Grime Time: Previewing Room Two at the forthcoming Rinse FM Takeover

As we’ve previously announced, Rinse are very excited to once again be taking over all three rooms here for one of the biggest line-ups of the Rinse Winter Tour. It will be taking place on 28th March, and as ever it promises to be a massive night, with a roster featuring a host of Rinse DJs including Jackmaster, Roska, Icicle, Artwork, Alexander Nut, JJ, Mark Radford, Spyro, Sophie and more. Throughout the night in Room 2, Rinse’ll be hosting a line-up that gathers together some of the premier names from grime present and future, with DJs, MCs and live acts all celebrating one of London’s most distinctive and continually thrilling genres. Among the names playing in Room 2 across the evening will be Rinse DJs JJ, Royal-T and Spyro, Night Slugs’ Girl Unit – known for his hybrids of grimey synths and drum machine percussion – as well as Butterz label heads and Rinse show hosts Elijah & Skilliam, and more. Personally we're very excited to be hosting some incendiary live acts for the night, including Skepta, Cas, C4 & Preditah, Trim and the inimitable Ruff Sqwad. To preview the evening’s events, watch some of our favourite videos by the live acts appearing, and read more about them below… Skepta – ‘Ace Hood Flow’ Skepta’s name is synonymous with grime, as producer, MC and one of the founder members of one of the genre’s best known crews, Boy Better Know. As a result, he’s been one of the key names – alongside the likes of Wiley and Dizzee Rascal – to have pushed the genre into wider public awareness, via a series of solo albums and an ongoing stream of collaborations and solo tracks. ‘Ace Hood Flow’ is one of his most recent tracks, decrying what he sees as being problems with the UK music scene and examining his position within it. Trim – ‘F64′ Trim has long been one of the most idiosyncratic voices in grime, from his earlier days as a former member of Roll Deep to an ongoing series of acclaimed solo mixtapes and collaborations. His is an immediately recognisable flow – witty and sardonic lyrics, delivered in a languid way that seems to fall lopsided on either side of the beat, never quite landing where you expect. More recently he’s released a dark and excellent new EP alongside Roachee entitled The Nangest and his ‘Confidence Boost’ – reworked by James Blake – was released on R&S in late 2012. The above video captures him on characteristically articulate, swift stream-of-consciousness form for SB.TV. Ruff Sqwad – ‘Xtra’ Ruff Sqwad are one of the definitive grime crews. One of the most influential collectives in the genre’s entire history, they began making beats and MCing while still teenagers in the early part of last decade, before radio shows on Deja Vu and Rinse FM and a series of acclaimed albums propelled them to near-legendary status. Crew member Tinchy Stryder went on to hit the charts with his solo work, and the crew – including core producer/MCs Rapid, Dirty Danger and Slix – have continued to operate since then. As well as their lyrics, Ruff Sqwad are known for their distinctive and hugely influential approach to production, which paired grime’s brittle beats with woozy, pitchbent synth lines. They’ve recently released a compilation of their best-loved instrumentals entitled White Label Classics. Cas – ‘Baraka’ Elusive skull-masked MC CAS was originally known, back in the earlier years of grime, as Castro Saint, before vanishing off the radar for several years. He re-emerged in 2012 with the hazy and feedback-drenched ‘Tron’, swiftly followed by ‘Baraka’ – which you can watch the video for above – which finds him delivering a bristling series of bars across JME’s classic instrumental. He’s also set to release a much-anticipated mixtape in 2013, entitled Commercial. C4 – ‘Off Track’ Birmingham MC C4 will be taking to the mic while his brother – renowned grime producer Preditah – is on DJ duties. Over the past couple of years both have been steadily attracting attention for their tracks, and have been receiving support from the likes of Boy Better Know. Preditah’s rhythms are fluid and club-friendly, touching on two-step and garage, and on ‘Off Track’ – which features on Rinse’s recent I Love Grime compilation – his production is matched by incredibly swift vocal delivery from C4. The result is a pop-leaning take on grime that keeps the genre’s more underground essence intact. Merky Ace – ‘Eff Tizzy’ Lewisham’s Merky Ace will be appearing on the mic with long-running collaborator Faze Miyake on the decks. He’s among a wave of rising grime MCs strongly influenced by the genre’s earliest forms, but has been MCing for well over a decade now, and has released a number of acclaimed tracks and mixtapes including 2011′s excellent Blue Battlefield. His flow is upfront, swift and quick-witted, a perfect match for the nervy, stammering beat of recent track ‘Eff Tizzy’, which you can watch the video for above. — For more information and tickets, click here.