In the Wild West that was the early days of grime, legacies were for the taking. MCs were a dime a dozen, ready to let their best bars ring off, painting a deeper, darker picture of life in London for young Black boys. Meanwhile, the sound of grime was being formed in real time, adding depth to the bars you could hear on radio sets or in music videos. Channel U, a tentpole of this early scene, allowed this generation to be broadcast in our homes 24/7, a true sign that British music was changing in favour of us. We can now look back at this era as extremely consequential, from which several classic tracks, albums, mixtapes, videos and moments found their place. It’s now almost unfathomable that most of these symbols of grime’s life are entering their 20th year. Time flies.

But in the pantheon of grime classics, Lethal Bizzle’s “Pow! (Forward)” stands tall—a tune that needed two music videos, flooded everywhere from the playgrounds to nascent online blogs like RWD Forum, and faced bans up and down the country. A track that played a huge role in opening the doors for modern Black British music to thrive in the modern day. Its power has been undeniable since its release in October 2004, often typifying the energy that grime has been able to fester up, and still does.

Everyone remembers the first time they heard the opening thud of producer Dexplicit’s rampant instrumental, rich with piercing hi-hats and earth-stopping performances by the MCs. For over three minutes, Lethal B, Fumin, D Double E, Jamakabi, Neeko, Napper, Flowdan, Ozzie B, Demon and Forcer brought ferocity, charisma and a fearlessness to the game, consolidating the new grime scene in vivid, colourful fashion. If I get into each individual performance, we’ll be here all day, but Fumin, D Double and Jamakabi’s verses hold a special place in my heart, each brimming with individuality and flair: Fumin’s directness, D Double’s iconic echo ad-lib, and Jamakabi’s rowdy ragga style tipped things over the edge.

This track had everything going for it, especially for a young kid taking his first steps into loving grime music. This writer was only 12 when he witnessed the movie, in a flurried state of confusion and pure joy watching these larger-than-life characters descend upon my living room TV screen, having just bought into the concept of Channel U as a platform for the new scene. Never mind that I had no idea who any of the MCs were. Then, going to and from school where kids would be blaring “Pow!” from their Nokias and Sony Ericssons at the backs of buses (shout-out the Bluetooth era), arguing over who had the best 16-bar and who would recite which MCs verse. This was just one way of letting you know that it had the streets in a chokehold.

Another was its impact in the raves. The top comment on the official music video’s YouTube page reads, “The amount of fights this song caused in raves was unbelievable. Many raves got shut down because of this one track.” Up and down the country, “Pow!”’ was incendiary, sending crowds into a tailspin once DJs hit play. It got so bad that club owners and radio stations made the move to ban the song from their rotations due to its violent lyrics. Moral panic from the establishment had set in, but it did little to curtail its influence.

“It was a weird time,” he told Complex UK in 2022. “Up until ‘Pow!’, the game was quiet. Dizzee was getting a lot of attention—he won the Mercury for Boy In Da Corner and stuff—and Wiley was doing his thing, but all of us were still on the roads, still in the underground scene. Labels weren’t really showing any interest at the time either. So when “Pow!” happened, it was almost like a big fuck you to everyone that doubted us. When it started popping off, I was like, ‘Yes! We’re back!’ When all that backlash [with the media] started happening, I was so pissed! Dexplicit made me change my thought process, though. He was like, ‘Bro! When you think about it, your song is so sick that they’re trying to stop it.’ I was like, ‘You know what, Dex? I didn’t even look at it like that.’ So I changed my perspective. But it was annoying because they were stopping me from doing gigs, doing shows, and tried to stop DJs from playing it. When I discovered the festival world, though, and found out they actually like to see mosh-pits, it softened the blow a bit.”

Yes, the lyrics point in that way—Napper’s pledge to “crack your skull” comes to mind, visceral and cerebral—but to reduce it to violence-inducing would do “Pow!’ a disservice. In a post-Dizzee world, “Pow!” served as a raw example of grime’s synergy—unfiltered, original and uncontrollable by any corporate entity. “It was like: ‘Fuck it, we’ll just do our own thing anyway,’” Lethal told The Guardian in 2011. “As a unit, we’re more powerful than any record company.” To further stick it to the suits, “Pow!” proved to have wide commercial appeal, peaking at No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart after generating a colossal buzz in clubs and underground circles and winning a MOBO Award. Updates to “Pow!” in 2006 (“Forward Riddim 2”) and 2011 (“Pow 2011”) kept the legacy strong, but certainly pale in comparison to the original, which caught lightning in a bottle and didn’t let it out.

“Pow!”’s influence would soon cross into political lines, becoming an anthem of sorts for student protests against the increase in tuition fees in 2010, blared out of speakers as protests erupted outside Parliament. Evidently, the track has that sway to transcend generations and sensibilities, uniting not only its original, mostly Black target audience, but also sons and daughters of the middle classes. Music often has that community impact bringing groups together that wouldn’t normally align, but much like anthems like The Sex Pistols’ “God Save The Queen” or Oasis’ “Wonderwall” before it, “Pow!” was a cultural unifier in every sense. It’s journey has become a prototype for just how far Black British music can travel and now—at a time where artists such as Stormzy, who got his start in grime, and OGs like Wiley and Dizzee have topped the charts and spread the message around the world—its influence on the culture and youth has never wavered, despite the genre navigating choppy waters throughout its lifespan.

The track didn’t do its architect, Lethal Bizzle, too badly either. It catapulted his career, giving him the platform to become a businessman, a one-time political commentator (calling former Prime Minister David Cameron a “doughnut” in 2006 for his blatant targeting of UK Black music as the source of knife and gun crime) and a commercially successful artist. As much as we love the tune, Lethal B is part of the fabric of UK music and it’s hard to imagine the scene—especially as grime has seen renewed relevance in 2024—without his weighty contributions. Despite conversations that the scene might not be where it once was in terms of quality, tracks like “Pow!” have even made conversations like this possible, helping change the conversation of what grime could achieve.

Grime, by its very nature, is a lyrical and sonic blow to your nose, but there’s no matching the energy “Pow!” radiates, even 20 years later. It has lived several lifetimes in grime’s timespan, each just as thrilling as the last. A symbol of revolt, protest, anger and defiance, “Pow!” is rightfully celebrated as one of the greatest of a generation full of scene-altering, culture-shifting moments. As a 32-year-old now, I still rise to the energetic levels it deserves when it plays in a club, attempting to retrieve the feeling I had when I first heard it. That is what legendary music does to you. “Pow!”’s fire will burn bright as long as we talk about it, as long as it’s played at parties the world over, as long as grime endures. Lethal told us at song’s end that “we need to know.” It’s probably fair to say that, 20 years in, we finally do.