Plan B’s back and he’s spittin fire! After the commercial success of his soul inspired album ‘The Defamation Of Strickland Banks’ he drops this sick track and video reminecient of when i first got his ‘It’s Time For Plan B’ with Hip Hop Connection magazine when he first broke on to the scene.
Listen to Ben aka Plan B explain the inspiration behind the new ill Manors project with BBC 1Xtra here
You know what this Wednesday morning/afternoons needs? A nice in-depth and substantial interview from one of the most exciting MCs (in my humble opinion) to come out from the UK in quite some time. The Ruby Kid is a British boy with a Yank passport, a love of words and abstract meaning, and better flow than you, well maybe not you, but you yeah much better than you. For fangirls and fanboys of Aesop Rock, Slug, Scroobious Pip, Yosh, P.O.S and all his merry crew. Thank-you Ruby Kid for this super interesting and witty interview. Enjoy kids!
1) Let’s get the basics out the way: whoooo are you and how long have you been MCing as The Ruby Kid?
– My mom calls me Dan, you can call me Ruby. I’ve been writing poetry (or something like it) for as long as I’ve been able to write. I’ve been recording and performing music as The Ruby Kid since late 2007.
2) Where did the name ‘Ruby Kid’ come from anyway?
– It has a dual meaning. My dad’s family’s name is Rubinstein, but his father and uncles changed it to ‘Randall’ during the 1930s (it wasn’t a good time to have a conspicuously Jewish name). So Ruby is short for Rubinstein; it’s a nod to my culture and heritage, and an expression of pride in it. It’s also because rubies are red; red is the colour traditionally associated with radical, working-class politics, and they’re a pretty central, defining dynamic in my life. They crop up from time to time in my writing too so it made sense to reference them in my emcee name.
3) You’d been all over the place, up north, New York and now you’ve settled in London. What’s with the Jay-Z style jet-setting? It’s an obvious question but has it really influenced your musical style?
– I’m not sure I’d call relocating from Nottingham to Sheffield and then to London “jet-setting”, but thanks for the Jay-Z reference! Now that you mention it I think that, in many ways, the East Midlands Trains rolling stock between Nottingham and Sheffield has been my equivalent of the yacht Hova is standing on with UGK in the “Big Pimpin’” video. Sort of. In a way. Anyway…
I grew up in Nottingham but it was in Sheffield (where I’d moved to go to university) that I really started getting into music seriously so I still feel very connected to the Sheffield music scene, and to Sheffield generally. I love Nottingham too and have a lot of connections with musicians and artists there, and although me and London took a bit of time to get to know each other I think I’ve developed a pretty exciting working relationship with the Big Smoke too.
All three of the cities I’ve lived in certainly cast an enormous shadow over my work. I’m very interested in cities in general – urban geography, town planning, cities as a concept, architecture… pretty much on every level, really – and exploring the relationship between self and place is a major preoccupation of my writing. In my more pretentious, self-indulgent moments I think I conceived of ‘Maps’, my 2010 EP, as a concept project about that issue – what is the relationship between people and the cities we live in, and how do we find our way through these places (figuratively and literally, hence the title)? Politically I’m also fascinated by what I think is the unique potential of cities as sites of struggle. Like all the best things in life they have an incredibly explosive, contradictory character in that while they’re quite brutal places where a lot of the worst exploitation and alienation is going on, they’re also places where working-class people are brought together in a way that’s unique and specific to modern, globalised capitalism. There’s a huge amount of potential for ideas, collective organisation and struggle to develop in that context. There’s also a unique artistic potential as well.
The New York connection is through my mom; she’s from Brooklyn but moved to the UK in the late 1980s to live with my dad. I’m lucky enough to have US citizenship so visit my American family as regularly as I can afford. I feel a profound affinity with that aspect of my heritage too – that working-class, Eastern European, New York Jewish culture, plus the artistic heritage of the Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s that my mom grew up around. You’ll find a lot of references to that in my writing too.4) How would you describe your style to someone not in the know?
– This is always a tricky question, because you want to give people who might not necessarily be hip-hop or poetry aficionados a frame-of-reference that they can relate to, but you also want to avoid using really obscure, esoteric genre or sub-genre labels that just make you sound really pretentious. Usually I describe my music as indie-rap or alternative hip-hop, because I want to situate it within the broad tradition of rap and hip-hop but I want to let people know that it’s also to some extent outside of that or at least engaging with it in a slightly independent or critical way.
