With Travs Presents At The Helm, Grime 3.0 Is In Safe Hands

London-based collective Travs Presents are the new kids on grime’s block, here to shake up the scene and refresh the genre for cult listeners and new fans alike via their electric radio presence and live events as the sound enters an exciting new era of prominence. 

Grime—the UK garage, dancehall, and hip-hop-inspired movement conjured from the mind of Richard “Wiley” Cowie in 2001—has birthed some of the biggest stars this country has ever seen (see: Skepta, Stormzy, and Kano); however, as with most genres, it has had its low moments, most notably during the late-00s and early 2010s when its leading MCs chose pop over the sound that essentially made them. 

Grime 2.0 happened during the tail end of 2013 and into 2014, with tracks like “German Whip” by Meridian Dan (and Big H and Jme) and “That’s Not Me” by Skepta featuring Jme being catalysts of this entire revival. But from 2018 to late 2022, things weren’t as vibrant as they perhaps could’ve been. Sure, artists were still shelling down radio sets, but live bookings had dried up drastically and certain projects weren’t hitting as hard as many had hoped. The excitement had dipped yet again.

With an aim to take things back to basics, since 2022, Travs Presents—made up of core members Travs, SI*BL, CHAMBER45, Kwaane, David and Dan—took it upon themselves to do what grime’s elders should have done many moons ago: unite the scene by bringing the live essence back to the fore. Grime is traditionally known for its community and grassroots approach to music through live events and sets, and this is where Travs Presents have been able to amass a strong following. Some examples of their focus on collaboration is shown through their work with stations like NTS, Kindred and Rinse FM, as well as parties with the likes of JUST JAM and TRENCH.

Through an array of compelling MCs (such as Renz, Duppy, Kruz Leone, M.I.C. and Kibo), super-skilled DJs and creative documentarians, it’s safe to say the Travs Presents team have filled a void in grime. Each member of the collective has different roles and responsibilities and, together, they have been able to platform innovation, expressiveness, and an authenticity that has been missing in the game for quite some time. 

With everyone screaming Grime 3.0 for 2024, the time was right to sit down with Travs Presents to find out more about their vision for this scene’s future.

COMPLEX: For those unaware of the vital work you guys do, what exactly is Travs Presents and who are its core members?

SI*BL: Travs Presents is a group of people within grime coming together with the main goal of making things happen.  

Travs: So there’s me—Travs!—CHAMBER45 and SI*BL, who DJ at every set; Dan runs every project, sets deadlines and focuses on logistics with SI*BL; David is behind the videography and has filmed all of the Travs sets—he’s also built our website for the sets to exist on. Then there’s Kwaane, who runs our social media and has helped it grow; he’s got a background in skating, too. And I edit all our YouTube videos, focus on the vision, and overlook all the projects with the guys.

SI*BL: On top of that, we work with MCs all the time and collaborate with our friends on sets and parties.

What inspired the launch of Travs Presents?

Travs: I met CHAMBER45 and SI*BL in 2020 and had this idea for a while—I thought it was something that needed to happen. We shouted Kindred, a local radio station, and asked to facilitate something there and they were up for it.

CHAMBER45: The idea really came about after a drunk conversation [laughs], when Travs mentioned Chipmunk’s “Bluku Bye Bye” set. 

Travs: [Laughs] That was a set I had on religiously and thought sets like that just don’t happen anymore. We don’t get a lot of different DJs and MCs together in the same room as much as before, so I wanted to bring that vibe back.

SI*BL: Also, I feel like other generations grew up on tapes but a lot of the music, MCs and content we grew up on existed on YouTube. So we wanted to start uploading sets and videos on YouTube of a certain quality and we knew it would have to be consistent.

Are there any grime-focused platforms from back in the day that inspired you guys?

SI*BL: When it comes to YouTube content, JUST JAM was a big driving force, especially their event with Footsie and D Double E because the visuals were different and fresh to us. When we got our own JUST JAM last summer, it showed us that we were making steps in the right direction.

Who or what introduced you all to grime?

CHAMBER45: I grew up on Channel U, but I was properly introduced to grime through the old-school ringtone era. This is mainly when I was listening to dubstep but wanted to explore the origins of the genre more, so I began digging deep and started listening to old-school grime and garage, which also inspired my DJing style.

Travs: When I was younger, grime was such a broad term and a lot of UK rap songs would be called grime too. So my first proper introduction to grime was the Chip and Bugzy Malone beef, which was a big topic in school—we would all wait for the next drop by them so we could talk about it the next day. From that point on, I just started doing research and studying backwards.

SI*BL: I remember scrolling Facebook recently and seeing a post of me when I was in Year 7, and I had a Wiley and Skepta freestyle on there. I would also say that I got into a lot more during the Bluetooth era, too, especially when I heard Chipmunk’s “Who Are You?” which sent me into a wormhole! With the era we’re from, it just means we’re going to dig deeper into the beginnings of grime.

What are your current thoughts on the scene, and who would you say is carrying the torch?

CHAMBER45: Grime is at a weird crossroads. There’s a lot of talent in this space but there’s a difference between talent and carrying a scene. At this point, I would say we’re carrying the scene—all the mandem affiliated with Travs Presents are putting on for grime right now.

SI*BL: As a team, we built a style by watching old DVDs and how DJs were mixing back then, so we have an understanding of the fundamentals that make grime great while bringing in new sounds and being innovative.

