Skream - Rise To Prominence

Rise To Prominence

As Dubstep gained notice from conventional media such as The Guardian and Pitchfork Media, Jones' music started to take on a more melodic sound: less overtly influenced by the darker, UK garage influenced sounds of early dubstep artists such as Horsepower Productions, with dub, house, and even jazz influences instead. The 2005 Skream track "Midnight Request Line" has been described as "dubstep's most recognizable crossover hit", and has been praised by producers as diverse as Grime producer Wiley, and Minimal Techno producer Ricardo Villalobos. The key change in the chorus, which The Wire has described as "an epic change of key and tempo that recall the classicist mannerisms of Derrick May," has been credited as being a key factor in the evolution of a more melodic sound in the Dubstep genre.

Skream has released records on a variety of UK record labels, such as Tempa, Tectonic, and Big Apple Records, including a self-titled album on the Tempa label. He has done a number of tracks with Niall Henshaw, also known as Spectrum. He has performed throughout Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan, as well as the UK. From 2006, he hosted a weekly Rinse FM show called Stella Sessions. In 2010, Benga joined the broadcast, which was renamed The Skream and Benga Show.

In 2007, "Angry" and "Colourful" from Skream!, as well as an exclusive mix, were featured in the E4 teen drama Skins. This marked the first instance dubstep was featured on television. Skream was also featured on BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix that same year.

On 15 September 2008, Harmless released Watch The Ride, an album mixed by Skream, following on from artists like Scratch Perverts, Zinc and Goldie. On 2 October 2008 Skream featured in a fly-on-the-wall German TV show 'Durch die Nacht mit...' alongside Drum and bass artist Goldie. In this, Skream stated that he currently had writer's block, but he was working on music in other genres, also mentioning a possible Skream & Goldie collaboration.

In 2009, he rose to further prominence when his remix of "In for the Kill" by La Roux helped propel the record to number two in the UK charts. Also in 2009, Skream completed further remixes for Bat For Lashes and Toddla T.

In 2010, Skream's popular remix of "In for the Kill" by La Roux was featured in an episode titled "Hair" on the hit HBO series Entourage and "In the club" on the hit E4 series Misfits.

In the summer of 2010, Skream released his second full-length album 'Outside the Box', which was also released on the seminal dubstep label, Tempa Records. The record earned a score of 7 out of 10 from SPIN magazine.