Increasingly though I find myself inclined to just say “I write poetry and sometimes rap over beats or music”. Maybe it’s better to just be plainly descriptive in that way and let people process it and find a frame-of-reference for it on their own.5) You’ve sighted Aesop Rock as an influence. I personally think it’s a pretty just comparison when I introduce your music to people. The lyrics and content of your tracks whilst usuallyfollowing a narrative are sometimes quite surreal or at least articulated in a more ‘standard written poetry form’, (Although rapping and poetry are the same thing) then a lot of other MCs. Was this a conscience thing, or just how you write?
– Thanks! It’s always gratifying to be compared to one of your idols on any level. I’ve always been very into poetry and rap which is a little bit surreal or leftfield. Around the time I started seriously getting into writing and recording tracks, as well as listening to all those US indie-rap guys I was also mainlining writers like Whitman, Yeats, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot and the Beat poets (Kerouac, Ginsberg etc.) so I think it was inevitable that some of that slightly less conventional style or subject matter would find its way into my own writing. I’ve never really written “bars” in the way that a lot of rappers do, whereby they quite carefully construct set-ups and punches for maximum impact. That’s a skill I respect, but it’s not how I make my art.
6) Aside from Aesop who else would you say has been a big influence on your music?
– This is *such* a big question. In hip-hop terms I’ve taken an awful lot from the American indie scene – there’s hardly anyone on the roster of labels like Rhymesayers, Anticon, Stone’s Throw, Doomtree, SFR or (formerly) Def Jux that I wouldn’t cite as an influence on some level. Slug from Atmosphere is probably the biggest single influence after Aesop Rock. Within the quite limited milieus of people who pay attention to these things I’m well-known for being a bit of a fan-boy of American indie-rap, and I am conscious of treading quite a fine line between writing stuff which is influenced by that or even pays homage to it (which is fine) and stuff which is directly deriviative of it; not in a plagiaristic sense, but in that sense of falling into thinking “how can I make this sound like an Aesop Rock line?” rather than “how can I make this sound like a Ruby Kid line?” Since I’ve been getting more into spoken-word I’m enjoying working out my own voice and style and finding ways to not just write pieces that are bad knock-offs or pastiches of the work of the poets I’m into! That process of finding your own voice is one that every artist goes through and it’s one that never really finishes.
Beyond hip-hop I’m influenced by an absolutely enormous range of art – musical and otherwise – as well as stuff outside of the art-world. And I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff that I’m influenced by that I’m not even consciously aware of. Outside of hip-hop, the artistic traditions (for want of a less pretentious term) I’m most conscious of when I’m writing are mainly folk singer-songwriters; I’m in awe of the songcraft of people like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and more contemporary artists like Josh Ritter and Justin Vernon. I don’t think the influence they’ve had on me is necessarily as immediately obvious as the influence of, say, Aesop Rock or Slug but it’s definitely there.
7) Do you have subjects or narrative that you enjoyed rapping about more than other? (You get 10 points for saying one of your influences was ‘the struggle between labour and capital’)
– There are themes and motifs that I keep coming back to in my work, so I guess I must enjoy writing rapping about that stuff most. I’ve already mentioned my preoccupation with city-spaces; the other main recurrent theme, as you point out, is working-class struggle. I think the way in which I’ve reflected that aspect in my writing has changed a lot since I started out. I initially had a very explicit conception of myself as a “political rapper” writing “protest songs”, and I used to talk up my politics in what I now think was quite a crude, preachy way. My views haven’t changed – in fact I’m more politically involved now than I was when I started rapping – but I think I have changed my understanding of the way political ideas can reflect themselves through art and the relationship between art and politics, so the political content of my writing is a bit subtler now. The other theme I keep coming back to is a really quite whiny, self-indulgent seam of emo-moaning about how being an East London hipster and going to parties and doing loads of drugs all the time is actually incredibly alienating and melancholic. Make of that what you will.
8) What was the response for your 2010 release ‘Maps’ like? Will you be working with Dan Angell again? Dude’s got tasty beats!
– It got a pretty good response. Obviously for an artist working at the level I’m at, we’re mainly talking about social networking buzz, blogs and some zines. The crude measurement I suppose is how many units we shifted, and we did pretty okay on that front considering we didn’t have any label backing or support from a PR company or promo manager or anything. We had a little bit of mainstream press response too; there were a couple of features in the Nottingham Post, which is a local paper but a widely read one, and a big feature in the Metro (northern edition) which was obviously a big deal because everyone reads the Metro on their way to work, right? I got a lot of texts and phonecalls the morning that one came out.
