"21 Seconds" is a song by UK garage crew So Solid Crew. It was released as the second single from the debut album They Don't Know, and was the first of five consecutive Top 20 hit singles for the group. It was number one on the UK Singles Chart in August 2001, while it peaked just outside the top 40 in the Netherlands. It achieved first week sales of 118,135 units in the United Kingdom. In September 2019, NME included the song in their "25 essential UK garage anthems" list.
Production
The song uses fairly stripped back production, utilising a catchy 2-step rhythm which was common in UK garage at the time. The song title alludes to the approximate 21 seconds that each of the band members is given to perform their rap. 21 seconds is arrived at as the song's tempo is approximately 140BPM and each rapper has 12 bars of 4 beats. Megaman said the crew created the track after their label told them to make a track lasting three and a half minutes. He said “so we worked out that with at least 10 or 11 members, that’s eight bars each – 21 seconds. It was a simple calculation.” Their label manager Shabs Jobanputra said "they literally took a calculator and divided the time by the number of MCs." MC Lisa Maffia’s young daughter, Chelsea is featured at the beginning of the track.
"21 seconds" was the first UK garage track to achieve a number 1 on the UK Official Chart. The track sold 118,135 copies in its opening week and was the year’s 19th best-seller. Its total sales reached 423,000.
Critical reception
In a 2002 review, Pete Paphides in The Guardian said the track was "a brilliant idea" but that "not a single member of the collective uses their time to say anything remotely insightful." In a 2020 retrospective review of the single, The Quietus said the track "managed to capture the excitement of clubs and pirate radio, with MCs frantically passing the mic as they try to outdo each other in lyrical prowess, creative aggression bubbling beneath the surface."
Other versions
Romeo reworked ’21 Seconds’ for car insurance firm Confused.com in 2013. The same year, Preditah reworked the track. On September 6, 2019, So Solid Crew went to the Red Bull Music Studios, London, and remixed '21 Seconds' . They were joined by D Double E, Ms Banks and DJ Q as they added new verses. Manchester rapper Aitch covered the track in 2020.
