Brief
New Era had been a fixture of grime since the pirate radio days, and wanted to tell the genre’s story properly: three MCs, three eras. D Double E for the originators, Tempa T for the revival, and Novelist for the generation now taking it global. The project was The Acts of Grime.
What We Built
I ran Novelist’s side of the whole campaign:
— The film. The third part of a three-part documentary series directed by Tim & Barry, telling grime’s history through his eyes. — The launch. Novelist headlining the release party at Red Gallery in Shoreditch, on a line-up of the scene’s newest names. — The product. A limited signature headwear collection designed with the three MCs, sold at New Era Carnaby Street and Westfield Stratford City. — The editorial. A New Era Music profile of Novelist running alongside the series.
What made it work was that the partnership reached past the content. A film is watched once. A cap with the artist’s name on it gets worn every day, in the places the music actually lives.
Outcome
Novelist placed as the present and future of grime inside a heritage brand’s own telling of the genre, in the film and on the product. Covered by Dazed on release. It’s still the clearest version of what I care about: an object that carries an artist’s credibility out of the room and into the world.
