The Tim & Barry brand is now old enough to swagger into a pub and order a cold crisp pint of lager. Or more likely, given the duo’s unerring dedication to documenting underground UK music culture, saunter straight into a decent nightclub.

For the past 18 years, the pair have focused their creative attentions on assembling an exhaustive visual history of grime and its offshoots. From D Double E to Dizzee Rascal , there isn’t an half-decent MC in the country who hasn’t posed or freestyled for Tim and Barry. Their work – often funny, always engaged – has become almost accidentally iconoclastic. Think of Crazy Titch mingling amongst the Mars Bars in a corner shop, or JME making the most of a snow day; perfect snapshots that hint at the anarchic inner-workings of a scene that’d go on to take over the world, at a time when it was barely making a dent outside of London.

Tim & Barry © Dexter Lander

We borrowed cameras, whatever we could do to make something, just to start the ball rolling Barry

The last few years have seen them extending the edges of their multimedia empire. They’ve shot music videos for The Bug , directed the feature length footwork documentary I’m Tryna Tell Ya, and seen Just Jam—their regular genre-hopping showcase livestreamed directly from their studio on Dalston’s Ridley Road, as likely to feature Parisian club music doyenne Betty as it is grime don Grandmixxer – hop into the real world for a series of hugely popular events at the Barbican.

Watch Tim & Barry's Skengdo & AM freestyle below

Their most recent project has seen them revisiting the form that made them famous: the freestyle. The new series of Tim & Barry TV has seen them capturing performances from the likes of Novelist , Mez , Skengo & AM and Big Zuu with typical flair. As ever, each of the 15 episodes are 100% live with absolutely no miming going on whatsoever.

“The new series, to be clear, isn't just a grime series,” says Tim when we meet over a coffee in their east London hub. “It's grime, drill, whatever the Afrobeats is going to call itself, bashment – it's wider than grime.”

“The last four or five years have been an exciting time for UK MCs,” Tim tells me. “When we finished shooting the last series of Tim & Barry TV, we'd shot everyone that we liked and a bunch of them had been on multiple times.” So they took a break, turned their hands to different things, and bided their time. “We came back because we had a creative idea which we wanted to shoot, and most importantly, the talent was there.”

With that in mind, we asked Tim and Barry to dole out a few vital tips for anyone who’s ever thought about getting a freestyle video together.

1. Don’t equate equipment with quality

Tim : It comes down to ideas. You can't just step in with an iPhone and think having an iPhone and an MC is going to be good enough, but at the same time you could have a 20 grand camera and no good ideas or sense of composition or light, and it'll be shit.

Barry : We've always used equipment around us. We borrowed cameras, whatever we could do to make something, just to start the ball rolling, getting our heads into the space.

Tim : It’s about having an idea and doing whatever you can to get as close to the idea as possible. If it’s a good idea then you should be able to communicate that with whatever you have.

2. But understand the equipment you're using

Tim : Make sure your video is in sync. Make sure the audio is in sync with the video – sounds basic but if you don’t have that, it'll throw everything off. Think about your audio – how are you going to record it, how are you going to present it? Lighting: if you're not in a studio, you've got to think about that. Choose a good background. You have to consider these things.

3. Be real

Tim : Honesty is important. If things aren’t working in terms of an MC being on camera, we'll try and stop what's going on, and explain why. We won't just say "you're shit," obviously.

Barry : We might encourage someone to be a little more energetic, or less shouty, and we generally tell people to look into the camera, because if you're doing that you're looking at the audience who'll be watching. It is really important that you engage with the camera, and imagine that you're being watched as your performing – because that's the outcome. It kind of changes the person's mind about how they perform.

It's pointless taking someone from Limehouse and shooting them in Buckingham Palace. Unless that's an active decision Barry

4. Get the MC on side

Barry : If we don't know the MC beforehand, it is about engaging with them, making them feel comfortable, comfortable in themselves and comfortable with you.

Tim : It's about working with people you like, or trying to. For us, a way to make sure that the conversations were good to start with, is letting the MC know you like them, even if you don't know them. You can chat about a particular lyric or song or someone they've worked with, and if someone's being a bit stoosh, that's what I try and do – I show them that I know their music and I like it. You'd be surprised how much that warms someone up. "Oh you know those bars, fucking hell!" That starts conversations.

Barry : Engage with the subject, talk to them about what they do. Flatter them! We all like to be flattered – it makes you feel good and comfortable.

5. Location, location, location

Tim : Any location can be flipped in your own way. For me, as long as you can put your stamp on it, it's cool. The freestyle video is about a bunch of stuff coming together. You can have a dead background but a completely live MC. You can have the best background in the world but a dead MC. It's about the combination of the two.

Barry : We tend to shoot people in their area. Or shoot in an area that means something to them. It's pointless taking someone from Limehouse and shooting them in Buckingham Palace. Unless that's an active decision.

Watch Mez jam with Kamaal Williams live in Red Bull Studios

6. Disobedience is fine

Tim : You can break these rules, by the way. Break any of them – as long as you know why you're doing it.

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