I’ll definitely be working with Dan again, and I’ll pass on your comment about his beats! Since we collaborated on ‘Maps’ he’s become my regular live DJ so we perform together when I play hip-hop sets. We’ve got a fair few live dates coming up in the next few months. Also, this is as good a place as any to announce that we’re about to hit the “lab” (which is actually the spare room of a terraced house in Leytonstone) to start work on a new project, which we’re hoping will be ready for late spring or early summer. It’s probably going to be a little less expansive than ‘Maps’ – which, at 9 tracks, was pretty long for a release billed as an EP. The beats Dan’s been composing recently are very much on a Mush Records-era AR vibe; heavy on the double-bass, jazzy but also kinda dark. I’ve been enjoying getting stuck into them. Watch this space for more news on the project, I guess.
9) What’s your hometown scene like?
– Which hometown? I never quite know whether London, Nottingham or Sheffield is my “hometown” in that profound sense, because I have a real affinity with all of them and very deep connections in all three places. The idea of a “scene” is also something that needs unpacking; in London, for example, there are lots of hip-hop nights you can go to (Doctor’s Orders, On The Real, Suspect Packages, etc. etc.) and watch great artists, but for me a “scene” should imply some kind of collective, participatory element, and until quite recently there weren’t many hip-hop nights that were actually about artists coming together on a creative basis. Obviously there was ‘End of the Weak’ and the recently-resurrected ‘Jump Off’ but that whole set-up kinda turns rap into a competitive sport, which I enjoy as a fan but less so as an artist. My favourite hip-hop night in London at the moment is probably ‘Fat Gold Chain’. The open mic there does formally have a competitive element but the atmosphere is very much about having fun, linking with other artists, trying out new stuff and the other emcees are always supportive, rather than being out to chop heads in that battle-rap sense. The other great thing about FGC is that it has a regular crowd of people who come just coz they’re fans of music, which is rare in the hip-hop scene. Usually everyone is an artist so it’s nice to meet people who come out to hip-hop nights just to listen to hip-hop.
I have a lot of love for the musical and artistic communities in Nottingham and Sheffield, too. What they both share that I think London doesn’t actually have so much is that they value artistic and stylistic diversity. In Nottingham you’ve got fantastic promoters and bookers like Parisa Eliyon and Will Bailey (also both incredibly talented artists in their own right) and great venues like The Maze and The Old Angel who’re putting on shows with punk acts, metal acts, folk acts, blues acts, hip-hop acts, whatever – sometimes on the same bill – and to an extent it’s the same crowd of people that comes out to watch them because there’s a community of people who just enjoy good art and good music, whatever label it has on it. That’s when a scene really transforms into a “community”. Of course there’s a danger that it then becomes cliquey and inaccessible but I think the Notts scene is getting it right at the moment.
There’s some of that in Sheffield too, with collectives like Prison Planet and Bad Taste bringing together artists from different backgrounds who’re doing some exciting work together. You’ve also got groups like 7 Black Tentacles and Renegade Brass Band who kinda fuck with genre as well. In my view, that melting-pot aspect is what makes a given city’s scene really exciting to be a part of.
10) Providing the world doesn’t end, what’s your plans for 2012?
– Just to keep on trucking, really. Things are, on the whole, moving in the right direction for me at the moment and I just want to keep doing my thing and seeing where it takes me. I plan on continuing to explore the spoken-word side of what I’m doing, although as I mentioned before me and Dan are planning on putting out another hip-hop release too. There are lots of gigs coming up, which people can read about on my site, so I’m looking forward to performing as much as possible. I guess the one big “new” thing I want to step up with this year is videos. It’s crazy how YouTube has basically become everyone’s one-stop shop (or at least their first stop) for discovering new music and if you don’t have impressive YouTube content (which I really don’t at the moment) then you’re doing yourself a massive disservice in terms of your online profile. So I’m hoping to get a few videos made, including music videos, live vids and some spoken-word stuff too.
