Jasmine Dotiwala OBE

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WILL I AM, BILL GATES AND EVENING STANDARD EDITOR SARAH SANDS.

With Google, Apple and Facebook this week announcing huge investment into its London staff bases, juxtaposed with the fact that thousands of youth organizations like STEMETTE (showing the next generations that girls do science) are now popping up everywhere, its been clear to the kids for a long while now that the future is digital.

Another recent driver to the tech world for students is an initiative called the IDEAS bus, which is a big yellow American school bus that has been gutted inside and refitted to house the entire tech offering.

The tech bus tours London’s schools and colleges for free, armed with VR (Virtual Reality) headsets that can give students the opportunity to experience a moon landing or the pyramids of Egypt, 3D printing and much more. The aim of the IDEAS bus is to turn make sure all students have exposure to cutting edge tech and secure the future of the UK as a business and tech powerhouse.

Interestingly a survey Driving Technology (the company behind the Ideas bus) ran showed that two thirds of parents don’t think being an entrepreneur or working in tech is a proper job!

Whereas whilst the dream being sold to millennial only a decade ago were options to be a rapper, footballer or reality TV star, nowadays the hip hop generation is one of the most tech savvy in the world, but is it infiltrating urban inner city disadvantaged areas?

This past month a very select group of tech and media key influencers were invited to the Natural History Museum in London to hear two highly influential, ground-breaking men discuss the future of tech and the impact of A.I on our future lives.

American rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, actor, musician, DJ, record producer and philanthropist Will I Am, met American business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist. Bill Gates, to have a conversation led by Evening Standard editor Sarah Sands.

I was lucky enough to be invited by my old compadre Will to accompany him on the night.

Just before the conversation there was a brief talk by Helena Nodenstedt from the Gapminder Foundation and Karolinska Institutet, that showed how technology, education and location affected a societies health and quality of life.

The conversation was both serious and light hearted with much banter and passion around the world of tech and how tech has been used for good globally.
What was really nice to see was that someone with the fame of Will would be so in awe and admiring of his hero Bill Gates, yet their conversation was natural, relaxed and powerfully inspiring. Afterwards the audience were clamouring to tell Will about their own STEM inspired activities.

Below are some of the snippets from the conversation between Will and Bill to show how two great men from different fields are on very similar globally ambitious trajectories;

“Will. It’s my hope to inspire kids around the world to want to be tech stars in stem subjects. My foundation (http://iamangelfoundation.org/), teaches youth to feel comfy and learn stem so they can be a part of the future”

Bill. 50 years from now we won’t need as much human labour to do what manual workers do, so we should be able to take that extra productivity and put it to better use.
In the US IN THE 1900’S 60 % of people were employed on the farms. Today it’s less than 1%. If you told people back then that this would happen they wouldn’t have believed it. If you told them we would have therapy, massages and spas that played important parts in our lives they would’ve have believed us.

‎Will. I don’t wanna believe that racism exists, but the more I wish it away, the more I realise it’s in our system. I know that unless we teach our kids how to use stem to their advantage its going to be tough out there for the next generation. But also it has its disadvantages; you could use artificial intelligence to build a system around postcodes and income, which could lead to racial profiling.

‎Will ‘‘every school has a football field and only one gender and huge brands benefit. All males and the NFL. My 13-year-old niece isn’t taking stem subjects in class. We know A.I is a big subject now and it’s changing the world. We know things like uber changed the world. It’s not changing life for kids and in the hoods though unless we help teach them this now.

‎Bill. It’s ironic that this amazing invention of the Internet has made information gathering easier available than ever, but that this platform also helps spread misinformation. Regulation has never really worked unless it’s hate speech libel etc. But the way young people are joining communities online, and agreeing and separating themselves and creating their own facts about things like vaccination, is worrying.

Will. If you look at the world now its one that we couldn’t have imagined in 1997!. That I would be able to hit a button and a taxi will show up? We wouldn’t have believed that everything is disposable!. We have to imagine what A.I means 20 years from now? One day we’ll have our own personal A.I. Today we all give all our data away all day long while aiming to maintaining our privacy. In future A.I will attract things that are associated with ‘’my data’’. My “I-data-ty” identity. In future we’ll have a different type of rich and poor. Good A.I. Versus. wack A.I… it’ll be like kids in the inner city now.

Sarah Sands. What can we do to get kids into stem more?
Will; Every year there’s an Oscar Grammy and we celebrate those shows. We do the same in the U.S about sports schools and colleges. The same thing doesn’t happen for tech and stem. Folks wanna be like Bill I Am not Bill I Am. They wanna be like Stevie Wonder not Steve Jobs.
Last time I checked I held a Grammy, but when we do our thank you speeches, we thank God, friends and family. We forget to thank the scientists that began these musical inventions and systems. The guy that invented the phonograph and gramophone – Thomas Edison!

‎Bill. The next big invention that will change the way we live should be things like ways of generating energy like electricity. The thing that will change the world most rapidly is A.I. The computer will live your life, listen to you and understand you better than humans can. In many ways this is great news. With our foundation (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/) we use cell phones to send money to relatives. We can also survey people to see if their health needs are met. However robotics and other combinations will make the world pretty fantastic compared with today.

Sarah Sands; Will we humans become redundant?
‎Bill. As we get robots becoming more sophisticated, I think we should worry sooner rather than later on how much they could take over, but I think it’ll mostly be a positive thing. In terms of deadlines it won’t be any worse than nuclear weapons.

‎Sarah Sands; Can the planet survive?
Will. What we have our kids working on at the ‘I am angel foundation’ is getting kids that get left behind and training them in stem and A.I. Now is when we should think seriously about it, as they’ll be running those companies tomorrow.

Sarah Sands; How about the U.S election? (This conversation was days before Trump was elected).
Will ; Every election is important and each election says it’s more important than the last. But THIS one is extremely important. It could truly go the wrong way with people and faith in America or Americans. If this were a Portugal or Romania it wouldn’t really affect the world in a major way. Trump affects the world in a major way. If Bill left Microsoft we wouldn’t allow Trump to run it. But we’re thinking of allowing a man who disrespects women, Muslims, inner cities…wow!
I understand you wanting to disrupt politics…but why not Bill Gates for president? There are so many businesses’ that empower charities. How many men give away all their money to charities? Why not them for President?

Sarah Sands; Bill, could you run for President ever?
Bill. I won’t do that as…people care a lot that the USA is well run, and people globally expect us to do things in upgrading science and more. My foundation isn’t political. Both administrations over the years have done well in the past but this one…is a bit different. I’ve for some reason or other …never met Donald Trump.

‎Sarah Sands; Will, do you see yourself as a Global Citizen? UK Prime Minister Theresa May criticised the concept of a ‘’citizen of the world’’.
Will. “I’m a citizen of the U.S.A but I also travel around the world and love other countries like the UK as if it was my own. I love your tolerance and preservation of the arts. I love the Asian countries. I love my friend Apple De App. I love India, Russia and touring has made me many friends abroad. I’m from east LA. I don’t see colour. The only colour I see is this wonderful green and blue planet. That’s what I see.

Bill. I think of myself as a global citizen. If you’re taking care of your family and society and are comfortable you can start to think about helping those most in need globally. That’s how we became engaged in those things. There’s a unique thing about the UK, where you give a very generous foreign aid budget to support globally, which is spent wisely. We partner with the government here to make sure that that money is spent well. We support Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We have over a billion dollars in these UK institutions, as they’re the best people to do the work. So the UK is a very international country.

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Last night, London’s movers and shakers including Simon Cowell, Fearne Cotton, Sinitta, Mel C and more attending the annual VIP PREVIEW of HYDE PARK WINTER WONDERLAND and it was better than ever!

From 5pm hundreds were queuing to watch their spectacular ballet Nutcracker On Ice and then we were treated to muted wine laced with cinnamon , luxury hot chocolate, champagne and more. There are literally hundreds of rides for all ages to enjoy and the choice of rollercoasters was vey impressive. We screamed and cried simultaneously as they flung us around in hysteria.

The food options are out of this world with street food favourites like fried chicken (tandoori style- their colonel even wears a turban!), roasted duck wraps, mac & cheese, lots of german sausage and burger options and best of all, a variety of vegetarian stalls too.

The Ice Rink was full of excited adults and kids whizzing about- i even saw a dog viewing the action rink side, we all laughed watching his head rotate round and round as he kept his eye on his owner skating by! (For those of you planning to ice skate with your children, please be aware that the minimum child’s boot size is a size 9).

We had access to so many exciting rides and attractions on site, including the open air ice rink, the Magical Ice Kingdom and a ride on the Giant Observation Wheel to name a few.

The mAgical Ice Kingdom was mesmerising with huge ice sculptures and options to be photographed with polar bears on ice. A word of warning though- its in sub-zero temperatures so you must wrap up warm or your toes will be icicles as mine were in well boots. The heated bars were much needed straight afterwards for a big lug of muted wine with friends.

Zippos Circus also performed two shows on the evening inside the Mega Dome, located in Circus Town. In fact there was so much to see and engage with one visit was not enough – i spent nearly an hour spending £100 on Christmas pressies just at the market stalls!.

The easiest way to get to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland is on foot, by bike or by public transport. The nearest tube is Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly line). There is general information on Winter Wonderland at www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.comincluding details on all public transport links.

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland is an outdoor event covering many acres so be sure to dress appropriately and wrap up warm!

Enjoy!

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Tell us about your latest album ISATTA SHERRIF?

The album is self-titled and I choose to do that to signify a new stage in my musical career. A lot was happening in the midst of writing this album, my Mum was diagnosed with cancer for the second time, my cousin Kabba Kamara was murdered as a result of deprivation and crime in the inner city and four months later the same thing happened to one of my favorite students Myron Yard. I taught him at a music college in London.

The young people I teach inspire me. Myron was a music student and he was supposed to be on the remix of “Kin”. Him and his classmates were the inspiration behind that song and I am referring to him in specific lines. One time he humbly asked if I would ever consider doing a track with one of my students, which was his cheeky way of asking if I would do a track with him. What’s mad is that I’d already planned for him to be on the “Kin” remix; I’m really sad that we never got the chance to record it.

I’m probably a bit more vulnerable on the album as a result of the last year. I touch on the loss of my sister to suicide while I was in college as well as the drawbacks of growing in a socially deprived part of Tower Hamlets. A line in the song “Heartbeat” says “I know it sounds like I’m conditioned or something, like I’m protecting my heart before disaster jumps in”. I was determined for the record to be a positive and enjoyable amongst all the serious content. I think we managed to achieve that balance with the melodies, tempo’s and variations in flow.

With this album I wasn’t bothered about big singles; I just wanted a project that people could listen to from beginning to end. It’s a very London centric record but that doesn’t exclude people living in other places. My aim was for people in any city in the world to connect to the songs.

People and cultures also inspire me. On a couple of tracks I talk about being able to understand other languages because of how closely together we live, “Bilingual not by choice, but glad for it” -Burning An Illusion. The album is like a journey on the London Underground and I jump off at each stop and touch on different subjects that reflect each part of living in a city. It’s inspired by forgiveness, hope and honest conversation. I wanted to show that art and beauty can come out of struggle, as Talib Kweli says “Life is a beautiful struggle’’.

I don’t have any rap features on the album, because I have spent my career doing features and I just wanted to record an album that really reflected me without being diluted. I felt that I had strong enough content to carry the album myself. The only feature I have is a chorus from Terri Walker on a track called “Coasting”. Terri was great to work with again. I sent her the track and three days later we met to record it. This was first song that I ever wrote and recorded while in college and I wanted to include a remake of it to show my journey as an MC and also signify the way my style has evolved. I used to only rap in that double time style as I used to listen to a lot of Bone Thugs N Harmony and Da Brat back in the day.

(Baker Aaron) the collaborating producer was only meant to initially produce a couple of tracks but ended up doing the whole thing. He gets my voice and I get his music. It was the simplest, non-dramatic, enjoyable experience I’ve ever had creating a product. I have worked with some amazing producers throughout my career but we just clicked musically. He is an amazing musician and producer based in Istanbul. We worked between his studio there and my home studio in London.

Tell us about your video ‘’Burning An Illusion’’.

I put out the video for “Burning An Illusion” as a taster to the album’s lyrical content. I wanted to challenge perceptions of the working class and also show how amazing it can be when cultures mix. The video is shot in East and Central London showing the contrasts. There are tower blocks and then you see the Globe Theatre along the Southbank. You see kids hanging out with nothing to do while tourists enjoy London walking through a Black Lives Matter protest.

I was due to write the last track for the album “Redefined” when the tragedies with Kabba and Myron took place. I needed two months to regain the emotional energy to complete the final track plus there was a bit of pressure as this was the track to finish off the whole project. I was determined for the track to be positive despite the circumstance. I recorded it and shot a video to celebrate black music from the UK as well as the black community with a special focus on young people and dedicated the song to Kabba and Myron.

Explain your previous outing as an artist under the moniker TOR and why it’s now changed?

My full name is Isatta Sheriff Cesay. My Mum’s name is Isatta Sheriff and Tor means namesake (the equivalent of a boy who is named after his father being called “junior”). My Mum used to say, “This is my Tor” meaning “This is my namesake” and my whole family calls me Tor. At school and work everybody used to call me Isatta. I respond to both but as time has gone on, hardly anybody called me by my given name. Releasing music under my first and middle name was a natural progression. It also means I get my name back as people have started calling me Isatta again which I love.

What have you learnt from your past years in music?

The key lesson I have learned is authenticity. It’s important to never forget your love for music and to work with people who are passionate about similar styles as well as experimenting sonically from time to time. I’ve learned that you should push through and keep making music even if you have things going on because there will never be a perfect time. I held back so much early on because of drama but drama doesn’t stop so you just need to keep going.

What are your aspirations for the next couple of years?

I am planning to drop more videos from this record for the next 7 months while starting on a new record-whoop! I’d also like to take this album out with a live band, as that was always the goal when we started it.

How do you feel about having a female UK leader and the fact that we nearly had a female American leader too?. It’s great for females to see the possibilities right?

The fact that both of them are women is not incentive enough for me to celebrate. The issues surrounding their leadership are too complex and it would be shallow of me to look at their position solely from the point of view of womanhood. Women have always been leaders. In royal kingdoms, as activists, in wars, serving the poor and so much more but they do not have the platform offered to Clinton or May. Women of all cultures are amazingly strong even while oppressed and history is a testament to that. This current situation may inspire some young girls to believe that they can become Prime minister or President but I have trouble believing a large amount of young black girls would see the same possibility for themselves. Having a white middle class female head teacher did not put the thought in my mind at all that I could be a head teacher while I was in school. It’s not Teresa May and Hilary Clinton who excite me when it comes to women in leadership.

There was once a time when we were told hip-hop and Grime was a niche genre. Now it’s the pop culture of this generation. How do you feel about the takeover?

I feel that the roots of those genres are not being respected and are being pushed to the background. This is a historical problem with music of black origin. A 15-year-old boy in my class asked me “How come a lot of rappers are black” and he was not being rude or funny, he was so confused. He had no I idea about its origins though, the style is all he mimicked.

‎Who is your top male and female MC and why? Quote your fave verse from their work.

Lauryn Hill is my favorite female MC because she goes beyond the music. Her flow, delivery and passion represent Hip Hop to me! It’s hard to choose a favorite song or line but one of my stand out tracks is “Mystery Of Iniquity”. Another is “Lost Ones”:

“Wisdom is better than silver and gold,
I was hopeless, now I’m on hope road”

It’s also hard to choose a favorite male MC too but I love Rakim and Talib Kweli l. One from him is his remake of Nina Simone’s “For Women”:

“I ain’t got time to lie, my life has been much too rough,
Still running with bare feet, I ain’t got nothin’ but my soul,
Freedom is the ultimate goal”

What makes you stand out and unique as a music act and why should people get to know your work?

I make heartfelt Hip Hop and tell the story of many lives through my own experiences. I use rap and melodies together to create a picture. My approach is not necessarily unique but I am unique as an individual and once I infuse the experiences of my journey, it creates a stand-alone piece of artistry.

How do you represent being British?

Being a first generation Sierra Leonean means I get to enjoy both sides of my upbringing. I grew up in Stepney engaging with many cultures that I love and respect. Celebrating this is how I represent being British.

What else are you passionate about other than music?

