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Music

This AirBnB-Certified "Grime Scout” Wants to Show You Around London’s Music Scene

It's part of the home-sharing platform's new "City Hosts" program, which reminds us a little too much of Westworld.
Photo courtesy of AirBnB

Are you a fun-loving American rudeboy with a thirst for adventure? If so, strap on your best chino tracksuit and head on over to AirBnB, where the cultural experience of a lifetime is waiting. The home-sharing site has announced a new immersive program called City Hosts, in which locals take tourists on multi-day field trips deep into their native habitat. One of these—a London excursion titled "Grime Scout"—features a man named Dominique, whose bio on the site states that he's "an advertising marketeer and reportage photographer," as well as a "repertoire coordinator for Slip Records."

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We reached out to Dominique, who explained that he got his start listening to grime on pirate radio a decade ago. He tried his hand at becoming an MC—when that "didn't go too well, " he switched to event photography and working behind the scenes.

"As I was going round taking shots at gigs," he explains, "people started to ask me to connect things, using my network from growing up in London and being into the scene—artists [would ask me for help setting up] shoots, video appearances, features and more."

As an example, he noted that he helped the grime artist Bonkaz with a mixtape by "shooting some of the artwork," as well as "arranging sessions with [producers] Greatness Jones and Pops."

As for Slip Records, it's a "collective/label of creatives and like minded people" focused on grime and rap, in which Dominique's "involvement changes all the time, from A&R type of responsibilities to more of a managerial overseeing standpoint." Additional info on the imprint—from Dominique or elsewhere on the internet—is conspicuously scarce.

But what exactly does the Grime Scout experience offer entail? According to the listing, Dominique has lined up three days of fun. Day one: he'll escort you to "the best gigs of the night, on either end of the city. Wherever we go," he promises, "I'll teach you how to spot amazing talent."

On the second day you'll visit a grime studio, where the two of you will "sit in on a live recording session or warm up our own vocals."

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The third night of Grime Scout is basically the same as the first—"We'll groove to the beat at one or more of my favorite underground London clubs," Dominique writes, "and might just end up partying in the same spot as Pharrell Williams, Ed Sheeran, or ASAP Rocky."

The chance to meet a grime star like Ed Sheeran seems worth the price of admission alone; it's a measly 190 quid—only $230 post-Brexit—with six drinks included! That's less than you spent on ASOS buying out the look from Kano's File after that cute girl in HR told you she likes Skins.

AirBnB's business model offers endless possibilities for global expansion. Maybe someone in East Atlanta could offer a Segway tour of the neighborhoods where Migos and Gucci Mane grew up. At night you could roll up to Magic City, with singles provided.

If this all sounds dangerously close to Westworld, don't worry—"Dom has a genuine host persona," wrote one AirBnB user named Leo last October in his 5 star review. For now, at least; you never know when he might discover his core programming, wake up, and attack an innocent guest live on NTS.

Maybe you're skeptical about this kind of surface-level touristic immersion in a complex musical culture. Understandable, but here's something you might not know—Skepta was once an environmental studies major from UC Santa Barbara who bought an AirBnB experience package on spring break. His host took him to BBK's studio where Wiley let him jump on the mic. The rest is history.