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JASMINE WITH HARVEY.
Michael Harvey Jr better known as MC Harvey or simply Harvey is a British rapper, actor, television personality, former non-league footballer and a mate of mine via work for the past decade. He first came to fame in the early 2000s as a member and one of the hot boys of English rap group So Solid Crew, before then pursuing a solo career in 2008.
Growing up on the Plough Road area of Battersea in South London, Harvey was one of the founder members of the UK garage collective and it was during this time as an MV News Presenter that I got to know him and his then girl friend Alesha Dixon, who was in girl band Mis Teeq.
HARVEY WITH ALESHAHarvey began dating singer Alesha Dixon in 2000, marrying her five years later, and they were known back then as the cooler, urban version of Posh and Becks. So it was tough for them, their families, friends and all who knew and loved them as a couple, when Harvey became a nationally hated character after cheating on her with singer Javine Hylton with whom he was then starring with in West End musical Daddy Cool in 2006. The national papers were full of the scandal, which must’ve been hell on earth for all involved.
During that time, Harvey approached me in my role of Head of Production at MTV BASE and wanted to bring a concept for a new comedy show to the channel called The Young Gods Of Comedy. After cussing him in my office for hours and giving hell on all our behalf, we came to an understanding. He quite rightly told me that their business was private and that no one knew the real story and that he wanted to keep his career professional. He was right. Alesha will always be my girl, but an adult doesn’t take sides in business and to this day I still value working with them both. I respected his hustle and we worked on his show together. It wasn’t all smooth sailing and we had an almighty row once in the main MTV editorial glass walled boardroom where all the staff watched us arguing before we came to an ‘’understanding’’ LOL.
HARVEYS YOUNG GODS OF COMEDY SHOW ON MTV BASE.He continued his grind by joining the line-up of Angie Le Mar’s play The Brothers at the Hackney Empire in 2008, which I also transmitted on MTV Base.
Since then Harvey has grown up, had a daughter with Javine called Angel Hylton Harvey in 2008 and also appeared on reality TV shows The Games, on Channel 4 in 2003 (which he won) and several series of The Match on SKY One.
HARVEY AND JAVINE.He’s also appeared on Never Mind the buzzcocks, News night, The Weakest Link Music Extravaganza Special, Celebrity Come dine with me and Celebrity Big brother 10. You can see that this guy doesn’t sleep and is not to be slept on with new hustles and projects daily.
HARVEY ON CELEBRITY COME DINE WITH ME.Today he’s about his family. He’s engaged to his Persian fiancé and they are getting married soon. He’s all about being a good father to his daughter and now he has a new online TV show called FACE TO FACE on urban music site GRM.
The show is a special collaboration between, Harvey, GRM Daily and Adrian Scott (Mellow 9), and focuses on the many ‘beefs’ within the music industry. Presenter Harvey brings the main perpetrators of the beefs to the table where they can re-live and reflect on those moments in a face 2 face interview.
In the first episode, filmed by GRM Daily, Harvey brings together a representative each from Pay As You Go Crew and Heartless Crew — Bushkin and Maxwell D respectively.
Face to Face brings together artists to have had past issues and Harvey acts as the mediator and gets them to air issues and talk it out in a positive way so they and their fan bases can see the growth and maturity in the game.
This past fortnight Harvey sat down with my LONDON360 team and reporter Aaron Page to talk about his life to date.
As with any time you’re hanging out with Harvey, his conversation is so dynamic and full of banter that I thought it would be great to just let you read the whole interview live, untweaked and uncut before the TV feature airs next week.
Interviewer- Aaron Page- LONDON360 REPORTER.
Aaron; All right, so Harvey how did you come up with the idea for face 2 face.
Harvey: I’m a massive boxing fan. Big fan of a guy called Max Kellerman he’s the guy that did the Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto face to face two weeks before their fight and I remember getting the concept idea off that. I was thinking to myself no ones really touched in that in music where they’ve actually artists flesh out their problems maturely and in an adult manner, so its really more inspired by Max Kellerman the boxing host .I just kind of took elements out of it, its my own magic.
