"Pow! (Forward)" is the debut single by English

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

artist

Lethal Bizzle Maxwell Owusu Ansah (born 14 September 1984), known by his stage name Lethal Bizzle, is a British rapper from Walthamstow, London, of Ghanaian origin. He emerged in 2002 as a grime MC as part of More Fire Crew, with their grime single "Oi!" ch ...

. The track features guest appearances from a variety of underground grime artists. It was released on 25 October 2004 for digital download via iTunes and then released on 20 December 2004. It charted on 26 December 2004 at number 11 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and currently stands as Bizzle's joint highest-charting solo single, along with " Rari WorkOut" and "

Fester Skank "Fester Skank" is a single by the English grime rapper Lethal Bizzle, featuring the Dutch electronic producer Diztortion. It was released on 12 April 2015 for digital download in the United Kingdom and was his first single to be released after sig ...

Background

"Pow! (Forward)", also known as "Forward Riddim", features other grime artists such as Fumin,

D Double E Darren Dixon (born 19 January 1980), known professionally as D Double E, is a British grime MC, DJ and record producer from Forest Gate, East London. He performs both as a solo artist and as a member of the grime duo Newham Generals. Career D ...

, Napper, Jamakabi, Neeko, Flowdan, Ozzie B, MC Forcer and Demon. It was banned from airplay on some

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

s due to some controversial lyrics about

gun culture Gun culture refers to the attitudes, feelings, values and behaviour of a society, or any social group, in which guns are used. The term was first coined by Richard Hofstadter in an '' American Heritage'' article critiquing gun violence in the Unite ...

. Even with little promotion, it still managed to reach number 11 in the UK

top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...

in early 2005. It has also been banned from many clubs as it tended to provoke fights. A documentary called ''Pow Pow'' about the song was released in 2005.

Sequels

"Forward Riddim 2"

Lethal Bizzle released "Forward Riddim 2" in 2006 with his new crew, Fire Camp. An interpolation of "Pow! (Forward)", which featured eleven grime artists, included Flirta D and

Kano Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria * Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State **Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries **Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...

"Forward 2"

Fire Camp has another sequel to "Pow! (Forward)", called "Forward 2".

"Pow 2011"

In late 2010, Lethal Bizzle created an official sequel single to "Pow! (Forward)", which again features other grime MCs - JME,

Wiley Wiley may refer to: Locations * Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town * Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S. * Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany People * Wiley (musician), British grime MC, rapper, and producer * Wiley Mil ...

Chipmunk Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia. Taxonomy and systematics Chipmunks may be classified either as ...

, Face,

P Money Paris Moore-Williams (born 8 April 1989), better known by his stage name P Money, is a British grime MC, rapper and songwriter from New Cross, South East London, who is also active in the drum and bass scene. He is best known for his live pe ...

Ghetts Justin Clarke, better known by his stage name Ghetts (formerly Ghetto), is a British grime MC, rapper and songwriter. His music has been played on national radio stations such as BBC Radio 1, Kiss 100, BBC Asian Network, and BBC Radio 1Xtra. C ...

and

. It was released on 6 February 2011 for digital download. Bizzle revealed that he was joking about doing a sequel to "Pow" at first, but then many fans on

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and artists such as Wiley, Chipmunk and JME agreed with doing a sequel.

Music videos

"Pow! (Forward)" has two videos; one for Channel U, a popular UK hip-hop music channel, and one for

MTV Base MTV Base was a British pay television music channel from Paramount Networks UK & Australia that focused primarily on hip hop, R&B, grime, garage, reggae, funk, soul and dance music. It was launched as part of MTV's digital boutique of music ch ...

, a more well known channel which shows (mostly U.S.) hip-hop music. They are both available on

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. The original video was uploaded onto

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

's official YouTube channel in February 2009.

Track listing

*CD RELDX15 #"Pow! (Forward)" (Original) – 3:01 #"Pow! (Forward)" (Da Bizzle Remix) – 2:49 #"Pow! (Forward)" (D Hector Movie Mix) – 4:02 #"Pow! (Forward)" (Relentless Video) – 3:42 #"Pow! (Forward)" (Original Video) – 3:45 *12" RELT 15 :A1. "Pow! (Forward)" (Pow Edit) – 3:00 :A2. "Pow! (Forward)" (Original) – 3:01 :A3. "Pow! (Forward)" (Original Instrumental) – 3:29 :B1. "Pow! (Forward)" (Da Bizzle Remix) – 2:49 :B2. "Pow! (Forward)" (D Hector Movie Mix) – 4:02 *12" RELTX 15 :A1. "Pow! (Forward)" (Pow Edit) – 3:00 :A2. "Pow! (Forward)" (Original) – 3:01 :B1. "Pow! (Forward)" (Original Instrumental) – 3:29 :B2. "Pow! (Forward)" (Da Bizzle Remix) – 2:49 *12" RELTDJ 15 :A. "Pow! (Forward)" (Original) :B1. "Pow! (Forward)" (D Hector Movie Mix) :B2. "Pow! (Forward)" (Original Instrumental)

Chart performance

The song first charted on the

on 1 January 2005 at number 11, being Lethal Bizzle's highest-charting single to date. The following week it dropped to number 14, then number 23. The week after, on 22 January 2005, it slipped to 37, and by 29 January 2005 it came just out of the top 40 at 41 and then remained in the top 100 for another two weeks - achieving a total of seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart. The record would be matched nine years later when his single " Rari WorkOut" also peaked at number 11, but the record would be broken if streaming had not been incorporated into the charts as "Rari WorkOut" peaked at number 8 on sales alone.

Charts

References

{{Lethal Bizzle 2004 songs 2004 debut singles Lethal Bizzle songs Relentless Records singles Songs written by Lethal Bizzle