I am really passionate about working in education and guiding young people aspirationally to use their many talents. I’m passionate about God, social issues, and history and standing up against injustice. I also love sport and used you to play for Arsenal Ladies and Tottenham ladies back in the day. I love all types of art whether it is dancing, photography, theatre, painting (although never ask me to paint). I try to incorporate all of these things into my music and hopefully you hear this in the album.

Name some of your past collaborations?

Wretch 32, Lowkey, Klasnekoff, Sway, Tinchy Styder, Saul Williams, Estelle, Blak Twang, Rodney P, Terri Walker, Mongrel to name a few.

What is your most enjoyable collaboration to date?

My favourite collaboration has to be a track I did a while back with Flying Lotus, Oddisee and Phonte Coleman called “The Perch”. I love the way it happened so organically. Big up to Red Bull Music Academy for bringing us together.

Who have learned from most in your career?

I have learned from so many people but Rashad Ringo Smith (Biggie, Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes) has definitely taught a lot about music. He introduced me to some big names in New York and being around him always felt like a giant music lesson.

What has been your proudest achievement?

I have many proud moments and being invited to Atlanta to perform with Arrested Development is one of them. Performing at Glastonbury is also another one but the proudest achievement of all has to be setting up my own independent label “Pinch Of Salt” and releasing an album in Japan through it. Being out there to do music was an amazing experience.

Isatta Sheriff at Sofar Sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iai_PgiZ9bI

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British hip hop artist Chairman Maf is Sheffield based and recently released his latest album ZOO without the aid of any music label’s, when the community came together to help him in today’s DIY world. Previous famous musical Brits from Sheffield include The Human League, Heaven 17, Joe Cocker, Arctic Monkeys, Pulp and Moloko. Sheffield was once home to a number of historically important nightclubs in the early dance music scene, but represents strictly for the hip hop community.

Maf continues to be a ground-breaking, ‘sublime’ instrumental beat maker with unique musical techniques. A quiet genius that’s been beginning to be respected as one of the foremost beat-smiths /instrumentalists coming from the European hip hop community for decades, we sat down for a chat with the Chairman.

How do you describe your sound?
Cinematic soulful melodic instrumental lo fi hip hop!!

And your influences?
Within hip hop all of the classic producers: Madlib, Dilla, Pete Rock, 9th Wonder, DJ Dez, Kankick etc, but I try to listen to less hip hop these days to avoid being too heavily influenced. You’re more likely to catch me listening to some Bulgarian folk music LOL, got to avoid trying to copy the legends… I will sample anything from anywhere. I love to find things from my childhood and incorporate them into the beats; it’s my form of therapy haha.

So you’re British, 45 years old and not connected to the Grime scene. Why should we care about what you bring to hip-hop?
I like to think I make music that exists outside of fashion or current trends (not that I think that way of Grime. – its here to stay). The melodies and layers to my music make it strong enough to be around and discovered for a long time to come. It appeals to both hard-core hip hop heads and people that prefer easier laid back music. I have fans that contact me that can be any age from 14 to 74!

You seem to promote yourself predominantly as an Instrumental Artist… what is your issue with MC’s?
No issue, I just layer so many sounds in my beats that there isn’t much space for vocals. I’ve worked with many MC’s over the years but enjoy the challenge of making stand alone beats. it’s a LOT harder.

So which (if any) MC’s could coax you out of this Instrumentals only position?
In the UK I’ve always wanted to work with Taskforce, and Rodney P… There are also a lot of amazing artists on the UK’S High Focus label. In the U.S, Phonte has always been one of my favourite artists… Rapsody is incredible too.

Your latest album “ZOO” mixes jazz, soul, blues and folk samples together with sounds from the weirdest places. David Attenborough!? Tell us a little bit about your music making process.
Basically less is more…. I’ve got very little equipment and very little knowledge of how to use it. Every time I sit down to build some music I want to get some kind of emotion across. I’m not into super slick production; in fact I like a lot of dirt in there. My mixing desk costs $150, the only other thing I use is a sampler, I think the more equipment in the chain, the more diluted the soul of the beat will be. I play a lot of instruments, not in any virtuoso way, all self taught, a bit of guitar, drums. You can make a beautiful piece of music on a one-string guitar as long as you put your heart and soul into it.

Do you see a lot of talent coming through in the UK hip-hop scene?
It’s better than it has been for a long time. There’s so much creativity. People are more focussed on the fun aspects of making music than they are trying to make a ‘career’ as they know how hard that can be now. For such a small island, the UK has consistently produced some of the most interesting creative music in the world, there’s so much going on it’s hard to keep up sometimes…

The artwork you use and overall presentation is also quite unique to you, and doesn’t use many traditional hip-hop references… why?
I’ve always felt there is a certain amount of snobbery towards hip hop as an art form and in the UK a lot of baggage comes with me telling people about the music I love. A lot of assumptions. Hip Hop is a powerful, creative and innovative music. Its music made by, and for, very intelligent cultured people. I want the artwork to reflect that.

What can we expect from you in the future?
My new album “ZOO” has just dropped digitally and on limited vinyl. There are more vocal samples than ever before. You can actually sing along to a lot of the beats. Some of the tracks touch on subjects close to my heart so it’s an album that I’m really proud of.

Such as “Little White Lies”?
Yeah, as a white man expressing myself through black culture, I felt it was important to have something on here related to racism. I don’t have the words to express my anger about the subject and it’s not something I experience first hand so the only language I have is music. I guess it’s just a miniscule gesture of solidarity towards people that can’t leave their homes without the fear of being killed by the people we pay to protect us. There are a lot of other issues important to me on there but if I keep talking I’ll make a mess of it so I’ll leave it there!

When people listen to your music what do you want them to get from it?
I don’t make many club tunes. I’d like people to get a sense of peace and soul… hope…. Some emotion would be good.

Final question, how are you feeling about President Trump’s victory?
Obviously I’m scared that Trump’s been elected. Unfortunately fear of Trump was not enough to get people to vote for Clinton with her record of corruption. Democrats missed the boat with Bernie Saunders and are now paying the price. Wars in Syria, environmental issues and institutional racism would not be dealt with be either Clinton or Trump as money has taken over the political system. America will continue to be as racist as it always has, regardless of who’s in power. Let’s just hope this shakes up politics enough to find some kind of alternative to appeal to working class people, rather than simply using fear and the media circus.

Check out Chairman Maf’s latest album here;
https://chairmanmaf.bandcamp.com/album/zoo

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Who Is Akala?

JASMINE WITH AKALA.

BAFTA and MOBO award winning hip hop artist, writer/poet and historian AKALA is a label owner and social entrepreneur who fuses unique rap/rock/electro-punk sound with fierce lyrical storytelling.

Inspired by the likes of Saul Williams and Gil Scot Heron, over the years, Akala has developed a stellar live show with his renowned drummer/award winning music producer Cassell ‘TheBeatmaker’ (Plan B/The Streets/Keziah Jones) headlining 8 UK tours as well as touring with the likes of Jay Z, Nas & Damian Marley, M.I.A. and Christina Aguilera to Siouxsie Sue, Damon Albarn’s (‘Blur’/Gorillaz’) ‘Africa Express’ and Richard Ashcroft, appearing at numerous UK / European and US festivals (Glastonbury, Big Chill, Wireless, V, Hove and SXSW) as well as taking part in British Council arts education/music projects across several countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, The Philippines, New Zealand and Australia.

Akala has more recently been known for his compelling lectures/seminars and journalism (The Guardian, Huffington Post UK and The Independent), TV presenting and scriptwriting. Over the last few years he has also gained a reputation as one of the most dynamic and literate talents in the UK.

Akala has also featured on numerous TV programmes and fronted documentaries across Channel 4, ITV2, MTV, Sky Arts and the BBC promoting his music, poetry as well as speaking on wide ranging subjects from music, youth engagement, British / African Caribbean culture and the arts as a whole.

In 2009, Akala launched the ‘The Hip-hop Shakespeare Company’; a music theatre production company which has sparked worldwide media interest since its inception. Previous clients/collaborators include: BBC, Premier League, Mastercard, London 2012, British actor; Sir Ian McKellen together with artist’s; Ed Sheeran, Ms. Dynamite Lady Leshurr and many more.

This past month he has been on the road with his ‘’Ten Years Of Akala’’ 27-date UK tour that ends in Cambridge on 31st October, the majority of the dates have been sold out.

The album ‘Ten Years Of Akala’ was released on 23rd Sept 2016 and to celebrate 10 years since the release of Akala’s critically acclaimed debut album It’s Not ARumour, Illa State, Akala’s very own independent home record label, are proud to announce they will be releasing a triple vinyl of selected tracks from each of his six albums chosen especially by his supporters online. This special edition album will be also available for download in digital format with several new tracks.

To mark this unique milestone, Akala has been stepping out with his band on a live ‘10th Anniversary Tour’, taking his hard hitting live show to venues all across the UK and Ireland.

His biggest tour to date and in conjunction with Live Nation, this whirlwind tour was a real treat for his fans as he performed classic tracks from the ‘Ten Years Of Akala’ album alongside some special guests too.

The tour finishes this week in Cambridge on 31st October.

Ten Years of Akala gives one pause for thought – here is an artist that had it in him to keep his fierce independence when it was not fashionable, has performed in over 30 countries, released 6 albums, two books, presented the seminal ‘Life of Rhyme’ for Channel 4, founded The Hip-hop Shakespeare Company and has been a tireless voice for education and social justice in the UK and all over the world.

In fact, in one of my early conversations with him years ago in the Nineties, I recall begging him to make a couple of ”more commercial tracks” to help him jump off bigger in the mainstream and he said it just wasn’t his way. He wanted to stay true to himself and he really did.

Akala does so much it can be easy to forget that first and foremost he is an amazing musician.

Ten Years Of Akala

The shows were full of diverse audiences and had something for everyone. Hip-hop, grime, metal vibes as well as stadium anthems, spoken word, comedy and activism. His live show is 90 minutes of relentless tracks, backed by intense and stunning visuals, live drums, a DJ and with no need for a ‘hype man’.

He opens up with a musical Intro, Let It All Happen, and then Shakespeare. To the audiences delight he performs his much lauded Fire In the Booth, and recites a piece from his book Ruins.

His set also included some film visuals, which included past videos of himself over the last 10 years, as well as images of powerful black people of influence over the last 50 years. There were also images of the various wars and upheaval around the world.

Halfway through the show he appears onstage dressed up as a character that resembles the Artful Dodger from Oliver Twist, but Akala references as a character called Pompous Peterson.

On the London date at Koko, Akala was joined by three guests onstage;
1. His rap peer Low-key joined him on stage to perform Behind My Painted Smile.
2. Next, singer, songwriter/ music producer Marshall joined Akala to perform his new single “Giants”.
3. Finally performer Niles, wearing an interesting hat, joined him on stage for Sun Tzu.

Akala held the crowd’s interest from the second he appeared onstage with his live drummer and dj and had them eating out of his hand and following every command on his journey of high dynamic and more serious messaging throughout.

Cultural Influencer

A remarkable thing about Akala’s digital/social media is the number of influencers that follow him, making his online reach much greater than what would usually be possible with those kinds of numbers.

In terms of news, almost every major news and media agency in the US & UK has featured Akala in one way or another over the last 6 months.

This anniversary release reminds us of that and the growth of a talent that has toured the UK and globally, all whilst being largely ignored by mainstream radio for the past decade.

www.akalamusic.com

10 Years of Akala -order: http://akala.tmstor.es

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How did SOS meet?

Mikey – We met at a local church at the age of 13/14. My family left a church that a grew up at playing drums to join another church where Moses was playing keys. Since then, playing in church together, we developed a passion for music production individually. We would check out each others work and give advise then we thought at one point – two heads are better than one – and formed SOS.

What was it like growing up in South London?

Mikey – Loved growing up in South London. Its such a diverse community with the likes of African, Caribbean and Asian cultures. South can be quite gritty but I’m glad of what it made me become. So many influences from the Nigerian roots in Peckham to the Jamaican love of Brixton.
Mo – South will always be home. The different cultures have aided to where we are now. It was never easy growing up there with it being so gritty and rough but I wouldn’t trade growing up there for anything.

When did you start producing?

Mikey – I started producing in year 7. I remember my music teacher showing the class this software called Cubase and how you could basically build your own song – I thought that this was the best thing ever! Growing up i used to listen to music thinking ” who made this has the best job ever” Now i had been given the tools too. So i used to re create my favourite songs then create original material for hours after school. Since then i haven’t looked back.
Mo – It began for me in year 10. My teacher showed me about this programming software where you could make beats and record vocals. I was so hooked , I couldn’t believe this was possible lol. Those early moments always remind me of how it all began!

When did you get your first break?

Mikey – Our first break came in LA – We worked on this kid called Deon Young on a record called “Party Life” ft French Montana. It happened all so fast – One min we were making the record in a writing session, to his AnR passing by the studio saying ” This instrumental is crazy send it to me by tomorrow morning to play in my Label meeting” , to eventually getting the vocals to French Montana sent to us.
You have an impressive CV. and you are both 25. You’ve worked with the likes of Wretch, Mel C, Stormzy (Took Trey out for now ) and Ariana Grande to name a few. How did this all happen at such young ages?

Mikey – Honestly hardwork and determination. Fortunately for us, our big mentor by the name of Harmony Samuels has taught us about the game and how to basically get your name and music out there. By working with him in LA on Ariana Grande’s first album “Yours Truly”, we were exposed to the tricks and trades of the music industry and business – returning to the UK with plan and goal – to work with a diverse range of artist, delivering great, real music every time! With consistency and the grace of God, we are where we are today – with that impressive CV.

Let’s talk about the Wretch album. Congrats! Has it exceeded all your expectations?

Mo – Growing over life! For me it’s done more than exceeded my expectation. It’s always about reaching the masses and making sure that your music touches someone. I believe we achieved that with this album. Wretch was honest and true. He took people on a journey and I know that everyone related to one track or the other. So yes it’s definitely surpassed expectation.

What are your favourite tracks on the album?

Mikey – Mine has to be PRESSURE, OPEN CONVERSATION AND SOMETHING

Mo – Has to be pressure and something!

Your track record shows that you are very versatile and can create many different styles of sounds. But how would you describe your sound?

Mo – Our sound can’t be described or associated with one genre. I would say we’re known for specific instruments. Like a bass line or particular drum sound/mix or even a constant/reoccurring synth. That’s how I would describe it.

How did you manage to secure a spice Girl to jump on a track with you?

Mikey – We recently signed our first deal with Peer Music in LA and we didnt know she was also signed to Peer Music. One thing led to another and the label placed us both in a session – She is amazing spirit – such a great heart and we’re so happy to be apart of such a dope project. Her comeback is going to be amazing!

As producers who do you look up to? Who do you aspire to be like?

Mikey – Quincy Jones is my Blueprint lol for what he has done for Popular Music alone, he is the greatest to do it – plus he produced Human Nature by Michael Jackson – the greatest produced song ever lol But im inspired by all the greats – Timberland , Rodney Jerkins, Max Martin etc.

Mo – Like Mike said Quincy jones has always been the inspiration and forefront for us. Pushed the boundary and worked and made the biggest pop star time. Doesn’t get better than that. However there are other greats who have contributed to inspiring me. Pharrell, Timbaland etc
We noticed that you have spent a lot of time in LA- what projects where you working on out there?
Mo – There’s a few projects coming from states side. We don’t want to jinx anything yet but there will be some known names attached to our beats and will be on the air waves very soon.

What do you prefer America or the UK?

Mikey – America lol simple

Mo – Easy answer. I do love UK but America is more accepting in terms of different genres! So yeah America

Nigerian Jollof or Ghana Jollof?

Mikey – Nigerian – Never understood the basmati movement lol but i have had a few Ghanaian Jollof that has done me well lol i was impressed. But yeah, Nigerian all the way – Shout out to all of my long grain brothers and sisters lol

You both have Nigerian roots. Do you like the Afrobeats sound? If so, who would you like to work with?

Mo – Our African roots has definitely contributed to our sound. The big drums and cross rhythms are a big part of our production. Afrobeats is really coming through in the uk. Think it’s great for Africa. I would for sure like to work with wiz kid. I Think his creativity is out of this world. That would be fun.

What’s coming up next? What should we look out for?

Mo- We have Stormzy album coming which we have a few records on. We also have Mel c album dropping in October and some other serious record states side. So keep your eyes and ears peeled for what’s to come!

