An oral history of “Pow!”, Lethal Bizzle’s wild grime classic that stormed the charts and closed the clubs

D Double E, an MC on the song: There have been so many – so many – times that I’ve been in clubs, and I can hear it coming, and then I’m like, “Oh no…” By the time my part comes, I I have people nearby. at me, patting me on the shoulder, taking out their phone.

Tinkering: I did a few shows over the summer (2004), and seeing the response, I was like, “Oh my God, we’ve got a banger here.” The banning started happening when the labels got involved. I think it was November 2004, we were doing a promotional tour of clubs: we drove up to Leicester, we got to the gate – there were police outside, and the promoter came out and said : “We can’t let you in. There’s 3,000 people in there, we sold out the place and the police say if you come in they’ll take away our license. Rumors begin to spread: the song is causing riots. Then a venue put a notice on their DJ system saying, “do not play any Lethal B songs, including instrumentals.”

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“Ugh! » brought Bizzle to the attention of record labels and the song was signed to Relentless, who gave it a commercial release at the end of the year.

Glyn Aikins, who wrote the song: I was the A&R manager at Relentless Records. I knew (Bizzle’s) lawyer, who was telling me about (him) – how smart he was as a musician, but also as a businessman. At the time, I was always in nightclubs, (and) every time “Pow!” was played, across the country, it always sparked a mosh pit. That kind of visceral reaction to a record was proof enough for me that it had to be a success.

Deadly Bizzle: Then they got ambitious and said, “We want to go Christmas number one. “We ended up at number 11. If we had released another week, (it) would have gone to number one, because Christmas is so competitive.

Although the “Pow!” » The phenomenon caused Bizzle to be banned from clubs, and media interest opened up a new market for it: rock concerts and music festivals.

Nadia Khan, manager of Bizzle: I was personally interested in the world of rock, the independent world, so I opened it up to that. We toured the NME Club; I took him on tour with The Enemy, with Babyshambles, with Gallows. Everyone was like, “This isn’t going to work.” » But the energy in the room was the same.

Deadly Bizzle: Until then, my audience was predominantly black. Then, when I performed in Reading and Leeds (in the summer of 2005), before I went on stage, I heard them chanting my name. The tent is fucking stuffed. This show probably changed my life, because I didn’t know this audience existed for me.

In 2006, “Pow! ” acquired a high-profile fan: Jay-Z, who wrote a verse for the song that never saw the light of day beyond a few live performances.

Tinkering: I was in Amsterdam and Rio Ferdinand called me, but I couldn’t hear him – the music was so loud he was trying to shout into the phone. He texted me and said, “I’m at Wembley Arena and Jay-Z just played “Pow!” in its entirety. I got back to London and then found out he had another gig at the Royal Albert Hall. I managed to get tickets and see him play live – amazing. Then I received a message from his team: he wants to make a version; can you make a chorus with his name in it? So I sent it – long story short, I didn’t get a response.