Grime MC Crazy Titch (foto rechts) en zijn stiefvader Anthony Green (links) zijn afgelopen vrijdag allebei tot 30 jaar cel veroordeeld voor de moord op de 21-jarige grime producer Richard Holmes.

Volgens een aantal publicaties zou de aanleiding tot de moord te maken hebben gehad met wat lyrics (geschreven door de met Holmes bevriende Shak) waarin Durrty Goodz, de halfbroer van Titch zou zijn gedisst. De Britse pers reageert daar, niet geheel onverwacht, gepikeerd op en stelt dat grime tot geweld leidt in Londense achterstandswijken, en dat grime-beefs vaker dan niet echte slachtoffers eisen…

The offending lyrics (from a song which Holmes produced) that supposedly resulted in murder were: “Over the years things change in the ‘hood, I used to have a lot of respect for Durrty Goodz… Not no more.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but those look like the most inoffensive diss lyrics I have ever seen. In grime terms, they’re not even slightly offensive. Grime lyrics and beefs between MCs do not give rise to violence and murder. If this were the case, there would hardly be any grime artists left. A lot of beef is just for show, in order to gain more hype for an artist. Well known artists have been known to contact up-and-coming MCs to arrange for diss tracks for each other to be made. Money has even been known to change hands in order for an MC to write a diss for another MC.

So why would the half-brother and stepfather of MC Durrty Goodz, who the “diss” was aimed at, go and gun down the producer of the track – someone who had nothing to do with the mildly insulting lyrics? The truth (which the naysayers of grime have failed to highlight) is that grime producer Richard Holmes (along with Shak, and members of his Piff City crew) allegedly showed up at Goodz and Titch’s mother’s home looking for Goodz earlier on the day he died. Allegedly, Goodz had previously caught and confronted Shak, and asked him to apologise for disrespecting him. Shak was not happy about this, so turned up at Goodz’s house with a number of other guys and allegedly threatened Goodz’s mother, who called her husband and sons. It was this that led to Crazy Titch and his stepfather Anthony Green to go after Richard Holmes and his friends, and not the lyrics of a grime song.

We interviewed Crazy Titch for the Party Issue and received criticism at the time for portraying the grime scene in an unnecessarily negative manner, but everyone knows Titch has always had a bit of a temper. Although the murder of Richard Holmes was tragic and completely uncalled for, it is ridiculous and naive to blame his death on the grime scene.