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Music

TOUCHING BASS: Terror Danjah

The grime powerhouse talks life outside of music and the merging of the mainstream with the underground.

Terror Danjah is much like a great uncle of grime. Not only has he helped nurture two of grime’s seminal labels in Aftershock and Butterz, but he’s also one of the few to never turn his back on London’s 140BPM cherub. Damn, I still remember when I was perusing over GCSE options; wallet-sized Nike bag on back and "Zumpi Huntah" squirming out of my single-song-holding Sony Ericcson w320i. A grime apocalypse later and Terror is still here fronting his own label, Hardrive, which has celebrated the genre’s hotpot of sound for three years now. As the brand releases its first compilation, we caught up to chat London pet hates, the grime instrumental comeback and a pre-"Pass Out" Tinie Tempah getting chased by East London schoolgirls.

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So, Akkachar bigged you up last week for staying true to "hood music". What’s your viewpoint on grime artists straying into mainstream territory?

I’m not for or against it. It depends on whether you can stay true to the music, which is the perfect formula. It would be lovely to get a national hit but it would be beautiful to do it from what I do now. I know it’s gonna take something wider thinking and maybe less intricate but at the same time, it’s all about timing because you can do what the Wileys, Tinies and Skeptas are doing; making music for the market and then making music for them. It seems as time goes on, people are accepting more of the underground culture because it’s becoming more of a norm, 10 or 15 years ago, there was a massive gap and now both sides are just merging into one big pot.

Where do you pluck your inspirations from?

I don’t know if I have a usual place, you could say life itself but in terms of music, it varies from the old school drum & bass stuff to slow jams and early hip-hop. But, nowadays, I still listen to hip-hop, but it’s not the same for me. Maybe I'm showing my age…

Would you say you've you fallen out of love with today’s hip-hop?

I still like it, I just think the sound borrows a lot from other genres and obviously times change. It’s now more electronic, 808-lead stuff whereas then it was more East Coast and West Coast.

2Pac or Biggie?

I say Biggie. I think they’re both just as good but I didn’t really get into 2Pac until way down the line. Biggie was more of a storyteller where 2Pac was speaking a lot more home truth, but Biggie pleased both sides because he also made the party classics that I grew up to.

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So, the Hardrive compilation has been out since the start of the week. What was the thought process behind piecing together this particular set of tracks?

It started off in 2011 when I had a few tunes and wanted to put it on a vinyl. It’s not that the tunes weren’t big enough but people didn’t know them at the time, so it was a hard task filling up the vinyl. Someone like myself, Champion or Swindle will sell vinyls because we’re in that arena. The likes of Teddy and P Jam are more into the digital side. Instead of taking that risk, I packaged all the tunes that I’d been playing out for the last 18 months and gave it to the people. The only time there’s really been a grime compilation has been from outside the grime fraternity. I'm actually one of the first people from grime to put one together in ages. Now you have Big Dada doing a compilation and I feel like people are jumping back on the wave, which is good.

Which tracks have you enjoyed listening to most?

There are two but I think its out of "Arizona Skyz VIP" and "Insomnia" by P Jam. I’ve been playing "Arizona Skyz" for the last two years, so no one really knew what it was about back then but since I've been hammering it people grew to like it. Its almost a slowed down jungle track with these grime twists to it. It’s mad.

And grime has seen the instrumental-lead aspect return in a big way, why haven’t the MCs followed suit?

I wouldn’t say I agree, but there isn’t a playground for them any more. Go back 10 years where you listened to radio and they were there every week, fighting to get a spot so people would recognise them when they went to the raves. Fast forward to now and pirate radio has been eliminated in favour of the hood video. It’s almost like skipping the whole culture of the dance. Going straight from recording the tune to doing a hood video, hoping you get the views and looking to force it on the DJs that way. When you base it on that, MCs aren’t really making songs or thinking about the dance element, they’re thinking about how many punchlines they can get into one bar. I think everyone wants to be so lyrical that they’ve forgotten the musicality and fun element of it. That’s why Wiley is still here because he understands the balance. Nowadays, all the MCs are sounding the same, trying to multi-task and do this and that all in one bar. I think it’s too much. There’s no soul in it, it’s lifeless.

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Do you reckon there’s a way back?

People like JME are proving that you can do it. He’s making a lot of money and staying true to himself so he’s not necessarily trying to be a commercial artist. The way back is different from how we’re looking upon it. I think we have to start from scratch, turning up to the dance and it’s a long haul. A lot of people are chasing the glitz and glamour, but when that door shuts and people get saturated and bored of the style, people will start to realise its back over here. The instrumentation of grime is back to the basics, so once the MCs get back on the sound I'm sure the rest will follow. There’s a way back if people figure it out.

The thing with grime is that its been confused. The culture has been confused where people like Jessie J and N Dubz can be branded as grime. It’s like they brand the whole urban side as grime. For the guy like me, who is connected to them, it’s good but there is no real connection between what they’re doing and what we’re doing. If you type ‘grime’ into Google, you will get all this information but there is no general consensus as to what it really is unless you’re really into your music and know the difference. The Internet was a gift and curse but it’s the people who put the content on there that are manipulating it for their own marketing ploys.

What do you like to get up to when not in the studio or behind the decks?

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I watch a lot of TV series; Game of Thrones, The Wire, all of those things just keep the brain ticking over. If not, just going around doing my shopping, visiting people, might chat to a couple girls and say hello. If music is stressing me out, I just switch off and watch TV, and when the bug bites me back I get back into it.

What’s your biggest pet hate in London?

For me being a DJ, once you get one booking in London after that you can't play for another two weeks to a month. That’s the politics, but I don’t mind, I still love this city. And I hate London buses, I’d rather walk. I live near Stratford in Forest Gate, so I’ll walk there and back.

I went to school near there, I always go back to see them yucky brown blazers invading the bus around 3:30pm…

There you go! I live right around the corner from St. Bons and used to go there. I remember one time when Tinie came to my house when "Wifey Riddim" was getting big. I told him to come to mine after half 2, NOT after that. He still tried to come into the ends at 3pm and ended up getting chased down the road by a mob of St. Angela’s girls. You know when someone doesn’t realise how big they are? Them girls know everything, so of course they’d chase him. Lesson learnt, come before school times!

Finally, what does the future hold for Hardrive?

There’s definitely going to be another compilation early next year and there are one or two things in the pipeline that I don’t want to say just yet. We’re just gonna continue the digital releases and hopefully do a vinyl when it's warranted.

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TRACKLIST

Terror Danjah & Ruby Lee Ryder - Full Attention (Soundboy mix) Terror Danjah - Jacks Teller

PJam vs Terror Danjah - Anger Management vs Morph (Tempa T vocals)

Terror Danjah vs Buju Banton - Jekyll vs Champion

Terror Danjah - Morph 2 (D Double E special)

Zed Bias & Terror Danjah - Iceberg History

Ruby Lee Ryder & Terror Danjah - Let Me Be The One

Terror Danjah - Glide

D.O.K - Jumble Sale

Dr Jeep - Spinx (Champion Remix)

TRC - Oo Aa Ee VIP

D.O.K. - Cardio

Champion - Bowser Castle

Terror Danjah - Breakdance

Terror Danjah - Fruit Punch

Terror Danjah & Champion - Explode

Roska - Without It (Terror Danjah Remix)

Terror Danjah & Champion - Stone Island

D.O.K - Sidedok VIP

Listen to more Terror Danjah here and purchase some of his work here