Chase & Status, aka Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status), have shared the complete London Bars EP and video series, which aims to highlight some of the U.K.'s brightest rising grime MCs. The project features new tracks with Frisco, Giggs, Bonkaz and Novelist, and was released Chase & Status' own label, MTA Records.
The series was initially released in installments as a four-part series, and now has been compiled as an EP. You can watch the full-length visual component of the project, which features all four MC's, as well as the London electronic bass music production duo themselves plus usual collaborator MC Rage, below.
The production duo told SBTV "London Bars is a project we're very passionate about. It showcases some of the most exciting MC's to emerge out of the UK and was a real privilege to work with legends and rising stars alike," Fader reports. Indeed, the talented MCs the production duo chose for the series range in notoriety, so the series does a good job of giving a brief overview of UK's MC-heavy grime sound. Frisco is known for his work with BBK. Giggs is of SN1 (Spare No 1) fame. Novelist is a founding member of The Square crew. Bonkaz is relatively newer to the scene and just dropped a new video for his track "You Don't Know" last month.
Although grime has gained more visibility since Kanye's performance at the Brit Awards earlier this past year during which he invited a whole posse of UK's finest MCs to perform "All Day" with him, the genre has historically been a thing of the underground, once relegated to UK pirate radio. In recent years the genre has trickled from its East London home, and has seen some mutations around the world, perhaps most notably in the case of American producer Rabit, who takes things in a more instrumental direction. In highlighting four different London-based MCs, London Bars brings the genre back to its MC-driven roots.
The London Bars EP marks the duo's first release since 2013's full-length entitled Brand New Machine, which plays like a history lesson in the duo's musical interests and is certainly a nod to the bass-driven parties of the UK's underground in the 90s. The duo has been synonymous with UK bass music since long before 2013 though--their 2011 album No More Idols went triple-platinum, bringing their fusion of electronic bass music genres and expertise in drum'n'bass in particular to the masses. Judging from comments on the duo's social media accounts, fans are really getting antsy for more drum'n'bass, and have mixed feelings about this all-grime project. As Your EDM reports, their fourth full-length studio album is due out sometime in 2016.
