Birmingham Grime - 2025 Wrapped

“2025 has a great outlook based off the previous 12 months.“ 

I SAID THIS 12 MONTHS AGO AND I DID NOT MISS.

This year surpassed last year and it’s good to see the compounding work from the last 12 months continue in these 12 months. A lot less clashing and a bigger focus on releases and projects. There’s still a good mix of interviews, freestyles, battles and sets but I think the increased output of actual music across the board is the best outcome.

There was so much going on I had to pivot the newsletter from monthly to weekly, a great problem to have. It’s impossible to include everything in this Year wrap up so you can check each weekly update via the ‘2025 Weekly Update’ tag HERE.

The renewed energy I mentioned last year has fully took shape and form now. It’s not a run, it’s a standard, and everyone’s embracing it. Everybody’s active and contributing in their own way, a few new things have emerged and I wrote an entire Birmingham Grime guide to house it all.

Read it here

NOTE: I won’t name every SINGLE thing that happened, that’s what the newsletters are for, this is just the main highlights otherwise it’s redundant, so make sure to take a look back through the website to find specifics.

With all that out the way, let’s take a look at the last 12 months and then run the numbers.

January

Year started at the previous finished, with work. An awful lotta it. Mayday made an advert with Insta360, Lady Leshurr hosted a mixtape launch party and Drizz GB was PenGame’s battler of the year. This month also had 15 different artists drop music and there was artists everywhere from Sigil Radio, to 1Xtra to Gullied Out and BSR.

The foundation for the following 12 months was laid and everyone just built from there.

Feburary

Nobody can say happy new year anymore; it’s in full effect. This was demonstrated by Fiasqo, C4, Vader, RGG Tech, and DH dropping EPs this month.

More projects, less sets!

It was also a month of celebration with Trappy & Drizz GB hosting a celebration for their 2v2 PenGame win and a whole hosts of other sets for various reasons (mixtape launches, birthdays etc).

March

Last month of Q1, gotta make it count! Vader threw his first-ever headline show and Mayday dropped a deluxe version of Awful Lotta Birmingham. Add an International Women’s Day special set on Sigil Radio and Leshurr dropping the B2B Mixtape, March really had everything from freestyles to cyphers and more.

I think March is when people really got into the swing of things. This was the tipping point where the newsletter went from monthly to weekly because so many things were outdated by the time I covered them. It was a great pivot by me tbh.

Didn’t know at this point but ALB was the catalyst to supercharge the year, this was on top of the work everyone was doing anyway but looking back, I think the deluxe drop was like ‘Ah okay it’s that time, let’s get it’ and then it just grew.

April

Life isn’t that bad because it gets dark at like 7pm now. People are enjoying being outside again. Jaykae and The Streets dropped Hooligan, 0121 Legacy announced their orchestra-led Grime event to celebrate the music from the city, whilst Mayday, CreezOn and Trappy announced events for the following months.

This was the month of the genesis Awful Lotta Bene event (before it was repeated twice throughout the rest of the year). MAK10 hosted a big Birmingham cypher with a lot of MCs and Rdon Ranger dropped his first project of the year.

The slowest month in terms of releases but it was very feature-heavy and even more so, a larger focus on being outside. It’s warmer, people are (slowly) enjoying the weather again so as we got ready for summer, we all decided to be outside at the same time. There was a lot of choice, you could have gone to a Grime event every week of the month if you wanted to.

A great ‘problem’ to have.

May

They named a whole month after me, cool innit. The events slowed down in number but ramped up in scale with Jaykae & OneFortyBPM announcing the first ‘Call Up’ rave, a showcase which saw the new MCs and the old MCs all in the same building. Nostalgia at its finest.

A lot of noise was how this is finally happening and never happened before and it worked, really well. Event was sold out in 5 hours and it was 4hrs of Grime music, from start to finish. Door to door, wall to wall, RAM. Great showing.

HoodRich also threw a big Birmingham Cypher as Felix Dub’s produced the Grime song of the summer with Can’t Touch This. DH’s syndicate show also celebrated it’s 10th episode and we got a new NODB EP and Tempa snippet this month too.

Summer was looking BRIGHT in the city.

June

“It’s a terrible time to not be from Birmingham”

Cola B dropped her debut EP, BigMikee announced the first ever DJ Prizefighter and there was a load of Birmingham MCs on LinkupTVs new set format. There was also a 24hrs in Brum documentary dropped by LinkUp and Trappy was on RedBull Flex.

So many releases and so many sets. We got Jaykae x JME and Mayday talking to Elijah on Rinse FM (with a solo set) about everything going on in Birmingham, Canva and a lot of other cool stuff.

