Whenever I am asked how I write, my answer is always: “with grime or UK rap playing as loud as possible in my ears”. When I finally sent my second novel off to my weary editors this week, I understood why. There is something about the energy of the music that I need to keep me amped up through one of the most arduous and solitary processes I’ve experienced. If I’m writing an emotional scene that’s forcing me to turn deep into myself, I’ll put a slow, introspective song on repeat (usually “The Essence” by Giggs). If I’m writing a big explosive scene (in my second novel I have one whole chapter that is just a heated argument between five people) I’ll listen to the most frenzied, charged track I can think of. And all of these music choices are subconscious, I realised.
What I love most about this particular genre of music isn’t just the bass that makes my flat shake (sorry neighbours) it’s the storytelling. And it’s the double entendres that I catch and rewind over and over again, in awe of the wordplay. Two legends in the game, D Double E and Frisco, released albums (Double or Nothing and The Familiar Stranger, respectively) while I was in the last stretch of writing, and I had these on repeat, keeping me company and driving me forward, while I was crawling towards the finish line. It’s a cultural crossover that few might expect, but to me, now it makes total sense.
