The year 2007 should have been the year that British grime music burst out from the underground. Drawing on the realities of urban life in Tony Blair’s Britain — as well as decades of black British creativity from dancehall to jungle — this new music had a network of musicians, MCs, and promoters, as well as the audience to take over the mainstream. But it was at this exact point that a new risk assessment protocol introduced by the Metropolitan Police choked the prospects of grime’s live success.

Form 696 demanded that promoters provide names, addresses, telephone numbers, and dates of birth for all artists performing at an event, to be delivered two weeks before any proposed show. Crucially, the form also asked which particular ethnic group would be attending, and which musical style would be played.

When promoters did not comply, events were closed down on an industrial scale. Plainclothes policemen turned up at venues and searched performers as they left. Mainstream department stores were pressured to cancel promotional signings by black grime stars. The moral panic around grime seemed to belong to a climate of fears over antisocial behavior — often policing simply the crime of being working class or black in public space.