CHIP | TIM & BARRY TV | 64 BAR STATEMENT

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CHIP | TIM & BARRY TV | 64 BAR STATEMENT

2007-08-17
Closed captions
2m

After DVDs and MySpace, YouTube became the home of Grime music, with the DIY stylings of Tim & Barry capturing a scene in full flow

In 2005, Grime music videos lived on digital satellite TV through Channel U and on DVDs such as Risky Roadz, Practice Hours and Lord of the Mics. Elsewhere, MySpace was on the rise and videos were being posted of young MCs battling on radio mics or rapping in the street.

Tim & Barry were some of the first to see the potential of online video for this scene and they began collaborating with MCs who were already becoming legends: Skepta, JME, Tempa T, Ghetts, Giggs, D Double E and, in this video, a young CHIP (also known as Chipmunk).

By 2007, this world was moving to YouTube with Tim & Barry and SBTV posting their first videos on the platform. Establishing an irreverent and comedic style, Tim & Barry captured the scene with a DIY ethos connected to its underground roots in, as they say, “stairwells, youth clubs, pirate radio studios, and tower blocks”.

Here CHIP delivers his 64 Bar Statement, a structure popular across the wide world of online Grime video, with his Ed Hardy T-Shirt on and a USB stick around his neck.

The Kids Are Alright: Youth Culture on Screen

Teds, mods, rockers, punks, goths, ravers, hoodies, emos... The 20th Century phenomenon of ‘youth culture’ is a dynamic expression of identity, with its hands on music, fashion, language and generational change.

Since the ‘rowdy generation’ of the 1950s, teenagers and youth culture have been defined from the outside and from within. Young people proclaim their social identity through style, music and the spaces they occupy – which also makes them a visible target, and they become a bellwether (or scapegoat) for the state of the nation.

To the establishment, they are a source of anthropological curiosity and hand-wringing moral panic – as well as a key commercial audience, whether for consumer products, political movements or radio and television programming. An obsession with youth against mistrust and misunderstanding; attitudes towards the young are full of contradictions.

Today, youth culture is online, in a vast expanse of communities and identities. The internet has enabled a ‘pick n mix’ approach to music and fashion, while allowing local scenes to set trends globally, and giving young voices the platform to speak – loudly – for themselves.