Red Bull Culture Clash 201428 Images
As a byproduct of entertainment, music helps to shape, inform, reflect on, or manifest out of cultural phenomena. From its historical use in socio-political protests or as part of ceremonies such as graduation or weddings, the relationship is ever-convergent. Red Bull’s long-standing dominance in modern culture largely stemmed from its former Culture Clash festivities. Establishing itself formally in February 2010, and taking place across the years third or fourth quarter usually, the event houses the showcase of pioneering global genres from across the world, taking large influence from the Kingston-Jamaican Tom Wong originating sound-system and larger clashing culture that dominated the region in the 1950s.
Across its formative years, London’s Culture Clash spotlighted the likes of dancehall, trap, house, all reflective of a changing face, and evolution of British and global sounds. Looking at nearly a decade of its absence, 2014’s edition served as a microcosm of what was to come in London. The winning Rebel Sound team served as a poignant marker of the future of music at large and a co-sign to crucial acts to which it decided to champion that year.
Officially sparring alongside Rebel Sound that year were Boy Better Know, A$AP Mob, and Stone Love Movement – an event spanning reggae, grime, trap, hip-hop, drum and bass and jungle. During the infamous BBK set – featuring veterans like Skepta and Flowdan – a 21-year-old Stormzy tore through the stage, not only holding his own, but earning his position as one of the new-legacies of grime and British rap, months before both his above the line successive singles “Shut Up” and “Know Me From”. Atop grime deep-cut “Pulse 8”, the Croydon-protege raps “I get icy, you’re imposters, you’re not like me,” darting across the stage alongside Skepta.
Within Culture Clash’s existence, the intergenerational embrace, and co-signing of the next generation has always been canvassed seamlessly. Without stiff, inauthentic embraces, it would instead provide organic junctures in real time for old-guards to spotlight emergent faces, building the canon of their respective genres. In this case, Stormzy not only went on to rap about the moment directly on “Know Me From” – as a warning to challengers from other teams – but his eventual ascendancy to British rap dynasty served as a stark reminder of the opportunity that Culture Clash had in spotlighting talent early.
Gnawing through everything from dancehall, to drum and bass, and jungle was the Chase & Status, David Rodigan, Shy FX and MC Rage-formed Rebel Sound. Going on to win that year’s clash, the cluster of acts gave way to an informal seminar in real time, highlighting the breadth of British sounds and their relationship with the wider diaspora from which they originated.
In their formation, and inclusion of one off-specially crafted dubs of “Original Nuttah”, “Who Am I”, “Limb by Limb” and “Somebody to Love”, the sonic-relationships between drum ‘n’ bass, jungle, electronica and dancehall are not just told to the listeners, but displayed in audio-fashion across the four rounds of Rebel Sound that year. It informs music lovers IRL, whilst showing them the culture of more than three generations simultaneously. “When we came to fusing it together and the concept of the clash and understanding the concept of clash, every one of the Rebel Sound team knew about clash culture,” David Rodgian notes in the documentary on the one-off formation of the collective.
In the UK, and music at large, new-age genres – across time spans and generations – will involve traces of what came before them. It’s the reason why jungle helped to inform grime, or why drill has a relationship with its predecessor trap. Genres talk to one another, and yearly, Culture Clash informally acted as an event to acknowledge, endorse, and showcase those intrinsic patterns across sparring collectives and their sets crafted for the airing.
At large, in a contemporary UK, we’ve seen the migration of not just sounds and genres influenced by the diaspora, but sounds inherently crafted or coined here from the global diasporas themselves, who migrated over time. Afrobeats and its west-African origins, and growth in the UK across the 10s, helped to birth its descendant in Afroswing, which melded the aforementioned with British-rap, R&B and dancehall sonics. In its celebration of such a myriad of genres in unison, Culture Clash has inherently championed the culture of the region for the coexistence of many nuanced forms of musical expression in harmony and the cachet of unity that continues to come in the evolution of sounds in England and the UK at large. From Dublin, to London, variance exists in sound both on underground and commercial levels. Culture Clash, being just one of many beacons of that, helped to entrench this behaviour and fluidity and convention.
In its years offline, drill, cloud rap, amapiano, afro-house, gqom, alté, baile funk, jersey club and more have bolstered into the centre of consumption here in London. If Culture Clash was to exist in the same way it did a decade ago, it would do so in an ecosystem thats continued in the spirit of what it championed, borderless musical expression and a cross-generational embrace. In a time where a DJ AG has crafted a platform for old and new grime and rap MC’s, simultaneous to Tyla’s popiano breakthrough, adjacent to a homegrown Nia Archives jungle-infused Silence Is Loud album debut scoring a UK top 20, it feels as though the platform was ahead or directly on time for the audience to which it served.
Take a look at the gallery above for images from the iconic event.
