Selections: U.K. x Brazil link-ups and the best singles from October 2021

Grandmixxer x Semiseria – Tipo a Noite

Mayday x AKA AFK – Normal Day (prod. By Vagrant Real Estate)

As Brazil’s grime scene – known as ‘Brime’ – continues to grow, more and more collaborations between U.K and Brazil-based artists are popping up. We’ve had East Man & Fernando Kep’s ‘Ouroboros’; ‘Cara do Grime’, which featured Discarda and a selection of names from the Brazil scene, and in October, ‘Tipo a Noite’ and ‘Normal Day’. The latter two caught my eye and got me thinking, so I decided to take a closer look at them.

Way back in February 2020, South London Space Agency launched the Endz Music competition. The format was simple: an open call via social media for any emcee to send the label their best sixteen bars, the winner receiving the chance to release and record it with the SLSA team.

The winner was Semiseria. Hailing from Salvador, a scan through her back catalogue so far shows a spitter with pinpoint delivery, contorting her flow over booming rap beats (‘Onze‘), mid-tempo boom-bap (‘Auera Abolicionista‘), and ominous drill instrumentals (‘Tudududu‘). There’s grime in there, too. ‘B3CK DE BANDID4‘ — a collaboration with MC Taya and producer VINI — is a grime club cut with vivid choral pads, and her appearance on Brasil Grime Show back in May this year is full of molten-hot barring.

On ‘Tipo a Noite’, Semiseria navigates the beat with finesse. Her flow — laid back but precise — wraps around the instrumental, rising in intensity with the ascending bassline. As Grandmixxer’s beat drops into a crystalline soundscape, Semiseria goes with it, fluidly moving into a half-sung hook. Made in Lambeth, perfected in Salvador.

Birmingham’s Mayday is no stranger to international collaborations. A spitter with a nuanced approach to his music and how he markets it, March 2020’s “0121JPN” saw him collaborate with OnJuicy, Pakin and Catarrh Nisin, three leading lights from the grime scene in Japan. His latest track – titled ‘Normal Day’ – features a guest verse from Sao Paulo’s AKA AFK, an emcee keen eared U.K. heads may have heard on September’s “Brasa No Mapa.” Backed by a downtempo, drill inspired beat with rainy melodies and a longing sax riff, the two emcees spit acute grime flows. Mayday lays down bars about the normalcy of life, while AKA AFK’s flows attack the pockets of the beat with aplomb.

Both ‘Tipo a Noite’ and ‘Normal Day’ serve as cultural exchanges between the respective grime scenes of the U.K and Brazil. With international collaborations, new ideas can be found, and relationships can be forged, the latter undoubtedly planting seeds further than the artists ever thought the work would in the first place. Grime is often chided for its unoriginality, as though it’s a relic unwilling to die, but the U.K. and Brazil axis provides new voices on both sides. While the internet would have you believe that grime’s lack of mainstream presence means that its artists should pack up their dubplates, these independently forged collaborations create expressions that are worth more than any mainstream attention can bring.

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gl00my – Shade

U.K based producer gl00my makes music around the axis of wave and neo-grime, with past releases on labels like Plasma Abuse and Terrorrhythm under his belt. His latest tune – titled ‘Shade’ – is full of vivid melodies, rushing build-ups and dizzying peaks, while a famous R&B sample is submerged inside the neon-tinged soundscape. Stream ‘Shade’ for a track that’s both euphoric and yearning yet still packs weight when played through the headphones.

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Lyrical Strally – The Medicine (prod. by Gillz)

Street Frequency Music is a record label started in 2020 by grime DJ and producer Travis-T, quickly releasing a selection of vocal and instrumental grime tunes made to devastate club speakers across the globe. The label’s latest release is Lyrical Strally’s ‘The Medicine’. Strally’s story, here, is one of self-actualisation. But his words are no fiction. He muses on the way school systems, capitalism, and the world, in general, try to enforce social restrictions on young Black kids, ultimately stopping them from prospering in the way they should. As the track unfolds, Strally discusses musical independence, discusses the duality of road life and the conditions that lead people there, before closing out the tune with the type of blistering flow we’ve come to know from him over the years. ‘The Medicine’ is the lead single and title track from Strally’s latest EP, “The Medicine”, which you can stream in full here. 

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Jakebob – Hard 2 Source Dub

Jakebob’s single ‘Hard 2 Source Dub’ was first released on Bandcamp at the end of September, making its way to streaming services a month later. Here, a massive brass riff struts over samples awash with echo and reverb, booming 808s and the type of bass lines needed to make any dub inspired track work. Dub and grime are intrinsically linked, and mashing the two styles is a great way to pay homage to sound system culture and creative maximum vibes.