Johnny Ilan slinks through the urban underground to tell you about crossing over in grime and dubstep.

Welcome to the first of a series of monthly musings on urban music from the UK and further a field. In this column I’ll be looking at the artists who are popping overground every month, laying down quality and deserving your attention.

Dubstep, that “edgy” urban style from Croydon has crossed over. When the indie musos share festival tents with the yoof in hoods and even your mom knows who Burial is then it’s safe to say that it’s finally made the transition to “legitimate” art form. From its humble origins as a garage off-shoot, its youthful proponents have established landmarks and spread its blessings across a growing world-wide scene. Even Berghain in Berlin is putting on dubstep nights – it’s only a matter of time before it’s being used in mobile phone adverts and for sale at the counter of Tesco. Watch out for two vital releases from the genre before the end of this year. Bristol's Headhunter releases his new album on Tempa this month and Philadelphia innovator Starkey puts out Ephemeral Exhibits on Planet Mu the next.

Dubstep's rebellious kid brother Grime has been hungry for its taste of crossover scrilla, but is winning support in entirely different quarters. While Dubstep has courted the “intelligent” dance music brigade, Grime has been wooing the UK's wider urban audience. Like R'n'B? A glamorous night out? The odd boogie at carnival? Well Grime's got some good things going on this month. First up, [Jammer(http://www.myspace.com/murkleman1) teams up with Silverlink and Badness for 160BPM soca wildness.

The Murkle Man agreed with Kiss FM's Logan Sama that he's gone a different route to most Grime crossovers. Rather than toning down the rawness, as a newly-converted dubstep muso might say: he's turned it up to 11. On the other end of the spectrum, Tinie Tempah shows us what Eastenders might look like if it was set in the glamorous world of a grime MC – complete with smouldering glances and high speed car crashes:

Tinie Tempah - Tears

The remix featuring Tinchy Stryder has been playing non-stop on 1xtra recently, making me think that this Rough Squad man is becoming king of the grime crossover. Tinchy can really flex his mainstream muscles. Hear him team up with Janee with the most blatant appeal to the female demographic by a Grime artist ever.

Between this, Tears and his eponymous single Stryderman its really hard not to hear him at least once an hour on UK urban radio. The salsa tinged track comes courtesy of Bless Beats, who after producing Wearing my Rolex, is still reaching for that magic crossover formula. You'd want to be deaf to miss the similarities between his earlier hit and Crying for me, which features Wiley and Donaeo and is just beginning to do the rounds on 1xtra.

Finally, we've no need to mourn the crossover that never was. Though Kano flirted with a US career, even appearing as a character on the Def Jam video game, it just didn't take. After a stint of major label mediocrity, his self-released 140 Grime Street is a stunning return to form. The lead single Hustler tells it like it is: Grime is still about the artist as entrepreneur. So if the crossover presents, it's all in the game.