Wherever your political affiliations may lie, The Guardian and The Observer are the only mainstream newspapers that actually cover music properly. The Observer Music Monthly placed The Streets’ Original Pirate Material at the top of their ‘Albums of the Decade’ list and for that, I would not hesitate to follow them into the depths of Mordor and back.

So, what’s the point of this typically nonsensical preamble? I want you to read Dan Hancox’s article ‘2009: The Year Grime Began to Pay’, that’s the point. It’s basically an exploration of how and why grime — or whatever it became depending on how you look at it — was so successful in 2009. There’s even a guide included at the end which selects and explains a few of grime’s defining moments. It’s all very interesting.

I’ve added a Crazy Titch video after the jump. He was a good rapper, even if he couldn’t distinguish between right and wrong.