When Boy Better Know announced a 20th anniversary collaboration with red-hot streetwear brand Corteiz, it was more than just a clothing drop—it was a full circle moment for the crew and label that has done the most to define and elevate grime, both as a musical genre and as a premier movement in UK Black culture.

Built around the core of brothers Jamie and Joseph Adenuga, best known as Jme and Skepta, along with Jammer, Frisco, Shorty, Preditah, DJ Maximum and (for a time) Wiley, BBK was never just a crew or an ad-hoc label: it has always been a vehicle to transform grime’s potential into real opportunity and success, across every possible medium. Both individually and as a unit, its members built on the wins of their predecessors like So Solid Crew, Heartless Crew, N.A.S.T.Y Crew, Pay As U Go and Roll Deep, but took things far beyond what was then imagined possible, whether by breaking through globally or maintaining maximal independence and integrity.

Emerging out of the break-up of North London’s Meridian Crew—a pirate radio collective featuring both Adenuga brothers alongside names like Big H, Meridian Dan and President T—BBK aimed to elevate grime from the start. Skepta and Jme had already released hotly-tipped instrumentals on wax over the previous two years, but a shift in music consumption from vinyl to digital was steadily eroding profitability. Further, discriminatory law enforcement practices like Form 696 and ASBOs put pressure on grime’s live events and pirate radio, respectively. This was enough to hinder grime’s momentum, but it also provided opportunities for new concepts and ideas: the old ways weren’t working, and Boy Better Know were in a perfect position to develop new ones.

Notably, Jme was deeply tapped into grime’s street level culture, but had also pursued a degree in graphic design—a powerful combination that allowed him to focus on branding and entrepreneurship, as well as music. This meant that, from day one, BBK was founded as a proper brand, with Jme designing and screen-printing the group’s iconic line of shirts himself, selling them at raves, record stores, on road and eventually online. This provided a crucial revenue stream that at times surpassed that of the actual music, while creating hype for and awareness of grime’s newest rising stars.

Not that the music was ever secondary; in fact, Boy Better Know’s pivot towards CD releases in the mid-to-late ‘00s, entirely independently, offered the best new model for a grime scene already bruised by major label deals that watered down the sound without offering the promised financial returns. While officially mixtapes, releases like Wiley’s Da 2nd Phaze and Tunnel Vision series, Frisco’s Back To Da Labs and Jme’s Boy Better Know projects were at least as powerful as any album the majors were putting out, all while keeping all profits in-house and without having to pander to mainstream tastes. Wiley, in particular, appeared positively liberated on Tunnel Vision, free of the kind of label politicking that all too often derailed his creative output. Nor was the label afraid to hit listeners with swerve shots: Boy Better Know 4: Tropical was a love letter to the classic garage of vets like Todd Edwards, a sound then out of vogue but would go on through several revivals.

Likewise, the iconic crew single, “Too Many Man”, caught the rising wave of UK funky right at its peak, injecting the genre with a dose of hype and a refreshing MC-led energy to complement the broken house tempos. Label-wise, Boy Better Know then grew to release (in one way or another) projects for extended family and affiliates like Tinchy Stryder and President T, becoming grime’s predominant outlet by 2010. They even launched BBK Mobile, a pay-as-you-go line of 3G SIM cards, leasing bandwidth from Hutchison 3G, from 2011 to 2013. Though the crew never became major players in the Telecom space, this was proof of their ability to think outside the box and take advantage of the trends on-road, given Black Britons were more likely than other demographics to use extensive mobile data at the time. Besides, how many phone company CEOs can get a reload on the mic?

Then, there’s Skepta. While his brother, Jme, always emphasised independence and a fiercely individual outlook—from his veganism to his idiosyncratic forays into combining street culture and nerd culture, like Pokémon card-collecting—Skepta always sought to become BBK’s mainstream superstar and London’s answer to New York titans like Jay-Z and 50 Cent. This path wasn’t without curves and detours: early albums like (the confusingly named debut) Greatest Hits and Microphone Champion still hold up as excellent projects, capturing grime in the fading days of its first and most exciting boom. As the wider industry left the genre for dead, however, Skepta faced challenges balancing his desire for wider acceptance in Black music worldwide, with the demands of a core fanbase unwilling to accept anything less than uncut, 140BPM grime from the scene leader.

But whereas similar stumbles prematurely ended the career of many promising MCs, Skepta used his setbacks as fuel for grime’s first major revival in the mid-2010s. “That’s Not Me”, a self-produced single built around classic grime presets, became an instant classic and its £80 DIY Tim & Barry video earned Skepta a MOBO, proving grime was alive and thriving and building on underground moves by crews like Butterz, who had followed in BBK’s wake, studying their gameplan.

The rest is history: Skep’s 2016 Mercury Prize-winning album, Konnichiwa, collaborations with US stars like A$AP Rocky, world tours and growth into one of the UK’s most beloved legacy acts are just a few shows of his endurance and appeal across a 20-year career. And the best part? He never left the crew, co-leading the entire roster along with Jme in their historic 2016 Reading & Leeds Festival takeover, complete with multiple stages, pyrotechnics and a payphone box stage prop for vibes. It was an iconic, barrier-breaking performance, signalling that grime wasn’t just the sound of the moment—it was an iconic part of UK music history, one just as impactful as Northern soul, punk or drum & bass, a genre more than capable of creating legendary festival moments.

Ever since, Boy Better Know members have continued to make their mark on grime and UK music culture. Though new music releases are more sporadic, this measured approach reflects BBK’s status as scene veterans with a deep catalogue of hits; they don’t need to drop a project to tear down a set or headline a global calibre event. Notably, on an underground level, it’s been an absolute joy to tap into DJ Maximum’s recent video sets, which capture the energy and vibe of pirate radio in the more modern, up-to-date format popularised by newcomers Travs Presents over the past several years. The recent Corteiz collab celebrating their 20th anniversary is proof of their continued influence as well as how far they’ve come: from Jme designing and screen-printing his own shirts, to partnering with one of UK fashion’s hottest names. As I’m writing this, practically all of the shirts and hoodies have sold out, demonstrating continued passion and engagement by the mandem.

BBK is a true feel-good, irrefutable success story in a genre that too often gets defined by negativity in mainstream narratives. Above all, these guys are proof that grime is still the in-ting, and a vital part of the UK music industry. Not to mention, it’s still incredibly fun to shout SHHHHHHUT-YA-MUH! and BOY BETTER KNOW! at the top of your lungs. Sometimes, the simplest pleasures are the greatest contributions.