Three photographers talk about their time embedded in the scene
Article originally published on May 6, 2016 By Son Raw for Red Bull Music. See full article here.
Grime’s success hinges on the careful combination of the right beat, the best bars and an electric crowd. The MCs and rappers behind grime, a genre that splintered from garage in the early 2000s, at once shout out their London roots and make forward-thinking music for the future. Those helming grime’s first generation were determined to thread their multicultural makeup and shared struggle into something that would have a crater-like impact on culture. And judging from grime’s explosive resurgence as of late, they succeeded.
But for the South London-born photographer Ashley Verse, Grime has always been a part of life. “I used to listen to grime in school as it was always around me,” he says. “We were playing and sharing it on old mobile phones via Bluetooth and always used to spit bars in the corner.” These mobile sessions would go on to attract outsiders, too, such as Japanese photographer Jun Yokoyama. He was living abroad in London when he first encountered grime on a night bus. “It was on upper deck of the N21 to Bexleyheath in 2005. I overheard these kids spitting bars along to this music, and I was so curious that I went to check it out,” he says.
Conversely it was London’s ever-changing club scene, particularly raves, that introduced photographer Vicky Grout to these new beats and MCs. “I started at house and garage nights but it was Butterz records, that was my introduction to the sound,” she says. “From there I started shooting the raves I was going to.”
For this Photo Mixtape, Verse, Yokoyama and Grout detailed the stories and personalities behind a selection of their iconic Grime shots.
Ashley Verse
Ashley Verse hails from Mitcham, South London – a cultural hotbed in its own right. “The South always had its own style,” he says. “So Solid Crew [the proto-grime pioneers] were from South London, so it was always around us.” First a schoolyard fan, Verse later began collaborating with various artists on visual projects, including what he calls “low budget hood videos” for local stars like Stormzy.
That’s a picture of Wiley at the Halloween Eskimo dance – which explains the mood – he’d just finished spitting and was backing into the shadows. But the light was still on his eyes. You can imagine how eager I was to get the shot, I was really concentrating on him because he has that reputation of not always making his shows. Ashley Verse
Verse's work has been informed by his roots as well as his own fandom, which causes his photos to speak to viewers at eye level. “When I first started out, I was in the crowd and didn’t have access to the press pit, so I’d give you the vision the fans had,” he says. “If I was in the studio, I wanted to see how the artists made this and how it all came together.”
That’s Fekky and Skepta and it’s another one we got at a video shoot. It’s the “Way Too Much video.” I took photos of the shoot pretty much all day but we also got a full set of portraits, capturing the essence of their friendship. There’s always downtime in video shoots where you can capture those kinds of moments.
This picture of Skepta is a double exposure, you could flip that photo around – it’s two silhouettes overlaid. Once I saw the blue light, it reminded me of his video for Nasty, I wanted to capture it as best as I could through the shadows.
That was in Croatia, at Fresh Island Festival. Shooting at a big festival out of London is a different dynamic than a smaller party but there were a lot of UK people there, so that made it easy. Skepta was meant to perform but couldn’t make it. So his brother and crewmember JME came instead. He’s very select about his performances and he shelled it for an hour, so it was sick. He really gave the crowd a lot of energy.
That’s from the recording of the “London Bars” collaboration between Chase & Status and Novelist. I tried to capture his personality. I think London is very much about being yourself, so when I capture people I try to get to what’s really them.
This shot of Stormzy and Chip was taken from the video shoot to their tune “Hear Dis.” They’d just finished the shoot and the light was down. But I managed to light that shot to get the dynamics of the skate park in the back, to capture the contrast between their energy and the environment.