“I never called it Grime”
On a rather sleepy pre-exam season Friday afternoon, In The Middle spoke to Meridian Dan, London MC and Grime artist, who gave us the 2014 hit ‘German Whip’, to talk about his new singles, Prince, what he’s into right now and what’s to come.
S: Hi is this Meridian Dan? How are you doing?
MD: I guess it is! Wagwun fam? Safe, I’m good, I’m good.
S: That’s good to hear, I’m alright thanks. So what have you been up to recently?
MD: Well, I’ve released three singles this year, ‘Couple Killers’, ‘I Ain’t Shook’ and ‘Don’t Feed The Animals’, and there’s kind of like a story line running through all three videos, maybe there’ll be a fourth one coming I don’t know! But there’s lots of new music to come and exciting things coming up.
S: Okay cool, we look forward to hearing that! What are you listening to at the moment? What are you liking music wise?
MD: I listen to a lot of instrumentals and production tapes that people send me really, I don’t really listen to songs with lyrics. But I’ve got a lot of love for Stormzy right now, Wretch [32], listen to Section and of course, Giggs is a major player and I always take time to listen to his stuff. But yeah, what are you into at the moment?
S: Well, I’m actually listening to a lot of Prince, still not really over his death! His music is such a big part of my musical taste.
MD: Oh really, you know what on the subject of Prince, I actually had the honour of watching him live on New Year’s Eve just gone, I was in St. Bart’s and I was at this party, and it was midnight and all the fireworks were going off and then Prince came on and no lie, he played for a solid two and a half hours! And he kept being like he could play all night, it was crazy but I was so happy to have seen him live cos I wasn’t really fully able to appreciate him until I saw him live, but like he is literally funk itself.
S: That sounds so cool, wish I could have been there to see that!
MD: I’m sad you weren’t there to see it either!
S: Ah man, so Grime is really taking over at the moment, and seeing as you’re a Grime MC, do think it’s a long time coming for Grime to get this popularity or do you think it’s the right time to be getting the attention it deserves?
MD: My theory on it, is that when I started making music, because as far as I’m concerned I never called it ‘Grime’, I was making Grime before it was called Grime. I basically just do what I do, like Prince he had no boundaries upon himself as an artist, and that’s what you need to be like as an artist. I mean I started when I was just fourteen/ fifteen and still making music now all these years later, but teenagers who are that age now are listening to what I produce, so what we see is that artists are getting older producing for a younger audience, meaning that Grime fans range from about 0-45 years old, you know what I mean? When we started out but it’s become popular now, cos it’s taken about fifteen years for the sound to grow.
S: Yeah, I get you, interesting. And finally, do you have anything else exciting coming up you’d like to tell us about?
MD: I don’t really like to say too much about what’s going on, but I will say stay tuned to Meridian Dan, keep up with what I’ve got coming up cos I basically just want to go out, meet fans and enjoy it. Also big up to the Leeds crew, hold tight.
Stephanie Uwalaka