Virus Syndicate are a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British 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 ...

collective from Manchester, centred on JSD and Nika D. They are known for their fusion of

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

with

, and have been lauded by ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' as "some of the tautest British MC-ing since the first Dizzee Rascal album."

Music and style

Virus Syndicate is known for their fusion of

and

, putting dub effects on the vocals and using

sub bass Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB Computing and technology * , an HTML tag for subscript * SUB designate ...

, common in dubstep music. On their 2015 album ''Symptomatic'', Virus Syndicate branched out in

Horrorcore Horrorcore, also called horror hip hop, horror rap, death hip hop, or death rap, is a subgenre of hip hop music based on horror-themed and often darkly transgressive lyrical content and imagery. Its origins derived from certain hardcore hip h ...

and

Political hip hop Political hip hop is a subgenre of hip hop music that was developed in the 1980s as a way of turning hip hop into a call for political and/or social action and a form of social and/or political activism. Inspired by 1970s political artists su ...

, with songs such a "Watch Your Back" and "Psychopath" having a theme centred on

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...

and "Watch Your Back" contains graphic

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

descriptions and the song "Do Suttin'" contained political lyrics rapped by Goldfinger denouncing

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...

Police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

are on the loose, they're murderin' civilians"),

government corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary, but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, inf ...

, and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

("The real villains are police,

, and the crooked

politicians A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

"). The song also encourages action in the lyrics in the chorus also rapped by Goldfinger "Do somethin', don't just sit back".

Career

They often supplied the vocal accompaniment on Mark One's solo recordings, specifically on his debut LP, ''One Way''. They have also released two of their own grime LPs, '' Work Related Illness'' and ''Sick Pay'', both in collaboration with Mark One. The LP cover featured cartoon artwork and a comic strip about the everyday life of the members of group. They also appear on the track "Dead Man Walking" on Milanese's first album. Virus Syndicate appear on the Planet µ record label. Additionally, they made an EP in 2015 with the Dutch Hip-Hop group Dope D.O.D. called ''Battle Royal EP''. They next released a track called "Next Wave", a collaboration with Swedish DJ and Producer, Bossfight. In 2016, their collaboration with Buku, a track called "Worker Bees" was featured on Ubisoft Annecy's extreme snow-sport game "STEEP". Since their 2017 EP "The Mancunian Way" on Disciple Records, the group have released multiple projects on the label together with big names in the bass music world such as

Virtual Riot Christian Valentin "Val" Brunn (born 20 July 1994), better known by his stage name Virtual Riot, is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He has released seventeen extended plays and two studio albums, most notably his 2016 extended play '' ...

, Dodge & Fuski, Barely Alive, Infekt and more.

References

External links

Rephlex Grime compilation, featuring Mark One and Virus Syndicate
English electronic music groups English hip hop groups Grime music groups Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-band-stub Dubstep music groups Planet Mu artists