Etymology of UK hip hop

grime: video game basslines, slightly faster than 2-step (140bpm?), minimal zero-resonance beats, synth sounds as punctuation, rapid MCing

garage: in the UK, originally straight 4/4 (cf. speed garage) and based more on singing as well as MCs e.g. Somore's 'What You Want' and Smokin' Beats 'Dreams' - similar to US style luxurious soulful style

2-step: replaced the straight 4/4 of garage with a more 'breaky' beat ala sped up (130bpm-ish) hip-hop, resulted in a lot of pop hits e.g. MJ Cole's 'Sincere', Dem 2's 'Destiny' and Shanks & Bigfoot's 'Sweet Like Chocolate'

eski: Wiley's stark variant of grime, more bleeps and bloops, not a great deal of difference otherwise from what i can tell

8bar: no idea

sublow: presumably a 'dubbier' version of grime?

Sublow is what Black Ops' Jon E Cash called his music before grime had become the main name for it.

8bar predates both Sublow and Eski and relates to a record crucial in grime's transition from 2001 garage to 2004 grime: Musical Mob's "Pulse X." This minimal bass-n-handclaps tune cleared the space for the MCs to shine, unlike vocal 2step. It also switched every 8bars, hence the term "8bar."

so its ok to call grime uk hip hop now? are we all agreeing thats what it is? is this cos of the OMM review?! hahah.