N’Jai The Writer

I am choosing to refer to this situation as ‘ItsAlot-Gate.’ The situation that started as a mere fued between Griminal and Jammer has now culminated in physical violence not between the two themselves but Griminal and Slew Dem Crew’s Tempa T.

One slang phrase, that is not even actually a word (alot) has made people outside of the Grime scene once again look upon the scene in disgust with a patronising ‘I told you so’ attitude. When you think all this started over one word it seems petty but knowing that there is pride, credibility and much more at stake, some MC’s are not prepared to get parred easily by their peers.

Here’s how it started!!!

Griminal released a free promotional mixtape called Not Just Bars Vol 1 which built up lots of momentum and hype around Griminal who at the time was arguably one of, if not the best younger MC, alongside Chipmunk, Double S and say… Dot Rotten? On that mixtape, probably the biggest tune on in was a track called ‘It’s Alot’ which has been a big slang word for the last few years. The track was getting spun on radio, in raves, it was literally what it said on the tin, it WAS alot!

Hear Griminal’s ‘It’s Alot’ here…

Months later, Jammer, out of nowhere released a track, ironically *cough cough* titled ‘It’s Alot.’ So the same slang word was relayed in the chorus. Now Marcus Nasty, Griminal’s older brother had already had beef with Jammer back in the day and punched Jammer up so this move from Jammer wasn’t the smartest and could be taken with the upmost disrespect considering he wasn’t even cool with the N.A.S.T.Y crew after he got kicked out. So, Jammer didn’t stop there by just making a tune, he literally killed it, had T-Shirts printed with ‘Its Alot’ embezzled over them and other merchandise.

Watch Jammer’s ‘It’s Alot’ here…

Understandably, Griminal was pissed as Jammer blatently tried to par him which then made it difficult for Grim to then release a track in the same genre, with the same title, as the video and merchandising route had been exploited by Jammer so indirectly people may have been purchasing merchandise on the back of Griminal’s track and not Jammer’s, i.e. Griminal made the phrase big, Jammer ate P’s!!

The next step didn’t involve either Jammer or Griminal but it was directly related to the situation. At a time when the ‘Its Alot’ madness had slightly died down, Westwood had a radio set with Jammer, Tempa T, Ghetts and Brutal amongst others appearing.

Download the set here..

http://sendspace.com/file/0hky3n

The set was cool until about 6 minutes in (6.18) and Tempa T comes in with ‘It’s a par, it’s a par, them man goin round saying it’s a lot, but us man know it’s a par, it’s a par!’ which was directed at Grim. Tempa T’s involvement came from his affiliation with Jammer for one, but also for the fact that he claims the slang actually came from HIS crew so neither of them should really be squabbling about it however Jammer had more right than Grim to use it! In typical Ghetts fashion, he couldn’t let that happen as Griminal is his boy and he has too much machido to let that slide. So he went in against them, and even went to freestyle ‘Its Alot, It’s Alot I swear you man borrowed that from Josh, from Greengate don’t think I won’t back it, I swear you man borrowed that from Josh.’

At 10.27 Tempa T then claimed he schooled Griminal in a rave, a claim that came back to haunt him later!! He also said that he don’t wanna hear Ghetts say nothing a   bout ‘It’s Alot,’ to which Ghetts replied, ‘It’s Alot!!!’

Ok, that was that. Then Ghetts released his highly anticipated mixtape/album ‘Freedom Of Speech’ and one of the hardest tracks was ‘Threats’ which featured Brutal and Griminal, Grim’s verse contained the lyrics directed towards Jammer “Man wanna copy the sh*t that I write, now it’s got grim on a hype ting again, one or two guys I’m not liking again, Jammer don’t want me fi start writing again, you’re not heavy! Marcus banged you already, what!? Wanna fight him again?”

Threats..

The event that followed that was Ghetto’s Launch Party at Dirty Canvas when Griminal and Jammer clashed on stage, watch the footage here..

It went quiet for long, hence the assumption from the masses that this scenario was dead and buried until earlier this year when a SB.TV video was released (scroll down on the blog for that video). Griminal went in HARD at Temps!! ‘tell them man there suck ya Mum!!’

All this has culminated in bringing us where we are today. Pride is a fickle thing and for the sake of not only the artists, but the Grime scene in general MC’s need to start realising there is more than just MCing to life!! Call it melodramatic but for a mother to lose a son over a word that DOESN’T even exist would literally be ALOT! Say no more!!

Keep your eyes peeled to the home of Grime for any updates on the latest going’s ons!! http://grimeforum.com