Aaron: Ok so it’s more of the face off between the boxers the way they have to sort of pipe each other up and its basically about fusing the tension between them.
Harvey: Of course and as you know, to be a boxer you need to be professional. Boxers you know boxers fight out of the boxing ring they lose their license so every thing that is done through the boxing trade is done with discipline and respect so the good thing about Max Kellermans version was they have to sit their and talk about the fight as men and as adults. I’m trying to bring that unity and incorporate that back into the United Kingdom cuz I think that we suffer from a big thing in this country and its called ego and no one likes to admit when they are wrong or no one likes to sit down and as men and put their past differences behind them and you know with me I know that my personality can change that because I’ve got the respect of the artists. I come from a crew that started so long ago so for me now in this present day and age its about bringing unity back into the game and any problems that people got, discuss it, talk it, move on and lets unify as one.
Aaron: So many gang issues are resolved through mediation- with your new show you are acting as the mediator.
This is a system that many people use when in gang culture tell us why you think it works?
Harvey: To me communication and talking is the best form of communication so that word mediator makes me sound like I’m some president or something but for me I know how to talk to people and I don’t fear I’m bringing up uncomfortable situations to someone cuz usually when people go over that situation and discuss it maturely we usually make progress and get somewhere. Its when people come in and have arguments they stay away from each other and then people start feeding others people gossip and the problem turns bigger then it actually , so I thought this show was ‘let me just get two heads Maxwell D, Bushkin and let them discuss it at the table’ that way anyone that created gossip in east London and north London is now all eliminated , so it was just a bunch of hype and talk so definitely if you wanna call me a mediator I’d take that title.
Aaron: Can you talk bout talk about any experiences with gangs and how you view those experiences now?
Harvey: My experiences with gangs… I was probably in the biggest music gang in Britain -we never called it a gang but in the media they would of labelled us as ‘gang’ ,what can I say ,unless you’re a strong character ,boy, you would have never survived. Every member of So Solid is a strong person cuz we’ve all got our individual journeys, and remember artists now, they have the pressure they share it with each other cuz there’s a market ,back in our day So Solid there was no black artists, we was the best at what we was doing but with great power comes great responsibility so that means we was getting heat of the road, we was getting heat of the media, I mean I don’t think anyone has been as hated as us for the price of success, surely when you’re successful you’re meant to embrace that? Nah not really, not in this country, people like to see you fail so if you are getting heat from the streets, if you are getting heat from the media, you just get to the point where its “ you know what bloods, its just us against the world” really innit ,because the bigger we get the more people are gonna oppress us and call us gangsters and say you know we’ve spoilt music and youre just a bunch of violent boys from south London, so you just become strong and you become thick skinned and you just become a warrior, you deal with it.
Aaron: So viewing being who you are now and looking back, do you feel if that if So Solid changed something about them they wouldn’t have the hate from Daily Mail and police shutting down the shows, would you prefer to do that or just be where you are now?.
Harvey: No way, no way would I change it ,where was the Daily Mail when people was pulling out guns on me where was the Daily Mail when my life was threatened? so why am I gonna sit down and say I should change it to benefit a newspaper that’s never gonna happen when my life’s getting threatened and we was going for all the pressures we were going through individually. They didn’t care about us ,they didn’t care if we got killed they didn’t care when I got stabbed, they didn’t care that Mega was dealing with all these pressures, they didn’t care when you know Romeo got stabbed, so I cant ,nah never, that’s never gonna happen, I would never change it. So Solid would never be So Solid without the drama. It would be like S Club 7, there would be nothing to talk about, so with So Solid the controversy made us who we are, that’s why now people call us legends, we don’t suffer that heat no more, its more the young kids that we are trying to help. You my little brother Chip and Cashtastic, I’m just trying to pass my knowledge on to them to make them do it right and avoid the type of problems. Dya know what I mean so I would never ever change it. I would never ever change my personal life, I would never ever change being when I got stabbed 10 years ago, I would never ever change 1 bit of it ,no way cuz ,you know what ,I look back now and I think wow, at least I got the street wise knowledge and that mainstream knowledge, cuz that’s the best form of knowledge.
