SXSW Music Live: UK Grime

New hip-hop legend Kano and emerging star Little Simz come covered in UK grime, main attraction for a packed and ethnically diverse audience Tuesday night at the Main II, original home of Emo’s. The subgenre easily made its case as the not-so-distant future of rhymed word over beat.

The mutt mixture of hip-hop, bass music, garage, and multi-step movements hit the streets of London over a decade ago and has demonstrated significant staying power. In fact, grime is currently undergoing a resurgence. Very much about the non-negotiable seriousness of bars over bars – over beats – the form remains an MC purists’ dream, advancing and yet still wholly connected to its council home beginnings.

The style even boasts its own legitimate legends, east London’s Kano being one of them. Grime’s Jay Z without the wealth or airs, Kane Robinson tore down his set, a mixture of independent old and major label new. Bass pounding, the Top Boy actor’s high-wattage delivery surged through on “Hail” and “New Banger,” off 2016’s Made in the Manor. Never “underestimate his influence,” he said, then exploded into early banger “P's & Q's.”

Rising star Little Simz is making the most of her moment. Like Anderson Paak at SXSW 2016, the 23-year-old rapper, singer, and actress born Simbi Ajikawo continues doubling down on 2016 late-lister Stillness in Wonderland. “King of Hearts” and split track “Doorways + Trust Issues” rang truest, their orchestration never losing luster in the grimy, mostly-shuttered venue.

Slightly under Kano in importance, if only for unusually inconsistent output, Ghetts can go bar for bar with any rapper in the world, as capably shown on the ferocious “Artillery” and “One Take,” featuring DJ/producer Rude Kid, who kicked off the showcase with a bottom-heavy set. Boy Better Know representer Frisco was his typical jack-of-all-trades self, doing his storming verse from Shakka’s “Walking With Elephants.”

In the middle, famed grime DJ Logan Sama provided a detailed history of grime. Appropriate the victors, indoctrinate the conquered.