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If you are a hip hop lover, a music lover or simply an opened minded curious bystander, you won’t want to miss Hip Hop World News on BBC4 this evening at 9pm.

RUSSELL SIMMONS SITS DOWN WITH RODNEY P.

We are led on a journey by UK rapper Rodney P who takes us to meet key influencers and legends from the hip hop genre. From music stars, to hip hop activists to DJ’s and journalists, it’s a group that love and champion the culture but aren’t afraid to acknowledge its conflicting narratives and issues.

A godfather of the culture- Russell Simmons– who founded Def Jam Records and later Phat Farm clothing and laid the blueprint for younger hip hop multi hyphenates talks about Police brutality ‘’It’s been happening to black people in America for 400 years! Now we have iPhones now we have documentation. And they’re like ‘oh my God how’s that happening’. It’s been happening to black people in America for 400 years. The abuse of people of colour is an American phenomenon’’.
Another nugget of gold from Russell was his defence of hip hop culture being a materialistic world. ‘’No, materialism?, all they say is they want the shit that Americans are selling. The stuff that is high-end and aspirational equals the American Dream. That’s what hip-hop says they want. A lot of Hip Hop says that. Some people are not that interested in it. But certainly, wanting a Rolls Royce or some obnoxious car, big house, every American talks about that. They’re looking at Donald Trump like he’s a genius here. Nobody more obsessed with money and talking about how wealthy they are and buying stuff they don’t need than Donald Trump. I wouldn’t put that on hip-hop. I’d put that on the American psyche, and its affect on hip-hop, is that expression’’.

It’s awe inspiring to watch Rakim – arguably one of the greatest MC’s to touch the mic – reveal that how hip hop saved his life and talk about his influences ‘’I came up on Cold Crush Four, Grandmaster Caz, Furious Five, Melle Mel, Treacherous Three, Kool Moe D that was my favourite MCs!’’

RAKIM – THE GOD!

Its also touching to see our presenter Rodney get emotional during one particularly poignant moment as he realises the impact that a name that he is about to meet has had on his own life.

RODNEY GETS EMOTIONAL.

Rodney sets up the show with passion telling us ‘’I love Hip Hop. I love everything it stands for. I love its art, its beauty and its power And I love its ability to transform people’s lives. People like me. Hip Hop has given me the tools to see the world in new ways and a powerful language to express it
But I know that from the outside some people see the culture I represent as shallow, brash and even violent. The Hip Hop I know gives a voice to the voiceless. It’s a place where the disenfranchised feel heard and stories that you may not hear in the mainstream. I want to show you what the world looks like when it is seen through the lens of Hip Hop. And I’m going on a journey to meet some of the stars and key players who have helped to shape that view’’

The show reflects the many ways in which how Hip-hop empowers and educates and even influences at the highest levels. Hip-hop activist Kevin Powell suggests ‘’when you look at the ascension of Barack Obama, there were elements of hip-hop that helped to get him elected for sure!’’

UK rapper Ty explains why the culture has made him see the world from a different perspective ‘’Hip Hop taught me to look for the extra narrative in anything, so when I look at the news, I look for the extra narrative, I look for what I’m not being told as well what I am being told’’.

ESTELLE DISCUSSES FEMINISM.

Hip Hop World News covers difficult issues too – like the treatment of women and scantily dressed females that are associated with the genre. UK rapper Estelle admits ‘’ It’s misogynistic as hell. I always felt like I don’t have to be out here arse naked – you’re gonna pay attention to my words, if you need something to look at well then, I look fresh. So, look at that.’’

CHUCK D- THE LEGEND!

Public Enemy legend Chuck D reminisces about his early years ‘’We knew what we were doing when we did it, I mean of course, we grew up in the 60s we didn’t grow up in the 70s, growing up in the 60’s you know, from assassinations to Vietnam war, we seen impact. We saw the impact of the resistance against that, we saw the fight for civil rights, what we didn’t know is what was on the other end of the message, until we travelled there. So, when we first came over to the UK, it was like okay you know, they’re not getting enough of who they are and let’s talk about the similarities with all us, and let’s talk about things that they don’t know about us here, as well as talking about… so it was really a message to everyone saying that um, we’re connected. Hip Hop culture is the thing that ties us together as human beings because of our similarities, and not societal differences. This is where culture and governments are diametrically opposed. You know, governments wanna control people, culture wants to be able to free them’’.

American author, filmmaker, rapper, and professor at Morgan State University, (one of the youngest professors at the college) MK Assante explained ‘’We got kids in the hood in Baltimore, Chicago and Philly, they look at the police the same way the little Iraqi kids look at the American soldiers. As an outside force occupying the community!’’.

The wonderfully articulate Kevin Powell left me with the most food for thought and articulated my culture beautifully ‘’Hip Hop is as important as Shakespeare, I would even argue that it’s probably more important than Shakespeare at this point, and I love Shakespeare!’’.

Kevin ‘’To understand hip-hop, you have to understand the civil rights movement. Doctor King was killed in 1968, well a year before, someone named Clive Campbell came from Jamaica in the west indies, to New York to the Bronx. Kool Herc, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop. Dr King was talking about a poor people’s campaign at the end of his life. Who created Hip Hop? Poor African Americans, poor West Indians, poor Latinos in a place called the Bronx, New York. And so in a lot of ways Hip Hop, was a response to the failures of the civil rights movement, people moving away from what Dr King was urging people to do, pay attention to poverty, we gotta deal with poverty. And so when you think about Hip Hop… Its very essence is a social commentary, it doesn’t matter what the lyrics say. You got two turntables and microphone, some spray paint and magic markers, some sneakers, some cardboard. linoleum. That’s nothing, these are poor people taking what they had, and creating something out of that. So the very act of doing that is revolutionary!’’.

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RISE OF THE YOUTUBERS

JASMINE WITH YOUTUBE GLOBAL MEGASTAR KSI.

This decade has seen the rise of the YouTubers in a way that no one could have ever predicted. The digital world takeover is sprinting ahead and leaving the naysayers behind.

Photo Courtesy – James Gillham.

This week I witnessed something in London, that reminded me of a few years ago, when record labels and old skool music industry stalwarts wafted away the internet streaming threats with disdain, claiming that music fans would always prioritize sound quality and chart play lists. A few years on, musicians have showed that the Internet has changed their world, given everyone an equal playing field and changed the game forever.

This week millions of film fans across the world watched a film premiere live on Facebook. The actual premiere was at London’s O2 dome where throngs of teen female fans were screaming in earnest for their hero’s. Pop stars? Film stars? Models? No. The rise of the teen geek was cemented. Hysterical fans were screaming for YouTube stars, who most of us had really never heard of. All except one. This star name has been bouncing around media and music circles for months now. KSI.

Olajide Olatunji, commonly known as KSI or ‘’JJ’’, is the most watched individual online in the UK. You will be hard pushed to find a 14-24 year old male in Britain who doesn’t watch his videos. Known for his FIFA, football, music and comedy content on YouTube, KSI has already amassed over 15,000,000 subscribers on his 2 channels and over 2.5 billion video views. Growing at 500,000 new subscribers across his 2 channels and 130 million views every month, plus with over 2 million Twitter and 2 million Facebook fans, he is a modern day Social Media superstar.

Photo Courtesy – James Gillham.

In the recent US Entertainment Magazine ‘Variety’ survey of popularity and influence amongst US teens, KSI positioned first above all stars of Hollywood, Sports and Music (http://t.co/JuLP3GH1te). Recently signed to Island records, KSI’s January 2016 released debut EP ‘Keep Up’ (feat. UK music star JME) topped the UK iTunes albums chart, charted at no. 13 in the UK official Albums chart and debuted in the top 10 on iTunes in 25 other territories including the U.S. Having completed two headline sold out London shows, KSI has, to date 130k followers on Spotify (with 21 million streams), 2.6 million followers on Instagram and 2.2 million Facebook likes.

Photo Courtesy – James Gillham.

Along with his YouTube content, he has also broken into the music industry, with his single ‘Lamborghini’ reaching NO 30 in the UK charts in April 2015. As of June 2016, his YouTube channel has had over 14 million subscribers and 2.6 billions views. Pretty impressive numbers for a young man virtually unknown by mainstream old-fashioned media. That’s some strong marketing pull.

YOUTUBING TO APP DOMINATION

Earlier this year, after being signed to Island Records/Universal Music (a gamer signed to a record deal!), KSI took the lead with his new App launch.

At the time he told me “My App’s sick. “I can’t believe it’s finally here. Seriously, I just want to share what I make directly to my fans, and this App is going to make it so easy for me. I’m going to be shouting all about it as soon as it’s out and you can expect so much stuff to be in there – more videos, more photos, and loads of live streams, directly to your pocket. This is for everyone who has supported me over the years – thanks so much for being a part of what I do. See you in the App!”

Photo Courtesy – James Gillham.

Since then, YouTube phenomenon KSI is the most viewed in the UK, has over 2.5 Billion video views and over 15m subscribers over his two channels – an audience built through viral content, online gaming and savvy brand partnerships. In launching this App, KSI further proves he is at the forefront of next generation media moguls.

The App is ‘one spot for all things KSI’ right at the cutting edge of smartphone tech it delivers unparalleled direct-to-fan access, connecting him with his millions of fans. I tried. Didn’t understand the attraction, but then its not for me. My generation is the audience that looks on in amusement. But don’t sleep on this genre of youth pop culture, it’s blown up under the radar and can only get bigger.

KSI and his team know what they’re doing. The app features real-time live streaming, brand new music, exclusive videos, audio and images, fan chats/Q&As, App-commerce, pre-sale and tour ticketing, special competitions, App-only merchandise, friending and messaging, a meme generator, social media aggregation and more.

KSI AND CASPAR LEE ON THE ‘LAID IN AMERICA’ RED CARPET.

FROM BEDROOMS TO HOLLYWOOD

So after dominating the web space and then app charts, KSI was approached to make and star in his own movie alongside fellow Vlogger/actor Caspar Lee. Caspar Lee is a South African self-started YouTube star with over 6 millions YouTube subscribers. Caspar like KSI is HUGE. MEGA. He has his own clothing line, is a musician and released a book this year written by him and his mum!

The two boys have come so far and are a perfect example of the self-made millennial, like Justin Bieber, They started in their bedrooms and now are the most well known YouTubers in the world, with millions of subscribers, billions of views on their channels, and hugely successful careers including record deals, book launches, clothing lines and now a Hollywood Movie.

Not only is KSI one of the most influential YouTubers in the UK, but he’s also been rated as the 5th Highest Earning YouTube star by Forbes, with a net worth of $4.5m.

LAID IN AMERICA.

This week KSI made his much anticipated feature-film debut alongside Caspar Lee in laugh-out-loud, chaotic comedy LAID IN AMERICA.

Duncan (KSI) and Jack (Caspar Lee) are exchange students with just one night left in the United States and one final chance to lose their virginity with the girls of their dreams.

To accomplish their goal, they must get into the school-bully’s house party that night but they haven’t made the list. The two friends hatch an elaborate and desperate plan which takes them on an unexpected adventure, navigating a mine-field of problems from gun-wielding gangsters to deviant drug lords. Their friendship is tested as they blunder through the night in a bid to fulfil their fantasies before their flights back home.

Photo Courtesy – James Gillham.

LAID IN AMERICA has a full on tech geek star cast and crew set up. This #SQUAD rolls hard and heavy. The film is directed by Sam Milman and Peter Vass (Bad Weather Films), produced by Max Gottlieb (The Fun Group) and executive produced by Adam Margules (Angry Adam Productions). Alongside KSI (13.6m YouTube subscribers) and Caspar Lee (6.5m YouTube subscribers) the film features an all-star cast including digital stars Josh Leyva (1.6m YouTube subscribers), Bobby Lee (150k YouTube subscribers), Madison Iseman (184k Instagram subscribers) and Bart Baker (8.2m YouTube subscribers) .

The movie is not an example of cinematic glory. Its not Spielberg or Tarantino or even Eddie The Eagle levels. It’s a techie 2016 version of American Pie meets Mean Girls meets The In Betweeners. Its crass and vulgar in the way most teenagers love. It is to teenagers today what Porky’s was to my peers and I in the eighties. (The desperate tale of high school’ers trying to lose their virginity surpasses all generations and cultures). Like an Ali G/ Borat politically incorrect, trying to be outrageous classic but not as cleverly written, the film is full of cultural ethnic stereotypes.

Even though its not going to scare Hollywood just yet, this hilarious and outrageous comedy that’s the perfect mix of sex, stupidity and fun for its millennial audience, shows that the power of movie making, big screen audience numbers and most importantly, cinema revenue streams, aren’t all in the hands of the old masters. Like the music industry, the movie industry should watch its back. Who Moved My Cheese is not just a book by Dr Spencer Johnson. It’s the new millennial method of changing the world. And KSI and his #Squad are leading the movement.

Photo Courtesy – James Gillham.

LAID IN AMERICA is released on DVD and Blu-ray™ with Ultraviolet, and Digital Download on 26th September 2016.

#LaidinAmerica –
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LaidinAmerica/?fref=ts
Twitter https://twitter.com/laidinamerica?lang=en-gb
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/laidinamerica/?hl=en

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UK rapper Wretch32’s new album, Growing Over Life, was long awaited by his fans and took a whole new serious route than his usual offerings. The BET Award winner’s 12 new tracks juxtapose social commentary, thoughtful bars and powerful insights throughout and gained a top five UK chart position. Not that Wretch cares about awards and chart numbers ‘’ I never feel pressure for chart success. I feel more pressure to do a good Fire In The Booth’. Wretch’s latest album tackles subjects relevant to youth globally, like challenging relationships, parenthood, police brutality and celebration of life.

I sat down for an exclusive chat with one of the most important voices from the UK hip hop scene today.

JASMINE WITH WRETCH32.

1

Growing Over Life clearly shows you’ve had a serious, mature, tough journey through these last few years with adult responsibilities being a priority. I myself watched you and your loved ones bury a close friend earlier this year. How tough have the demons and life been this time around and how have you dealt with them?

The affect that my good friend music industry figure Richard Antwi’s death had on me….it was big… I always sent records to Richard for feedback. When I sent him a track called “intro” he loved it. Told me I was a beast and I should attempt America. The conversation carried on. Then that phone chat ended. Less than a week afterwards he passed away. That was the last thing he said to me. He was like my older brother. Without him I don’t know if this could’ve ever been possible. He taught us so much. That’s why I named my intro track “Antwi” in honour of him.

WRETCH32 VIDEO ”ANTWI”

I’m one of those peeps that take things in my stride and have learnt to be thick skinned and expect nothing from anyone. It’s easier if you don’t have expectations and then you can’t be disappointed. I learnt that I’m more comfortable being emotional this album. I used to think it wasn’t manly to cry but now I don’t care. When I recorded “6 words” I cried. No one spoke in the studio. Boys being boys. It’s sick when it’s like that.

I also learnt that a lot of what sells the record is excitement about it and driving promo. This time around I had a mix tape with (fellow rapper) Avelino and peeps have really been open to the lyricism in that. In the past I’ve put out the best song. Now it’s about the track where I’m rapping most. I also did a Fire In The Booth (BBC brand where rappers spit whole verses for radio), session then a song then a mix tape. Full on!

Also with my music, I’ve taken responsibly back with things like directing my videos and plotting campaigns because I’ve learnt more and understand my audience a lot more now. I now know I have to be consistent with my videos. I used director Matt Walker for my video ‘’Antwi’’ and a few others. He’s cool and gets it. They (directors) come to my house about ideas. They tell me what’s realistic because in my head it’s got to look like a Spielberg production. Its like when people ask if there will be a tour to accompany this album; It’s got to make financial sense. We have to have a good return. Often we can lose more than we can make. It’s usually my fault cos I’m a prick cos I want to add more stuff to my staging cos I like a big spectacle on stage. I want it to be memorable but in order to do that I lose money.

So with videos and tours ‎I used to believe that the director is best to do job, and the team know what’s best with tour’s, but I now know its also important to trust in my own ideas. I’m a writing specialist but as I learn I sit down and talk and be a lot more realistic.

2

You’re very known as a deep wordsmith – Growing Over Life is full of social commentary and slick wordplay, but so much new rap content these days is very weak on lyrics and new artists don’t seem to care about spending hours on clear lyrical content anymore. Do you as a current leader think that this matters for the culture? Can you talk about that?

