What’s going on grime fans.

This is the first part in a little tour around Bow with Lee Brasco. Over the next week on Grime Forum and Fullygrown Grime, Brasco will be the guide around E3 as we bump into other MCs and pop into Rhythm Division, as well as the man himself giving you the low-down on what he’s been up to, what’s coming and his views on the scene. I met Brasco at the end of Eric Street near Bow Common Lane and, after a few opening words, we began by walking through Bow cemetery.

Through the gate, we walk up to about the second lamppost on the left-hand side.

So this is the place that you refer to in The Chase on ‘Drastic Measures Volume 2’ yeah? About Roachee and the baseball bat?

Brasco points to a patch of whitish concrete on the right that cuts into the grass.

LB: Yeah yeah, it was right there.

Can you just run through the lyric again?

LB: ‘Jump on the pedal-bike,
Go through the cemetery alley-way
Where I broke my virginity,
Did my first street robbery,
Tried to wrap one guy for a brand-new phone but I didn’t do it properly,
He got the police, I shouted ‘stop it please’,
And Roachee came with the baseball bat and knocked him to his knees,
I got up and breezed.’

After listening to ‘Drastic Measures Volume 1’, The Chase shows you build on from the ideas of the first one I think. You seem to spread your wings a bit more on volume two as well – there’s almost some kinda yardie stuff on there, a slower hip-hop kinda beat that you go over-‘

LB: I know exactly what you’re talking about, but it’s not yardie.

Yeah I know I know, but I just wanna get across the different styles on there, and building on from the concepts of the first one. It’s a progression, there’s a few different flows on there.

LB: I’m a king of flows bruv. Like the funniest thing is I wrote a lot of them tunes quickly, cos I can write quick. When I’ve got an idea in my head, I’m a guy that once I’ve got the flow the lyrics are there. Some people write the bars, then they think of the flow.

A king of flows yeah?

LB: Nah but as for the king of flows, I’m not even tooting my own horn like, if you hear my tunes I got a lot of flows you get me, like a lot of different flows. I just got so much flows, trust me.

I’m not really paying attention to exactly where we’re going, but sooner or later we get to the Lincoln North Estate. Dizzee used to live here, and Wiley played table-tennis at Lincoln Arches youth club. It’s no longer here, but there’s still some colour murals on the wall as we walk into the estate.

LB: Dizzee did them you know.

What?

LB: Yeah, Dizzee must have done them when he was about 17. He graffitied his signature on but I can’t see it now, it must have got rubbed off. But yeah, Dizzee could always draw.

After the unexpected insight, we get back to talking about the promos.

So you’ve done two promos, but there hasn’t been a mixtape yet. What’s the thinking behind your approach at the moment?

LB: Right now I’m working on ‘Deep with the Lines’. There’s two volumes, and I’m working on both alongside each other. The first one is gonna have sixteen tracks – that should be out soon. But to be honest with you, I just wanna give stuff out for free.

What for the fans?

LB: I don’t even call them fans, I just call them people that like my music. Because fans is slyly a par.

Why?

LB: But like someone’s who’s 18 might just think I’m a good MC. I’m not gonna call them my fan, you know what I mean?

So not just fans as in they’ll buy your stuff without thinking?

LB: That’s what I’m saying. But really – if you like my music, thanks, if you don’t like my music, thanks, it don’t really bother me nah mean? If someone says I’m crap I ain’t gonna cry, I’m a grown man.

We walk past a little pub on one of the street-corners, with two blokes already drinking before 11. The old industry here is overlooked by East London’s new financial power, Canary Wharf, which stands tall in the background.

But we move on, and head down one of the subways. Brasco points at someone at the bottom. The guy points back, shouting.

LB: It’s Gift!

Find out what God’s Gift is up to, as well as the next part of the tour, in tomorrow’s instalment.

Brasco’s Myspace
Brasco’s Twitter
Brasco’s Blog
Fullygrown Grime

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