Aaron: Do you feel that there is a void now that So Solid is inactive and there is no real voice for like disadvantaged youth of London?
Harvey: I wouldn’t say there is a void, but I think people are realizing what we done wasn’t easy and its big shoes to fill and that will never be filled, but there was a lot a lot of positives, Wretch 32, that’s a positive, Chip is a positive, Giggs is a positive and they are all covering different parts of England. I would say Giggs Is probably the closest to So Solid. Cuz he’s had a very similar life to it, Chip’s growing up – he’s not a bad boy, not a bad kid. He’s a straight A student, you know? He has amazing talent. He kind of has a similar life to me as a youngster. Could have been a footballer, could have been a musician. Chip is going to do something with his life. Giggs I can relate to because he comes from struggle. Wretch growing up in the state, Giggs growing up in Peckham. These are not areas for the faint hearted. If you’re a weak soul, boy you’re not going to survive around there my friend.
Aaron – Do you feel that there’s no outlet for the youth of London, in order to speak for them, because they have no voice now. Even if you have Giggs and Wretch, to an extent, they will just be demonised. If they do manage to get through, they wouldn’t have done so much because everyone is still scared of them. Do you feel like there could be something missing?
Harvey – There’s definitely something missing. As much as there are a lot of positives right now, there are a lot of negatives. I think that in this country – I’ve got to word this correct – We have to think what the biggest mafia in the world and I’m sure you know who they are. You want artists to change their lives, but how can they change their lives if you keep banning their shows? People like ourselves, we get to a certain level, we are now mainstream artists and we have fan bases all over the world now. We work as hard as the average man. But then, when these boys are walking into shows, the government are banning them because they’re saying that we’ve got fear and violence, but you can’t blame the artist. Surely that’s your job to control who’s coming into the venues. You can’t tell an artist where he can’t be booked. I had an incident myself the other day; I ain’t heard this phone call in 7 years. I done an event out of London and then someone – the police – rang and said we want to pull. It was Romeo and me only attract girls, we are not bad boys no more. You know what I mean? If you put Harvey and Romeo across any bill across England, men will not turn up. A thousand women turn up, at what point do you expect violence to kick off? Me and Romeo – we’re past that. We’ve done Big Brother. We’re mainstream. All I say to myself is ignorance. I believe sometimes what they do they see these names and they Google it and the first thing they see is gun and they think “Oh God! Everyone’s gonna die!” But if you accommodate these artists in the right venues, violence can’t happen in the O2, it’s the most secure venue in England. You embrace these kids, support them, instead of cutting off their – this is their income. They’re now earning money legal. If you shut off that income, they’re just going to reverse and go back to violence, isn’t it? That’s why kids are out there now because my mother’s a youth worker. She has since lost 9 youths clubs in her borough. Where’s you think the kids are gonna go? Where they gonna be? Where they gonna play? When I was young, Romeo and me, we’re legends going out. We had all the youth clubs in South London. We had after school football, so even though sometimes we didn’t get on, we still have to sit next to each other on a Saturday, we still had to play against each other. We still had youth club outlets. These kids have nothing. They just have – that’s why you wonder why you see them standing outside White City station. You wonder why kids are getting bored and robbing. Because the government’s taking away everything, and all you’re doing is building fancy flats. But who is that built for? That’s not built for the inner city, not for the people that struggle. I come from struggle, so where’d you expect them to go? When you’re knocking down all these council estates, you’re knocking down stone bridges, people don’t just disappear, and they just move somewhere else. The government ain’t thinking about that. Getting rid of a council estate isn’t going to get rid of the people. So the change comes from the bottom. And only way the change is going to start is for people – pioneers – people like myself, people like Jasmine Dotiwalas of the world, people that make change in our culture, and so unless we team up, and we unify, it’s going to be a dead end road. That’s why a lot of artists need to lose their egos. It’s important. I was in the studio with so many different artists, and that’s how we should be, we shouldn’t fear each other. I certainly don’t want to be scared of my own culture, no way.
