Grime MC Jammz says Royal Court play 'Poet in da Corner' reshaped his career

Grime MC and producer Jammz has described how appearing in the 2018 Royal Court production of "Poet in da Corner" by Debris Stevenson marked a turning point in his career, according to an account published by The Guardian as part of its "play that changed my life" series.

According to the account, attributed to Jammz and recorded by Lindesay Irvine, Jammz was in his third or fourth year as a professional grime MC and producer in 2018 and had no aspirations toward theatre work at the time. He said Stevenson, described as a friend, asked him to help write a song for her play before inviting him to a table reading session at the Royal Court to read the part of SS Vyper, a pirate radio DJ character.

Jammz said the theatre's artistic director at the time, Vicky Featherstone, told him he had read the part so well that he "may as well be in the play." He said he initially thought the comment was a joke, but was in rehearsals the following week.

Per the account, the experience revealed to Jammz that performing in theatre shares common ground with MCing in a club setting, an insight he said contributed to making him a better MC.

The Guardian noted that grime, a genre that emerged from UK underground music scenes, had previously been "ostracised" in mainstream cultural spaces, but that the Royal Court's engagement with the genre through Stevenson's play treated it as a legitimate art form, according to the sourced account.

The publication of Jammz's reflection coincides with his current work as a musician on "for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf," a production featuring his music that is running at the Yard theatre in London until October 17, according to the source.