LONDON, UK (EMMS PUBLICITY) - January 3rd marks the official release of this year's club smash 'Forward' - the UK's biggest underground record since So Solid's '21 Seconds'.
Featuring ten of the UK's hottest MC's (Lethal B, Fumin, D Double E, Napper, Jamaki B, Forcer, Flowdan, Neeko, Ozzy B & Demon), and bringing together different crews from East London, including Roll Deep, East Connection and of course More Fire for the first time, 'Pow...' is a call for the grime scene to turn its back on the violence and negativity often associated with it and, quite literally, move forward.
The idea for the project came from ex-More Fire Crew member Lethal B. His vision was to bring different styles of MCs together to try and encourage more collaborations on the UK grime scene:
'There has been a lot of friction between the different members of this scene and so the idea behind this tune was to get everyone together on the one track as this is the only way "Forward". If we all work together we have a louder voice.'
The nature of 'Pow' will inevitably draw comparisons with the So Solid Crew. It's something Lethal is used to but the fact that the record features several renowned MCs is where the similarities end. He explains: 'That's cool if people wanna call the track the next '21 Seconds' but we are nothing like So Solid. The whole reason why I put this track together was to try and get our voice heard again. In 2002 after 'Oi' came out with More Fire, garage started to die down and we were forced back underground. Nobody wanted to play our music as So Solid were getting a lot of negative vibes about the violence and gun culture in their music. We are not about that, but nobody would book us because they were scared of the violence.'
This track, originally released in April 2004, has built up a huge following on the underground.
The video was initially playlisted on Channel U back in June this year, and went on to top the Channel U Chart for many weeks – it is still currently at no. 3. As well as this clubs were inundated with requests for the track and people were going wild on the dancefloor.
Grime has been brought to the forefront by the likes of Dizzee Rascal and Wiley, who like Lethal made their mark spitting freestyles in dirty garage clubs every weekend. Urban music has had success in the mainstream charts in recent years with the likes of Estelle and Dizzee.
Lethal keeps it real with a true dirty garage feel to his tracks. 'I just want to invoke a reaction in someone when they hear my tracks, something to get people's attention, that's my aim.'
Info: Nadia Khan @ Emms Publicity /e-mail protected from spam bots 7226 0990