AS HARV SAYS, HE’S A SEX SYMBOL WITH HIS LIVE GIGS- WHY WOULD POLICE WANT TO SHUT HIS SHOWS DOWN?
Aaron – You mentioned wanting to get Dizzee and Asher together, but how hard is that because So Solid and Roll Deep have beef?
Harvey – We don’t have beef with Roll-Deep. Maxwell D is one of my closest friends; Maxwell and me were in Nando’s the other day. Max came to my show with me the other day. We’re close friends but if you’re talking about the history about what happened between them two. Asher is not hard to get along with at all, that’s my brother and band mate. That’s easy; I think it’s more with – more getting Dizzee. I got a great amount of respect for him, me and him get on extremely well, but it’ll be nice for Dizzee to come out and play, sit down and maturely discuss it, because him and Asher have excelled so far in their careers. Asher’s smashing his acting, Dizzee’s killing it with his music. I think they can sit down as men and to be fair they sorted out their issues last year, they both sat at the same table at an awards ceremony, so there’s not really no beef, but I think people just like to see them talk about the beef. I’d love to see it, I think if you get them two at a table, you’re probably get to the 20 million views category, you know? The people love to see Asher and Dizzee go at it, I’m sure they’d love to see Lethal B and Wiley, I’m sure they’d see Megaman and Wiley at a table, because them two have got a massive ego, and they’re both geniuses at what they do. So that would be good to watch. Wiley’s involved in every beef, he’s already tweeting me today because he’s seen it, you know what I mean?
Aaron – What’s your dream Face 2 Face?
Harvey –
My dream Face 2 Face would be Biggie and Tupac but they’re dead! [laughs] Jasmine Dotiwala already did Puff Daddy and Snoop when she was at MTV, but my dream one would be 50 Cent and Ja rule. I’d have to hire a lot of security. A lot of, I’d have to get a few of the CIA and MI5 for that one. I think they squashed it but that would be epic to see because that beef got violent, you know? People getting stabbed and shut out of it. When music escalates that far, sometimes you think – I always say it’s just music man, even sometimes I think the beef back in the day with people, it’s just music that we’re fighting over. When you get older you feel it a bit embarrassed about it, like really? There are bigger problems in the world. You know?
Aaron – Do you think it is just music? If you met Dizzee in the street without music at all, do you think you’d still have similar personalities, would you still act the same way?
Harvey – You can’t really say that, because music has made us act this way. I just believe that turning into an adult makes you grow up. So either you’ve made it as a musician or if Dizzee worked in a butchers, we both still grew up in a tough area, we were ignorant and young, you’re still going to learn things about life and growing up. You can’t be a bad boy in entertainment, it doesn’t work. You can use the image; I’d sell the image all day, because people like to see that. But if you’re telling me right now that any musician that is earning a lot of money is fully still in crime, then he must just love crime. Because we aspire to earn legal money don’t we, and have an easy life. So if you get through that and get that, and then you’re still active in crime, then that’s your fault. Like, you’re – that means you like crime. And that means you wanna go to jail, so you can only be blamed and accountable for your own mistakes. That doesn’t make sense to me. Who really enjoys crime?
Aaron – Why do you think it’s such a popular thing in the UK/US, all over the planet, people love to hear stories about selling drugs and people being shot. Super violent things as well.
