Alex de Lacey is an Early Career Development Fellow in Jazz and Popular Music at King's College London. His research focuses on performance in grime and hip-hop. His debut monograph, Level Up: Live Performance and Creative Process in Grime Music, is available through Routledge (2023).

With Dr Richard Bramwell, de Lacey co-edited the recently released Cambridge Companion to Global Rap (2025). He has written for Red Bull, Complex, Songlines, Passion of the Weiss and is published in Global Hip-Hop Studies, Popular Music, Popular Music History, and several edited collections.

He DJs for grime crew Over the Edge, and ran the grime and bass night DRUK in Groningen from 2023–2026.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Grime Music
• Improvisation
• Hip-Hop
• Jazz
• DJ Cultures

Teaching

Alex de Lacey teaches across Jazz and Popular Music.

Expertise and public engagement

Featured on Sky News, TheGuardian, Complex, Pigeons and Planes, and other news outlets.

Selected publications

• de Lacey A., & Ivan Mouraviev; Analyzing DJ Performance in the Dub Diaspora: Case Studies in Grime and Dubstep. Journal of Popular Music Studies 1 March 2026; 38 (1): 66–93. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2026.38.1.66
• Bramwell, R., & de Lacey, A. (Eds.) (2025). The Cambridge Companion to Global Rap. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009099738
• de Lacey, A. (2023). Level Up: Live Performance and Creative Process in Grime Music (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003295792
• de Lacey A. (2022). Live and direct? Censorship and racialised public morality in grime and drill music. Popular Music. 41(4):495-510. doi:10.1017/S0261143022000551
• de Lacey, A. (2020). ‘Let us know you’re locked’: Pirate radio broadcasts as historical and musical artefact. Popular Music History, 12(2), 194–214. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.39638