There's not a lot of point updating this thread anymore on a broadly rock-oriented forum, however I'll end it on an extremely high note:
DJ Slimzee & Dizzee Rascal - Sidewinder set (2002) (CD-R rip so quality is top notch)
If you only ever hear one piece of music (this is an hour-long skankers) that is a definitive document of an exciting and vibrant UK subculture, make it this. Or possibly the
Boy In Da Corner LP if you don't have the stamina for two-step in the mix.
This was recorded for Sidewinder, the promoter that used to put on huge grime raves and the only places you'd be able to pick up a tape pack with exclusive sets after the show. As such this is old skool, properly upbeat and danceable under the crystal hangover from the UK garage days.
This was also the start of grime's golden age (2002-2004), all the dubs were minimal techno classics (no hype), Slimzee was the best DJ around at the time and is on top form here accompanied by Raskit before the Mercury Prize exposure and subsequent deflation.
The music press at the time of Dizzee's 2003 album compared grime's minimalist sound - the glitches and bleeps hovering over skittering snares and wobbling bass spasms - to the ringtones of those old Nokia phones: monochrome screen, impossible to lose down the back of the sofa...
Not an unfair comparison, but it was almost certainly the brief media spotlight and attempts to over-complicate what was essentially a cathartic, grassroots urban movement that almost certainly 'killed' classic grime.