Harvey – TV’s a powerful thing, and what’s fed to people, people take literally sometimes, and they think that’s the way to live. I’m never going to take away rapper’s stories, because we wrote guns, we wrote about what we seen. I can only write about what I see, and when we launched, I didn’t get back in the palace, eating cream cakes and I come from struggle. So what did you think we were going to write about? We were the voice of the youth and the streets. I don’t have a problem with people relating to realness, because I’m not really a pop guy. If I want to hear real stories, I’ll listen to Giggs, I’ll listen to some of the new young artists. All I say is think about your content. Know when to change your content. For me, Giggs is a genius at it. The last album he brought out, he done it as – just entertainment. He highlights that now. He says this is what they want to hear. I’m the master at giving you this, but at the same time he still grown as a musician. Chat about violence, no problem, but make sure there’s some growth in your music, you know what I mean? You know half of these rappers; half of their fans are not guys! And in England, that’s what you realize, man on the streets ain’t buying your records! If you look at a quarter of our supporters, and you look at the main sales, they were in London, Birmingham, Scotland, and Ireland. Don’t let it fool you. I think Internet views and YouTube views – they fool people’s head. Anyone can press a button, if a hundred thousand people are watching an artist’s video, why aren’t a hundred thousand people buying their music? Because if that was the case, that means every black artist would be in the top 10 everyday. It’s the way that the higher power would call it, they must love the way this system’s run, because now people become lazier, A&R’s don’t have to leave their house, signing an artist just YouTube him. When Universal signed me, they came to Coliseum to find me. That you got an A&R of Universal in Coliseum in a ghetto rave. I’m going to sign that kid, that’s the one I want. Now everything’s become lazy because of the social media world that we live in. A lot of kids are misled. They think that representing a postcode and talking about how many bodies you have is cool. What scares me – half of the kids that are talking about this haven’t even done it! They haven’t even done it, you know? Yeah there are kids that are being violent, but you’ve got to be very careful what you’re saying. When you say that you murdered a person, that’s a big statement, you know what I mean? When you’re saying it, just think about what you’re saying, because if someone said to me – I can talk about violence and guns. I can talk about being stabbed. I’ve got the scars to prove it. But I’m glorifying it. Lying in my blood 13 years ago was not a good experience, so any kid that thinks it’s cool to get shot, stabbed, is not the one. I’ve experienced that, fighting for your life, lying in your blood, not good. Not good.
HARVEYS ALWAYS ON TELLY.
Aaron – Do you have any plans for any more music coming out?
Harvey – I’ve never stopped bringing out music. I mean, the last – last year was an amazing year for me because I brought out an EP called Christian Bale. He’s one of my favourite actors because if you look at Christian Bale’s films, he’s got so many different shades to his character. He can be Batman one day, an anorexic, and then American Psycho. And for me, that’s all of my characters! [Laughs] so that’s why I named it that. It was good when I brought out that EP last year. I worked with every artist. I had Cashtastic on it, I had Chip on the EP, I had Wretch on the EP, and it was so nice to work with the new generation, and being in the studio with them, because the amount of respect that they give you and the acknowledgement for them having careers now, you know? Chipmunk calls me Uncle Harvs, you know what I mean? Krept and Konan have done a show the other day, and me and Krept took a picture together to put on his instagram, he put a picture of a hammer and a brick, and he said the pioneers, the wall breakers. I’m honoured. It’s nice to see kids like that that are making themselves acknowledging and realizing what we’ve done. So last year was an amazing year, I brought out an EP, and then we done the last ever So Solid concert, and we sold out the O2 twice. What am I complaining about?
Aaron – So is So Solid done forever?
Harvey-It’s a lot of energy, So Solid man. And yeah, sometimes when you end it like that, so perfect, there’s a big saying in my life, quit while you’re ahead, you know? And what could you do? The government didn’t let us perform together for 7 years, and then we put on a concert and still sold out. It’s a lot of power. So, for me, it was emotional, but I’m done man. Still touring, we’re doing a tour this year, and we’ll always do shows together, but So Solid as a collective? Yeah you might – 3 years do like a big show, Wembley, but in terms of doing loads of tours and – I’m exhausted bruv, eighteen years. Eighteen years!!.
HARVEY ON CELEB BIG BROTHER.
Aaron – Do you have any more plans for music this year?
