Stephen Pennell talks to two of grime’s finest.
Birmingham has a long history and tradition of musical innovation, with the New Musical Express crediting the second city as “one of the few places not situated by the Mississippi river that can legitimately claim to have birthed a musical genre.”
Close NME, but no cigar. Try FIVE – heavy metal, prog, bhangra, grebo and grindcore – plus massive influence over lots of others – and at the dawn of a new decade, the Brummies are at it again. All across the city’s urban recording studios, producers and engineers are pushing boundaries; MCs with fresh flows are riding new rhythms and beats; cultures are clashing and collaborating, creating shards of gritty, grimy glass that are set to pierce the zeitgeist.
And now the city that kept grime alive while others pronounced it dead is about to breath new life into UK rap yet again. Leading the revolution is Screama, the renowned Birmingham producer who joined forces with Daniel Sturridge’s Dudley Road Records label for their first release, and counts the likes of Safone, George The Poet, Trilla Jermaine Trilloski and Knox Brown amongst his many production credits. He has worked on several Ministry Of Sound compilations and, alongside Papez Musix, founded The HitMonsterz, an eight-strong crew of producers who’s credits include Skrapz, Giggs, Ashanti, Wiley, Lady Leshur, Kyze, Aystar, The.Wav, Flirta D, Deadly, Bowzer Boss, Joe Blow, Anderson 100 and more.
With over 100 unreleased songs on file, and 680,000 Spotify streams to his name, covering the bases of trap, rap, grime, garage, bassline and Latin, you could say that Screama is fluent in the international language of music.
2020 sees his journey take another turn as he links up with highly-rated US rapper Allwinsnoloss. The Baltimore-raised MC came up in a strict military household with not much of a social life and few friends, and had a lot of responsibilities throughout his teenage years. It felt as though he was forced to grow up early and missed out on being a kid, with everything around shaping him into something he didn’t want to be.
Because of the pressures he faced from the environment around him and conflicts with his father, AWOL struggled to express himself. It wasn’t until he went off to college in Atlanta and friends signed him up for an open mic night on campus that he discovered his words resonated with people his own age. Eventually he befriended an artist who was the cousin of big-time producer and rapper Sonny Digital. He was introduced to the Saginaw artist, and there followed a session at Sonny’s home studio, where he recorded his first ever track. AWOL dropped his debut mixtape, For Smokers Only, in 2018.
I caught up with AWOL and Screama to talk in more detail about their collaboration, and lots of other stuff besides.
George Bernard Shaw said that the US and Britain are two countries separated by a common language. That’s certainly true in rap where the UK has developed its own distinct style and flow. What were the challenges of making beats for an American MC?
Screama: “For me there was no real challenge here because I have been making UK and American music for years, just through being a fan and an appreciator of music. I’ve ended up dabbling in a lot of current sounds which made me more than prepared for this opportunity.”
Are AWOL’s lyrics very different to home grown MCs, and how closely do you think British audiences will relate to them?
AWOL: “They are different for sure because of life experience etc., but I wouldn’t say they are miles off what current UK artists are speaking about. The landscape here has changed and you can see that when you look at groups like DBE. The lines have been blurring between UK and USA music.”
What led to you moving to the UK?
AWOL: “My whole life I felt like I didn’t belong in my country. In my home I was taught to be proud of my culture, to love my family, and was told that I could do anything. In school I was taught ‘one nation under God with liberty and justice for all’. The American system teaches equality, and is founded on the principles of Christianity and to love one another as we love ourselves. But I see a people who hate themselves, not because they are incapable of showing love, but because they are conditioned to, so therefore they show hate to others.
I see the devilish frown in the form of racism, inequality, hypocrisy, white supremacy and slavery disguised as politics on the face of a country who hides behind a mask with a smile, dressed up in the core values that the country is said to represent. I’ve never had a culture, I’ve never been treated as an equal, I’ve always been judged, and stereotyped and negatively depicted to be something I’m not – or even negatively depicted to be something I am – as a direct result of the system that is in place in my country.
“Honestly, I just got tired of all the lies, negativity, crabs in a barrel mentality, and superficial mindset that comes with being in America. I knew it was time to leave when I saw the finalists of the 2016 presidential election. And more so when I saw the racist/racially insensitive/racial indifference of both candidates. I love being an American, I just wish we would do better.”
Do you like the UK any better?
“I can’t say that I do like it, but I can’t say that I don’t like it either. Home is home, so nothing is gonna be as fun and heart-warming as that. But at the same ti”me I like how open minded the United Kingdom is and I love the culture here. People here aren’t as uptight and enjoy the little things. Plus the police don’t carry guns so I’m not worried about losing my life just because somebody on a power trip with a badge doesn’t like how I carry myself.”
How did the two of you link up?
Screama: “We met when Trilla Jermaine Trilloski and I flew out to Ibiza. We were in a club vibing out and AWOL had lost his friends…”
AWOL: “I saw another guy with dreads (Screama) in the crowd and Trilla with his braids and thought “Imma go and roll with these guys”. I went over and invited them both to bottles at the bar. At the end of the night we went our own way but in the aiport we found each other again, discovered we all make music and I told them I lived in the UK, so we exchanged details.”
Screama: “Two weeks later, AWOL did an all-weekender in the studio with myself, Trilla, SG (Bassline artist) and guests such as DJ Biggoss & KE4T, where I made beats from scratch and AWOL recorded at least eight full tracks in the first night alone.”
When will we hear the fruits of the collab?
Screama: “It’s already started in January with Shanghai being released, and throughout 2020 we will release the kraken haha… I mean fire.”
Where do you think Birmingham stands in relation to other UK cities in terms of the urban music being produced here?
Screama: “I think some of the best, most innovative music is produced here and has been for a very long time. It’s just now finally getting some light shed on it. So watch this space! If the city lacks anything at all, it’s that we could have more people who want to work in music from a management/PR/marketing aspect. Not everyone needs to be on the stage!”
What you’re doing here seems quite pioneering. Do you think this US/UK cross-pollination will grow in the future?
Screama: “1000%! These things take time, but that’s because you can’t rush greatness. Once the path has been set and laid out there will be no going back, so I’m just happy and grateful to be a part of the merging of worlds!”