Send "Roll Deep " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 In the relentlessly forward-moving world of UK grime, retrospective compilations are rare. Many of grime's primary mediums are transient: pirate radio sets, rave clashes, or street DVD slews. So it's difficult to sum up even the best grime artists on recorded output alone. Roll Deep's Street Anthems compilation comes close to doing so, however. It helps that Roll Deep are heavyweights, the equivalent of the Murderer's Row of baseball's New York Yankees or galacticos of soccer's Real Madrid. Among the stars that have passed through its ranks and repped on this compilation are Wiley-- who formed Roll Deep from the ashes of another great grime collective, Pay As U Go, and helped usher the genre from rap-infused UK garage to what it is today-- the chart-topping Dizzee Rascal, supersub star Tinchy Stryder, yardcore MC Riko, Boy Betta Know's Skepta, dubstep fave Flowdan, and wordsmith Trim. Through their vision, experimentation, and aggression, much of grime's best moves were devised.In fact, when the crew falls it's when they try to play by other people's rules-- namely the pop industry's. You can understand the motivation behind such chartbait as "Shake a Leg", "Avenue", and "Do Me Wrong"-- commercial gain, the chance to reach a wider audience, and a reverence for U.S. pop-- but those tracks pale in comparison to the output of their transatlantic cousins that inspired them. Like grime itself, when Roll Deep define their own terms they are strongest-- shockingly innovative and brutally uncompromising. Recent bangers, made before the crew's focus shifted to respective solo projects, hold their own. "When I'm 'Ere" lays fearsome bars from the crew over Danny Weed and Target production trademarks. "Celebrate" is the closest they come to credible pop, its riff hinting at their early Sinogrime productions. But it's when Street Anthems unearths the relatively lost classics that the importance of the compilation is apparent. Early grime anthems like "Roll Deep Regular" and "Bounce" were critical in the creation of a unique, shockingly original genre, different from the DJ-based, house-inspired UK garage scene it rose out of. Wiley's glacial "eski" synths sounded cold and alien. MCs laced these distant and strange beats them with acutely local bars-- lyrics dripping in East London slang and narratives. Yet early Roll Deep wasn't exclusively explosive and aggressive. "U Were Always", which features Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, and Ruff Sqwad's Tinchy Stryder, shows a gentler side to the sound, exchanging jungle and dancehall for R&B slowjams as an input variable in their mutant new algorhythm....full text |
| Myspace |
| THE 14 MAN GROUP ALL HAILING FROM LONDON HAVE BEEN CAUSING A STIR ON THE UNDERGROUND CLUB SCENE FOR AROUND 5YEARS NOW. AS SOME WOULD SAY, THE FOUNDERS OF GRIME MUSIC, ROLL DEEP HAVE GONE FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH, OPENING MANY DOORS FOR THE UK MUSIC SCENE. IN 2005, THEIR DEBUT ALBUM, "IN AT THE DEEP END" WAS RELEASED TO CRITICAL ACCLAIM FROM BOTH THE UNDERGROUND AND THE MAIN STREAM, SCORING 2 TOP 20 HITS IN "THE AVENUE" AND "SHAKE A LEG". SINCE THE RELEASE AND SELLING TO DATE AROUND 85,000 COPIES OF THE ALBUM, ROLL DEEP HAVE TOURED THE UK AND MUCH OF EUROPE, INCLUDING SUPPORTING ACTS LIKE SNOOP DOGG AND 50 CENT, AS WELL AS SHOWS IN NEW YORK AND JAPAN....full text |
| Thehouseofgrime |
| Ahhh. Here we are. If you are unsure as to just who Roll Deep are, then you've been living somewhere on a boat, surely just off the coast of Fiji. They started Grime. Yup. Wiley, Flow Dan and Breeze broke away from Pay As You Go, quickly followed by Target and Riko, Scratchy and Trim joint shortly after, and the ball got rolling. But ANYWAYS this ain't a history lesson. This is now, the present. However, what we have on the following CD is a mixture of times. The CD celebrates the majority of Roll Deep members, be they past or present, and spans across 3 studio albums, unreleased material and genuine classics. Proceedings are opened by 'Eskimo Vocal Mix', with Flow Dan and Wiley doing what they do best, and Dizzee Rascal taking mathematics to a deeper level. It's worth buying the CD just for that song to be honest. 'When I'm 'Ere', 'Roll Deep Regular' and 'Do This Ting' are all some my favourite Roll Deep tracks, the 4 songs we've had so far show why it's easier for the non grime-caring folk to listen to their music as opposed to, lets say, something from Roadside Gee's. 'Babylon Burner' and 'Heat Up' are great inclusions, but I'm not sure 'Badman', 'Shake A Leg' and 'Avenue' are welcome on this CD....full text |
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