley, Chipmunk, Lll' Nasty, Ghetto, and Flirta D. Flirta D can destroy a rave. He is basically everything hip hop MC's hate about grime MCing. He only has about 8 different bars and mostly just talks in a weird voices and makes sound fx with his mouth like guy in Police Academy. It's noticeable how much better the veterans Wiley, Ghetto, and Flirta are compared to Lil' Nasty and Chipmunk (I also had no idea Chipmunk was doing grime again, as last time I checked he was making collab records with Chris Brown and pre-famous Iggy Azaelia). This set was cool, but I think Wiley seriously spat for about 45 seconds total.

1:30am: DJ Majestic from Kiss FM plays a really nice set of old garage. In addition to seeing all the MC's live, it was great to hear all these old tunes like "Bound for da reload" on a big system.

1:45am: FEED 'EM TO THE LIONS!

1:55am: the DJ starts playing a Top 40 trap set which culminates in a singalong of "Coco" that is possibly louder than the grime sing-alongs were. It's kinda weird to hear a room of full people sing along to "Mitch caught a body about a week ago" a week after Mitch got charged for that body. Also, in the Internet era there is no excuse to play this kind of set and play things like "Bugatti," but not "Touchdown" or "Fight Night." This set started to put me to sleep, but the bartenders seemed to like it.

2:00am: I've realized no one in London says "excuse me," ever. First I thought people were playing a game called "bump into the yank," but then I noticed everyone else was running into each other, jostling each other, and shoving each other all night. This is probably why people in London are constantly stabbing each other.

2:15am: The OGz set starts. Although it was just billed as P.Money, he brought the entire lot of the OGz with him. This may have been my favorite set of the night, as they were trading bars back and forth really tightly. P.Money spitting "Left The Room" over Pulse X destroyed me.

2:45am: I think I've heard the "Ollie Ollie Ollie, Oi! Oi! Oi!" chant used to hype up the crowd about 17 times tonight and every time it makes me think of that episode of The Office where David Brent makes a nightclub appearance.

3:15am: The main MC set starts. It's billed as just Boy Better Know, but in addition to Skepta and JME the stage is crammed with old MC's like Jammer, God's Gift, Flo Dan, Manga. Discarda, as well as newish ones like Kozzie, Merky Ace, and Big Shizz. No sign of Wiley, which is a bit disappointing. Again, it's apparent that the older MC's like Skepta and Flo Dan have a stagecraft (and knowledge of what makes good bars to shout at a room full of hyped up people) that the youngers don't. Even a marginally talented like MC like Discarda can come out and get better response out of "DISCARDA'S OUT, AND I'LL BANG YOU FATHER OUT" than a newer MC will get off a great technical bar.

3:30am: "That's Not Me" is played to a large response but truthfully I was happier to hear God's Gift spit the opening hook to"Know We" two minutes before this.

3:48am: Jammer sets a new record and spits his "Murkle Man" bars 5 times on the same half hour set. Man needs new bars.

4am: The set ends with "Funtionz On The Low" being played. Nice ending and probably the best way to sent out into the cold London night.

All in all, a good night. I probably could have done without hearing "Take Off" by Faze Miyake about 5 times (on the other hand, was totally fine with hearing "Pied Piper" multiple times). But, it was cool to hear a mix of classic 2004 beats with newer productions by Spooky, Preditah, and Darq E Freaker.

After all, if Eskimo Dances only feature older productions and have older MC's as the headlining acts, how long can grime be youth music? If all grime has to offer in 2014 is the stars of 2004, it doesn't say much for the health of the genre as a whole. But, for new MC's to come up they need to have a place where they can learn their trade in front of audience and having regular grime events in London is the only way this can happen.

Peter Gunn is our go-to grime guy - @PGunnNYC