Grime Diary: The American Interpretation Read online

sleep. That’s when I heard a little of Nina’s singing voice. Even as a whisper you could tell it was packing some force.

  They stood in the hallway talking outside her brother’s room.

  “So, what you doing tonight?” Nina asked.

  “Gonna take my friend out. Show him the spots.”

  “He’s gonna like it. Most people do.”

  “Just not the right people with the money and the influence.”

  “You play in that quicksand. Always thinking you’ll make it big somewhere. You’ve got to think smaller. Realistic.”

  “I am being realistic. I see the big goal and I’m taking it inch by inch. I’ll score soon. You wait. Get us a house and real food.”

  “I want to eat a big steak while wearing a fur coat with pearls around my neck.” Nina joked.

  “I’ve written down your demands.” T smiled.

  “Well, don’t keep your friend waiting. I’ll see you later. Thank for the things.” She said hugging him.

  T pulled more money out of the envelope and stuffed it in her hand. “I was going to get the girl something, but she’s pissing me off. I’ll see you later.”

  Nina looked over the money in her hand. She thought about giving it back, but she needed the money and T knew it. Government only did so much for the people and when the government stopped helping friends looked out for you like family T had told me. T would have given his last meal to Nina and her brother.

  T went for the door and I walked out after him.

  “You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend.”

  “Wasn’t really something I thought to mention,” He shrugged. “I need to make a call once we get to the phone booth.”

  I followed him out of the stairwell onto the walkway. On the walkway there was a group of guys. I couldn’t make out how many of them there were. Before I could react one had T by the neck. I guessed that was BP.

  BP was a muscle guy. He wore a plain gray shirt, dark jeans, and a black sweatshirt vest.

  “Where’s Chris?” BP said.

  “He should be at home in bed like all the rest of the ten year olds.”

  “Gettin’ smart?”

  “I don’t think Chris did anything to you. He might be stupid, but he isn’t going to mess with you.”

  “I want my green back.”

  “If Chris doesn’t have it, what’s going to happen then?”

  “You’ll have to figure that out.” BP said letting go.

  T walked calmly down the walkway as they watched us. T seemed to mumble to himself as we walked to the phone booth. He took a cigarette from his wallet and lit it. I thought he’d inhale the cigarette in one puff.

  At the phone booth T angrily dialed a number into the phone. He smoked his cigarette while he waited for an answer.

  “Hey mom is Chris home?”

  “No, hi or how are you? You sleep all morning and you’re gone all day.”

  “I’m sorry mom. I just don’t have time right now. Chris got me into some trouble.”

  “What trouble?”

  “You know I’ll work it out.”

  “You going out to dance and make music or something tonight?” His mother said amused.

  “Yeah. I’m taking my friend out for his first time. It’s gonna be a great show.”

  “One day I’ll see you up on the TV.”

  “Thanks mom. I’m glad I always have you. Don’t tell dad though. Can you get Chris?”

  “Okay, okay. I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  T waited a moment then he heard his brother’s voice. His face turned stern.

  “Are you stupid?” He asked before his brother had a chance to say hello.

  “What?” His small voice asked.

  “What is this shit about you stealing from BP?”

  “I didn’t do that!” He yelled.

  “Whys everyone going on about you doing it then?”

  “I…” Chris paused.

  “You what?” Name yelled into the phone.

  “My friend told me the story about some guy stealing from him. I wanted to see if it was that easy. I went over there, but chickened out. One of his boys was tryna get rough with me. I said he wasn’t any better than me if he had his shit stolen.” Chris said. “Sorry mom. I won’t cuss.” He whispered away from the phone.

  “Shit Chris! Keep your mouth shut about stupid stories.”

  “At least I can keep track of my things. He’s 8 years older than me. I keep better track of your weed.” Chris joked

  T smiled. “Ahhh shut up Chris.”

  Chris laughed, “Ah, well dad’s calling. He wants you home. Says he wants to actually lay eyes on you then you can go.”

  T groaned. “Isn’t seeing me slip into my room enough?”

  “Apparently not.”

  “I’ll be home soon.” T said hanging up the phone.

  T turned from the phone, threw his cigarette butt on the ground and looked at me with a smile on his face. “Let’s get something to eat.”

