The play that changed my life: ‘Grime was ostracised but the Royal Court saw it as an art form – and made me a better MC’

4 hours ago 5

By 2018 I was in my third or fourth year professionally as a grime MC and producer. I was 27 and didn’t have any aspirations in theatre. But Debris Stevenson, a good friend of mine, asked me to help her write one of the first drafts of a song in her play Poet in da Corner. I did that and then she invited me to a table reading session at the Royal Court to read the part of SS Vyper [a pirate radio DJ].

The theatre’s artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, said: “You read it so well you may as well be in the play!” I thought she was joking, but the next week I was in rehearsal.

I was nervous at first, I’m not gonna lie, but then after the first night I realised it is exactly the same as what I do in music, I’m just doing it with a script.

The play is a loose autobiography of Debris trying to navigate her difficult childhood. She had dyslexia and grew up in a strongly religious household. But she discovers Dizzee Rascal’s first album, Boy in da Corner, and it completely changes her understanding of language and what she’s capable of. Her friend Vyper grew up in the same neighbourhood as her, but essentially had different opportunities and a different outcome in life.

Jammz, Kirubel Belay, Debris Stevenson and Cassie Clare in Poet in da Corner.

I would get up and start screaming and shouting “you’ve stolen my story!” I would meet her on the stage to share my version. So then we begin to tell the story together to get both sides of the picture.

Grime is already quite theatrical, especially pre-2004, when the main medium for it was the radio and MCs had to have big characters to stand out from everybody else. I realised theatre is the same thing in a different space. It’s just another form of storytelling.

The story really resonated with me. Some people’s stories get co-opted and told from a perspective that might not be so true. And I think that play tackles that very well. Historically, grime had been ostracised to the point of being banned in clubs so to have it in a space like the Royal Court affirmed it is an art form.

It definitely made me a better MC, knowing how to make my performances more engaging for an audience and being more confident to bring it into different spaces. It also introduced me to the world of theatre, not just as an actor.

I was commissioned by the Royal Court to write my own play and a majority of the projects I work on now are theatre-based, whether that’s as a sound designer, or assisting with the music. I’ve written another play called Blaze FM, which is about to go on its third tour. So Poet in da Corner changed the trajectory of my life. And it opened my eyes to a lot of other things I can do with the skill set that I picked up from being a grime MC.