Harvey – I’ve got an EP coming out in just under 2 months. I’ve literally finished an EP last night, but this EP’s going to be so different. This EP is strictly directed at women. This is kind of opening myself to women, like, this is me, this is what happened, its how I felt. You’re not really going to know the days I was in my house broken, I would never let people see that side of me. You hear things where I got a song talking about a woman cheating on a man, it leads you to go “Did Harvey get cheated on? Is that his story?” that’s how I like to leave people. To make their own stories out of it. I’ve got a song on there that also talks about celebrity girls. They have it all. But they have the most issues, I got a song on there, so, that’s gonna cause a lot of who’s he talking about. I’m not talking about just my experiences, I just know that girls that I’ve experienced that are famous, and they could say that about male artists. They have it all, they have all the success and the accolades, but when they got it they’re not really happy. One thing I could say me in my life now, I’m so happy. I’m gonna open up myself to the women, so you got some naughty songs in there, the videos are going to be very different, they’re going to be very sexual. They’re going to be controversial; they’re going to be very artistic, like videos in museums. I shot a video already, it’s very lesbian and bisexual, but I like to – Harvey’s never going to stop being controversial, I’m fine with that. I want people to go “Did he just do that?” But I’m going to be different, not in a bad way, but did he just do that with women? Did he say that? It’s got good features on that, I’ve got Young Spray featured on there, got a few artists in there, but I’m not going to name their names yet. I’ve just sorted out a deal, gonna have Angie Stone on there. On my Instagram, there’s the pictures. These are the levels.
Aaron – About the controversy with you and Jammer going back and forth, about the So Solid clash, and did it actually happen?
Harvey –
Jammer’s my mate! See Jammer, is a young man to me first and foremost. And Jammer is smart. He incites beefs, but that’s a part of his character. He does it to get his viewers up, and to create – Jammer’s a marketing genius. Jammer’s said a few little cocky things on my Twitter page, but what I’ve done, when your boss I choose to ignore him, because I’m not giving you props or fame. If I start talking to you, you’re going to get that mainstream following, you know? One day, he got a bit cheeky, so I thought let’s have a bit of banter, let me come out of play, but like I said to him you can’t outfox a fox. Remember you’re talking to Mr. Miyagi. So, it’s all-good, but on a serious note, jammer’s a genius at what he does. He makes me laugh. He can rattle people’s cages, but you can’t rattle my cage, I’m Yoda. How you gonna rattle my cage? So that wasn’t even beef. Nah, banter. But anytime that boy better know, wanna do a Red Bull clash with So Solid, I’m ready. Mega’s ready. Romeo’s ready. Asher’s ready. It’ll be amazing for the scene. Boy better know versus So Solid. Culture clash at Wembley Arena. I don’t really care about the battle. We’re all going to write cheques, what’re you arguing for? We’re giving it to the crowd like we hate each other, but we’re all good friends. Frisco was on my last EP. The connection between South London and North London is like one family. So, from Chip to Spray to Skep to the Jammers, we all get on. But Jammer knows, come for me again, I’ll be waiting. LOL
Aaron – That’s a better way to have beef, where it’s just literally, it starts and ends on the stage, and then afterwards you go have a drink afterwards.
Harvey – Of course it is. What, should it end in violence? In deaths? I think – that confuses me about this present day and age. We talk about death like we’re going down to the shop. This is someone’s life. Do I think it should end like that? Of course it should end like that. I’ve got bigger fish to fry than my own – than hurting my own culture. The good thing about Jammer, and me we laughed at everyone, five minutes after we were on the phone laughing, saying look at these Twitter people, we call them Twitter fiends. Anything for a bit of drama. We’re on the phone laughing; we’re sucking them in, keeping the market in.
Aaron – There’s been rumours of a tell-all book coming from you?