Different people have different roles to play and different people think differently. If you were born in 1990, your favourite rapper may be Gucci Mane or Young Thug or Future, not Jay Z, so I think It’s dependent on what you’ve grown up with and been influenced by. Biggie, Nas, Jay were all rappers that used similes and metaphors that caught my ear and so that’s what I was influenced by so I guess it’s just about perspective. Both styles have a purpose. No one wants to hear serious songs like my ‘Antwi’ in a club or live lounge but there’s a place for it and vica versa.

3

Growing Over Life also touches on police brutality, which is both a huge issue in the U.S as well as in the UK. Recently the #blacklivesmovement seems to have been hijacked in the UK by middle-classed white protesters managing to shut down City Airport, with the environment and pollution as justification. In fact there was not one black face amongst the protesters, did this make any sense to you and does it worry you that by speaking up about political issues that it may impact your own music career?

What I do like is sometimes you need to create noise and become annoying to get your point across. The good child that’s quiet might not get all the opportunities. Sometimes our natural thought is to go to police station when e’re unhappy, but when these people go to disrupt the airport it’s annoying but then people want to listen and understand why they’ve been disrupted, so in turn they may wanna help sort it out. Its ironic, they don’t mind the ghetto being a mess but when its the M25 and airport its all up in the news. I do like that element.
Realistically for example, the government doesn’t care if 2000 people demonstrate in Tottenham but once it’s a national problem that’s disrupting everyone they pay attention.

‎Having said that, I do hope it’s coming from a sincere place with those white demonstrators. I didn’t have an issue with them not being black at all. I may go on a march about blocking sex offenders without having personally been affected by a sex offence, because as a parent I feel connected to the cause. So I guess they as humanity feel connected to our cause too. It’s the human empathetic connection. If they’re coming from a sincere place then I’m ok with it.

4

In last couple of years you’ve been more politically conscious. You even titled the second part of your record “Mark Duggan” after the young black man killed from your area. I know your gran and dad were really connected to the community and your uncle is an activist always fighting for justice. (Stafford Scott, who has written for The Guardian and co-founded the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign in 1985). You’ve mentioned in the past that in your house there’s a poster of Winston Silcott. (One of the “Tottenham Three”, black men who were convicted in March 1987 for the murder of Polce Constable Blakelock on the night of 6 October 1985 during the Broadwater Farm Riot, in north London, despite not having been near the scene. All three convictions were quashed on 25 November 1991 after scientific tests suggested the men’s confessions had been fabricated) .So you’ve grown up around a family that’s really into politics.

With Mark Duggan, I wanted to speak for the people who lived here in my community. To me he’s not a news statistic or video clip. He’s someone I went to school with.
“Open conversation” is a track about me opening a page in my diary. These are my thoughts as a child. I mentioned Mark’s children at the end of the record.

I never worry about my political lyrics and I think it’s my duty to speak from the heart. When I do that it’s never wrong. We are all in a senior place now and more serious and so it’s important to speak on stuff. I’m looking at secondary schools for my son. Being a parent is a responsibility! I’m looking at routes to school. It all plays on in your head. Which schools are producing good consistent results….
I went through it all myself 16 years ago and here I am 16 years later thinking about it all again!

5

Maintaining a relationship whilst making music is a topic you cover on the latest album, and it’s a topic that a few other UK artists have made songs about this year. You’ve said that you haven’t been in a serious relationship in years and if you’re making a song about relationships you pick and choose several real life experiences to mix up on a track. Would it be fair to say that you have had to sacrifice love to focus on a successful career. What is the one thing you need a potential wifey to understand/do/get down with?

‎I do think I’ve sacrificed love for my career. I’m not selfish. A relationship is 50/50 with the time that you both commit. And when it comes to love I just don’t think I’m at that stage where I’m ready to give 100 percent. Its affected my relationships yes. I look for understanding in a woman. For example I can start a music session at noon and end at 6am. Who would understand that regularly? Taxi drivers have the same problem I imagine.

6

My era had a lot more R&B and soul to keep us all quite romantically minded. I get the impression youth nowadays are less romantic and more sexualized. How do you feel?

‎I think the energy of what’s around you growing up will affect your thought process and so music does affect ideas about life. If all the kids today are listening to tracks like ‘’These hoes ain’t loyal’ (Chris Brown) ’ instead of like back in the day we had ‘’ Let’s get married’’ (Jagged Edge), then one-night stands could be seen as priority to them instead of a long-lasting relationship.

7
Even though you’ve used female features on the album from names like Emeli Sandé, Laura Mvula and more, the grime and hip hop scene in the UK is very male dominated, where are the ladies and why are they not as prominent as the guys?

If I’m honest I think some of us are slightly biased. I’ll tell you why. Lady Leshurr and Lil Simz are sick. But as an MC you may have a concept about a certain song that you’re making and then a male MC comes to mind for a collaboration and maybe a female name only comes to mind on relationship themed tracks. Also, with us guys we are often circulating and sharing fans when we collaborate.
As well as that, with us guys I think we all support each other cos we’re fans of what we all do. My worst enemy could have a good song and I’ll tell them. We care about the scene and ourselves. There can’t only be one star – there has to be room for all of us. You know when Skepta’s doing a tour, we’ll all just jump in a van and go out and join him onstage and that way we’re sharing fans and that keeps it exciting cos we bump into each other at live shows all the time.

8

Is it this ‘sharing and circulating of fans’’ that’s been the top winning element of the UK grime scene making it without major record deal signings?

Record deals. It’s about building super deals. Signing to a mainstream label ‎helps financially cos you receive an advance and then you can just focus on the music. Now it’s about super teams and I understand radio, TV pluggers and press teams managers and A&R. Nowadays finances can come from anywhere but I know it’s a major factor to have a team on board that you’ve handpicked.
‎I’ve been fortunate cos with the label deal I’m in, I was able to bring my team to my label, but I had to go through both situations to understand them, so now when I speak to Stormzy I tell him ‘I found hurdles here and here’ and I talk about options that he can think about, so my experiences can be useful to others.

‎Nowadays we all collaborate with each other all the time like never before. It’s interesting, the other day I was talking to (singer) Shola Ama and I told her that I couldn’t believe that back in her era that she and Craig David didn’t have a song together?! I was a fan of both so we would’ve lapped that up. I couldn’t understand why was there no duet?

9

Hilary or Trump to lead the world next- One is hated, the other is more hated. Discuss?

Hhhmmm Hilary or Trump. I’m still following only God. However, If I had to pick from cancer and leukemia I’d pick Hilary.

10

This year’s MOBO Award’s is coming up – I know there was a disappointing year when people believed that you were snubbed when you’d had a big year – but awards shows and voting is always a minefield in itself. How do you look back on it now …with some perspective?

With the MOBO’S I learnt a valuable lesson. I have no feelings towards it any more. It put me off awards ceremonies for good as well as attending them. As artists we’re all naturally competitive. But in that scenario all you’re thinking is ‘’Did you really lose though?’’ After all It was just a moment. But you bought a suit and sat with your family and yes, I felt like I’d lost. So I’ve stopped attending so much stuff like that now, I don’t go the MOBO Awards.
I don’t know if I’d attend The Brits if I was nominated. I really didn’t like that feeling of all of us being pitted against each other. The bottom line is we are all winning now without mainstream stuff like that. We’re winning man!!!!

11

Your song All a Dream is one of my fave tracks on the album. What’s your biggest dream to achieve in your career, could American chart success be for you in the future?

‎My biggest dream to help people who are talented. I hear talent and I want that to be magnified. Whether my future involves me building a label? Being a mentor? Even watching my peer – fellow singer Shakka – at his live gig at Koko this past month, I felt teary and emotional. I recall calling him early on and keeping him motivated. His gig was sick! Being able to do my song Blackout with him and taking him to festivals has opened him up to so much more. So I’d love to get involved with mentoring talent like that more.

I wanna do it America, but at this stage in my life my son’s ten, my daughter’s five. They’re going through lots of change. Can I just leave for six months? I wouldn’t wanna waste their time and my time. The biggest problem with America is the audience out there understanding our style and lyrics and language. But having said that, when I was younger listening to Jay Z I decoded his words so really American peeps should now do that with us. Yeah, American recognition or from anywhere in the world is important. I’m never in the studio making music for just a few people!

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So- everyone who was anyone in the grime music/ UK urban music industry was at Camden’s Roundhouse last night for the second annual Rated Awards.

Big moments of the night included Tim Westwood picking up the GRM Legacy Award, Kano took home Best Album for ‘Made in the Manor’, Giggs bagged Artist Of The Year Award, Skepta won Best Video for his smash ‘Man (Gang)’​, Manny Norte noting that A.Dot ”gets crisser gal than the man dem’,and Big Narstie actually used the ”C” word onstage!

JASMINE WITH NAUGHTY BOY , MANNY NORTE AND YASMIN EVANS, CHAMS (NFTR) AND SHOLA AMA, GIGGS, OMAR AND CRAIG DAVID.

Last night history was made, with the second KA & GRM Daily Rated Awards, celebrating the very best of British urban music. The 1,700-person capacity venue, packed to the brim full of artists, industry players and fans alike.

Craig David, Krept & Konan, Skepta, DJ and producer Naughty Boy and Professor Green were all in attendance, bringing the grime scene into the spotlight in a welcome togetherness and celebration of how far British urban music has come.

The KA & GRM Daily Rated Awards is one of the only award ceremonies that lets the fans decide the winners. By giving the power back to the people it allows the real purveyors of the British urban music scene to be recognised. The awards, which launched last year, were founded by KA Drinks and GRM Daily.

English MC AJ Tracey picked up the Best Breakthrough award, with other early winners including Skepta winning Best Video for his smash ‘Man (Gang)’, Charlie Sloth announced as Best DJ for a second year, and Rude Kid collecting Producer Of The Year.

Mercury Prize shortlisted artist Kano took home Best Album for his monumental album ‘Made In The Manor’, whilst Giggs took home Best Artist. Abra Cadabra was also full of emotion as he swooped upBest Track for “Robbery Remix” featuring Krept & Konan.

Last night saw some high-energy performances with WSTRN making a return to the KA & GRM Daily Rated Awards stage, tearing it up with Youngs Teflon for ‘Best Friend’. We also saw Craig David & Big Narstie perform their hit single ‘When The Bassline Drops’ as well as performances from MoStack, MIst, Fredo, Abra Cadabra, Ray BLK, Donae’o, Big Tobz and Ghetts x Rude Kid.

BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter and A&R Director at Atlantic Records Twin B paid tribute to best friend, business partner, and UK music industry icon Richard Antwi, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Richard was responsible for helping establish the musical career of a number of British artists including Lethal Bizzle, Wretch 32 and Tinie Tempah.

Closing the night off was Artist Of The Year winner Giggs, who ran through a crazy set of old and new tracks. As he performed his latest single ‘Whippin Excursion’, the stage was invaded by fellow artists, including Kano, Skepta, Ghetts and GRM Daily’s Posty.

GRM Daily founder and CEO, Posty presented the final award of the night – arguably the biggest one – the GRM Legacy award, which highlights the achievements and influence within the British urban scene. The prestigious award went to DJ & presenter Tim Westwood, who throughout his career has championed the British urban music scene. Westwood is one of the most recognised urban UK DJ’s of the decade. He is regarded as the most influential figure in hip hop in Europe and as a pioneer of the UK scene.

Over the last three years KA Drinks has been helping to empower and elevate grime culture in the UK. From working with artists such as Ghetts, Lady Leshurr and Paigey Cakey in 2012, to supporting up-and-coming artists in their yearly ‘Get Rated’ competition. As co-founder of the Rated Awards KA has helped create a platform to celebrate the best of urban music, and is building a brand that will help to inspire the next generation of grime talent.

2016 has been another groundbreaking year for the British urban music scene and The KA & GRM Daily Rated Awards are here to highlight and commend this year’s high achievers. This year’s awards were broadcast exclusively on GRM Daily and ratedawards.com and hosted by Capital XTRA presenter Manny Norte and 1Xtra presenter Yasmin Evans. This year marked the second Rated Awards and the first year at the iconic Roundhouse.
The 2016 KA & GRM Daily Rated Award Winners

WINNERS

Best Breakthrough, In Association with Vevo AJ Tracey

Best Video Skepta – Man (Gang)

Best DJ Charlie Sloth

Producer Of The Year Rude Kid

Personality Of The Year Poet & Vuj

Best Mixtape 67- In Skengs We Trust

Best Track, In Association with BBC 1Xtra Abra Cadabra featuring Krept & Konan – Robbery Remix

Best Album Kano – Made In The Manor

Artist Of The Year Giggs

Get Rated Figure Flows

GRM Legacy Tim Westwood

Performances

Mikil Pane – Dear Diary

Donae’o – My Circle

Big Tobz – Uno My Style

Mo Stack – Liar

Mist – Karlas Black

Fredo – They Aint 100

Abra Cadabra – Robbery

Ray BLK – My Hood

WSTRN – Best Friend

Craig David – Mashup

Craig David & Big Narstie – When The Bassline Drops

Big Narstie – BDL Skank

Ghetts/Rude Kid – Mashup

Giggs – Mashup / Whippin Excursion

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JASMINE (PLAYING NICELY) WITH GIGGS.

Giggs – LANDLORD

Giggs latest album ‘The Landlord’ shows that in less than a decade, he has grown into an artist that’s much more at home with his celebrity than he was in 2008 at his musical debut. A man much more comfortable with the pressures of leadership and knowing his place in the music scene (rap really needs this album!) also as a leader, musician, comedian, father, friend, family-man, lover and more.

He reveals he’s leant lessons about keeping his friendship circle small, (Whippin Excursion), keeping his personal life private, and like any true king emcee – warning off the pretenders, haters and wannabees.

Yet whilst life has changed for the better, Giggs’ past experiences and memories still haunt his newer suburban dream-home lifestyle, as he highlights in the single The Blow Back; ‘’mans living that life, popped to the shop in pajamas…‘’just jumped outta bed, heard a knock from the gardeners, said no not today, what’s good, but you alarmed us’’.

On The Landlord Giggs lyrical flow can’t be pinned down. One minute he’s laidback, 2-step rhyming, spitting humour, the next he’s intense with high-pitched strained questions, then next dark ominous, eerie, foreboding stories as well as opening up – literally – about sex, love and relationships. This body of work has it all and really shows Giggs is learning, developing and growing as a street poet with authority faster than most. He’s certainly more fully rounded with extra poise in his many roles.

The intro is reminiscent of the classic Jay Z intro for Izzo (H.O.V.A) ‘’ Thanks for coming out tonight. You could’ve been anywhere in the world, but you’re here with me. I appreciate that’’. It also politely reminds us to ‘’stop assuming’’ we know about his life, his past and his mindset.

On The Landlord it feels like Giggs is having fun experimenting with his style and content without pressure of a record label breathing down his neck. A ‘’nothing too deep just let’s have some fun in the studio’’ vibe.

After a tumultuous start to our early music industry relationship a few years back, after which a chat over lunch and apologies were swapped, this past week Giggs and I shared an hour’s conversation, which I wish had been recorded for a podcast instead, as he was so entertaining and deep. Juggling his kids, new born baby sleeping patterns, literally holding the baby and cooing whilst chatting, he proved he was the perfect conversationalist, daddy and multi-tasker.

ALBUM
Congrats on the Landlords nNo.2 album chart position…. Has it exceeded all your expectations?

Every time I’ve made an album I’ve thought its sick. If I’m really honest, it’s my fourth album and I think all the past should’ve done that well too. What’s really making me happy is people rolling in their cars to the music, it’s sick! The buzz out there, ‘its the hardest, its sick!’….-that means more than anything to hear all that and those comments have me buzzing, its mental!. This is why you do what you do. When you first write lyrics at home and you think you could do this, the first thing that you want is for people to say this is sick! You don’t think about riches and chart positions. So I’m happy.

My favourite tracks so far on the album are Lock Doh (featuring Donaeo) and The Best. However in JUST SWERVIN you sound emotional, which is nice because we see a different side to you. You sound vulnerable and reveal what it feels like to be low, lonely and losing friends. It’s important to highlight this realness in an age where young men under pressure are really suffering with mental health issues. Tell us about that, letting your harder persona take a back seat and being okay to open up about being just human?

