Artist
So Solid Crew
Collective whose grittier, more urban sound pushed garage toward grime in the early 2000s. Their shows attracted rougher crowds, and a 2002 shooting at their gig made national headlines, leading to informal West End club bans on UK garage acts. The incident contributed to garage's mainstream reputation souring overnight, forcing the genre underground. As DJ EZ told The Ransom Note, "there was a period where there was trouble at Garage events and with that came the media which resulted in bad press." MJ Cole recalled to 5 Magazine that after their rise, "if you were playing at a gig the police wanted to do a background check on you."