Modern Qualifier 10 – CURATED by Tom E

A curated group by Tom E (hey that’s me!) mixing late UK garage, early grime and grime novelties.

Ragga-garage 2002 single produced by Sticky. The only one to get any sort of official release.
JME extemporises on the theme of Pokemon, from 2015. (YOUTUBE ONLY)
White Label 12″ from 2003 from members of N.A.S.T.Y. Crew, much circulated on MP3 in the “blog era”. (YOUTUBE ONLY)
Viral paean to Southern Fried Chicken’s meal deal. (YOUTUBE ONLY)

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Modern Qualifier 9 – KNOW CARD MIRACLES DRESS

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Tom

11 May 2023 12:56

I guess another theme here is “London music from my years living in London”. Quick lowdown on each track:

“Dollar Sign” – I’ve no idea why Stush didn’t have a huge career just based on this one track, she jumps across vocal styles with the most joyful dexterity. Great hard garage bounce from Sticky too.

“The Very Best” – JME is one of my favourite grime MCs, off-the-charts likeability to the guy, and he’s very good at rapping about, essentially, stupid shit. NOT THAT POKEMON IS STUPID. I love all the little details here, you can tell he lived it man.

“Birds In The Sky” – Probably my favourite early grime track. Double E’s signature “mwui mwui” sound still feels really uncanny and menacing across Jammer’s skeletal, ominous production.

“Junior Spesh” – this is exactly what it looks like, a bunch of kids making a tune about their staple diet, the Southern Fried Chicken £1.50 meal deal. The interjections by the (frankly extremely patient) server take it to another level. Endless joy here. I am proud of the fact I came close to getting this onto a Pitchfork end of year list.

Kit

12 May 2023 21:55

Reply to Tom

I’ve no idea why Stush didn’t have a huge career just based on this one track

tom otm

itinerantgeoff

11 May 2023 14:00

Stush has something like 13 tracks on Spotify from 20 years…pretty spread out but most of them absolute bangers, and this one is an utter joy. Big vote from me

Jeff Worrell

11 May 2023 16:20

Not voting yet as need to listen to them all but “Pizza Hut I don’t do” remains the most important lyric of all time.

Bob Burgoyne

17 May 2023 21:30

Reply to Jeff Worrell

‘Gimmee some tissue in case of mess’ surely?

Tom

12 May 2023 14:46

Reply to Jeff Worrell

Extremely solid advice IMO.

Tom

11 May 2023 20:42

Well… so far I’m at least happy I didn’t waste a potential 2015 slot on poor old JME. I hope Bulbasaur razor leafs the lot of you 🙂

j_e_l

11 May 2023 22:41

There are two amazing songs here! JME is brilliant, and has inspired me to search for 1998 Pokémon Cards. Junior Spesh is awesome too, I just think this song is so great, and lyrically brilliant. They should both go through here!

katstevens

12 May 2023 08:40

All great obv, however the phrase ‘in case of mess’ has been firmly lodged in my lexicon for however many years now, and needs rewarding.

koganbot

12 May 2023 10:42

The two I’m most familiar with are the two that are leading – which is unfair, all four should be running even, but that’s just how psychology works: I voted for one of the two, “Junior Spesh,” the one that’s most “Planet Rock.” Iirc, I ran across it at the LiveJournal poptimist community.

Ed Still

12 May 2023 13:16

Junior Spesh remains fantastic (fun to think the man behind it is also the man behind the phrase “Platty Joobs”), but I’m going for the new-to-me Dollar Sign, which encapsulates that hard yet playful turn of the decade London grime sound perfectly.

Tom

12 May 2023 13:38

Reply to Ed Still

The man behind the whaaaaat?

Ed Still

12 May 2023 14:43

Reply to Tom

If you didn’t hear it, it was the incredibly annoying contraction of “Platinum Jubilee” which quickly shed any irony as it moved the chattering classes lexicon this time last year!

Tom

12 May 2023 14:46

Reply to Ed Still

Oh no I was well aware of what PJ is just unaware that Jaxor (if that’s who you mean) was its originator!

Ed Still

12 May 2023 17:11

Reply to Tom

Ahhh! Not Jaxor but (and I had to look this up) MC Klayze Flaymz (pictured above)

Last edited 1 year ago by Edward Still

koganbot

12 May 2023 19:44

Reply to Ed Still

“Platty Joobs” sounds like the name of a heavy-set, low-level mob enforcer who’s none-too-bright.

Lady Elevator

12 May 2023 17:52

I was certain I would be voting for Stush, then I heard Junior Spesh. Bonus points for unexpected Kiell Smith-Bynoe.

Last edited 1 year ago by Lady Elevator

qosephine

12 May 2023 18:45

I like everything JME does, he’s such a sensible fellow! But nice to see Kiell Smith Bynoe being a cheeky teenager in a chicken shop.

Ed Still

12 May 2023 21:37

Reply to qosephine

I feel like anonymous South London chicken shops are one of the most important cultural emblems of the 2010s.

j_e_l

12 May 2023 19:34

Reply to qosephine

Oh, cool, had no idea that was Kiell. I was glad when he finally won on Taskmaster yesterday.

ismathers

13 May 2023 18:49

These are all amazing, but as I kind of suspected coming into the qualifier I think I need to order a JUNIOR SPESH

Tom

13 May 2023 18:54

Reply to ismathers

With the cost of living what it is a Spesh is the only responsible choice.

Tom

14 May 2023 22:52

This group doing a v poor job of filling its Voterdex, Prof Oak would be unimpressed. Let’s hope we get a few more on board.

Sarah

16 May 2023 11:41

Both Junior Spesh and The Very Best live so fully in their world! Coincidentally I have also spent a lot of time in both worlds, but Junior Spesh shills for the dread white stuff, so it’s a vote for 2pcs charizard and chips w/ 6 hot doduo wings pls.

I miss the bees

16 May 2023 14:04

Junior Spesh YT link seems to go to Charlene Kaye track from another round. Work put in to search for the real thing done, I think that’ll get my vote

rabbitfun

17 May 2023 20:52

Happy to have been the one to take this to 100. All new to me, and all of them really merit repeated listening, because yeah, it’s great stuff, but I had to pick one: I went with the intriguing outlier, “Birds in the Sky”.

Tom

17 May 2023 21:15

Reply to rabbitfun

Thank you kindly! And that was actually my pick too – partly cos I thought it would need more votes as it doesn’t have the novelty appeal of the other two YT only ones. Of all of them it’s the one most closely bound up for me with the excitement (and strange and scariness) of early grime: Double E just sounded so fucking WEIRD even if some of his rapping is pretty raw technically.

Tom

17 May 2023 21:16

The group has finally ended! Thanks to all voters 🙂 All I was hoping when I went in was that one of the “novelty” tracks and one of the “serious” tracks would progress, and that’s the result we’ve ended up at.

j_e_l

18 May 2023 19:35

I’m thinking that Red Hot Entertainment are the most influential song in the poll, just found myself asking my son if he wants a Junior Spesh from the fish and chip shop

wpDiscuz

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Modern Qualifier 10 – CURATED by Tom E

Modern Poll Day 2 Playlists

Modern Qualifier 9 – KNOW CARD MIRACLES DRESS

The Discourse