I’ve always have vulnerable, emotional real shit. Its about balance. I like to always have two or three deep songs…I never write at all…. I just smoke, have a drink…the beat talks to me… there’s different ways of being lonely…when I had beef and madness years ago I felt alone. When people are trying to kill you, but at heart you’re a good person its lonely. I never asked to be a gang banger…I was actually a good kid…I used to work with disabled people a carer/support worker role…I looked after a brother for about a year….I was a Peckham boy from when I was 14. I didn’t get into that life to be a G, it was a necessity. We didn’t have money in the house. I didn’t want to bother my mum for money, like an impressionable kid thinks I thought ‘’if I steal my own shit I will make it easier on my mum…ut then other things came with that lifestyle, not just stealing clothes. I then got caught up in fighting other gangs, and then that becomes a part of your life. Then I tried to work, that’s how I became a carer cos my mum worked there. I was paying off my Punto car. Man would hate on me cos I had a car!?. People were tryna to kill me?, I don’t think I’m a superhero but I don’t fear anyone. I was going back n forth, then people were looking at me like a boss. I was like (the character) Knockout Ned in (the film) City of Gods.

I came out of jail in 2004 and saw Adulthood and the character in Adulthood was very similar to me, when he got out of jail and trying not to get into any trouble. the streets were worse than ever since I had been away and also I’m the oldest sibling, watching my brothers go through stuff too so its always been a lonely journey.

I’ve walked away from the streets now. I’m on another planet now. Now I see things completely differently. I just know you don’t have to go through certain things….I understand though that when you’re down there and younger, its different. If peeps can see Giggs from Peckham can make it then it’s closer to them to see there is another life choice out there too for them. It’s not like as being so far detached to success like someone like Jay Z.
The way I see things now is completely different, some of the people I used to be around still see things like that, so I’ve always been a loner.

Your song THE PROCESS narrates the story about many typical relationships: the meeting, the dating, the loving, the first arguments over jealously and ultimately the split or not to split annoyances. You’ve become quite the sex symbol lol.

(laughs) If you listen to The Process it starts with me seeing a girl, with good posture, I chat to her, I get a drink, that’s my girl, she passes the test, she’s cooking brekky, then my phone rings and someone calls and she’s like suspicious and questions ‘’who’s that?’. Then it’s your first argument, you might break up with her. It’s like a vicious circle, the same process each time. It’s the relationship processes from my perspective. A female should make a process reply / response….lol!

On your track THE BEST you feature Liverpool’s Aystar – how do you connect with up n coming new talent?

My son is like the A&R in my house, he’s like me.He’s 14, and he listens to whoevers got talent. I’m older, he is younger than me, I can’t keep up with what’s out there all the time, and my son keeps me up to date. I was listening to this Liverpool stuff thinking this accent is hot, then someone on twitter put me onto Aystar, and then I got him on the album. I shouted at him via twitter. I try and make everyone eat.

Your debut album –Walk in da Park- was 8 years ago- what have you learnt since then?

Mainly I learnt that business is business. I treat the music game the same as I treated the drug game years ago. I’m on point now. The music game is 60% easier than the drug game and I’m not ducking the police daily. I used to rise at 7am, bag up, take my son to school, and you’re paranoid the whole time. You find a trap house, bag up, come out, you’ve got all your food on you, and you got to meet people on time without being bait. In this here music game you’re using way less brainpower cos you’re not ducking the police all the time.

Having said that, although I’m a music star now, they still make me feel like a criminal. When I was first on Westwood’s show years ago, I took another young guy with music potential with me and the police ended up kicking off his mums door at home! I made him a part of SN1 to help start his music career. Then the next thing his mum was asking ‘’who’s this Giggs person!?’’. All I’ve done is try and do something positive to try and take him off the streets, but the way it looks is that when he was gang banging his door wasn’t coming off. Now he’s trying to do music his doors off. He then ended up in CAT D prison, he made a song whilst there, so I put him on the new SN1 mix tape. On his day visits outside prison he didn’t even come out and see family cos he was so dedicated to making his music tracks as it’s a new, different lifeline for him. But as he ‘’associated’’ with us, on his return they sent him back to a CAT C prison! They accused him of still being ‘gang affiliated’. They kicked him out of a CAT D into CAT C prison for associated with a music company?

It’s a struggle, so much misconception surrounds rap music. Your music has always portrayed the pain and grind stories of working class inner city youth, but now you’ve moved to the suburbs what’s inspiring your music?

The first song on the album with Stormzy (The Blow Back), the beat is as greasy as ever, but its not that dark n grimy, but I guess the delivery makes it sounds sinister…(recites and raps the track)…- I’m talking about what’s happening now…with my new life, my gardener…yes! I really have a gardener now! I couldn’t go to the shops in PJ’s before, in Peckham I had to be ready for war at all times. Now I’m peaceful. I’m happy to roll to my local shops in pj’s. I happy to rap about the good life and the struggle.

Do you tend to work with the same producers and mixers that you started out with…who’s Giggs dream studio team?

Dirty Saj, Dennis the engineer, Dukus the mixer, I’ve had the same team from early days, my Unit 10 man dem.

Speaking of your team, your manager Buck gets lots of name checks on the album and has been riding with you from day one. What do you think he saw in you that was a sure fire winner? And what’s the one moment that stands out for you working alongside each other?

With Buck its always a moment. The way he handles shit is great. I wonder if he’s done this in another life, cos he doesn’t just randomly jump at stuff. He’s careful and not driven just by money. When we had a PR he would say ‘I don’t want Giggs in the paper for no reason’. I know that he gets lot of his knowledge from Jay Z albums. Backin the days when it was D Block VS Rocafella , Buck used to Rocafella and I used to be D Block. Buck would say to me ‘you gotta listen to Jay Z more cos you two are THE SAME minded!’.

How much input do you have with your videos? Do you insist on a dark, grimy vibe?

When I make a song, I see the video in your head before the video treatments even come in.
I direct the whole thing. When I was at XL (record label), I would clash with them cos I would want one thing, they would want another. My peeps would approach me and say ‘your videos are shit man’. Take ‘’Look what the cat dragged in’’….it was a straight forward video. It’s meant to be funny. XL were saying it can’t be funny…you’re meant to be gangsta. So it came out shit. It was crap.

Wow, stereotypes that the rest of the world wants stars to live up to are ridiculous. Shortly after The Landlord was released you tweeted that you cant sleep cos you need to put on a London show and celebrate with your fans and you can’t – explain?

It’s the usual live shows problem for me in London. The police. What they think I’m about. Etc etc nothing’s changed there really.

The Landlord also includes stories about navigating the music industry. You have lived life as a music star both with and without a label. How much pressure is it being on a label and is it harder actually getting things done? Does your music then end up taking second place?

Yes, being at a label was pressure, as in; I didn’t wanna let people down and flop. It didn’t affect the music as such, but it affected the energy and energy is important. You need positive energy around you to make music. I mean, I brought a house from that deal so I was positive but stressed too. I’m a leader. I like things done the way I like it, so I realised that I cant be with a label. No disrespect to XL, I love them like family, but I learnt that you can’t mix business with pleasure. Since I’ve been doing my own thing I’ve been moving mad. The whole campaign around this album is just me, Buck, Trent and Raye. ….(Trenton and Raye between them have looked after a multitude of music legends from Goldie to Amy Winehouse)

What is it about your musical generation that has made things happen without record labels and big budgets?

We’ve been building the foundation for years. We built the house, we learnt, grew and watched and now its time to take it and live in it. A lot of man sold out, lets be honest (LAUGHS), but it helped the rest of us.

Some of your tracks have a slight west coast sound …how much do American sounds influence your music?

American sounds influence me but only in a sense that them man are going hard! Which means I gotta go hard. I think I’m the hardest! When I go in and hear American rap, I say Drake made a hard album so I gotta make a harder one. I always inspired by great music. In fact, I wish Skeptas ‘’It aint safe’’ track was mine! Skepta had 3 bangers all at the same time and I told him I’m coming!

Your songs use a lot of very UK Street slanguage. Should we have a Giggs Urban Dictionary so that international fans can understand everything you say?

The beauty of it is some of it is that you’re not meant to understand it all. It’s called a code for a reason; it’s your job as a listener or fan to decode it. That’s the fun part of it.

Your musical career has now seen you fly around the globe to perform live, what’s been your best, most breath-taking memory?

There are so many different memories from all over the world. I loved Nigeria, it wasn’t a show, it was a mansion party-like an old skool house party, runnin riddems, smoking, drinking, it was sick.

SOCIAL BUTTERFLY

You’re known by all the other UK hip-hop and grime acts as the one that brings them together for socials. Have u always been the social organiser and party planner?

I’ve always been like that – we get the whole hood together and have BBQ’s etc. I like to say ‘lets all be one & celebrate life!’ Also I know a lot of man are going through what I’m going through, so its like a boys / mans club for the artists. Everyone has a big house but no-ones coming round. I’ll go to (Tinchy) Stryders house or Chips house. It’s fun.

Kano revealed that you all teased him about his Radio 1 Fire in the Booth (Charlie Sloth) so much that you all strong armed him into doing one…

LOLOL It was my dinner, he thought I set him up, but its all jokes…. But when he did it, its f***ing nine minutes long!…LOL us lot are always beefing….see Wretch, Kane , Ghetts , Skepta, they all think they’re the hardest, so its always jokes with us all throwing digs at each other. I was wearing a Christmas jumper for our get together last year!

You love to mingle, hang out, debate and are clearly very sociable, so then why is it, that you say that you are so miserable, and why do u like being known as the miserable one?

I’m always moaning. People say that about me, that’s why Kano and me get on so well, he’s a moany brother too!

As well as your other musical peers, DJ’s are the ones that are often the cornerstone of musical hip hop culture. Who are the DJ’s that you love and have championed you most? Do you have a favourite?

It’s not really a competition, Westwood has done what he’s done and Charlie and Semtex continue to do stuff. I was grateful when I was banned from the radio and Westwood did Cribs Sessions to accommodate me but Charlie’s Fire in the Booth is huge too….

QUICK FIRE QS
What’s your earliest London memory?

As a kid, I knew it for window-shopping; Trocerdero in Piccadilly was the spot for getting girls phone numbers. That was my first memory of London.

What is The Landlord’s fave London spot to eat?

Can’t say or I wont be able to go there anymore.

1st London spot you visit when flying home off tour that you cant do without?

Ditto as per above.

Landlord’s run homes, but what if your reach was broader, what would you do if you were Mayor of London for the day?

I would put money put into youth clubs and into every hood area adventure playgrounds, where kids can go. I would also put lots of cameras and regular police patrols so that there’s no problems. I would pay for fun stuff for the kids to get involved with like games and studios. No one cares about the youth now.

Who do you call when you want to have fun?

My bredrin or my brothers.

If you were the landlord of south London, what would you promote about Peckham?

Even though it’s gentrified today its still sticky, it’s like spilling pineapple juice on the floor and then just wiping a tissue over it. It looks clean, but its not. Underneath the gentrification it’s still a jungle, I love Peckham and the people and I want more for them.

If there was one person you could say thank you to whom would it be and why?

God. He guides me all the time.

If there was one-person you could say sorry to whom would it be and why?

Loads of people. I’ve said sorry to you. LOL

The ladies love them some Giggs, but what’s the most romantic thing someone’s ever done for you?

Can’t say cos I don’t wanna start any trouble. I guess though in all seriousness, the most romantic thing is for someone to just be there.

Finally, Who’s your hero?

I don’t really look at life like that. (BUT WHEN PUSHED HE SAYS…)…. But Wiley can be a hero, cos when I was on the street and stuff, he would be on me to pursue this music career. I would be ‘’who’s this weirdo who keeps ringing me?”, in my world back then, people didn’t do that, he just wanted to help me and that’s I why I try and help a lot of youths’’

What Giggs manager Buck says about his relationship with Giggs.

Giggs and I went school together, he was in my older brothers year, so it’s a family thing…. what I saw in him was his obsession for hard work, he loves music, he moved prisons just so he could send me music.

I think the thing he’s learnt most over the past few years is to be comfortable with who he was naturally, initially he was reluctant to be himself, he’s always been a joker, a giggler, family man, cracking jokes, he’s actually a really nice guy and means no one harm.
That’s why I was able to reach out to you in your MTV days when you both had that misunderstanding cos I could see your and his point of view, it was all just miscommunication!

In his XL- record label era, Giggs felt under pressure, to not let people down who had pumped money into him…
Towards end of the label deal, we were always independent, but there were more & more people to get stuff ticked off with and run past. There were numerous opinions and they were all confusing, that way it becomes more about radio plugging, dj’s etc
This time we returned to what we started off with- Walk in the park style – it’s just about his music! Now what he’s doing is the same thing as when he first started.

This time around cos there was no pressure, we didn’t even think about chart numbers as long as the people enjoy it, we were happy.

I’m not even surprised by any of this success. He speaks to the youth and older audience with his soulful hooks, so there are no types of fan that surprises me now, I’ve seen people from every single walk of life recite his lyrics and get excited by seeing him.

He’s done so many live shows around the world, I think maybe he enjoyed the Nigeria live gig most, I feel like he felt like he was at home away from home, they were very welcoming, there was no bullshit, he felt it culturally and it was endearing for him.

Giggs likes to congregate and laugh with people, I’d hate to always stop off at his south London home, cos you’d be there for another 4 hours, talking, laughing, debating, he loves bringing people together and seeing people win, that’s why he does songs with the youngsters of today.

When it comes to future Non-musical projects, I reckon he could go down the comic books n marvel superhero’s path somehow…

The beautiful thing about working with him is that you can see progression in him, and the people that he’s around.

I just want him to achieve everything he wants to achieve, I’m just happy to see him win.

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So everyone who loves hip hop culture was aware that last week Netflix released The Get Down, an slightly fictionalised, entertaining, informative look at the early years around the birth of hip hop. A look at how the first seeds were planted in the multi billion-dollar industry we know it to be today, nearly four decades later.

Hip hop grew out of a the crumbling ghettos of a then bankrupt New York, at a time when the American economy was taking a battering due to shock oil prices, at a time also when the disco and funk music era was starting to feel stale. Young black and Latino men were looking for something fresh, and they found it.

On the eve of the Get Down’s release, we spoke to some UK hip hop royalty that were around in those early days, living and breathing the London scene, to ask what hip hop culture means to them.

DJ Billy Biznizz began by defining ‘the get down’ for the young ones. ‘‘The get down is the part of the record that is the most funkiest, and as a DJ you try to keep the get down continuous so it sounds like a loop. You play it from one turntable to the next turntable and the b-boys just all get down!’’

Cookie – a female rapper from the eighties hip hop collective Cookie Crew (now a Senior Manager at globally renowned The Orchard music company), stated ‘’hip hop is our religion, its an energy, its our movement, and its something that just keeps me going! For most of us from that era, its something we lived and breathed, to this day we live and breath it cos its been a foundation for the careers we have all gone on to have now. ’’

Billy ‘’a lot of people forget that we were so young in those days, most of us only 14, 15, 16, and hip hop culture taught us how to live our lives in a good and respectful manner, things like the b boy battles were so you didn’t have to go out and fight someone, you can just have a dance-off and the winner is the winner and still be cool afterwards. You didn’t have to be violent towards others, it taught us how to be respectful towards others and learning about your culture, your heritage and where you came from. Those things were really important and as youngsters hip hop culture taught us all those things’’.

MC Rodney P , who started out in the eighties as a member of the renowned London Posse, and still continues a successful career as a solo star today, explained how the British youth first became aware of the culture ‘’it was when Malcolm McLaren’s video ‘buffalo girls’ came out. Once we saw that we had more of an understanding of what it looked like, what graffiti looked like, how the people dressed, how they danced, and that’s when it really grabbed a hold here’’

Rodney continued ‘’there were places like Covent Garden where we all used to be where the real energy for London’s scene was. Covent Garden was almost like Switzerland, like neutral territory and our mecca, everyone gathered there from all over London to celebrate this new culture’’.

Most hip hop heads from those days also cite recalling the moment, when a young Jeffrey Daniels from the band Shalimar, performed by himself as his fellow band mates didn’t turn up to be, on British music show Top of the Pops(name checked years later by Jay Z ‘’ Came from the bottom the bottom, to the “Top of the Pops“). That inspired many young British kids, as well as, it seems, young Americans back then like Michael Jackson.

