Pay As U Go | |
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Origin | London, England |
Genres | UK garage |
Years active | 2000–2002 |
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Past members |
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Pay As U Go or Pay As U Go Cartel were a UK garage crew formed in 2000. In 2002, the collective achieved a No. 13 UK hit with "Champagne Dance". After Pay As U Go disbanded, Wiley went on to form the grime crew Roll Deep with fellow Pay As U Go members. [2] Roll Deep would eventually include prominent artists such as Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder and Skepta.
The crew has been credited for paving the way for grime music, alongside So Solid Crew and Heartless Crew. [3] [4]
In 1998, Maxwell D and his friends Carl, DJ Target, and Wiley began performing on London pirate radio station Rinse FM. Together they formed a group called 'The Ladies Hit Squad'. Major Ace, Plague, God's Gift, and DJ Slimzee also hosted their own show on Rinse FM every Sunday. In the summer of 2000, the Pay As You Go phone network was experiencing network errors coincidentally every Sunday coinciding with their show, allowing everyone to call into the radio show for free. After three weeks of this, Plague dubbed the show the "pay as you go show". [5] [6] The pay as you go radio show and Ladies Hit Squad's show on Rinse FM were the most popular shows on Rinse FM at the time, leading to the owner of Rinse FM suggesting that Ladies Hit Squad and the pay as you go show merge, leading to the official Pay As U Go crew being formed. [2] [7] [8] Flowdan, Riko Dan, Dom P, Breeze and Bubbles later joined the group. [9] [ citation needed ] The group released a dubplate, "Know We", in late 1999. The song was officially released in 2000 as their debut single. [10] [7] [8]
In 2001, Wiley, Flowdan, Bubbles and Breeze recorded a song entitled "Terrible", which record stores perceived to be a follow-up to "Know We". Wiley decided he did not want to release it under the Pay As U Go name, so Flowdan suggested the name Roll Deep; a homage to the phrase "rolling deep", popular within bashment songs. Following the creation of Roll Deep, Dogzilla and Lady J joined Pay As U Go in 2003. [11] Flowdan cited the introduction of Dizzee Rascal to Roll Deep and his subsequent popularity as the reason why Pay As U Go eventually disbanded and Roll Deep rose to prominence. [2]
Dylan Kwabena Mills, known professionally as Dizzee Rascal, is a British rapper and MC. He is often credited as a pioneer of British hip hop and grime music and was ranked by Complex as one of the greatest British rappers of all time. His work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline and R&B.
Grime is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It developed out of the earlier UK dance style UK garage, and draws influences from jungle, dancehall, and hip hop. The style is typified by rapid, syncopated breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute, and often features an aggressive or jagged electronic sound. Emceeing is a significant element of the style, and lyrics often revolve around gritty depictions of urban life.
Richard Kylea Cowie Jr., better known by his stage name Wiley, is a British grime MC, rapper, songwriter, DJ and record producer from Bow, London.
Boy in da Corner is the debut studio album by English rapper and producer Dizzee Rascal. It was first released on 21 July 2003 by XL Recordings in the United Kingdom before being released the following year in the United States.
Roll Deep are a British grime crew. They were founded in 2001 by Wiley shortly before the disbandment of UK garage crew Pay As U Go Cartel.
Run the Road is a series of compilations released on 679 Recordings and Vice. It is intended to showcase a wide variety of grime artists from the genre such as Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Kano.
Rinse FM is a London-based community radio station, licensed for "young people living and/or working within the central, east and south London areas". It plays garage, grime, dubstep, house, jungle, UK funky and other dance music genres popular in the United Kingdom.
Boy Better Know, often abbreviated as BBK, is a British grime collective and record label. The collective was founded in North London in 2005 as an independent record label by brothers Jamie and Joseph Adenuga, better known as Jme and Skepta, respectively. The former also serves as a sole owner and director of an associated company, Boy Better Know Limited, incorporated in 2008. All members of the collective use the record label as a means to publish their music, and is digitally distributed by The Orchard, a subsidiary of Sony Music.
The Heartless Crew are a UK garage crew from North London. The group has been credited for paving the way for grime music, alongside So Solid Crew and Pay As U Go.
Street Anthems is a compilation album by Roll Deep, released on 19 October 2009. It features well-known tracks from 2001 to 2009 and some previously unreleased tracks, showing the early days of grime and Roll Deep, as well as presenting tracks from the early members of Roll Deep such as Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder, Syer Barz, Trim, Bubbles, Biggie Pitbull etc.
Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr., known professionally as Skepta, is a British grime MC, rapper, record producer and DJ. Alongside his younger brother Jme, he briefly joined Roll Deep before they became founding members of Boy Better Know in 2005. With Boy Better Know, Skepta clashed with fellow MC Devilman for the video release Lord of the Mics 2, in what is remembered as one of the biggest clashes in grime history.
Winner Stays On is the fourth studio album by London-based grime music collective Roll Deep; it was released on 8 November 2010. Three singles have been released from the album, including "Good Times" and "Green Light", which both went to number 1 in the UK, plus the top 30 hit "Take Control", which features Alesha Dixon.
DJ Cable is a British DJ, based in Essex, England. Notable for winning numerous DJ competitions, such as the DMC UK Team Championships and the "Alizé Remixed" DJ competition, he was the tour DJ for Willy Moon for his 2012 European dates, and previously for UK singer/songwriter Yasmin. He also owns and runs Triangulum Recordings, a digital record label.
Darren Jason Dixon, known professionally as D Double E, is a British grime MC, DJ and record producer from Forest Gate, East London. He performs both as a solo artist and as a member of the grime duo Newham Generals.
Scratcha DVA also known as DJ Scratcha, DVA [Hi; Emotions], Scratchclart and DVA is a British electronic musician, producer and DJ often associated with DVA Music, Hyperdub and Rinse FM. His debut album, Pretty Ugly (2012) and second album, Notu Uronlineu (2016) were both released on Hyperdub.
Dean Fullman, best known by his stage name DJ Slimzee, is an English DJ who currently hosts a show on Rinse FM, returning from his previous show on NTS. He is best known for his show on pirate radio station Rinse FM in the early noughties and its influential role in the development of grime music.
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by jungle, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop and R&B. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals, and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.
Jammz is a grime MC and record producer from Hackney, East London and the founder of the record label I Am Grime.
The Booo Krooo started life as a comic strip and then turned into a web-series and then a UK adult animated sitcom created by Matt Mason, Alex Donne Johnson and Julian Johnson for the now defunct British TV network Channel U . The series follows the mis-adventures of three up-and-coming grime/rap MCs who are constantly trying to find ways to get famous, get girls or save the world.