Concept of oo album muse series#

This made him the perfect mic-man for an era that saw the grime scene reconsider what dubstep had to offer, as his thunderous baritone felt tailor-made for tracks combining manic 8-bar energy with DMZ-style vastness. While barring side-by-side as part of Roll Deep came with competitive constraints, TrimвЂ™s solo output saw him slow down and make greater use of negative space over increasingly varied production.

Concept of oo album muse series#

Loose enough to never feel forced, yet consistent enough to provide satisfying front-to-back listens, Soulfood has gone down as a premiere series of the era, alongside Ruff SqwadвЂ™s Guns & Roses, WileyвЂ™s Tunnel Vision, and JmeвЂ™s Boy Better Know editions.ДЄbove all, Soulfood provided Trim with an open canvas on which to experiment. Instead, the mixtape became the final product, one that suited his strengths like a glove. Yet while most artists used their mix CDs in hope of landing a deal, that never seemed to be the case for Trim. Meanwhile, major labels were growing impatient with uncompromised MCing, and by the end of the decade, Rolex-themed electro bangers became a standard requirement for grime artists hoping for a marketing push, with 140BPM lyrics and beats being relegated to promotional mixtapes. With dubstep emerging out of the shadows to capture the wider publicвЂ™s attention, and funky house shifting the energy in clubs in a more danceable direction, serious grime MCs found themselves on the outside looking in, particularly as pirate radio devoted more airtime to these new sounds. In 2007, as the first Soulfood installments dropped, the wider UK music media was rapidly abandoning grime to focus on the next hot trend. While his peers were busy hyping up ostensibly career-defining albums or chasing the latest fad, Trim worked tirelessly to perfect his craft, tackling one idea before moving on to the next, open to leftfield concepts as long as he could integrate them into his ever-expanding musical universe. Nowhere is this truer than his Soulfood mixtapes, the 14-part, self-released, running diary of a series that comprises the bulk of his creative output to date. ItвЂ™s not that Trim ignored grimeвЂ™s conventions and competitive spirit-one need only listen to his war dubs for proof-but heвЂ™s always sought to make his mark on the genre on his own terms. The Roll Deep veteran turned inscrutable poet has always marched to the beat of his own drum, zagging left when his peers zigged right, and defying industry expectations to pursue his muse down whatever strange path it led him. Even as part of a crew, Trim stood alone.