  “Didn’t your brother say you had to come home?”

  “My dad’ll be up for a while longer.”

  Again I followed him as we walked back into the city. There were a few places open, but not much activity until we turned the next street. There were two delis side by side with groups of young people flowing out from them. They were all chatting happily while eating something wrapped in foil.

  T knew everyone that was there. A lot of people were asking about his brother and BP, but he ignored them. Pushing his way to the counter T yelled his order to the man. The man turned quickly cutting meat off large beef rod. He put it on a pita then stuffed it with veggies and a little sauce. He wrapped it in tin foil. T handed him money and walked away.

  “You sure you don’t want any? This is the best late night food. Gets ya right for the drinks.” T said mouth full.

  “It looks great. I’m just not hungry.”

  T shrugged.

  Out in the street a large group had started to crowd around a few guys. It didn’t look like many cars came down this street at night. The crowd acted as if they owned the place. One guy had his mp3 out with a small portable speaker ready to start playing music. The few guys in the middle looked ready for battle.

  The beat started and it was simple. There was a lot of bass and synth mixed with electronic sounds with a dark feel. It was a dark feel that made me feel real badass for the moment. Then, when the few guys in the middle of the crowd started to rap again, I felt small and nowhere near as bad ass.

  The words they spat were fast, rough, hard and in your face. They weren’t trying to be quiet. The point wasn’t to have people just listen to you. The point was to listen and vibe. They rapped so fast that some people didn’t know what they were saying, but they kept moving fast to the beat. Others only knew the end rhyme and shouted when it came up.

  “I like this.” I said nodding my head to T.

  “This is what I wanted to show you.”

  “Rapping?”

  “Grime.”

  “Explain what I’m seeing… cause to me it’s like rapping.”

  “I’d say it’s a part of UK hip hop. In the US, rap started with hip hop and it’s still confused with it. With hip hop you can do tons of things, but with grime it’s somewhat limiting.”

  “Why limiting?”

  “If you only do grime, straight grime you’ll be doing 140 bpm beats all the time. No chance with pop or any of that. It’s chill ya know. Some grime dudes that’s good for them, but like with hip hop in the US it can be pop or it can go towards rock. When a grime artist even thinks about pop it’s a lot of hate.”

  “Why’d he go to pop?”

  T shrugged his shoulders. “Sometimes pops sells more and other times he wants to experiment.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with experimenting, but watering this down to a pop sound for more money doesn’t seem right. East Coast and West Coast didn’t water down the talk about murders
.”

  “That’s where we’re different. The US runs hip hop and rap, but with pop you guys take any artist on UK top charts.”

  “That’s true.”

  T started to walk away from the crowd. “We can’t make it into the US.”

  “I think you can make it. If everyone is as hungry as they are, I don’t see why not.”

  “We all think we can make it, but no one gives us a chance. Your radios are filled with US stuff. UK radio is full with US stuff and a few of UK talents, but a small few. It’s crazy.”

  “It’s crazy that we have control like that when our hip hop and rap is currently on the lower quality.”

  “That’s what everyone is always saying. We’d be honored to rap with some of your mainstream people, but we don’t really want to. I mean we’d probably eat most of them as breakfast. By dinner time the US airwaves would be taken over.” T joked.

  I laughed. “No denying that, but you’re in the US now.”

  “Well, they hate our accents. Girls adore us in America, but when we start rapping it’s so confusing.”

  “That’s bullshit. There’s famous rappers that rap fast and there’s ones that have southern accents. We still give them a try. You’ve just got to take over. Force it on them somehow.”

  “If only that was easy,” He paused. “I just think we need America, but Americans don’t seem to want us in the raw.”

  “Well you can’t come over here nude. We’d think you were a bunch of rapping homos.” I joked.

  “You know what I meant by raw.”

  I grinned. “Ya I know.”

  The walk to his house seemed longer than it should have been. I wanted to wait on a street corner to wait for a taxi to come by, but T insisted no one would give us a ride. We kept on walking until we saw BP and one of his boys. They had found us again.

  “My stupid brother wasn’t anywhere near your place. He was talking smart to one of your