Queen Paramount

In its early days, grime was often framed as a fierce, masculine backlash against the smooth, sensual crossover success of UK garage. Writer Simon Reynolds put it this way: "Two-step had been shaped by the 'feminine pressure' for sing-along melodies and wind-your-waist grooviness. Grime arose as a backlash against this crossover sound, a violent swing in the scene's inner gender-pendulum from yin to yang." It's very accurate, but that story is only part of the picture. Grime kept the MC at the center of the music, and women have been part of that tradition from the start. Based on a long kept playlist I crafted called "girls own grime", this episode is a dedication to the female MCs and producers who made the scene theirs.