However Rodney wasn’t happy about the path the culture took in future years. ‘‘Obviously today a lot of hip hop culture has been dragged apart, so the culture’s not represented in the same way as ‘rap music’. You know rap music is known as hip hop, but hip hop is a culture’’.

Billy feels positive about the reforming of the cornerstones of hip hop though. ‘’I think people are trying to bring the elements back as they’ve seen that the fragmentation, doesn’t allow hip hop to live the way its supposed to be so they’re trying to de-fragment it and bring everything back together’’.

Rodney P broke it down ‘’I think what happened with hip hop is that, as the audience changed, the music changed, so when hip hop was still young and it was mostly young, black and Hispanic inner city kids listening to the music, the artists were making music geared towards that audience, and it was much more positive and much more uplifting. But as the audiences changed and it became more about young white kids from the suburbs, who became the dominant buying audience for hip hop music, suddenly the artists are making music geared towards them, so its less positive and more about the ‘so called negative aspects of black culture’. Black culture is 360 degrees, not just one thing, and that’s the problem I have with hip hop. We see such a narrow view of the black experience and it IS the black experience even though everyone is involved in hip hop- it still represents a black experience. So with the changing audience it all changed, as the audience became more cooperate, the corporations were prepared to sell change and that for me is a problem cos it disrespects the culture’’.

Of course, aside from rapping and DJ’ing, which are much more prominent globally, other elements of the culture include break dancing and graffiti, foundation basics which UK graffiti legend Artful Dodger and one time break-dancer (now Artistic Director of Breakin Convention), Jonzi D feel that new younger artists have left behind.

Artful Dodger spells it out ‘’the main separation came when rap music- as it became known to a lot of people- started to make money, that’s when the real separation came. B boying got relegated, as you can’t easily package that. With rap, you can make a record and promote the artist, so you have a commodity. You have a piece of merchandise, which can sell. So when the big money came into it, that’s when the change happened. And one thing I’ve always said when it comes to different aspects of hip hop is its not so much where its going, but who’s going to take it there. And if the younger generation are going to be the next generation to be the guardians and overseers of it then they have to be informed’’.

Jonzi D remembers how he fell in love with break dancing. ‘‘It was on a show on BBC2 called Arena in the eighties. All I saw was people moving rapidly on the floor and at school the next day, that’s all anyone could talk about as we tried to do it and the great thing is its now bigger than its ever been, people are literally breaking boundaries with their bodies!’’

With all the Get Down promo, one of its exec producers, the legend that is Grandmaster Flash, complained that the younger generation are happy to eat from the hip hop cake, but aren’t aware of the ingredients that it took to make it. Rodney P agreed saying ‘’I don’t think the younger generation will get it the same as us, we lived it!’’

We put this to young UK hip hop outfit The Age of L.U.N.A who last year supported Public Enemy live on tour in the UK , and told us ‘’its true that everyone now is eating from the hip hop cake cos it changed culture as we know it now, but I don’t think that people entirely care, but its important to research and see where what you are doing came from. I think our generation are picking up the nostalgic feeling of all four elements again. Dancing and graffiti too. Kool Herc was the guy that took the bridge section from James Brown, and played it on two turntables. Then one day he thought of spitting lyrics over the break beat ‘’come on everyone lets get down’ type of stuff, and then the rapping part was created too’’.

Whilst L.U.N.A seem to know more about the history than expected, and live for acts like Outkast, Lauryn Hill and Jay Z, they agree that hip hop culture can still be seen by many as a negative thing. ‘‘People may see it as a negative art form, but it’s a misconception because rap music has always been a representation of what was going on in life and society, and there’s harsh things that go on in the world but rap was one of the first types of music that was talking about these harsh times . But its important that we hear these words from people that we can relate to. I can relate to Biggie, I can relate to TuPac cos they came from a place that we can understand, a place of struggle, but with our music, we just wanna make people dance again’’.

The Get Down has faced some controversy though. Some are questioning whether director Baz Luhrmann has sufficient hip hop credentials but the UK key influencers seemed to love it citing things like ‘’ He has clearly done his research; it looked on point to me. There are some really nice small authentic hip hop references from the early days there. The acting, scenes and narrative looked great’’.

Jonzi D informed us ‘’I know a guy called Willie from the Bronx who worked on this with Baz, and he revealed that Baz let everyone else tell and write their own authentic story. Baz just simply put his style of directing to it’’.

Artful Dodger closed with ‘’Basically if something needs to spread, germinate and grow, then you’ve got to appreciate the facilities that are getting it out there. As long as it’s done with creativity, passion and integrity, as I have heard this has been done, then I’m all for it!’’

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The Get Down: the view from Britain’s Hip Hop scene – 11 minute extended version.
Channel 4 News.

Watch British hip hop royalty Rodney P, Jonzi D, Artful Dodger, Cookie and Billy Biznizz as well as new young hip hop band Age of L.U.N.A, talk about what hip hop culture means to them, in my Channel 4 News feature around the Netflix new TV mini-series #TheGetDown.

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Noel Clarke, the British mutlihyphenate (actor, producer, director, writer), has singlehandedly done more for the British working class youth to get into acting and film careers than anyone I can think of.

With his hood trilogy films Kidulthood (2006), Adulthood (2008) and Brotherhood (2016), he has given a platform to new British names and faces that simply wouldn’t have had a big break in TV or film without these platforms.

His ‘’Hood franchise’’ kicked off multiple copycat style films, but none that matched the quality and commercial success of his original blueprints. (Adulthood grossed £1,203,319 at the UK Box Office during its opening weekend, ranking above The Incredible Hulk, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull and Sex and the City!).

In the same way that John Singleton’s directorial debut Boyz In The Hood and Poetic Justice juxtaposed early stars from American music and acting like Ice Cube, Nia Long, Angela Basset, and Janet Jackson, Tupac and Q Tip, Noel Clarke has authentically amalgamated British musicians with drama to document inner city life in London over a decade.

The final of the hood films – Brotherhood – written and directed by Noel is released on August 29th across the UK and includes a supporting cast of Steven Cree, Olivia Chenery, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Nick Nevern, Adjoa Andoh, Arnold Oceng, Fredi ‘Kruga’ Nwaka and Ashley Thomas.

Clarke has been championing up n coming music acts on his film soundtracks for years. In fact the film soundtrack is as much a buzz and highlight as the film itself. The soundtracks perfectly encapsulate the era each of his films was made. In fact, simply examining each films narrative and soundtrack trajectory over the years, is a microcosm of inner-city life in many of the UK’s hoods of its time.

In 2006 and 2008 Kidulthood and Adulthood showcased early work from names like Femi Oyeniran and Jamie Winstone as well as Aml Ameen and Arnold Oceng, the latter two who now both enjoy successful American TV and Hollywood film work. (The Good Lie, The Butler, Beyond The Lights, Harrys Law).

Both early films also gave a platform to music acts like Bashy, Ghetts, J2K, Plan B, Sway, Dizzee Rascal, Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk, Lethal B, Kate Nash, Wiley and more.

The timing for the upcoming Brotherhood couldn’t be more perfect, after a year in which grime and UK hip hop have been at their all time high across the globe. This film showcases grime music and UK hip-hop acts like Stormzy, Krept and Konan, Giggs, Jamie Joseph, Genisis Elijah, J Hus, Nines, Shystie, Asher D, WSTRN and Chip amongst others as well as older more established names like singer Laura Mvula and rapper Ty.
Release date for the album will be 26th August.

This new movie see’s, a now highly anticipated, cameo by grime music’s current prince Stormzy who gets a double whammy by not only acting but also being on the soundtrack.

As if all that isn’t enough screen shine on non screen faces, Noel also brings normal kids that don’t have a stage school background or an important mummy and daddy who work in film onto his sets, as he did with my intern Harry who was a runner on the new movie.

His narratives always provide an authentic London landscape that used to be (and often still is) denied by middle class folk living in policed postcodes like Hampstead and Knightsbridge.

His adidas clad characters come from all walks of life with unique struggles and experiences.

Noel’s character Sam Peel is now all grown up, no longer the protagonist and simply trying to stay on the good,clean, family-man path, but like so many others, he is dragged back into an unwanted situation. What is it this time that will make Sam Peel put on again, the iconic hoodie? What happens that makes Sam, who wants a peaceful legal way of life, get yanked back into an environment that just wont let him out of its clutches?

As you’d expect from the themes and motifs that the hood films have already set in stone, there is violence and sex and vulgar slanguage. But look beyond these for the powerful stories and reasons before quickly judging. (Frankly there’s more violence in every cowboy western we see but that’s a whole nother matter). These scenes aren’t heightened or glamorised for a film audience; they aren’t just about inner city life on West London streets, they are a reality happening in every town amongst our young people; grown ups simply don’t want to believe it.

However, ensuring the naked scenes aren’t just the female actresses titillating the audience, there are naked men too and as ever,Noel, who always makes a point to show off his bottom, does so, with aplomb.

Noel is a master at writing and eight years later, Brotherhood shows just how far he has come in developing and hooking an audience into full, meaty narratives. His characters are tragic hero’s and heroines, capable of being frighteningly violent whilst frightened, and throw out hilarious comedic one liners in the midst of tragic scenes.

Produced via his Unstoppable Entertainment and Maggie Monteith’s Carpalla Films, In Brotherhood Noel has also managed to highlight and comment on social and political areas that affect youth and society without being clichéd. A powerful monologue mid film says all that many would want to voice and applaud its raw honesty. Comments on social discord, young people and the police, class differences, racism, and loyalty amongst friends. Even though it’s been eight years since the last instalment of this story, its narrative and commentary is now more relevant than ever.

Of all the hood films this one takes you on a huge roller-coaster of an emotional journey, empathising with every character and holding your hand to your mouth in shock as much as you will clutch your belly laughing.

Most impressively, the film’s beautiful yet gritty scenes were all shot in just 24 days!

I predict it will go down in UK cinema as a classic, award winning piece of cinematography.

August 29TH
#TheEnd
@TheHoodMovies

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Molded in the form of TLC meets Destiny’s Child is a relatively new, all-female R&B band from the UK, called M.O.

The three ladies Annie, Frankee and Nadine have been going around four years so far, and as well as being nominated for a MOBO award, they are also tipped for the top by Ed Sheeran!

Their latest song “Who Do You Think Of?” is doing serious numbers on Spotify, and burning up London’s radio playlists and dance floors.

Watch M.O’s video “Who Do You Think Of?”

With an all-female team behind them, this is a girl group walking a true feminist walk, pushing things forward for women in the music industry. Their Great Escape Festival lineup on the FACT stage alongside Stormzy and WSTRN proved them to be very able performers with a huge fan-base, and this year looks set to be the one where the ladies make their mark.

Having spent most of last year sharing the stage with the likes of UK rap acts Little Simz, Krept & Konan and Stormzy – Annie, Frankee and Nadine sat down this week to talk to me.

Where did you grow up and how did that area shape you?
Nadine, I grew up in Aylesbury Buckinghamshire- it’s a small town, not a lot rally happens there, but it’s not where you come from it’s the dream you have. I’m glad I came from there because this may not be where I would be now.

How did you all meet and form a band? –
We were all members of different groups and used to meet from being at the same events, studios etc, then we formed a good friendship & when our other bands ended we decided to get together & write the music we truly loved.

It’s hard getting a musical career off the ground. What has been your biggest career setback and how did you tackle it?
We haven’t had set backs as such, girl groups generally have a harder time we think, we dunno why, but one day we will get to the bottom of it ha-ha, so in that sense it’s tough, but we are three strong girls & we love what we do.

How did the Name- M.O (Modus Operandi) come about? Has it confused fans?
We actually heard it in a Drake song “The Motto”, and we thought it sounded interesting & loved the meaning of it (it means a particular way of doing something to achieve your goal)

Who does what in the band?
We get on so well & compliment each other in different ways; Nadine loves the Studio, Annie loves to be out & about on tour & Frankee loves photo-shoots & styling!

Earliest musical influences?
We grew up listening to a lot of 90’s R&B , Aaliyah , TLC, Lauryn Hill just to name a few.

First big break?
We had the chance to go on tour with another UK girl band called Little Mix, it was an arena tour, and it was a great experience for us!

Best and worst things about being in a female trio?
Best!! Only the best, having each other’s backs & support!

Who are the best female musical female trio (British/ American), and why?
Eternal, as their style was to die for, also Mis-Teeq had a great sound and Destiny’s Child had the killer vocals!

Tell us about your image and style?
We feel our style is just as important as our music. We just like to be comfortable, again very 90s influenced, we even wear a lot of boys clothes.

You’ve been touring and working with a lot of the grime acts, you’re very pop, how does that synergy work?
Yes pop but not bubblegum pop, we feel we can go on tour with a grime act & be ok; we always wanted to make sure that was the case.

You have a soulful pop sound. Why do you think has soul music in the UK not been as prominent in the past few years?
It’s all about timing, things come & go, and hopefully we can bring a bit of soul back to the UK.

Check out M.O’s song DANCE ON MY OWN

Listen to M.O duetting with UK rapper Lady Leshurr on their version of Brandy & Monica’s ‘’the boy is mine’’- The Boy Is Tied.

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Photo Credit: Do It Cos You Love It Photography

Back in the day when American and British music acts collaborated, we the music fans didn’t always believe these miraculous musical marriages .
On the one hand, we loved that our acts were being recognized by their American peers, but the cynics in us knew that somewhere down the line there was money passing hands and possible payola deals to feature on each others records, which back then was the norm.

Most industry folks would assume it was a behind the scenes, record label staff concocted deal, to enable both acts to make an impact in each others territories. This would result in awkward, hastily thrown together songs and remixes featuring each other. I mean do we think that the following couplings of artists who collaborated were or are good pals that met randomly? P Diddy and Skepta, Low Key and Immortal Technique, Shystie and Azealia Banks, Lupe Fiasco and Sway, J Spades and Wacka Flocka, Dizzee Rascal and Bun B, D Double E and Snoop Dogg. Exactly.

However this past week a different anglo-American relationship began in London. Reggie Ossé, also known as Combat Jack (CJ), who is a former hip hop music attorney and executive, and also a former editor of The Source, came to London to record one of his podcasts for his well received The Combat Jack Show.

In the past CJ’s line up of conversationalists has included Big Daddy Kane, Marley Mal, Chuck D, LL Cool J, and Spike Lee amongst many others. The show also highlights cultural icons, and behind the scenes movers and shakers like Kevin Lilles, Dame Dash, and Russell Simmons.

He’s just one of a few hip hop historians who have come to the forefront in recent years, with his knowledge from the early days of hip-hop culture, to modern day 2016. His enthusiasm to give a platform to the current day names as well as old skool legends is refreshing for his mixed Internet audience.

This week CJ flew into Brooklyn Bowl in London’s O2 dome, where he and British grime MC and actor Kano sat down for a chat in front of a London audience, who were all clearly big Kano and Combat Jack fans and the two-hour conversation revolved around Kano’s life behind the music as well as his latest, fifth studio album Made in the Manor released earlier this year.

MADE IN THE MANOR ALABUM COVER.

In the UK Kano is a BIG deal.

1. He’s hip hop establishment. He started out on pirate radio in his youth alongside his peers like Jammer, Ghetts, Wiley, Dizzee Rascal and more.

2. His debut solo single ‘P’S &Q’s’ was a massive underground hit and is still a classic in grime and beyond.

3. He is a Brit Awards nominee and a MOBO Award winner.

4. He is such a champion of London that in 2005, Kano was announced as one of “London’s Heroes of 2005” by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.

Kano is well known for tracks that showcase his endz. His city. His environment. ‘Made in the Manor’ adds a lot of retrospection and nods to the East End state of mind. About his tracks that showcase his part of London, during his convo wit CJ, he referenced singles like “Ghetto kid” from his 2005 debut solo album ‘’Home Sweet Home. ‘’I always want to put London into my music and so we’ve been been known to record the actual traffic in the city and lay it down under my vocals. I gravitate towards these kinds of songs’’.

‎Kano was on top form as CJ questioned him about his Jamaican roots which he noted had led to him loving rappers like Biggie, Jay , Busta and Nas for ‘’their JA swag’’.

