Eskimo Dance 2012 - Review & Pictures

So Eskimodance 2012 ...
It's been God knows how long since the last one and to be honest it feels like it was that long ago in sense of how far our scene has grown.
Before landing at 'Proud' (more on this later), I watched the original 'Lord of the mics' around my mates in Streatham. We watched it for two reasons really, firstly I wanted to see the difference in production, MC'ing, set up compared to the latest one, and secondary I'd lent it to my mate in 2005 and he was finally giving it me back..
It was just crazy to think that LOTM was so groundbreaking for the Grime scene all them years, and now Eskimodance was back at London's largest club at the 02. A hell of a lot has happened to our mcs since then, in terms of commerical success and mainstream recognition.


Eskimodance 2012 felt like.a return to those orginal LOTM roots, It had to be success, it had to go smoothly for the sake of grimes progression and continued acceptance...
I'd been looking at twitter all day and a lot of the talk was a mix of people being absolutely mad for it, and people worrying whether it was gonna get locked down or go off inside.
I didn't know what to expect to be honest, London raves are COMPLETELY different to the Birmingham raves I'm used to in terms of atmosphere and crowd. The best case scenario- everyone turns up for the sake of the music. Worst case?- the place is full of kids who wana kick off...
Arriving at the 02 again showed me how far the grime scence has come, that place is huge. Horrible confession here, but I've been before, and saw the SPICE GIRLS there....ok, probably shouldn't have admitted that but it kept the missus at the time happy.....


Proud itself is a quality quality venue. Perfect for a rave, massive stage, massive dancefloor, huge bar with tons of people serving, drinks weren't overpriced and a heated smoking area. It suited the night, instead of your standard dance venue which feels moody, the choice of venue showed again the scene has progressed.
I landed just before Logan Sama came on. Man comes on in a SUIT with a new trim, looking like Chris Jericho from the WWE and as per standard absolutely smashed. I tweeted this after his set, but I really don't honestly believe there is a better in their genre than him.


Sama had the crowd in the plam of his hand, with a mix of classics and the latest tracks, some of the drops got that  many reloads I completely lost count and the crowd ate it up. For me, the biggest drops were 'I'm Doin It Again' purely cos the whole crowd did Wiley's bars and as expected, 'Next Hype' sent the place mental..


After Sama finished and Sir Sypro came on, I looked around at the crowd and again saw what a diverse crowd we have in grime. A mix of young heads, older lads, girls, students and kids who barely looked old enough to get served for fags let alone get into a club, were all giving it loads on the dancefloor.


Now for me, this was the biggest success of the night. It shows not only how many different people listen to grime but also that people are just there to come out, rave and enjoy grime music as a whole.
 Would this have happened at grime nights in say, 04, 05? Seriously doubt it.
By this point if I'm being completely honest, I was half cut so I'm not even gonna try and go into detail about which MC did what bars. If I could remember this, I obviously would have had my bb in my hand all night and looked like one of those people who goes out with their mates, doesn't speak to them, and just stands there updating facebook...plus, you spend more than 15mins doing anything on a bb and the battery dies.....


Ghetts smashed it, O'Gs smashed it, BBk tore the place apart Chronik made Jammer Stagedive . I have never seen so many MC's on on one stage in my life. It was refreshing to see legends in grime such as Boy Better Know going back to back with the up and coming MCs, check the videos that were blogged earlier, it was absolute chaos, every MC was hungry for the mic to be passed. Big highlight for me was Trilla's '0121' drop, didn't see that coming...


We left after that set finished. What was the point in staying, nothing was gonna top this year, let alone that night. Put the UK Funky on and be done with it..


On the bus home, a lot of chat was about Wiley's bars, or lack of them. I think I saw him do, what a 16? But what do you expect from him, this is the same guy I saw mc in sydney and do half his set SITTING DOWN because there was hardly anyone there! I guess this is why we love the bloke, he's completely unpredictable.
Interestingly,a lad my mate knew was talking about this was his first Grime night and he didn't know what to expect. He said he'd been listened to logan on kiss etc for ages but never managed to catch a night. Main thing he said about it? That he couldn't understand what some of the mc's were saying...
And you know what, its not that bad of a point. Your experienced heads, the Jmes, Skeptas, P moneys, all spat with near perfect delivery and clearness. Could the same be said for some of our newer generation?


If nights such as eskimodance are going to continue, and more importantly get bigger and even better, we need to make sure the 'casual' Grime fan is converted. Would you check for an mc after if you didn't have a clue what they were spitting?....
Eskimodance 2012 will go down as a massive massive success for many reasons. The DJ sets were brilliant, every MC turned up and smashed it and the crowd- atmosphere was absolutely amazing.


Worst moment? Some annoying Bird behind us on the bus home moaning that Wiley was awful and that she had no idea where the bus was going. I think even the lad who had blatantly picked her up at the rave had lost all hope in closing her once we got to Elephant and Castle...
But when some s*ags moaning is the worst bit of your night, you know its a been a good one...


@neilleedham