Hate Is A Strong Word

Shot between 2003 and 2006, 'HATE IS A STRONG WORD' documents the raw, energetic rise of East London’s grime music scene at its very beginning — underground, radical, and in the process of becoming a defining force in British culture.

This year, grime celebrates its 25th anniversary and is considered a British institution. But in 2003, grime was still underground, still radical — the perfect subject for a young photographer. Featuring over one hundred photographs, many of them never-before-published, HATE IS A STRONG WORD is Jamie-James Medina's portrait of grime’s first golden age. In it, we see intimate moments with Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Wiley, Skepta, D Double E, Roll Deep, Ruff Sqwad and many more, documenting them in their bedrooms and on their estates, long before they were global superstars. And we get to see the makeshift recording studios, pirate radio stations and illegal raves where the music was formed. But Medina captures something else: a strange sense of grace, even in moments of chaos. Slimzee, a DJ and radio pirate, scales a block of council flats, precariously high above East London. Rascal, a mischievous 18-year old, pulls a knife from his waistband and scowls at the camera. A fight breaks out at an underage rave and the dance floor descends into pandemonium, their teenage eyes lit by the camera's flash gun.

The images are paired with an intro and a one-act transcription of the live clash between Dizzee Rascal and Crazy Titch, as originally broadcast on Deja Vu 92.3 FM.