Harvey – [laughs]
A tell-all book? I don’t do them celebrity books; I think you got me mixed up for Jordan. What does tell-all mean? Yeah, um, it’s close, but my one’s going to come out at a very different angle. It’s more about giving change and giving people upliftment. I’m not really here to – if anyone thinks I’m going to write a book talking about giving you stories about my experiences with famous women, like talking about Alesha or Cheryl Cole, I’m not doing that, I’m not selling my soul. It’s more inspirational. People have to understand that – I’m going to put this in a skillet right now. This is old news now. I’ve got a six-year-old daughter – Alesha has an eight-month-old child. Cheryl Cole has a massive career. I’m sure we’ve got better things to do than talk about each other. It’s boring now. Boring, dead, old, so. That’s all I can say. I’m more concentrated on uplifting the youth. The youth need guidance, they need help. The youth need to start thinking open-minded. They got to get out of this postcode box. You know? What makes me laugh – everyone’s representing these postcodes but our parents pay council tax, we don’t own any of the streets we live in.
THERE WILL BE NO HARVEY TELL ALL ABOUT CHERYL OR ANY OTHER LADY IN HIS NEW BOOK.
Aaron – Do you have a vague release date for this book?
Harvey – At the moment, the publisher that I’m doing it with, we’re coming from a very different angle. And we’re kind of – when it comes to autobiographies you’ve got to be very careful, because you can set yourself up to be shut down. So I’m – mine really isn’t represented as an autobiography, it’s going to be presented differently.
Aaron – Do you feel this is like part of a rebranding? Because the way you’re portrayed in the media is a certain way, are you trying to rebrand yourself as this inspirational figure that unites your culture?
Harvey – I’m not really trying to brand myself, I’ve got nothing to prove to people. That’s old news – I’m not going to be bitter and say the media gets me because since I’ve done Big Brother, they’re alright with me now. I think it just – even though I didn’t particularly want to do that show, it was more like – people expect me to go on there and be this like guy that gets all the chicks and the women, being really tacky, I don’t know what perception they got of me, but when they went in there they learnt that I’m a normal educated funny guy. If you watch that show, you’d know I was the – the reason I was popular was because everyone was like he’s a loving guy and he cares for everyone. I got nothing to prove to the media, I’m past that. I’m not going to live my life through the media. I had my time, I’ve done wrong. That’s not the media’s fault; the media didn’t make me cheat. I’m not going to sit here and blame them. I only blame them when they add the devil stories around it. Some of the stories are really fake, and you’re like, when did this happen? But make your bed and lie in it. You know? That’s the price of success. So, I’m not even going to hold bitterness towards that. You just got to move forward. I’m not rebranding myself, this is who I am. Harvey’s always was a loving guy. Harvey always cares about the youth. I’ll always put people before myself. That’s never ever left me. I was like when I was 18, difference is I wore m heart on my sleeve; I was a bit more fiery. It would be a lot harder for you to see that side of me, but anyone that knows me will go he’s just a loving a guy. That’s my character. I love seeing people do well. I’m proud of every crew that’s out there, I’m proud of every rapper, I’m proud of every man. If Skepta’s and Chipmunks and all these new breeds of characters are doing well, that’s only benefiting the scene. I’m not gonna look down at it and go “oh look at them”. For me now, people are seeing what they’re meant to see. This is who I am, I’ve never changed. Fame hasn’t changed me, money hasn’t changed me. Same old guy, still go to the same chicken shop in Battersea. I may live in the countryside but I still drive 50 miles to get my haircut. What’s changed? You tell me.
Aaron – Finally, what can we expect from you in the near future?
Harvey – I’ve got my film out now, it’s called the Deadly Game. That’s out; you can get that on iTunes, in all stores, in the Cinema. That was with me and Gabriel Byrne. If you don’t know who he is you don’t know acting. Vince Regan is in 300, Leo Gregory, that was an amazing cast. An amazing film to be in. You know? So, for me right now, it’s just about winning!
WATCH THE FIRST EPISODE OF FACE 2 FACE ON GRMDAILY HERE;
http://grmdaily.com/video/face-to-face-with-michael-harvey-bushkin-x-maxwell-d-grm-daily/