When it comes to JME – the Boy Better Know CEO, and PRO, it’s generally been best to expect the unexpected. Especially with his latest release and his fourth album Grime MC, fans of the longtime grime champion haven’t known what to expect but have just come to trust the release process.
Whether it was touring a display of the album exclusively to paying fans in cinemas (with a grime set alongside it on the backend) or if it’s the fact that the album is still only available as a physical copy, the Grime MC album still feels like it’s rollout is missing something.
Seemingly on a random impulse though, JME has decided now (while everyone’s locked in their houses) to drop a couple videos from the album.
Starting with the album opener, 96 of My Life, the song is a clear throwback to the ‘96 bars’ series of songs, including the classics ’96 Bars of Revenge’ and ‘96 Fuckries’. This time however, rather than freestyling hard punchline after punchline for 96 bars at a time, ’96 of My Life’ is a lot more focused. The song is an autobiography of sorts, taking you stage by stage through JME’s life, and the decisions that made him who he is.
96 of My Life is a great opener in the context of the album; the self produced tune draws from a lot of elements used in 96 Bars of Revenge in the production, using the same drums patterns that will take you all the way back to 2008. However, the airy synths give it more of a lighthearted, nostalgic feeling that takes it out of the ‘banger’ territory.
Lyrically the song is interesting too. It’s great to get an insight into all the things that made JME the man that he is, even if the song isn’t about spraying the hardest bars you can on a tune. The lyrics have some great bars for a different reason. One interesting decision is that JME never looks through rose-tinted glasses, and he doesn’t try and stress that he’s from hard times.
He tries and paints both sides of the picture – he talks about getting gassed about getting some money, roller-skating, and coming up in grime, but also talks about the karma he received for being a bystander watching people get jumped, reflecting on the time that ‘when man got jumped in the streets, man stood and watched, like TV screens’.
The video is the real release here, though, and while it’s not your typical rap or grime video, it’s an interesting watch. mixing old photos and videos with drone shots of tottenham, or clips of jme on his bmx, The video is like browsing a scrapbook of photos that your mum keeps of you – every moment reflected in a bar is mirrored in a clip in the video, whether it’s a grime rave or a Street Fighter clip.
The video is available to watch above and watch out for JME’s next video dropping this Friday. While we may not see Grime MC on streaming services anytime soon, we can take a couple videos instead.
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