Grime star and pioneer Wiley's electro house effort Wearing My Rolex is heading over for big crossover success, and has spawned a dance craze called The Rolex Sweep which is supposedly er...sweeping the country.
His partner-in-grime (Ithankyou) Skepta then recorded a more fidget house-styled follow up dedicated to the dance itself called Rolex Sweep - and recently spoke to the Blackdown blog about posturing in the grime scene and the unexpected birth of a dance craze within the usually highly image-conscious scene.
"The way I see it – I was having this conversation with Wiley the other day – I think a lot of us, as artists, forget we’re the pioneers of the music. The kids have just come along and grown up on grime and they’re really narrow minded about things and they think an MC is supposed to be a specific way. He’s supposed to wear a specific hat and dress a specific way."
“They’re really naive about things: in the music you’re not allowed to talk about money, clothes, wearing your own Boy Betta Know T-shirt. They want us to talk about guns and fights and shanks and clashing for the whole thing. So I don’t really see myself like that and I try not to care what people say, and I just do me and live how I want to live.” “When me and my friends go out, we’re always dancing. No one can call me fake because if you go to a funky house or grime rave and a song came on, you will see me and about 15 of our friends doing loads of different dances. That’s just what we do man, so I just wanted to incorporate it. My music: I just wanted to show me. That’s what it’s about.”
A guide to the Rolex Sweep - with Skepta's track in the background:
and the original Wiley track Wearing My Rolex:
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