Alongside the DJs pushing the sound forwards, a community of producers and labels are also redefining the parameters of grime. Travs Presents sets are littered with dubs from resident Chamber45, while Conflict, Dullah Beatz, Viler Dee, Nammy Wams, LRD, Trends, D.O.K, Logan, and Spooky Bizzle continue to put out a constant stream of innovative grime instrumentals. The music is disseminated through a combination of self-releases on platforms like Bandcamp, directly delivering unreleased material to DJs through mailing lists, and a network of labels. JLSXND7RS — the Dutch producer who made 2014 grime instrumental, ‘Marching’, championed by DJs including Slimzee and Sir Spyro before its first official release in 2017 — released the 34-track retrospective ‘2012-2022’ in October, featuring a slew of previously unreleased instrumentals. “People should not care about dubplates much anymore,” he explains. “Just put it out there, let everyone play it, and keep making music, because that way the scene will grow.”

The growing undercurrent of grime 3.0 has stirred the giants of the rap scene. Last year, Central Cee dropped his ‘CC Freestyle’ over an edit of Flukes’ 2007 grime instrumental, ‘I Have Nothing’. Ghetts was back in the studio with Rude Kid, and Chip brought together D Double E, Frisco, Flirta D, Skepta, Bruza, Jme, Jendor, Novelist, Jamakabi and Flowdan on the ‘Grime Scene Saviours’. The latter was followed up by a live show under the same name at Here at Outernet, where a slew of grime’s old guard passed the mic with new gen MCs including Duppy and RB.

“[This] year the brands are gonna be interested again,” DaMetalMessiah concludes. “‘Grime’, the aesthetic, is going to be used and appropriated. The most important thing is that the music stays the way it’s heading… not watering it down, trying to appease something bigger. Every time it dips… it’s because people were trying too hard to follow the formulas, and chase the mainstream. Every time it gets exciting again, it’s because it goes back to the essence of what makes grime great. You’re not chasing the charts or trying to follow a formula. You’re doing music that resonates with you and your peers.”