Do It!

The crowd during the filming of Alistair Siddons’ documentary on…

Breakdancing in Soweto!!

Look at him go!!! Photos by Jamie-James Medina.

I was going through some CDs t’other day and I found a grime compilation that my friend Matthew made for me at the end of 2003. What a great time for music it truly was. The best of times, the worst of times. Oh sorry, we’re talking about grime here. Erm, it was the nangest of times, the aggiest of times. Anyway, the CD was filled with classics that you just don’t seem to get any more. Very, very few tunes from the last few years come anywhere near the likes of Riko’s vocal of Wizzbit’s “Poppadomz”, Roll Deep’s “Regular”, Ruff Sqwad’s “Tingz In Bootz”, D Double E’s “Birds In The Sky” and his vocal of Big-E-D’s “Frontline”. Btw, did you know Big-E-D now makes really cheesy breaks stuff? What a waste of talent. In other news, Logan Sama has gone on some sort of Kurt Cobain tip and made a bunch of “Grime is dead” T-shirts. Following Peaches Geldof’s recent interview with MC Ghetto, I think Logan is planning to get her father involved in a Grime Aid campaign. The kids over at the RWD forum certainly seem to agree. I read some comments on there from one guy who said he could vividly picture Logan standing on stage in front of the world with the plea: “Every two weeks a grime MC has to sign on at Job Centre Plus, with your help by buying their mixtapes, DVDs and vinyl, you can make their life much better.” I think there was also talk of MC Narstie donating himself to Africa, but I’m not sure how that would help things. Anyway, support the cause and buy your T-shirt on eBay or MySpace Logan directly. Whatever happens, it will at least mean Logan might have enough money to put out his mixtape, The Business, or release a couple more bangers on his Adamantium label. The only release worth getting out of bed for this month is South Rakkas Crew’s incredible, but cheesy, EP on Mad Decent, which is the perfect meeting between rave and dancehall (if you thought such a thing could exist). Apart from that, the only new tracks I have been listening to are Sinden and Count of Monte Cristal’s shuffley metallic bassline-heavy remix of Toddla T and Serocee’s “Do U Know?” and Apple’s “Mr Bean”, which are the sole reasons I bothered to write the column this month. I don’t think I’ve properly mentioned “Mr Bean” before but it sounds like a grimey but funky 4/4 remix of a makossa song and easily has the catchiest riff of the year. Before I go, I should mention that Partizan films just flew Vice out to Soweto with their director Alastair Siddons. He was making a documentary about this insane, giant breakdancing tournament in the middle of the townships. The movie, still untitled, is dude for release in 2008. While we were there, Jamie-James Medina, who shot pretty much every grime photo in the last four years of Do It! and Grimewatch, made a documentary of his own which you can see coming soon on VBS.tv. You’ll be pleased to know everyone escaped without anyone trying to “drop science” on them. I will leave you with a recent interview I did with 22-year-old Sheffield dude Toddla T, who is apparently Sinden’s favourite producer of 2007 or something, and probably will be yours too in 2008. Vice: You sound like someone who is trying to make dancehall/techno/garage/house/hip-hop all at once within the same track without coming across like those dicks who make stuff like Baltimore bootlegs of kuduro tracks with an Akon a cappella and a Daft Punk sample hook, and describe their tastes as “eclectic”. Tell me about that. Toddla T: Well, I first started producing when I was about 16, which is when I started going raving. I was exposed to loads of stuff like electro, dancehall, house, techno etc. There are some wicked party DJs in Sheffield who mash it up really well—DJ Pipes, Winston Hazel and Monkz. I used to go to all these little parties, mainly warehouse things. There is this party called Kabal up here where the sonic is very individual. You’ll hear bleepy techno next to the new Dave Kelly riddim but it all makes sense. It’s something I’ve only really heard up here. I remember going to them parties when I was about 17 and just being blown away by it all. I thought it was amazing how it was all linked in so well. Which dancehall producers are you into? I really like South Rakkas Crew. I love “Bionic Ras”—it’s a couple years old now, I know, but still kills me. I’m not a straight up dancehall head, though. I like the slightly mental producers like DJ C, Heat Wave and Ross Orton—the guy who produced MIA’s “Galang”. Do you know about Stephen McGregor? He was like 15 when he produced Red Bull & Guinness which pretty much broke Mavado’s career. Yeah, I remember Robbo Ranx going on about him. I need to check him out. So why are you named after a baby? I’ve always been the youngest out of all my friends—I was always Lil’ Tom. It just went from there, really. You do now if you were called Toddla P that would be bad because it might imply you had a really small penis, i.e., the size of a toddler’s? Ah, seen. Maybe that could be the indie side-project. Did you know Ce’Cile made a dub for me saying I have a “big stick”? Would you shag her? Yeah, probably. Would you? You’d have to. PRANCEHALL