Biography of RL Grime
Thirteen Halloweens to map out bass
Every October, American club trap had a fixed appointment: the RL Grime Halloween mix. What started in 2012 as a SoundCloud dump ended up becoming a scene ritual, featuring cameos from Tony Hawk, Pharrell Williams, Shaquille O'Neal, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Guy Fieri, or Jack Black, and with R.L. Stine—the author of Goosebumps who inspired the alias—as a recurring voice. In 2021, the tenth installment was presented live at the Hollywood Palladium. In 2024, the cycle closed with Halloween XIII: The End.
Clockwork turns off and Core sets festivals on fire
Raised in Los Angeles, between a fine arts photographer mother and an architect father, he went through Northeastern and NYU before fully committing to music. At first, he shone in electro house and big room as Clockwork, with records on Dim Mak and Mad Decent; he even shared the bill with himself—a set for each alias—until 2014, in the middle of EDC, when he decided to retire Clockwork. The RL Grime project, linked to the WeDidIt collective alongside Shlohmo, Groundislava, and D33J, had already released the EP Grapes (2012) and the remix with Salva of Kanye West's Mercy. The EP High Beams (Fool's Gold, 2013) debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic chart and at No. 1 on the iTunes electronic chart. The album VOID (2014) topped electronic charts in the United States and left behind Core, a festival anthem. Collaborations with Baauer (Infinite Daps), Big Sean, Boys Noize, and later What So Not and Skrillex (Waiting) expanded the map between the Los Angeles underground and main stages.
Sable Valley, PLAY, and the pulse of Cosmic Meadow
NOVA (2018) pushed the sound toward a more cinematic trap, with Miguel, Julia Michaels, Daya, Chief Keef, Joji, or Ty Dolla Sign, and entered the Billboard 200. In 2019, he founded the label Sable Valley, designed to provide a platform for emerging bass producers—ISOxo, Knock2, Juelz, JAWNS—in the same way that the Halloween mixes had functioned as a radar. The triple album PLAY (2023) was split into APEX, GRID, and RUSH: dancefloor rage, vocal tracks with 070 Shake or Bea Miller, and a final block of house, techno, and breaks. Live, he has covered Coachella, Lollapalooza, Ultra Miami—face to face with Knock2 in 2024—and EDC Las Vegas, including Cosmic Meadow in 2025. Today, he remains a reference for festival trap, with the label as a community and a catalog that ranges from the dry punch of Core to the broad narrative of PLAY.
