Throw on any of your favourite N.A.S.T.Y Crew sets from back in the day, and you'll hear the squawky bark of Sharky Major's flow getting reloads for days.
As one of the founding fathers of this cultural movement known as grime, Sharky, a native of East London, has dedicated the last 15 years to developing the scene behind the scenes, and is revered highly amongst his peers and fans for doing so, too.
Grime Originals is Sharky Major's latest venture: a club night that has grown rapidly in the space of twelve months, and is already well on its way to legendary status. With everyone from Skepta, Wiley and Frisco to Jamakabi and Fumin passing through and touching mic, this night is bringing back that brap-shouting, gunfinger-throwing essence of 2004 that is very much needed in today's live arena in grime.
In the run-up to the next Grime Originals event, on Saturday 9th December at Fire in Vauxhall, South London, we caught up with Sharky Major to find out more.
COMPLEX: Most people who follow the grime scene will, or should, know your name as one of the genre's earliest and most influential. You're someone I always see around, making sure the sound gets pushed in all the right corners, and you've been doing so off and on since 2001. How do you stay motivated?
Sharky Major: The music is my motivation. Being able to express myself through lyrics and connect with people who can relate—for me, that's the real motivation. Even in my darkest times, or times that I was away from the scene, music still kept me going and constantly called me back when I wasn't doing it. Spending time in the game from 2000/2001, and being one of the first to push the sound, the knowledge gained from then to now—plus the business I do outside of music—made me feel comfortable to approach the game on more of an executive level than just being an emcee. But I still love, and will always love, spitting bars.
From 2001 to the present day, what's the biggest change you've seen take place?
The music going from days of having to go on pirate radio stations in high-rise tower-blocks and roof tops, in some cases risking your safety just to be heard, to the music now being popular and in-demand all around the world. I rate today's movement, though. We've come a long way and some are now reaping the benefits of consistent hard graft. Not everyone managed to get through the way Stormzy has, and although I rate him—and the fact that he's worked hard to get to his position—the likes of Wiley, Lethal, Skepta, D Double E and more kept pushing for years to bring it to the point that we're at now, when many, including myself, fell off for a while and some never returned.
I interviewed P Money last year and he said something interesting about grime raves: that we need more events run by people who know the scene's foundations. I definitely feel you're that person he was talking about so it was good to find out that you had jumped into promoting with Grime Originals. What made you want to launch a club night?
I've always wanted to put on my own events as well as run my own record label. Now, I'm happily doing both. By the end of this year I will have put on 10 events: 8 already done, and two more in December. 5 of them will have been Grime Originals. Grime Originals is an event that I feel the scene needed and would appreciate, because it seemed to have moved away from live, on-the-spot lyrics and DJs mixing tracks in at any point, to shows which mainly consisted of live P.A's. This, plus the fact that grime's gone on for around 18 years before it even had the name grime, but now we can see how it got there and who played a part to get it to the great point we're at now. Garage has Garage Nation and Back To '95, and now we can have Grime Originals but acknowledge the great newcomers over the years who will keep pushing the sound for years to come.
From your first Grime Originals in March 2017, to the one coming up, how have you changed or grown your promotion strategy?
We started off on March 5th at Birthdays, then we did one on May 7th, and then July 9th when Skepta and D Double E came through. At that point, I felt we were definitely onto a good thing but just needed to take it to a bigger venue on a good night like a Friday, and promote it properly. So the growth came from a number of things, including: online promo, footage, radio sets and interviews, our social media accounts, merchandise sales and, of course, word of mouth. So by the time we got to our September 22nd event, we had people like Wiley and other big artists openly supporting the movement which was great to see.
What do you have planned for the December 9 event?
An unmissable show packed full of greats, legends, and forgotten MCs and DJ dons of the grime scene. And, as always, we've got some very special guests coming through.
I haven't been to one yet—I'm definitely coming in December—but from the footage alone, it looks like Grime Originals has the potential to be as big as Eskimo Dance, and as legendary as Sidewinder. Pressure, much? [Laughs]
[Laughs] I'm just taking it in my stride, bro. And yeah, you've missed some sick ones! Truth is, I never planned for it to be bigger than any other grime event; I just wanted to put on an event that reminds people of how the scene grew from the bars and instrumentals, but also bring through the new generation with it. It's a grime rave highlighting where we've come from, to now. You still will get P.A's but a hell of a lot more bars.
I always say that we need that gully, hoods-up energy back in the raves; it's become a little too safe, if you get me? Of course I want people to rave safe, but that rowdy energy we used to get in grime dances seems to have disappeared. Again, from the footage I've seen, you're delivering that early 2000s feel with your nights.
I've seen a lot of footage where people are mosh out and get excited at festivals, but you don't really get it as much in the raves like before. I wouldn't like to call it rowdy, though, because the crowds are really friendly and there's no trouble like years ago, but it's good to see people excited again and not just recording on their phones all night [laughs].
Which emcees are you checking for these days? Who should we be keeping an eye on in 2018?
I check for lots, to be honest. Ghetts is like one of my all-time favourites, so is God's Gift. Over the last year, I've started to rate Manga a lot when I had slept on him before. In terms of the new generation, keep an eye on Black Steve—he's building a good following and smashing raves up, as well as the rest of my Major Muzik Ent camp like King Rah and K9. Outside of the camp, Capo Lee, Big Zuu, PK and Mez are my ones to watch for 2018.
In your opinion, what's in grime's future?
Overall, more growth and recognition around the world. I also feel the past can influence the future, and that's why Grime Originals has been so well received. But we need more live MCing and not just P.A's at events, more radio sets playing a huge part in the sound and put up on YouTube for the world to see.