What does the future of grime look like to you guys?

CHAMBER45: Hopefully everyone gets involved again, especially people from outside of the grime scene. It would be nice to see other people from different genres jump on grime.

Travs: Yeah, everyone needs to be more involved in a way that allows the whole scene to eat, especially a lot of these older MCs. But only if they rate what’s going on because if the torch never gets passed down, most grime fans will only acknowledge the older-gen MCs who aren’t making grime anymore. 

SI*BL: We need more producers making epic instrumentals and people participating in radio shows and producing visual content of a certain quality. This will all help to push grime forward.

CHAMBER45: For grime to evolve properly, we have to recognise it as an electronic genre because it is. Genres like dubstep and techno are seen as electronic music, but grime is still put in a dirty little corner.

SI*BL: And as DJs, we see how well grime and other dance music genres work together. It is impossible for people to say that grime isn’t dance music because that is exactly what it is. 

Do you think that there’s an issue with gatekeeping or purism within grime that’s affecting its growth and what you’re doing at Travs Presents?

Travs: A little bit, but it isn’t what we focus on because there are always going to be grime fans and people we’re putting on to the genre through our events and sets.

SI*BL: There are people who are turning 18 [years old] every day that want to go to new raves and events; those are the people we should be focusing on—not gatekeepers. And if you’re an old head shunning innovation or gatekeeping, history won’t look on you very well. Someone like Skepta has always had the right mindset and embraced the new MCs by working with them over the years, and history looks on him well.

Since your visibility has increased over the past year, how do you guys stay engaged with your growing audience?

SI*BL: With the way we operate, we never really have stages at our shows or anything; our MCs are always on the ground, and you can catch us in the crowd wearing Travs Presents tees and talking to our community. It is impossible to not be engaged with the people who come to our events and sets. There’s not much distance between us and the people who come to our sets—they end up becoming our friends.

Travs: Also, big up Mikey especially because the first time he came to a show was in April and he still always comes down to Travs Presents, telling people about it because he enjoys what we, the mandem, are doing. 

SI*BL: That is literally our best marketing: people talking about what we do because they enjoy it. And now, whenever people mention grime, they mention Travs Presents in the same breath.

You’ve had gigs with Adidas twice now—which is no mean feat. How did they both come about?

Travs: DaMetalMessiah called me one day and spoke about us facilitating an event and, before news of that even came out, [Joseph] JP [Patterson] had also hit us up about getting involved in the TRENCH x Adidas pop-up. They both made sense and turned out to be great sets with a lot of people coming down to see what was going on.

SI*BL: I think we clocked that once we start to get these good looks, it will lead to opportunities for all the mandem, such as more bookings, conversations, and exposure.

CHAMBER45: When it comes to grime, Adidas and the three-stripe tracksuit are so linked so it’s mad that we’re in these conversations. We literally performed after Ruff Sqwad and Jme! Jme announced us to the crowd before we began our set as well, which was mad.

What have been your highlights so far?

SI*BL: Definitely JUST JAM. Before JUST JAM, we were just doing our thing with radio shows and trying to host parties. Collaborating with JUST JAM showed us that people outside of Travs Presents want to work with us, too, and a sign of what was to come. A real turning point for us, most definitely. 

Travs: It helped us present what we were doing on a different level so people could see our progress and the growing demand. The first set at Kindred was in April 2023; we had taken a break since our end-of-year set in 2022, which went really well but we were wondering whether we would decline or go up. Our Kindred set ended up getting super-packed and it was nice to see that after a four-month gap since our last Travs Presents, we still had people paying attention. We had a lot of sick MCs come down, including Renz, Kruz Leone, Jaffa, Novelist, NamesBliss, Logan, and JoSoSick. SI*BL and CHAMBER45 were DJing that night and everything went so well. 

SI*BL: Before, we were always trying to shout people and explain what was going on. But with our first set of 2023, MCs were coming down because they heard this was the place to come and spit bars. Meaning that Travs Presents is now recognised as the place to be! People are paying attention to what we’re doing. 

Travs: It was quite surreal because we had MCs telling us they didn’t know things like this were still happening and it showed us that we were doing something right. 

CHAMBER45: The first NTS show we did was also quite important because Tim & Barry asked us to do a takeover on their show around September, which went off! It showed that putting in work is always worth it. 

What do the next few years look like for Travs Presents?

Travs: It will look like a massive building where we can have our community together. More sets and collaborations, too, of course.

SI*BL: Doing shows on big platforms and doing enough work with our friends for them to end up as superstars. Ultimately, the sky is the limit and we just want to do bigger things and even take this to an international level. 

CHAMBER45: I wanna see more youngers getting involved, people being more inclusive and artists getting off of Twitter Spaces and focusing on the music! The way I see Travs Presents’ future is how I see the future of grime, mostly. I also wanna see the mandem getting to the bread. That’s always important.

What is the most important thing you want people to take away from Travs Presents and the movement you’re building?

SI*BL: Collaboration, mainly. It takes a village to build something, so it’s all about collaboration and community with us.

Travs: Unity as well. There are lots of different people who come through and have a good time, so that’s what we want to get across: unity.

SI*BL: Accessibility as well. Sometimes, grime spaces can be daunting for people who might not be used to the genre, but this is an open space for people to enjoy music like they would with any other genre.