Doomscrolling on TikTok for hours on-end is now as common as eating food or taking a breath, except nowhere near as essential to your life. But sometimes you come across artefacts of music and culture that tug at your heartstrings. One such incident happened for this writer when he stumbled on a video featuring a familiar face rapping effortlessly over a bouncy, soul-infused beat. The producer Wilfred, one of a long line of incredible mellow grime producers to emerge this decade, was its architect. But it was Ears who glided on it to perfection.

Ears was young and precocious at the time, a grime wonderkid before the term ‘wonderkid’ became common speak in online debates, showcasing his skills on the seminal 2004 grime DVD, Practise Hours. Spitting from Jammer’s basement, a grime monument akin to Big Ben or Stonehenge, validated Ears’ status as a youthful general backed by the major players of the sound. But it was his skippy flows, slick wordplay and quiet intensity that kept your ears stuck to his every word. Ears has navigated the music scene all his own way. The East London MC’s credentials in grime are solidified, having toiled through its first generation and the avenues available to them: pirate radio, DVDs and clashing. He was 15 years old at the time, standing alongside Dizzee Rascal, Kano, Chip, Tinchy Stryder and Ice Kid as the most important young spitters of the genre.

Ask any of the legends and they’ll tell you he was a problem. Wiley featured him on his 2006 mixtape, Da 2nd Phaze, and 2020 album Godfather 3. Jammer was a constant collaborator, signing him to his early Jahmek The World record label and put him in his Neckle Camp; Akala enlisted him on the remix of his first impactful single, “Roll Wid Us”, in 2005; and his trademark ‘lend me your Ears’ and ‘Ear ‘em, scare ‘em’ catchphrases were frequent hallmarks of the early era, a sign that he was about to steal the show. Take a quick line from the “Roll Wid Us” remix: “You know that we’re repping Jahmek The World/We’re breaking the Richter scale.” Brash and super confident, it captures the essence of Ears as an MC, unflinching next to his older counterparts and ready to scorch everything in his wake.

Meanwhile, his clash with Tinchy Stryder on Lord Of The Mics 2—a proverbial battle of the best teenage MCs in the game—was box office viewing. It went triple platinum on the streets and is remembered as one of the greatest LOTM put together. The fact that he won (in this writer’s humble opinion) only adds to his pedigree. Not to mention his incredible run of pirate radio sets, including one with the infamous N.A.S.T.Y. Crew on Deja Vu FM, a symbol that Ears was grime through and through. The guy even performed in NYC with Jammer and D Double E, at a time when UK Black artists playing in America was still rare; that barrier to success in America felt more like a gulf for so-called “urban” Black artists in Britain.

But scratch the surface and you’ll find that Ears has found unique success and a lane in grime for himself. His catalogue features several projects, his own record label (Rollin G’ Entertainment), a club night (WAAC) and a grime colouring book (Nang). Not only that, he’s performed with the likes of Chase & Status and most recently, in late 2024, rolled back the years when he stepped to DJ AG’s arena spitting over ice-cold grime beats.

This isn’t a man confined to prototypical definitions of wins or progress, but someone who’s always thought outside of the box to imagine his own idea of making it. He carries the essence of grime wherever he goes for the simple fact that he does what he wants, when he wants. Rather than be restricted to the sound, Ears has since experimented with rap, R&B and UK garage on projects like Breath Of Fresh Ears, Million Ears and Back To The Future I & II, but fusing them authentically with the genre that brought him to the dance.

A long hiatus from the music game in the late 2000s and early 2010s aside, Ears has been consistently testing himself and feeding the streets. But only if you’ve been paying attention. It’s easy and incredibly lazy for casual onlookers to cast him as an afterthought or a relic because he’s toiling primarily underground. He has been hustling in ways that have moved his legacy forward while remaining close to what made him so: his pen. He can still go up against most MCs in the UK, and a legion of grime fans who saw its rise will have a soft spot for Ears. Browse YouTube or social media for assessments about him and you’ll see comments akin to “this guy was the coldest!” 20 years after the fact, that he can still evoke so much emotion is a credit to his steez.

Some artists and musicians are products of their times; think of the 1960s hippie movement symbolised by The Beatles and Jefferson Airplane. Or N.W.A. capturing the rage of anger of Black communities towards the police in the 1980s. For the early onset of grime, a time that changed it all for Black British music, Ears represented the lyrical fluidity and mental attitude of the new generation of musical upstarts, ready to take over London, the UK and the world. Still going strong, he’s far from a relic of nostalgia, but a man with more to give. One time for a grime legend.