Level Up

Live Performance and Creative Process in Grime Music

Alex de Lacey

$77.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
28 November 2024

Rap & Hip-Hop

Series: Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series

Grime music has been central to British youth culture since the beginning of the 21st century. Performed by MCs and DJs, it is an Afrodiasporic form that developed on street corners, on pirate radio and at raves. Level Up: Live Performance and Creative Process in Grime Music offers the first long-form ethnographic study of grime practice; it questions how and why artists do what they do; and it asks what this can tell us about creative process and improvisation more widely. Based on research conducted in London’s grime scene—facilitated by the author’s long-standing role as a DJ and broadcaster—this book explores the form’s emergence before taking a magnifying glass to the contemporary scene and its performance protocol, exploring the practice of key artists and their crews living and working in the city. The resultant model of creative interaction provides a comprehensive mapping of collective social learning in London’s informal cityscape, offering new ways to conceptualise improvisatory practice within ensembles.

By: Alex de Lacey
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032282190
ISBN 10: 1032282193
Series: Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 28 November 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. 140 BPM Way of Life 2. Foundations 3. Improvisation and Group Process 4. The Through Ball 5. Pirate Mentality 6. Levelling Up

Alex de Lacey is Assistant Professor of Popular Music at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He is also a practicing DJ and live performer with the grime collective Over the Edge.