Dortmund's Dance With Death x London's Inspiring Music Movement
In 2005, Borussia Dortmund were bankrupt. The second biggest club in Germany, who had won their 6th Bundesliga title only 3 years prior - were down on their knees broke.
Though they somehow climbed out of their financial ruin, the next few years were bleak. A series of 7th, 9th and 13th placed finishes in the league consecutively and fans began fearing if this was truly the end of their beloved team as they knew it.
Enter Jurgen Klopp. In 2008 he was appointed Dortmund coach and in 2011 they were Bundesliga champions. The reason? As well as Jurgen Klopp being a revolutionary tactician with his onus on out-of-possession running and breathtaking attacking transitions - Dortmund were recruiting better than any other team in the world.
Robert Lewandowski was brought in from Poland for 4.5 million euros. Blaszczcowsky and Lucas Piszczek too. Kagawa from Japan for £500,000. Mario Gotze on a free from Bayern Munich’s academy and Ilkay Gundogan for pennies.
A young and hungry team was moulded together by Dortmund’s extraordinary sporting directors and scouts and unleashed by the enigmatic Jurgen Klopp and suddenly they’d won back-to-back Bundesliga titles and dethroned Bayern from the top of the German period.
Klopp had welded together an unbreakable community-like atmosphere at the club. The squad, as eclectic as it may have been - were a family. From all corners of the world they arrived so diverse in their cultures and playing styles, but they made it work in no time. They held each other up and pushed each other hard all with the same goal in mind. Getting Dortmund back to where they belong. For all of Klopp’s great skills in the game, his ability to bring around a positive ‘larger than the sum of our parts’ mantra at every club he goes is by far the most impressive.
Because when you have a group of people all pulling in the same direction, with balanced personalities and different skillsets that mesh perfectly together - you become extremely hard to stop. Klopp built a movement at Dortmund which saw it become the home for young players over the next decade to earn their European stripes. Bellingham, Dembele, Aubameyang, Sancho and so many more.
A legacy was built out of Dortmund’s darkest hour and they never looked back - completely changing the way how many European teams operated.
In the UK a new movement is well and truly on it’s way and is underpinned by a strong collective of individuals all inspiring, creating and learning as one to take UK rap to a place it’s never been before.
Quite literally, ‘Da Community’, consist of a group of rappers, singers, producers and many others who’ve built their own little world to share, support and trade ideas. A lot of them have been viral on social media at different points of time. You have producer BexBlu who took the idea of combining old grime freestyles with jazzy and soulful samples and that was that, millions and millions of views on tiktok.
You have rappers such as Saiming, the S-travagant with such a unique and effortless cadence about him, you’ve got the relentless and punctuated Paul Stephan, the witty and unassuming Pozzy whose freestyles have gone viral a plethora of times . You have the inspired and thought-provoking J2. You can go on and on and on. ‘Da Community’ is drowning in a myriad of talent.’
And what’s so great about them is the support and enthusiasm they all show for each other. If you follow them on social media, you’ll see how they’re always promoting their compatriots’ stuff - whether it’s a repost on the story or a nice comment under a post. They’ll bring each other out at shows or perform at freestyles all together, rolling 7 or 8 man deep.
It’s also noticeable how more and more they’re beginning to jump on tracks with each other. For instance ‘Levels’ by Pozzy and Saiming is one of the better UK rap songs of the year whilst War by CapitalA and Saiming is a fresh and incessant anthem which stands left field of anything else really being made right now.
The same names have begun to appear together more often and although they each make music of a slight different ilk - the message behind the music brings them all back together. All these artists have an ambition to stay true to themselves in every song they make. Not wanting to put out anything just to try get a hit or viral sound on tiktok - they are all extremely passionate about the music they make.
Take the S-travagant man Saiming who acknowledges how art is a mirror of society and that if he has a platform, he needs to use it to make changes. Or even Pozzy who, though he went viral for his cocky flows - chose to pivot away from that and focus on the more introspective side of rap because that’s what he cared about.
All of these artists, all the community - it’s a breath of fresh air. The whole thing is just filled with positivity and like-mindedness and it’s underpinned by nothing but just wanting to see your friends succeed. Though they all grew up on the same central cogs of UK music, such as Dave, Skepta and BBK - their intention to branch out and evolve the scene sonically is makes them so different.
The UK underground scene is thriving right now with so many sounds to cater to almost anyone’s musical needs. In the pocket that these guys find themselves in, the pocket that’s been dubbed ‘Neo grime’ - there’s a group of young men and women who radiate introspection and creativity wanting to make a positive change to the world.
You’re so much harder to stop as a group. Going through anything alone isn’t as fun as doing it with other people who share the same dreams as you. Dortmund in the Klopp era and the neo-grime movement taking place, although they exist in widely different fields and times - they share the same overarching theme of what the power of a group of young, ambitious and talented can do when they work in unison.
