Eskimo Dance: The Essential Grime Experience

Grime is an energy, and the icy synths, raging bass and braggadocios bars are the elements that compel you to screwface as a sign of appreciation. It's the way the MCs battle for the mic to generate the most chaos from a crowd—it's that Who's got a Nokia? Take that what! attitude. You're in the midst of a grime renaissance—can you feel the sweat dripping down your neck? That lingering smell of clammy adolescents with a forgetful fear of deodorant? If not, then you're probably in the wrong place and may as well be watching a Coldplay gig.

Eskimo Dance, one of the biggest and most iconic grime events, has been on a tour of the UK's major cities this year—with our highlight being London's March 5 stop, where they delivered the sound to the masses one reload at a time. Since the alleged signing of Drake to BBK—and that globally-reported appearance at a Section Boyz show—most London club nights that play only a sprinkling of grime have been jam-packed (and even shut down) with the excitement of a potential Aubrey arrival. Eski freezed up that hype and left it outside for the foxes, with no 'take care' notes in sight.

Fans were there to witness President T shell and welcome back Solo 45 with a flying gun-finger. It was also refreshing to see a room full of just-turned-18-year-olds step out from behind their computers and experience grime IRL, live in the flesh. Here are some of our favourite moments from the March 5 event held at Building Six.

One of the consistent highlights of the night was the selection of epic riddims. Elijah & Skilliam's choice of instrumentals laid the foundations for the likes of AJ Tracey and Elf Kid to showcase their talents while still keeping veterans Discarda, Blacks, and P Money on their toes. Logan Sama stepped up on the ones-and-twos with a textbook in grime history and, with bangers like "Battle Riddim" and "Duppy", the crowd was ready to mosh-it-out for their bachelors degree. Rossi B & Luca slipped in Bruza's "Get Me" remix with a cheeky rotation of Maxwell D's "Serious", all before DJ Maximum entered the ring for his primetime slot with a selection of pirate radio classics like Wiley's "Fire Hydrant", intertwined with new wave beats such as Teeza's "Bounce".

Fuelled with a united passion for lighting up a set, Jammz, Big Zuu and Mez were among the new gen of emcees there to prove that they too can spin a crowd into a frenzy.

The Ruff Sqwad man dem, with a very helpful hand from Stamina and Roachee, came together to show how they function on a low. Tinchy Stryder's tings in boots bar had us feeling all nostalgic, but their mini PA of "Anna" and four reloads of their classic "Xtra"—not forgetting Slix's I'm from east London where the man dem ah BOOP line—was a true reminder of why we should start a change.org petition demanding the E3 kings to create Vol. 3 of Guns & Roses.

Ghetts took to the stage with his usual hyper-energy and venomous delivery over Rude Kid's "One Take". Surprisingly, he dropped in his Freedom Of Speech "Buss 1" chorus to completely spellbind the crowd. Justin Clarke then brought on Kane Robinson, who gave us a sneak-peak performance of "3 Wheel-Ups" and "Garage Skank" from his new Made In The Manor album. The two then propelled us back to 2006 and went back-to-back with classic bars like G-H-E-double-T-and-O and K-A blowin' up roads, K-A-N shottin like Os. Emotional times.

Kill. Off. Killy!

Witnessing Skepta as a grime royal on stage was a real moment. It wasn't until Mr. Adenuga dropped his notorious I don't wanna get locked up like Shyne, but you dissed my mum, so you crossed my line that we realised he was going to give us a full throwback of his legendary one-liners. Go on then! Go on then! Draw for the tool was the ultimate crowd pleaser, which inspired other mic champs to take a leaf out of his book and take us back to way back when. Following his lead, Chip grabbed the opportunity and delivered a barrage of '06 grime-scene-saviour war lyrics.

"Feed 'Em To The Lions" was the reload anthem of the night, hands down. And that was prior to Solo 45 even touching the stage! He proved that—even after a long hiatus—with the right number, you can always ring it off.

Wiley. The living legend. Without him, there would be no Eskimo Dance and the scene as we know it today.