I spent a big part of my teenage years in TK MAX. Specifically the one in Woking’s Peacock Centre. The one on the bottom floor next to the food court. I’m not sure if it’s still there because I haven’t returned for over a decade. I wonder if they’ve still got the same kind of stock as they did back then. There would be Ed Hardy, Nike, New Era hats and those Pharrell cartoon character T shirts every time I would go. That era of TK Max stands out to me because it’s also one’s I see Grime Artist’s donning in the first ciphers and music videos they released. I’m talking Wiley wearing a T shirt with the Basketball Team logos on it, the Air Max tracksuits bottoms that used to be uniform, Skepta’s Ed Hardy era and more. Granted Skepta was probably not buying his Ed from TK and in fact probably was picking it up from the more expensive shop where Boss man was selling those Money Jeans with the Gorilla Logo and Crooks & Castles T shirts. If only I had a time machine so I could go back and pick up a stock load of t shirts to rock, not to mention it would be every Depoper’s Y2K dream to shop there.
It’s strange because I don’t remember the shoe selection in that TK Max but I was definitely scouring those isles as well. Perhaps because I had less of an idea of what I was looking for back then. I wonder if I glanced over some ridiculous pairs that I would be kicking myself about now. Like some Fragment Jordan 1s or some Red Octobers just laying there. Suppose it doesn’t do any good to wonder but it’s a fun idea.
I think that’s one reason why I can enjoy Grime so much as a genre. The Culture and uniform that surrounds the artist are what normally deepens the bond between music and listener. That’s why you see so many Indie people rolling around the streets of Manchester, each one trying to live out their Brit Pop fantasy, imagining that they must be part of a hypothetical Gallagher Trio. For myself, having those first hand memories of all the clothes that used to be worn by the MCs, all dotted about a shop I used to spend so much time in only made the connection stronger. It makes all the references a bit more personal. Obviously, just because I may have worn the same tracksuit bottoms as an MC from back in 2008 doesn’t mean I relate to every reference, think that goes without saying. For example, I didn’t have “gyal on my Ericsson, gyal on my Nokia” as Chipmunk claimed on his Westwood freestyle, far from it in fact. I suppose I did get my sisters hand-me-down Nokia that I made fun noises with through its tonal keypad. Although I don’t think that’s what Chip meant all those years ago. I can however relate to Skepta’s “it’s time to rise up the cricket bat like Bryon Lara” line as my Primary school friend used to bring round the Bryan Lara Cricket game for PS2 back in the day. Many bats were electronically lifted no doubt. Whilst Skepta wasn’t directly referring to playing a PlayStation 2 based Cricket game and more likely referring to the preamble which would lead to Devilman being hypothetically “buried in Neasdon”, I think parallels could be drawn.
I don’t think I was listening to the genre at the time that all these said experiences were going down. In fact I don’t think it was till 2014 that I started delving into the genre in a serious way. Before that, the closest thing I got to the genre was watching the Roll Deep music videos on repeat on my 2010 holiday to Cyprus where them and Devlin were taking over the Summer charts. The fact that the genre captures a certain snapshot in terms of the streetwear scene back then is what added to my connection to the music.
It wasn’t till I saw Skepta’s RedBull interview that I found out how Manchester influenced the more “British” look in Grime’s early history. You can see from the early Ciphers that a lot of NFL and NBA merchandise was still being worn. This was because London was still massively influenced by the Hip Hop scene where artists over there were the closest things to what Grime MC’s could look up to. Just look at those iconic Simon Wheatley photographs for example, it’s all there to see.
Cities like Manchester and Liverpool were almost anti-American in the way that they were proud of the culture their City was forming and had been formed. Perhaps it was also a case of disconnect, with no internet and lack of artists visiting the Northern Cities at the time. No doubt the US artists came over to do shows in London, I mean you even had Jay Z performing at Notting Hill Carnival at one point. I can’t imagine Tupac having a pint in Northern Quarter at any point during his career so perhaps that’s why British culture was a lot stronger up North. I mean that isn’t a direct reason but it does come with its inferences. As Skepta said about the North, “It’s just greezy up [t]here”.
wear shoes, write poems 