Why artists should keep doing Don’t Waste My Time and Pound Cake Remixes

@TeflonTobz (editor at GRMDaily), recently wrote an article complaining about the number or artists recording remixes/covers to popular rap tracks. I feel Tobi Oke might have not recognised a few points as to why UK artists are recording such remixes, and why these remixes are beneficial to the scene, and so would like to address them in this article.

1) Lack of strong UK Producers.

Whilst the UK has some of the greatest producers in the world, and UK producers dominate when it comes to many electronic genres,  the UK is lacking in good Rap producers. There are a good number of reasons for this, however I shall cover this issue in a separate article.

2) Covers give artists exposure.

The main reason why artists SHOULD do Pound Cake remixes, and any other popular Rap track that produces a hype, is that it will give them exposure. It’s the same reason as to why doing remixes are a good idea. It exposes listeners to new artists they might have been otherwise unaware of.

3) It’s becomes a competition.

Once artists start recording to the same beat, all of a sudden it becomes competitive. The question on everybody’s mind becomes, who’s recorded the best version (this is usually determined by the number of youtube views)? This is great if your a fan of UK Rap music, as it puts artists on an equal footing. A comparison can be drawn to Bashment, where Bashment instrumentals are sent out to artists, and they record their own version. This is also why many lay a claim to Vybz Kartel being the best Bashment artist, because he consistently provides the best version, instrumental after instrumental.

4) It’s part of our culture. UK Rap can be seen as an extension of Grime. Whilst UK Rap has been around from before Grime, Grime has been so dominant for the last 10 years, and has had a clear influence on  a large majority of ‘urban’ youth. From the days of Limewire and beyond, from Ghetto Kyote to Woo Riddim, artists recording over the same beat has been a part of the culture, and was a regular occurrence. Whilst Tobi Oke feels that artists have now started to record remixes due to the fact French Montana recorded his, I feel this is untrue. We have a history of covering beats, and in the comments section, an insightful comment pointed out that the instrumental was only released recently, explaining the period of time that nobody recorded a remix/cover of their own. You can’t record a cover if you don’t have the instrumental.

Whilst I fully understand the piece on GRMDaily was an opinion piece, I am surprised that someone from GRMDaily holds such an opinion and that this article was allowed to published on their site. Some of GRMDaily’s most watched videos, and therefore a good portion of their youtube revenue, comes in the form of covers, and I feel over time this article will prove to be untrue. We WILL see more covers from GRMDaily, and to be honest, we are thankful for it.