K ”My mum and bro came over on a boat from JA. It took six weeks. They docked at Southampton and went to Canning Town. You can imagine the cultural shock from Jamaica to Canning Town! The day they got here it was snowing. They thought it was sugar!
They came to east London. They were first black family in these parts. They had a hard time. They had to fight just to walk to school. My uncles were into music and played reggae all day. They – Eric and Everton (the wrong un). One was a dj, the other an mc and I took a lot of it on. You hear it in my roots Jamaica and East London.
My mum took me to Jamaica every year of my life. I saw acts like (dancehall musician) Tiger and was inspired by acts like him so that style of music was in me. But it wasn’t until I was older and I heard Heartless Crew that I got into it’’.

Much to the audience’s amusement Kano also revealed that he had never had a real job.
‘’I once convinced my local barbers that I could cut hair. He let me work there for a day. I ended up there for half a day!’’. Quick as a flash CJ retorted ‘’that was your grand opening grand closing!’’

Kano added that he felt the pressure in his early days of writing well and competitively ‘’I had to write well as I had to turn up on a Monday and meet my other MC mates and compete lyrically. I used to write in science classes. Sharky Major and I would just spend hours writing lyrics and making tapes and go to shows. I used to make tapes at a mate -Gingers – house. D Double E once left his notebook there one day. I looked after it for him. Lol. (I may have peeked) he really does write boo roo boop boop”. Writing well was important. I couldn’t sleep if I thought I’d half stepped it. I recall going to raves and feeling didn’t have enough lyrics that were simple enough for the crowd to sing along to. I didn’t think I was great. Lethal was the best. And Wiley. So I went back to the drawing board. I feel I never really had a club tune till this album till Garage Skank and Three Wheel Ups!”

“>

Kano admitted that when he did (garage/grime music events) Sidewinder and Eskimo Dance, those raves were key to him and his peers breaking through as artists, but that when the defining term ‘’grime’ was coined ‘’At first we didn’t like it’’.

Garage and grime era’s are very different and Kano described the difference between the two genres like this; ‘’you’d get dressed to go to a garage rave and drink champers. Grime was a tracksuit hoody trainers thing. Like jungle was an off-key Moschino thing. The kids were on OUR thing’’.

Kano alluded to the fact that he has that certain magic touch if you wanna be a Grammy winner ‘’people keep working with me and winning Grammys after me”.

In hip hop culture; it always causes a debate when people list their top MC’s, so of course CJ went there. Kanos? ‘’Mike Skinner’s (The Streets) probably the most influential artist on my career. Going on his tour and watching showed me a whole new way of being a music act. It was the way he commanded the stage. It also helps when most of audience knows your songs. He was always in control and composed. The music was elevated to another level at his show and made me want to have a live band. And the level of professionalism was top. There was only laughter AFTER the show. He’s just a whole diff machine and I wanted to do it on that scale. The guy’s a poet with classic albums. He’s a super-supe!’’

Under pressure Kano cited his top 5 UK MC’s as D Double E, Wiley, Ghetts, Lethal B and Dizzee.“Not in that order, that’s just my top 5! – and that’s me not putting Giggs or Wretch32 in grime”

Kano dropped classic stories of how the rest of his grime peer star’s strong armed him into recording his solo Fire In The Booth (a brand led by Charli Sloth- the UK’S biggest grime/hip hop name who has his own show on BBC Radio 1).

‘Let me tell you about our grime Christmas with Giggs… we were all out one night. Me, Giggs, Wretch, Bashy. Tinchy. Ghetts. Sneakbo and more. It was like grime Christmas. Ghetts ,who is my mate, says “aint it funny how one person here ain’t done a Fire in The Booth?!” Giggs says “yeayyy …man must be scared!”. I said “do u lot think I can’t spit on a beat?!”
‎Wretch came to my defense. But Giggs didn’t believe I hadn’t done one so he googled it! (Kano does a BRILLIANT Giggs impression). Then after I left it kept repeating in my mind until I eventually called Giggs and said “OK I will do one when the next albums coming” and I’m not one to give myself titles but that (Fire in The Booth) verse was alright though wasn’t it!’’ Kano adds modestly to the audience’s delight.

About his LATEST BORN IN THE MANOR ALBUM kano revealed;

‎K I feel I’m being extremely true and honest to myself with this record. With Fraser (from his music team), and I making this album we got into the studio and we didn’t even make any music at first. We just talked for ages. Fraser said “you’ve travelled so much and your world has grown so much since your start so now we need to reflect that in your music. Also, the piano’s really important to the consistency of this record.

CJ questioned that fact that one of his new songs – T shirt Weather in The Manor– was an awkward, real revelation, about one of his broken friendships with one of his close old homeboys, who called him after hearing the song;

K He rang me when the album came out. We spoke for 93 minutes. We hadn’t spoken in years. I had to get out the story of our friendship going sour. Apparently his mum text him and said “you need to call your friend”. He sent me a pic of the Gold “Home Sweet Home” plaque on his mums wall. (To show he still valued our past friendship), so we put it aside and it was all love.

SCREEN WORK

Kano’s recent Garage Skank video had a lot of excitement as fans from all over the world, sent in clips to his personal e mail, which were then turned into the final video ….

K ‘’I’ve been doing a lot of work both in front and behind the camera, Garage Skank looked like a lot of hard work but we did it in my kitchen. It took me about 5 hours to write everyone’s e-mails in the box and it wouldn’t go so I sent every e-mail one by one! I got school classes; Polish people, a man and his dog, EVERYONE was sending in video slips of them lip-syncing to my song! Initially I thought it would just be a lil slideshow. But I got thousands of e-mails! I got to connect with my fans in a real way. It felt good”.

TOP BOY is a British TV series on Channel 4, that has enraptured the younger generation as well as American stars like Drake, who has been championing for a new series to be made.

‎K ’’ With TOP BOY it came after my forth album. I wasn’t doing anything. My manager told me they wanted me to read for the part. I never read it. I had insecurities. I wasn’t a trained actor etc…. I didn’t trust that it wouldn’t be bad. I’m protective of my brand. You have to prove to me that you’re in it for the right reasons. No gimmicks. It’s gotta be quality. In the second audition I was told in confidence that it was nearly my part and that they knew I was capable of being calm but could I also really lose it? A crew member whispered to me that “Everything in that room can be replaced”. So I went in there and did it. Smashing stuff up. Afterwards I wondered “did I just go too far?”

‎K Acting is about telling the truth of your character and I took that ethos to my latest album. I told the truth of who I really am. In hindsight Top Boy was good thing for me to do, and a highlight of my career. I hated the experience of acting though. Hated it. The eraly mornings, late nights, really, really hard work. But as Robert Di Niro once said, and I’m sorry to sound like a cheesy actor, he said “if it feels like fun, it probably no good”. (I sound like a real actor now right? Lol!)

About UK MC’s that used to rap with American accents;

K ”yeah, there was a time in UK hip-hop where we rapped in American accents. People loved it so much that they emulated it to fit in. but I don’t think an American wants to hear an English person trying to be American. I think you wanna hear about our authentic street stories. I think though that we got over that and are now proud of the music that WE make just being ourselves!”

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And Kano is right. Now seems to be the most commercially successful time for grime acts that are headlining music festivals all over the world and cashing in on their own terms.

Regards the ‘’Combat Jack meets Kano’’ evening it was a fun and interesting moment, and obviously great for fans to hear their fave star speak in person in a relaxed surrounding, however I did feel there was some slight disconnect.

It’s a nice idea, but the first rule of media is to know your audience, and it’s always a teeny bit awkward for a media creator to be making content for two different audiences. This recording was for Combat Jacks global podcast audience, so he was naturally starting with the basic get to know your beginnings questions about growing up, environment, favourite early rappers and so on. Much of which, the live audience already knew all the answers to.

Similarly Kano had to break down the definitions and early history of garage, grime and hip-hop in the UK for CJ, and on a few occasions the audience had in a good-natured way, pick up CJ on pronunciations or facts. Overall however it’s a brand that can be tweaked and as a starter it ticked all the main boxes and that’s all that matters. Anyone shining a light on hip hop culture across the globe is a hero to me.

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Hip hop has not only impacted the world but has also brought people together globally. The visual of an MC with a mic in hand and that swagtastic fashion flair unites hip hop lovers worldwide. It also unites hip hop lovers. Literally.

Photo credit – The Cypher Lounge.

British rappers Shay D and her partner Kingpin are both rappers with their own fan bases. They are also a couple, united by their love of the culture. In a time when the focus on hip hop culture couldn’t be bigger with tv series, films, fashion, slanguage and more embodies popular culture, we caught up with a couple who are solo identities joined by the love of the culture that speaks for them.

SHAY D
Raised on a diet of Garage, Grime and Hip Hop, North London Hip Hop artist Shay D carries a fiery young woman’s persona. Influences of Persian poetry through to 90s rap can be heard in her content and delivery and she’s an authentically underground artist who tells it like it is. Her journey of gritty music and philanthropy can be heard in her music with social commentaries of growing up in the city and a passion for encouraging a positive mentality in her message to her listeners.

Shay – Get Money

Shay D lives Hip Hop, basing its ethos in all her work from workshops for young people she mentors across the UK to co running a successful Hip Hop and Poetry event Lyrically Challenged, promoting Women In Hip Hop to the fullest. In 2012, Shay D won the peoples vote for Best Female Rapper at the UK Unsigned Hype Awards and was recently featured as Top 5 UK Female Rapper by certified blog, Hip Hop Connection. Shay D featured in BBC 1Xtra’s Radio Live lounge for Spoken Word Vs Grime Programme this summer and features in a Channel 4 documentary about females in rap ready to air next year. Shay D released her debut album, “A Figure of Speech” in March 2016 and is currently touring the album and taking bookings!

KINGPIN

London born and raised Hip Hop Artist Kingpin, made his mark on the underground music scene with his thought provoking social content, explosive rhythmical delivery and high-energy stage presence. Born in the inner city environment of London, amongst a backdrop of council estates, deprived communities, drug abuse and gang culture, an environment that has provided endless inspiration for his lyrical content. At a young age he discovered a passion for music and literature, which progressed into a talent for writing and performing.

Kingpin – Capital Punishment

Kingpin started his career as a Hip Hop artist by performing on the London underground Hip Hop scene. He then founded a creative company called Underworld Konnect, through which he masterminded the independent releases of his own debut album ‘The Initiative’ and an award winning collaborative project under the guise of Caxton Press entitled ‘Shame the Devil’. Both of the these projects were critically acclaimed following their publication, receiving praise from Hip Hop legends such as De La Soul and Chuck D (Public Enemy).

With written coverage from N.M.E, Metro Paper, and SBTV, radio support from Capital Xtra, Kiss, Reprezent, FM and Itch FM amongst others, Kingpin finds himself working among Hip Hop’s elite which has presented him with the opportunity to perform in the USA and across numerous countries and cities in Europe where he has established a large and continually growing fan-base.

Eagerly anticipated by his audience, “Art of Survival” is Kingpin’s latest album, loyal to the boom bap sound, catchy hooks, and immaculate lyrical finesse yet touching the ever-important mindfulness of social observations, which he cares so deeply about. This rapper certainly does not shy away from being proud of caring about his community, recently on Channel 4 News encouraging young people to grow their own food and look after their health and screening his debut short anti gun film at the Camden Roundhouse, which resulted in a Sky News, live interview.

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A conversation with a couple who live, breathe, love hip hop.

Did you meet each other through Hip Hop?

Yeah, as you would expect for any true Hip Hop couple, we met through Hip Hop. Before we were introduced we had a lot of mutual friends and we shared the same DJ (DJ Shorty) so it was inevitable that our paths would cross eventually. The moment that we actually linked up and were first introduced to each other was at Secret Garden Festival, where DJ Shorty who knew and worked with us both individually, seized the opportunity to get us in a photo together while we were chilling backstage, and then introduced us to each other.

We really began to form a relationship about a year later, on a summers afternoon, when we were coincidentally lounging in the same park. We were both checking each other out from a distance trying to establish where we recognised each other from and then soon realised that we knew each other through music. We reintroduced ourselves and then we discovered that we lived in the same area and after a bit of chit chat we arranged to link up to collaborate on a song. About a week later we linked up in the same park and we sat in the car listening to instrumental and talking about which beats we should collaborate on. This conversation lasted so long that we actually fully drained the battery out of the car and ended up waiting for breakdown service to come and get the car up and running. While waiting for breakdown service we decided to go somewhere to eat and ended up having quite a romantic dinner at a greek restaurant.

Photo credit – Vaya Media Photography.

How has being a couple in the Hip Hop scene had an effect on your music careers?

Initially we didn’t like the idea of being in a relationship with someone who is involved in the rap game as we were aware of the fact that it might be hard to escape the world of hip hop and we would always be in a working mindset. Relationships are a great way to escape the day to day grind and having a partner to share down time with is so important, but our fear was that if we were both involved in the same industry we wouldn’t be able to ‘switch off’ from the work we do and just relax.

However, the reality of being in a relationship with another artists is actually so much better than we anticipated. There’s a mutual understanding of both the highs and lows of having a career in music, we can motivate each other creatively. We give each other feedback on what we are doing and we enjoy networking and going to events, as it’s mutually beneficial. It could be difficult to be in a relationship where our partners might find it hard to understand why we dedicate so much time to Hip Hop, why we’re always out at events, why we’re always in the studio or writing bars, but we don’t have to explain ourselves to each other, we just understand and really put the wind in each others sails to help us along the journey. We encourage each other to work hard on our music because we understand the importance of nourishing our creative sides, and know how soul destroying it is to neglect our music careers.

It’s also really benefited us in a practical sense as we have merged our fan base and so our material is reaching further with more people are engaging with our work. A lot of our fans who knew our work as individuals have now discovered the work of our partner. We receive really positive messages from people who like how we operate in music as a couple and support each other and we definitely feel like it has made our network stronger. We have been able to join forces and put both of our releases out under our independent label, Underworld Konnect, and we have developed a street team that circulate our Hip Hop Promo Packs (a pack full of event flyers, postcards, stickers clothing brands and hip hop related literature) which we distribute all over London. We collaboratively organised both of our album launches as live events through the brand. It’s a real example of power in numbers and we both share the same goal, so merging our individual networks to work toward the same thing is key and has proved a successful strategy so far.

What music do you listen to together?

Although we both love Hip Hop, it is such a diverse genre with so many variations that we often notice our differences in taste before we recognise our similarities. As a result the car journeys are a constant battle over who controls the radio, or who’s iPod playlist gets airtime, which CD shall we listen to, these are the ongoing conflicts of two artists on a long car journey.

We find a lot of common ground in listening to some chilled out Jazz and so a lot of the time ,to avoid any crazy arguments, we leave the radio on Jazz FM. Anytime we do listen to Hip Hop we inevitably get into some debate about the state of the music industry, the effect of media on youth culture, the mainstream media and the hip hop they choose to play, the lack of music with a conscious message, the use of the ’N’ word in music, are women in Hip Hop being disrespected and the list goes on.

To generalise, Shay D is more down with the contemporary stuff and likes the club bangers, plus she is a fan of London’s very own ‘Grime’ scene and very supportive of female rappers that carry themselves in a positive way. I am more down with the 90’s boom bap sound and music with a chilled and jazzy influence.

How do you separate your working life and your personal relationship?

Sometimes we find it really difficult to have a boundary between normality and working as independent artists. I think a lot of fellow musicians will know that being an artist doesn’t stop, the self-promotion, looking after your own bookings, managing your diary, answering emails, making sales as well as creating the music and producing music videos. It’s all very time consuming and can take over your entire life! KRS did say ‘Hip Hop is something you live’ and it really is, but when it becomes your sole method of making a living, it is hard. Sometimes we find all our discussions throughout the day have been about music, how we can progress or new business ideas and it gets too much so we have to remind each other to take a chill out moment and spend some quality time together.

How has being raised in London influenced your music?

We have our own relationship with the city and so it has influenced us in different ways.

Kingpin: I’m a Londoner, my Dad travelled here from Gambia, West Africa as an illegal immigrant in the late 70s and my my mum was born and raised in London. They both separated early into my childhood and so my single mother raised me in a council estate. My music is always a reflection of my experiences and my environment so I think London lifestyle has an integral influence on the music I make. I discuss a lot of Socioeconomic issues in my songs, and this is all based on my experiences as a Londoner. One song that typifies how London influences my music is called ‘Capital Punishment’ and its about the pitfalls involved with living in England’s Capital, London, hence the title ‘Capital Punishment’ which is a play on the word Capital as a financial term and a geographical term. I have always lived in London and so this reflects in my cultural practices, Its in the slang and language I use and its in my physical demeanor. Also, London is such a multi-cultural environment and so we are exposed to so many different influences, which manifest themselves in ways that it’s hard to quantify or explain.

