Grime's Champion Jeremy Corbyn Met Up with JME to Talk Politics

This week might be the most important week of the year in the UK, because, in case you didn't know, there's a bloody general election campaign on and you only have up until next Monday 22 May to register to vote. Let me just say that again. There's only one week left to register to vote. I repeat:

Please, please register to vote. Please. Thank you.

If you're aged 18 or above and a UK citizen, you're eligible to vote in the upcoming general election on 8 June. One man who's especially keen that you do is grime MC JME, who – along with some other members of the scene – has been especially vocal in his support of the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Over the weekend, these two men of the people finally got to hang out, and though the details of their discussion hasn't yet been revealed (more to come, we promise), it's an important step. If Labour, with their most progressive manifesto in decades, are to topple the Tories, what they need is the youth vote, and presumably getting more young people politically engaged made up a big part of what Jez and Jamie – with his significant stature and reach amongst young people – talked about.

If more young people registered to vote and then actually turned out, it would be excellent news for Corbyn and Labour, because traditionally, the youth vote has been firmly in Labour's favour. This is due to the fact that unlike the Tories, Labour, especially under Corbyn, actually acknowledge that we exist and their manifesto is set to promise us real, tangible stuff that will improve our lives, like rent control, the return of the Education Maintenance Allowance for sixth formers, bringing back grants for uni students and reintroducing housing benefits for under-21s. So, it makes sense that Corbyn would sit down with a major player in the grime scene, which has enormous connection to young people, to talk about how best to engage them, and to understand why they haven't been captured by politics in the past. It's more than any other politician has done recently, and points to an understanding from Corbyn and his staff about where we're all coming from.

This week (because, in case you didn't know, it's the last week to register to vote!) looks to be chock full of last-minute initiatives to harness the youth vote, so keep checking back here for updates. If enough of us make our voices heard, we could affect real change in the UK – and that's something to root for, right?

UPDATE (we told you we'd have updates): In a move to incentivise you lot to register to vote, a website called grime4corbyn.com – let's look past the name for now – is live. On it, you can register to vote, and once you've done that, you can also register to win tickets to a secret grime rave due to take place the week before the general election.

On top of that, there's also the MAYDAY initiative from a bunch of summer festivals – including Boomtown Fair, Shambala and Green Man – whereby a number of the UK's biggest festivals are pulling out all the stops to get their young audiences to vote with the incentive of discounted event tickets.

More updates as they come.

Follow Lauren on Twitter if you want but she'd prefer it if you registered to vote.

(Image via JME on Twitter)