Awful Lack Of Infrastructure: How Mayday helped build momentum, community, and a new blueprint for Birmingham Grime.
- Sam Rasmin
- 10 hours ago
- 7 min read
Birmingham has never struggled for talent. What it has struggled for, historically, is infrastructure. Moments have come and gone, artists have broken through and taken the city’s sound across the country, even across the world, but sustaining that momentum has often proved more difficult. Platforms have appeared and disappeared. Movements have risen and faded. And for many artists, the next step has traditionally meant leaving the city behind.
Few people understand that reality better than Birmingham MC Mayday. Over the past few years, he has quietly, and then very loudly, become one of the driving forces behind a new generation of Birmingham Grime. Through consistent releases, international travel, and the creation of the Awful Lotta Birmingham movement, Mayday has helped bring together a community of MCs that has re-energised the city’s Grime scene. But none of it began with the intention of leading a movement. It began with a simple frustration: there wasn’t enough happening.
Mayday started rapping around 2016, towards the back end of the Grime renaissance. Birmingham already carried a strong legacy within the genre, but at that moment there wasn’t much that felt current to him in the city. Artists like Jaykae, Lady Leshurr, Safone and Lotto Boyzz had all experienced major moments between roughly 2012 and 2016, shining a spotlight on Birmingham’s talent. Before that, collectives like Stay Fresh and Invasion Alert had defined an era for the city, pushing Birmingham Grime forward during its golden years. But as London reignited its relationship with Grime in the mid-2010s, the capital once again became the centre of gravity for the genre. The difference wasn’t talent - it was opportunity. London had the infrastructure. Birmingham didn’t. So Mayday decided to focus on building something for himself.
He began releasing music around 2017 and 2018, steadily finding his rhythm as an artist. At the time he didn’t necessarily hold himself in the highest regard as an MC, but what he did have was consistency. That consistency eventually led him to connect with producer and engineer DubzCo, also known as Trix, a partnership that would become one of the most important foundations of his development. The relationship quickly became mutually beneficial. Mayday began learning the technical side of music - how records were built, how sound could be shaped - while DubzCo was exposed to what felt culturally current within Grime. The collaboration allowed both of them to grow, gradually refining the sound that would define Mayday as an artist.
For many observers, one of the first moments that hinted at something bigger was Mayday’s release ‘Like Juve’. The music itself was strong, but it was the cohesion around the release that stood out. There was branding, there was intention, and there was continuity in the way the record was presented. At the time, that level of thought around marketing and packaging wasn’t particularly common among independent Grime artists, especially outside London. From ‘Like Juve’ to ‘Complete The Mission’, the formula started to connect.
Since then, Mayday has leaned heavily into consistency. He launched initiatives like Song Of The Week, became far more strategic with his releases, and since 2022 has delivered four projects a year across EPs and mixtapes. At the same time, he began expanding his ambitions far beyond Birmingham. His philosophy became simple: go out of the city to bring it back to the city. Through music he travelled extensively, performing and building connections in places like Japan, Hong Kong, Serbia, Paris, Brazil, Turkey, Miami and South Korea. Every trip broadened his understanding of what was possible for an independent artist.
Back home, however, the same structural problems remained. Radio platforms were limited. Freestyle opportunities were scarce. Live bookings were inconsistent. Instead of waiting for those opportunities to appear, Mayday began creating his own pathways, travelling to perform wherever possible and connecting with artists and promoters across the country. Without necessarily realising it, he was already laying the foundations for something bigger. The catalyst for what would eventually become Awful Lotta Birmingham arrived through a moment of competition. Trappy hosted a clash between Drizz GB and RGG Tech, judged by Wiley, and the energy around the event sparked something within the local scene. Artists who were already aware of one another suddenly had a shared moment, a reason to gather and engage with each other more closely. It wasn’t labelled as a movement at the time, but the foundations of a community were beginning to form.
Trappy’s clash events, hosted under The Pod, began evolving. Sets were added at the end of the events, and gradually a group of MCs started appearing together more frequently. By 2024 that group was beginning to move with real cohesion. Mayday was working closely with artists like Stretch DCM, Drizz GB, Legacy and Trappy, and he made a conscious decision to collaborate with the artists he was building alongside. The core of the collective that would eventually shape Awful Lotta Birmingham included Stretch DCM, DH, Drizz GB, RGG Tech, Trappy, Varntae, Creezon and R-Don Ranger.
