Interview: [@DJTarget] Goes Down In History With ‘Grime Kids’

Photography credited by Isha 

One of the Fathers of Grime, there aren’t many DJs and pioneers that you can call an author, let alone in Grime. DJ Target also known as the guy who does ‘In Depth’ interviews on BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra where he captures the attention of over 1 million listeners per week *Media.info – Source* and travels the world through his talent of DJing and being able to connect with his audience is now able to add ‘Author‘ to his list of accomplishment.

June 14th was the day he became an author – through his new book ‘Grime Kids‘ which is published across the UK. #1 in several categories on Amazon shows that this is what has been missing from the culture, a book which fills a lot of gaps of untold & unfinished stories.

Target had the idea around 2015/2016 and “planted the seed of writing the book last year”. Grime really started to pick up around 2 years ago – as Skepta was traveling to america frequently and the new breed of Grime MCs such as Stormzy where blowing up.

“This is the time for me to tell the inside perspective of everything that has happened so far”

With only a few Grime books published within the last 2 years such as ‘This is Grime – Hattie Collins & Olivia Rose‘, ‘Jeffrey Boakye – Hold Tight: Black Masculinity, Millennials & The Meaning Of Grime‘ & ‘Eskiboy – Wiley’, ‘Grime Kids‘ there is a mixture between the two. It’s an account of an insider living the lifestyle of an artist (Roll Deep) and now living outside of the lifestyle of being artist. “After thinking about it and going over the stories in my brain, this time last year I was like let me just try and start this book.”

Roll Deep formed over 15 years ago in 2002 in East London and Target told some stories about the group and the dynamic of the relationships in the book – “I had so much memories stored” Roll Deep is a family of brothers close to his heart in which he couldn’t really forget the memories they spent together ‘It was tricky in places just to remember exact orders of things and how things happened, I did have to doubled check a few facts with people but for the most part it was easy remembering‘.

Stepping out of the DJ booth for a minute but keeping up the lifestyle of “Late nights” when writing the book, the newly author has stepped outside of his “comfort zone” as he wrote the 300 page book by himself. “Achieving a lot in my life so far, this has been one of my proudest moments” as it also is, a very proud moment for Grime and the Roll Deep Crew. “I actually surprised myself, it has taught me if I actually want to focus and want to do something I can do it“.

This has been a somewhat “therapeutic” journey which has helped him “look at different relationships and reflect on certain things“, ‘Grime Kids‘ is a book that tell stories of the legacy of Grime and achievements also “I don’t think anyone from the inside have done it”

A massive congratulations to Target on his new book – You can purchase hard copies and audio below.