What Does '6-7' Mean and Who Started It? the Complete Cultural Guide
By James H. Sterling
The story of 67 begins on the Winstanley and Brixton Hill estates of South London in the early 2010s. The collective did not emerge as a calculated commercial enterprise. It formed out of tight-knit neighborhood bonds and local street networks centered around Brixton Hill, an area historically tied to postal code SW2 and specific local bus routes. Before they were streaming royalty, the founding members, LD, Dimzy, Monkey 67, ASAP, Liquez, and SJ, operated on the fringes of the underground music circuit.
London was experiencing a seismic stylistic shift. Grime had receded into festival circuits, and UK road rap reigned supreme through artists like Giggs and Blade Brown. Yet the teenagers coming up in Brixton Hill were consuming raw sounds imported from Chicago's South Side. They listened intently to Chief Keef, Lil Durk, and Young Chop. They recognized an immediate sonic kinship with the grim realities of their own concrete estates. They adopted the tempo, darkened the themes, and infused the tracks with London patois and localized slang, laying the initial stones of the UK drill movement.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
