Anyone who has spent more than five minutes online will understand how it feels to be trolled, or seen trolling in action. You put something out into the world, a thought, a picture, a whole damn album, and there is the anonymous figure ready to schythe you down with a cold-hearted insult. There's endless debate as to how best to handle this kind of criticism, and how we can best deal with trolls, but U.K. grime MC Big Zuu has a simple, brutal answer. Take things offline and deal with it the old fashioned way.
His Sir Spyro-produced track "Offline" appears on new album Navigate and features both JME and Novelist, with all three MCs answering back to their haters and spelling out in forensic detail what will happen to the next man who tries his luck. Take your pick for the best line, right now it's JME unplugging someone's router with force.
Naturally, "Offline" had to come with a big video and director Edem Wornoo delivers. Along with claymation animator William Child, they have created a revenge-laden narrative in which all three MCs get their own back on their anonymous tormentors. It's premiering above, via The FADER.
"Working with Spyro again after Variation (with D Double E), you have to continue on theme of working with amazing grime MCs," Zuu said. "So we got JME then I thought we need someone from the new generation as well so we got Novelist & we came up with this nice, fun, tongue-in-cheek expression which was just banter but it's also about how people react to the internet & how we all should be a bit more focused on real life."
Thumbnail image courtesy of David Townhill.
