From their humble roots in the grime scene Roll Deep have quickly become one of the biggest urban acts in the UK. Their single "Good Times" featuring Jodie Conner, was released by digital download on 25 April 2010 on Relentless/Virgin Records. Roll Deep have a number of different members, but the MC's that feature on Good Times are Wiley, Breeze, Brazen and Scratchy: the four longest standing and original members of the crew. The song was produced by David Dawood and is arguably some of their strongest production to date.
Before their rise to stardom, Roll Deep have undergone many changes in terms of their sound and members. Their original lineup included Dizzee Rascal but following his success of 'Showtime' decide to go his separate way from the crew. Other members have included JME (brother of Skepta), Riko an underground legend in his own right, Roachee and Trim. Personally I feel that Riko, Roachee and Trim were some of the best rappers in the crew and really defined there sound for the early part of the last decade. Track's like: 'When I'm Ere' were when Roll Deep were at their best, with a fiery combination of moody bass heavy grime beats, and sharp powerful delivery from the MC's. Although this track, and in fact their whole debut album 'In At The Deep End' failed to achieve the commercial success of 'Good Times' and their other recent material, it had a certain charm about it that is no longer there.
Undeniably 'Good Times' is a catchy contemporary sounding track with sharp rich production value and great vocal melodies. It has allowed them to bridge the gap between being an underground grime act to a commercial household name. Lyrically it is pretty basic, lines like 'Let's go west end shopping, champagne popping, party ain't stopping' really aren't pushing the boat out. However it is what it is and although it may be slightly 'dumbed down' to appeal to the masses, they have achieved great success with the track and it marked their first number 1 in the UK Charts. 'Good Times' also spent 5 weeks in the top ten and sold over 300,000 copies in the UK since its release in May 2010.
Balancing between the underground and commercial is a challenging task for most artists and Roll Deep have definitely experienced both to the full, but I do hope as I'm sure do many other that in the future they will be able to re-capture that gritty, raw energy that helped pioneer grime music. The success of Roll Deep and their peers has certainly opened doors for others and there are now a number of great British rap artists that are on the rise.
If you like urban/rap/grime you should check out Skilf and download his new mixtape 'Alter Egos' from his site. I highly recommend it, there's a really good mix of tracks on there and the rapping is on point.
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