This was a strong start to summer but July kicked the door down and there was music every other day it seemed like.

July

20 songs this month!! Some huge sets aswell, Trappy & Drizz GB’s Balamii, Chapo’s Birthday set, TrajBrown & Plastician, Awful Lotta Bene 2. There was like another 10 aswell. If you wanted good Grime sets to listen to, this was your month.

We also saw Cola B as the star of a new Spotify video focused on Girl Grind UK. Sum Cellar also announced their collaboration with Rinse FM as Rgg Tech clashed RP on Self Success 2. This month really had it all. I’ve said that before but summer in Brum had Grime alllll over the gaff.

August

Devilman sent for Skepta (again). Sunil, Sigil, OneForty announced events to capture the last of the sunshine. Birmingham dropped an Awful Lotta grime music this month. Projects, singles, freestyles, features, seemed like everything was landing this month.

Trappy had a huge clash on PenGame, same time H:Breaks was doing the same on Prizefighter. We also got a Trappy Behind Barz and T.Roadz dropping his first tune of the year. One More Riddim also had a huge b2b with Timma T & Mystry at their event.

This was the time where it was impossible to stay inside because there was multiple music reasons to be outside. Everybody was everywhere and then this was spawning other things to happen. The sunshine helped but this was a very collaborative effort month it seems.

September

Devilman dropped a 2nd Skepta diss, OffTheDesktop (a new platform) launched, CreezOn performed at Adidas x Rinse and this was just the first 7 days of this month. Tai dropped a new song and Trappy announced Self Success 3 (his final event of the year).

This month also produced the Call Up 2 set and new singles from Cola B, TrajBrown, T.Roadz, RM, Rgg Tech and C4.

A lot went on, and even still this month had a huge focus on sets. If there’s one things besides death that you’re guaranteed, it’s a Birmingham Grime set.

October

It was the 2 year anniversary of this newsletter! Thanks for reading and subscribing; it’s appreciated. I also created and released the Birmingham Mega Grime guide this month. It’s a working guide to cover everything from events, to platforms and all the people involved, DJs, MCs and much more. I update it every so often so you can check back from time to time.

I want you to use it as a resource or if someone is new to what’s going on, just send them the guide and let them learn at their own pace.

Spektive went viral with This Is England, Drizz dropped 3 diss tracks and MAK10 had a big set with Jaykae, Dapz OTM & Tempa. MAK10 also did another set outside New Street station this month with a load of new and old Grime MCs.

I’d say between Drizz and Grhymz, this was probably the month with the most war. Sends, replies, battles, clashes, they’ve been happening through the year to this point but they were a big focus in this one.

T.Roadz also threw his debut headline show, big milestone. I even covered it that fast, I posted it before people went to sleep lol.

November

AWFUL LOTTA BIRMINGHAM!!! 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

A year since the project dropped, so it was celebration time. Mayday announced and then executed ALB Week, a week-long celebration with something different happening every day to celebrate the anniversary of the project.

This include CDs/Merch, the 3rd and final Awful Lotta Bene of the year, a brand new compilation project and announced the Awful Lotta Documentary.

Cola B dropped a freestyle on LinkUpTV and an EP, Mayday dropped a new EP, Preditah dropped the video for Circles All Star Riddim and Drizz GB was on TV.

The back end of this month also saw Brum take over PenGame, both the Academy and the regular matchups.

December

12/12. Birmingham finished as it started, a lot of work. Same as last year.

Vader & El Messy dropped a new EP, we got M1llionz on Grime, Drizz, Trappy & Varntae battled on PenGame and Rdon dropped a new Xmas Grime track.

As is obvious, the end of the year was quieter. Last year I said this year would continue the work from the last (2024), and it did. I don’t think I need to change that prediction at all. I’d add only bigger and better and things being done at a larger scale but otherwise, accurate this year as I was last.

A great 12 months. An awful lotta work going on it. For everything mentioned that isn’t linked you can revisit the weekly/monthly versions to catchup on them all.

Weekly/Monthly Versions

NOW ITS TIME FOR THE STATS

Yeah, I fully sat here and counted everything below. So if you don’t subscribe for the time I put in then idk, thanks in advance <3

In 2025, Birmingham had:

• 284 Songs

• 27 Projects

• 9 Clashes

• 27 Freestyles

• 113 Sets

2024’s numbers for reference:

• 192 Songs

• 12 Projects

• 11 Clashes

• 16 Freestyles

• 85 Sets

And of course a load of these brand new releases were added to the Birmingham Grime (Grime Only) playlist, so be sure to check it out.

Happy New Year.

ALB. 0121.