Genre Lens

What is Grime?

London rap at full speed. Cold, square-wave synth riffs and stark eski-style bleeps over sparse broken drums at a fast tempo, with MCs firing rapid, accented bars rather than singing hooks.

Hip-Hop / Rap138–142 BPM typical
Not sure this is your track?

Drop the file in and it will tell you which category and genre it actually is, what the secondary and tertiary picks were, and what it heard that put them in that order. Free, no account, and the file stays on your device.

Identify my track
Listen for
  • cold square-wave or bleepy synth riff
  • sparse broken drum pattern
  • rapid London-accented MC flow
  • dry aggressive mix
Reference artists
WileySkeptaStormzy

Anchors rather than an exhaustive canon — if your track sits near these, this is probably the right label.

Usual tempo 138–142 BPM. Sitting outside that range does not disqualify a track; it just makes the tells matter more.

Easy to confuse with

The nearest neighbours in Hip-Hop / Rap, by tempo. If Grime does not quite fit, one of these usually does.

  • Trap130–160 BPM

    The dominant modern rap sound. Booming sliding 808 bass, rattling triplet hi-hat rolls, dark minor-key melodies and a half-time feel.

  • Drill138–150 BPM

    Menacing and sparse. Sliding 808s that glide between notes, skittering hi-hats, ominous minor melodies and a distinctive stuttering, off-kilter drum pattern.

  • Cloud Rap120–145 BPM

    Hazy, reverb-soaked and dreamlike. Washed-out ambient beats, heavily processed or mumbled vocals and an unhurried, floating quality.

  • R&B / Melodic Rap120–150 BPM

    The blurred line between singing and rapping. Sung, Auto-Tuned melodic hooks over trap-derived drums, with an emotional rather than combative tone.