It was an innocuous Thursday evening, slowly meandering into Friday, when the UK rap scene was given a double decker, bus-shaped surprise. Out of nowhere, one of the most ambitious and triumphant music videos produced on these shores had landed, as chatter about Stormzy’s “Mel Made Me Do It” hit social media, WhatsApp group chats, and music forums the country over.

You know the video—Big Mikey and his very famous friends: Louis Theroux, Usain Bolt, Jose Mourinho, Jenny Francis, Megaman… (the list is longer than a beef with Chip)—visuals so lauded that YouTube collapsed under the weight of its own bandwidth and crashed soon after they were uploaded due to fan demand. It was a fever dream of a moment, unifying fans of UK rap around the marvel of Stormzy’s vision. These special times were once a regularity as Thursday became the de facto day for the scene to be shaken up: when songs and videos premiered, when legacies were etched in stone, and the scene grew in stature. Especially at a time when Fridays were (and still are) the go-to release day for most artists worldwide. But from around 2018 to 2022, we did things a little differently.

This was the era of GRM Daily’s video premieres, where the UK Black music platform chalked out the early-to-late Thursday evenings to give space to the newest vibes going. They were on the pulse, releasing cuts by everyone from Young T & Bugsey and Sneakbo to C Biz and Clavish. Meanwhile, the video for Russ Millions and Tion Wayne’s “Body”—released in March 2021—is sitting on 99 million views at the time of writing. A watershed moment for the evolution of drill and its pivot into lighter, dance-centric forms of entertainment at the time, it had all of us talking and rapping along to the memorable lyrics. Then, a month later, the “Body” remix—and ArrDee’s introduction with that Adeola bar—even usurped the momentum of its original, clocking at over 160 million video views.

Up-and-comer, established veteran—it did not matter; GRM was a homebase for what was new and fresh. Almost dizzyingly so, because it was hard to keep up with what they were putting out. Not to mention their regular rotation of Daily Duppy videos, giving us iconic freestyles by J Hus, Central Cee, 67, Chip, Potter Payper, P Money, Headie One, ENNY and so many others, collecting millions of views per video like Ash Ketchum with a set of Pokeballs. Though still an ongoing series, we can look back on the late 2010s and early 2020s as Daily Duppy’s zenith, a demonstration of artists collectively at the top of their game.

As well as Stormzy’s major moment in 2022, Kano had his in 2019 with the release of the videos for “Trouble” and “Class of Deja” featuring Ghetts and D Double E. Taking it back to the grimiest basics, the trio rolled back the years with a pirate radio-era performance, entertaining us as we flocked to Twitter and Instagram to share our two cents. Or when Headie One and Dave linked up on “18HUNNA”, one of the former’s biggest hits at the time and a titanic coming together of two of the scene’s brightest lights.

Thursdays quickly became an institution for the scene, coinciding with its continued prominence and relevance that, some would argue, we’ve lost since that golden time. It helped that the gears of the scene were purring; platforms such as GRM and Link Up TV were at peak levels of relevance, artists were fresh, hungry and ready to prove themselves, and there was a level of communal fandom amongst listeners that brought us together more closely. That’s what made this time so exciting: the collective discourse and excitement about our scene that made us all proud to rep it. Even if you didn’t agree with someone, that these moments were broken down and understood by everyone made the scene seem smaller and more united.

These days, as music tastes are becoming more siloed and lines are being drawn in the sand, it's getting rarer for rap fans to find common ground and celebrate these mammoth moments. While the UK rap underground is seeing new levels of relevance today, the same can’t be said for the mainstream portion, while fans of both rarely interact with each other. As a result, they stay in their respective camps, and the room for collective appreciation for art of all kinds diminishes. Coupled with attention spans getting smaller and music in general not being allowed to really land before we move onto the next thing, the fabric of discourse has shifted into something more personal and curated.

Not to say that we don’t have moments of unity anymore. We collectively rejoiced at Bashy’s return to music with his Being Poor Is Expensive album in 2024, marvelled at Potter Payper’s debut, Real Back In Style, a year prior, and Jim Legxacy kept us all talking about Black British Music in 2025. Undeniability can be seen as subjective, but there is still an appetite to react to and discuss music in ways that include everyone. And don’t get this writer wrong: Thursdays are still prime real estate for artists to tease and outright release records so, in many ways, the day has never lost its relevance. But it ain’t like it was.

That being said, the embers of the times when Thursdays dominated the scene lie dormant, waiting to be stoked once again, even if infrequently. But it only lifts that 2018–2022 era to further mythdom, as all of the moving plates of the scene adjoined for a time that was consequential to today and beyond. Thursdays may not be king anymore but, when they were, it was absolute cinema.