Grime Labour
Soundings - ISSN 1362-6620
Volume 2018 Number 68
Grime Labour
Monique Charles pages -
Abstract
Grime’s cross-race working-class appeal is connected to a wider picture of changing identi cations in urban areas, particularly in the inner cities, the site of the emergence of ‘new urban ethnicities’ and ‘neighbourhood nationalisms’. Corbyn’s leadership makes it possible to link with this constituency. The response by Corbyn and grime artists to the Grenfell disaster further illuminates this shared link with contemporary working-class neighbourhoods. Grime artists should be understood as organic intellectuals, taking on roles to represent the working class, theorise their position and offer them a means of political intervention. Unlike the Blair/Britpop relationship, grime artists’ endorsement of Corbyn is from the bottom up, and Corbyn engages directly both with musicians and the communities they come from.
To cite this article
Monique Charles (2018) Grime Labour, Soundings, 2018(68), -