Shay D: I was born and raised in London with fully Iranian parents. My dad left when I was six years old so my grandparents and single mum raised me. I am very close to my Persian roots. I identify with my mothers culture, speak the language, eat the food, and brought up on a diet of Rumi and Hafiz so poetry has always had a heavy influence in my life. Being an only child to my mother I was alone a lot to keep myself busy and really identified with Hip Hop and its dialogue. Growing up, I had to defend my mother in a country where racism is passively quite rife and English was her second language, and seeing the struggle of poorer families in communities really pushed my passion for justice and I hated seeing people suffer. My mother and I were victims of gentrification, being evicted from our property that led us going through the homelessness system (covered in my song ‘Not The Chicken Shop Man’) Gentrification is at a peak right now in the capital and causing a lot of communities coming together to fight the system. I developed a very opinionated view of social flaws as well as a love of the multi-cultural aspect of the capital, which embraces races and religions highly compared to the rural regions of the UK. I do love London and it’s art scene, the city doesn’t sleep and is constantly reinventing itself, which I appreciate. This contrast is clear through my music where I highlight my environment from youth violence, poverty, class issues but also a love of where we are from and how it has shaped us to who we are today. I also have uplifting angles on personal stories and tackle things on single parents, misogyny and female empowerment through my music.

What’s the key to being a successful Hip Hop artist in the UK?

We feel like there’s more to being a successful artist then putting out music. People want to know more about the personality of artist and social networks have offered an opportunity for artists to share more of their personality, whether its through video blogs on YouTube, or sharing moments via Snapchat, and twitter is a great tool to engage with fans and other artist as well as promoting videos and releases, and both of us frequently use Facebook as a way of engaging with fans as well as sharing our opinions on the industry, and we often get booking requests and messages of support through these mediums.

Also with streaming music now becoming so common among fans, its hard to rely entirely on sales so you have to be ingenious about how you generate income. Getting bookings is a great way of making extra dough, but we both do a lot of rap workshops with young people in schools and have found hip hop as a powerful tool to engage and educate young people and we have made money through and gained a lot of new fans through workshops. Both of us have put on Hip Hop events where we give artists a platform to perform and audiences an opportunity to come and party and discover music they have never heard before. Throughout experience as promoters we also developed a business where we have a street team that promote events so if promoters need support in getting the word on the street about their concert or party, we have the people in place to make it happen.

Also, music videos have been a great way of promoting our music to an international audience and we generate so many sales and new fans though the music videos that we upload to YouTube. Audiences seem to find visuals more engaging than just audio files so we put a lot of emphasis into getting as many videos from our albums as possible.

The imbalance of content on mainstream channels is vast, with gatekeepers constantly pushing drugs, alcoholism, sex, misogyny and violence on our screens and radios even during the school run time! Our aim is to bring the balance back, bring some mindfulness and chant some real talk into the ether to remind people to strive to be successful and become change makers and not victims of capitalism. It’s all about balance.

What is your future looking like?

We both have more work in the pipeline and are always thinking about the next creative project. Our latest projects `Shay D – Figure of Speech’ and ‘Kingpin – Art of Survival’ have barely been out for a year so we haven’t neglected our fan base for too long, and over the forthcoming months we will be releasing more music videos from those projects. We have been fortunate enough to travel around Europe performing shows together and will no doubt be doing more of this in the future. At the time of writing this we are about to travel to perform some shows in Norway and we are also looking into promoting and staging our own events in London through our brand Underworld Konnect. Shay D and DJ Shorty have their weekly underground Hip Hop radio show on ITCH.FM which continues to grow, gaining new audiences week by week. We are producing more Hip Hop Ed projects for young people, through workshops and mentoring. Everything we do is Hip Hop!

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Shay D released her Figure Of Speech album in 2016 and headlined the Southbank Festival featured in BBC3 Fresh and a Channel 4 documentary on the event she co-runs all within a year. The recognition for her work with words landed her a BBC 1xtra Radio Live Lounge this year with Hip Hop blogs naming her one to watch.

Shay – Figure of Speech – Album

Itunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/a-figure-of-speech/id1067448900
Kingpin released his Art Of Survival album last year.

Kingpin – Art of Survival – Album

Itunes

MUSIC VIDEOS

Shay – Who What Why

Kingpin – Practice What I Preach

Hear Kingpin talk about the history of UK hip hop and MC’s here; ‘from jungle, to garage, to grime’’

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Genesis Elijah.
Photo credit: Nathaniel Bygrave

Rapper Genesis Elijah was inspired at the age of ten by Wu Tang and Ice Cube. Little did he know back then that his future would see him working with KRS-1. In the UK he’s worked with everyone from Skinnyman and Sway to Blak Twang.
Elijah is an act that has toured nationally around the UK in spots like Manchester, Swindon and Southampton, as well as internationally in places like Spain.

He released a mixtape in 2006 for his steady fanbase who were disappointed when he then decided to withdraw for a while from the music scene, but he was of course, eventually, magnetically drawn back.

Elijah then delivered an album titled Before I was famous with the Krate Krusaders and as testament to his focus, his body is covered in tattoos that read discipline, justice, dedication and liberty.

Photo credit: Nathaniel Bygrave

1. Where did you grow up and what was the environment like?

I grew up in Brixton South London. I had a very contrasting upbringing. I was raised in a very strict Christian household where we had no TV and secular music wasn’t allowed, but my uncles and cousins would listen to Big Daddy Kane and NWA and also I would get music from my friends at school. Around my friends I’d be cussing and fighting but at home time would be praying and reading bible stories. Inside I would be singing and outside the riots were happening. It was a strange time but I learnt a lot about people.

2. What was it that attracted you to hip-hop?

These guys were rebels to me. They didn’t give a fuck. They were adults but not like the adults I was used to being around. They were saying things I didn’t even understand but I wanted to understand. I loved the way rappers dressed, their hair, the jewelry everything.

3. When did you start making music and what kind of things were you writing about?

I think I wrote my first rhyme at around 10 years old. Ice Cube dropped Amerikkkaz Most Wanted the year before and I had played it non-stop and Dre had just dropped The Chronic. I was obsessed with Snoop. He used spell out “The D-O-Double G” so I wrote a rhyme calling myself “The N-A-Double T”. My real name is Nathaniel but my family call me Nat so I started spelling it with two T’s cos it looked better and still do to this day. My rhymes were really just disses to imaginary foes with the most amount of “motherfuckers” and “niggaz” I could fit in a bar haha. One day my mother found my rhyme books and threw them all out. As I got a bit older I started talking more about social issues then made some songs about my friends but at the time I hadn’t really found my identity so my rhymes didn’t really have any direction. In those early years I wasn’t really focused on content and I was just focused on the actual skill of rhyming. I made my own rhyming dictionary and would also write down any punch lines I could think of and pretty much all I would do everyday is think about rhymes and punch lines.

4. How did your writing progress as you got older?

Well I found myself. I spent years listening to other artists and being inspired by them to point where I would here Eminem then I would start rapping all intricate then I would listed to Common and would rap more afrocentric and then listen to Mobb Deep and get all thugged out etc. It took a while for me to just get comfortable being me and as soon as that happened my song writing just went to a different level. I became more self-aware as a person and that just translated to who I was as an artist. I think that intern just helped people to relate to me because now they knew who I really was.

5. How has your sound changed?

I think I’m a lot more open to new sounds now. I won’t limit myself to one sound now. If a beat sounds good I’ll use it. When I was younger I’d turn down beats for sounding too pop or too American or whatever because I was very conscious about what my supporters would think. Now I really don’t care what anyone thinks. My real supporters are smart enough to understand I need to grow as an artist. I dropped a track called Karma which was nothing like anything I’d done before and got the most amount of love from die hard supporters and that just validated everything for me. I am a hip-hop artist but I don’t just make hip-hop.

6. What do you think of the new crop of Hip-Hop artist like Drake, Young Thug, Future, Kevin Gates etc?

I really like most new music. I like the energy. It reminds me of why I started listening to hip-hop in the first place. A bunch of young guys just not giving a fuck. I hear people complaining about not understanding what they’re saying and its funny cos that’s thing my mum used to say about the music I make. I think you have to get to a point when you realise some music just isn’t made for you. Let them do their thing.

7. As an underground artist in a small scene were you able to make any money?

I made a little bit of money from my first deal but not enough to quit my 9 to 5. I didn’t really make money until I started selling CD’s on the street. Some of my boys were already doing it so I wanted to see if it could work. I pressed up my mix tape and went into central London and started selling them to shoppers. I was selling them for £5 each and at first would sell about 20 a day. After while when I got better at selling it went up to about 30 then once I got my music video on to TV sales just went crazy. I had days where I’d sell 100 CD’s. My CD manufacturer couldn’t believe how fast I was getting through them. From 2006 to 2009 I sold around 20,000 CD’s. 2006 was the last time I worked a 9 to 5. The only reason I actually stopped was because I was spending so much time selling CD’s all around the country I didn’t have any time to actually make any new music. Around the time I stopped selling the game was on the way down anyway. There were so many CD sellers it was getting saturated plus CD’s were on the way out.

8. As consumers have moved away from hard copies how have you been able to make money of music?

I kind of sat back and took a look at the ways that money could be made from music and then basically tried to do em all. So obviously I’ll always make money from shows but I also looked at things like music production and getting music synced to movies and adverts. I then started shooting music videos for myself and other artists and that became a separate career in itself. I also started a clothing line and got in to graphic design. My thinking is I may not be able to make £10,000 in one go but if I know I can find a way to make £1000 10 times and then it’s just a matter of scalability. Seeing what works and doing more of it.

9. Any plans to sign to a major or even a big independent record label?

I’d love to be signed. I’d love to just have management. Sometimes the weight of putting a project out yourself while knowing it’s not going to get the push it deserves can be a bit soul destroying but I always tell myself the people that need to hear it will hear it. Like fate will bring it to the right people. You never know who’s hands your music will end up in and I’ve had people like Ricky Gervais push my music to Gary Vaynerchuck use my songs on his videos as well as having movie directors request music for films. If the right deal comes a long then I’ll take it. I’m very realistic about those chances and if it doesn’t happen I’ll know I’ll be fine regardless but like anything in life it’s nice to have some help. It would be cool to know that a label believes in my music enough to invest some money in it but if not I’ll just keep investing mine.

10. Do you ever see yourself leaving the music industry?

No. I love music. Regardless of all the other things I do outside of music, music is my foundation. Without music nothing else can really happen. Music gives me a voice. It gives me a platform and from there I’m able to capitalise on opportunities that come to me. Making music is the only thing that never seems like work to me. It’s something I would do even if I never got paid for it and the majority of the time I don’t get paid for it. I’m very grateful for the position I’m in because I know how hard I’ve worked to get here. Even if the place I am doesn’t seem far to others to me it’s been a life long journey. I may never be a worldwide household name selling millions of albums but I know my music had an impact on a few lives. I’ve seen places I would never have seen without music and have been able to give my family a good life. Long after people stop checking for me and this little bit of hype dies down you can bet I’ll still be writing rhymes doing shows and connecting with people who love real music. This is what I was born to do.

Watch Genesis Elijah | Homicide

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When the world looks to the UK music scene it usually knows of numerous London based pop star names and then of course there are those four lads, you know the ones, The Beatles from Liverpool. Aside from that there have been numerous pop and rock acts from another one of the UK’s next biggest cities – Manchester. Manchester more than punches above it’s weight in the musical ring!

The obvious names? Happy Monday’s, Elbow, Oasis,Take That, The Verve, Chemical Brothers, Badley Drawn Boy, Doves, Joy Division, M People and many more.

However, don’t get it twisted, the genre’s of hip hop and grime have also throughout the years been prominent in the city and it seems like 2016 is the time that they are breaking through.
It’s taken five years of solid work by grime MC Bugzy Malone to break through nationally, and now all eyes are on Konny Kon and Tyler Daley, otherwise known to all their fans over the years as ‘Children Of Zeus’.

‘Still Standing’ is the debut single from the latest signings to First Word Records, Children of Zeus. COZ is a soul project from two of Manchester’s most respected artists Konny Kon and Tyler Daley.

Konny Kon and Tyler Daley. Photo Courtesy Benji B.

Konny Kon is a DJ, MC and beatmaker best known as one third of Broke’N’English alongside fellow Mancunians DRS and Strategy. Tyler Daley, also known as Hoodman, went from being a respected MC and actor to one of the most in demand soul singers of recent times, lending his vocals and writing talents to music from Soul II Soul’s Caron Wheeler, 50 Cent, Lisa Mafia, Bugsy Malone and more. As a duo they have also supposed acts like The Pharcyde in concert live.

Listen here;
https://soundcloud.com/firstwordrecords/sets/children-of-zeus-still

Whilst the likes of Dub Phizix, Chimpo, Zed Bias and Levelz are making waves in D&B, Bass Music and Grime, Children of Zeus came to break the trend and bring a soulful side that is much needed to continue Manchester’s rich musical history. Over the last few years the duo have been releasing tracks through their Soundcloud, generating daytime radio play and legions of devoted fans. They are now finally ready to commit some of these recordings to wax with two tracks that represent the sound that they describe as ‘future classic soul for sophisticated hoodrats’.

‘Still Standing’ is a Bilal-esque slice of neo-soul, a love-letter to the mother’s that raised them, whilst on the flip ‘No Strings Attached’ blends dusty soul samples with a tale of life on the road and the temptations it brings. Look out for COZ’s debut live show in London later this month and more new music very soon.

1.If you had to make a playlist that your music would fit into, which others artists would compliment your sound?

Not to compare us at all but I think our music sits nicely with artists such as Raphael Saadiq, Anderson Paak, Slum Village, Madlib, Maxwell, Native Tongues etc

2.Do you consider your music to be uk hip hop?

We both come from hip hop backgrounds, and obviously are from the UK, but the sound associated with ‘UK Hip Hop” doesn’t really resonate with us. There’s hiphop elements to our music and there’s rhyming on some of the tracks, but I think it leans more towards soul music that hip hop heads would appreciate.

3.Which artists do you listen to in your car?
Konny Kon-Westside Gunn & Conway, Loose Ends, Anderson Paak, anything Alchemist produces, Garnett Silk, Mobb Deep.

Tyler- my stereo is broke haha but if it wasn’t I’d probably be listening to the same shit

4.Who does what in Children Of Zeus?
There’s two of us. Tyler Daley who handles most of the vocals (singing and MCing) and Konny Kon who MC’s.
We both make all the beats.

5.How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard you before?

We make classic soul for hip hop heads. There’s no lovey dovey dancing over polished R&B involved. It’s soul music with samples or something we’ve played with, a lot of bass or some dusty sounding breaks involved. Some of the tracks are straight hip hop but it’s all Is pretty chill.

6.Who are your musical influences?
We both love the same music. We came up on 80’s/90’s hiphop but pirate radio in Manchester raised us to love soul, dancehall, roots reggae and lots of UK street soul from dons like Soul2Soul, Loose Ends, Omar etc.

7. What’s next for Children Of Zeus?
Working on more music and touring. We have some pretty huge collaborations with some legends from NYC on the way which may have dropped by the time you read this. We just want to continue making music for your headphones or car that still translates to rocking a live show.

8. Where can people go to find your music?
Best place is www.soundcloud.com/children-of-zeus but if you search for us online there’s more music and videos out there!

9. If you could sum up your vibe in one sentence, how would your describe it?
Soul music for listeners, bluntheads, fly ladies and prisoners!

10. How has your home town (Manchester) helped shape you as people and artists?

We live in city where it never stops raining. All we can do is sit inside and make music. Manchester is also home to the highest concentration of MC’’s for its size in the UK. It’s competitive but everyone is cool with everyone no matter what genre. The grime MC’s work with the hip hop guys. The Drum n bass MC’s jump on hip hop tracks. It’s all one big collective that seems to dominate the UK at the moment. It’s always been very London-centric but I think ears are starting to point in our direction now and one after another we are all breaking through.

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