Out of that group, Mayday was the most consistent releasing music, and he used that momentum to help amplify the others. At the same time, several artists within the scene were generating their own moments. Drizz GB’s run on Pen Game went viral, raising awareness around Birmingham’s new generation of MCs. Sets around the country were building buzz, eventually leading to the Brum vs Manny clash between Birmingham and Manchester - a moment that reignited national conversations around Grime, even drawing the attention of London once again. But Mayday recognised that while the energy was growing on stage, there still wasn’t enough music on record.
Around this time he also found himself at the centre of an unexpected viral moment. During a freestyle on Sigil Radio, a lyric referencing Canva spread rapidly across social media. The clip circulated widely, becoming one of the most talked-about moments around his music. Rather than letting the moment pass, Mayday built an entire rollout around the track. In a move that reflected his unconventional thinking around marketing, the campaign eventually led to collaborations with an Australian record label and brand partnerships with Adobe in both the UK and the United States - a creative response to the Canva lyric that turned a viral moment into something far bigger.
But while that moment was unfolding publicly, Mayday was already deep into building Awful Lotta Birmingham. In typical fashion, he approached the project with community in mind. Instead of sourcing production from outside the city, he intentionally worked with Birmingham-based producers including Lotus, Gallah, Horrickle, Off-Key and Felix Dubs. The goal was simple: capture what Birmingham Grime sounded like in 2024. When Awful Lotta Birmingham dropped between November and December of that year, it immediately felt like more than just another project. It was a collective statement.
Momentum carried straight into 2025. The artists continued performing together, attending events across the country and strengthening the community that had formed around the music. To bring even more MCs into the fold, Mayday later released a deluxe edition of the project in March 2025. The expanded version grew to seventeen tracks and involved twenty-six artists, MCs and producers, transforming the release into a genuine movement. The introduction of the ALB logo, along with custom chains and rings, gave the collective a visible identity. The ripple effects were immediate. More viral moments emerged across the group of MCs. International performance opportunities began appearing. Brand partnerships followed. But perhaps the most significant outcome was the atmosphere within the city itself.
One of the clearest examples of that came through Awful Lotta Bene, a series of events hosted alongside Bene Culture. For many people attending, the energy felt like something Birmingham hadn’t seen in nearly two decades. MCs and creatives gathered in the same rooms, audiences were engaged, and both men and women were showing up to Grime events in large numbers. It felt like a genuine community had formed around the music.
By the end of 2025, the momentum around the movement was undeniable. Mayday continued building, supporting namesbliss at Hare & Hounds and later releasing the Awful Lotta Compilation, a project that introduced even more emerging Birmingham MCs through new and unheard music. What began as collaboration had evolved into something much closer to infrastructure.
For Mayday, the motivation behind all of it was simple. He wished something like this had existed when he was coming up. His philosophy has always been straightforward: if it’s not there, create it. Through Awful Lotta Birmingham he created opportunities, platforms, and connections for a new generation of MCs. Now, after several years of building the movement, that chapter is approaching its natural conclusion. Mayday has released the Awful Lotta Birmingham documentary, a project that captures the story of the collective and the journey behind it. Alongside that, he recently collaborated with Neighbourhood to host a live Grime set backed by a full band, continuing to push the boundaries of how the music can be performed. Now the documentary is released, Mayday plans to park the ALB story - not because the movement is over, but because it’s time for everyone involved to carry it forward themselves.
The artists who helped build the movement now have the responsibility to continue it through their own headline shows, projects and collaborations. For Mayday personally, the focus now shifts back to his own catalogue. After investing years into building something bigger than himself, he is currently working on a new mixtape alongside what will become his debut album - the next chapter in a career that has already helped reshape Birmingham’s Grime landscape.
At the end of the documentary, Mayday asks a simple question to everyone involved in the movement: what does Birmingham Grime look like in five years?
Right now, the city feels like it’s in a strong position. Platforms and communities have emerged that have helped shaped a complete ecosystem that didn’t exist just a few years ago. Bene Culture, Sigil Radio, Sum Cellar, BE83, OurTurn, One More Riddim, BSR, Parlay Records, BoxOut, CALM, NCapped, Neighbourhood, Andromeda, Art Therapy, Local Boyz, StationTwenty, Off The Desktop and Social Kids, among others are all building the future of the city. But the challenge moving forward is sustainability. How does this momentum evolve into something permanent? How does the city ensure artists no longer feel they must leave Birmingham to find opportunity?
Because if there’s one lesson from the Awful Lotta Birmingham story, it’s this: talent was never the issue. Infrastructure was.
And if there’s one takeaway from Mayday’s journey, it’s the principle that guided the entire movement from the beginning. If it’s not there, create it — and make sure Birmingham never again experiences an awful lack of infrastructure.
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