Obviously my other big plan for the year is to contribute to the global conquest of power by the international working class, but that’s been on my agenda since about 2001 and we haven’t go there yet, so it’s more of an ongoing thing…
11) Gimee those shout-outs!– The shout-outs I would want to give would enormously extend an already gargantuan interview, so in a slightly audacious way I’m just gonna shout out my own Twitter and Facebook. That’s where I do my regular shouting-out so they’re pretty much the spaces to watch. Plus, a big shout out yourself for a thoughtful set of interview questions that were genuinely engaging and interesting to answer. Props!
We’ve had the opportunity to interview some really prominent and up and coming figures in the underground hip-hop scene over the last 4/5 months. We’ve also been lucky enough to get our hands on some fantastic records and EPs courtesy of the kindness of artists and indie labels. If you haven’t had the chance to check them all out, here’s a few that you might have missed. Just click on the names and have a gander for yourselves.
Recordkingz.com sent us a video interview of American producer Just Blaze. This dude is no joke and has sold a good million records and worked with the likes of Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg. Whether you enjoy the music or not, it’s a pretty interesting interview about beat digging and the culture of music production.
Check out the Recordkingz website and see for yourselves for that rare vinyl and samples.
Your New Year’s Eve any good? Go clubbing and get charged 20 quid to get in, then another 15 for a drink? Or d’you take the easy option and find yourself a nice house party to situate your drunk ass? Or perhaps you thought the world was going to end, so you hurried on down to your local Scientologist temple and prayed to the mighty Bing Bong or whoever Tom Cruise gives all this money to?
Either way let’s start the year off with some legit hip-hop in the form of the truly awesome Leddie & Smoggy. A North England hip-hop duo that makes music you wish you could. We caught up with half of the group, Leddie and asked her slightly silly questions to which she happily answered.
Basics out the way first! Who are you and what are your roles and how did you first get in hip-hop?
We’re “Leddie & Smoggy” (L&S). Leddie is a female Hip Hop artist and beat maker, and Smoggy is a male Hip Hop artist.
How did you two first come together to become the mighty Leddie and Smoggy?
We met in college in 2005, and we were both in a 5/6 piece Hip Hop group for about 2 years before we became L&S. The group started breaking apart due to other members situations, or attitudes, and eventually there was only 4 of us left. I was invited to join The Peoples’ Army, and was put down to support Chester P, Logic and Lowkey at the launch party 3 months later, so I asked Smog if he’d join me. After we came back me and Smoggy decided to go our own way, as we shared the same views, ideas and ambitions. It was hard after doing so much within the group, but it was definitely worth it and I’m grateful for the opportunities I had previous to L&S.
Can you tell us a little something, something about The People’s Army? Jimmy Jitsu’s in it? Tell that dude I’m a fangirl.
Yeah Jimmy is in it. He’s developed so much in the past year, it’s incredible. The Peoples’ Army is a collective of people (Artists, producers, Djs, bloggers, radio hosts, camera men/women etc) who want the same thing. Our overall aim is to show and ‘educate’ with our music, raising social awareness and speaking on subjects which are usually left untouched. We hope to free trapped and unconscious minds and remind people Hip Hop is bigger than the ‘swag’ era of material objects and money you’re fed on TV, radios etc.
As always the underground and original roots of any genre is always better and more self-aware when compared to the watered down radio friendly stuff that gets pumped by majors. In keeping with that fact, you guys are pretty socially and politically astute. Was it intentional or did it just come naturally for you guys to write this way?
It wasn’t intentional at all. In the group we used to write a lot of punch line bars but when it became just me and smoggy we developed ideas and concepts we’re both interested in and we’d like to speak about. As opposed to what other people would necessarily want to hear. We used to label our music ‘political’ and ‘conscious’ because that’s how other people used to describe it …Technically, everything is politics (From the clothes we wear, food we eat etc) so it seemed derogatory. We just make Hip-Hop music.
What’s been going with your game this year, and what are you plans for 2012 providing the world doesn’t explode?
This year we’ve done a few gigs, not many though as we’ve been more focused on writing and getting our material ready for next year …For 2012, our plans are to finish writing and recording and to release our EP and our debut album. We hope to get a few decent collabs and gigs in the pipeline as well as video releases and our website up and running. Then I guess we’ll go from there…
Biggest influences and dudes that you’re currently getting excited about?
Logic’s new album (True Talk) as always. Genesis Elijah too, his old material was sick (Deh Pon Road, Industrial revolution) and his newer material is getting even better. He puts so much truth and heart into his music, and he inspires me so much …I’m definitely looking forward to his next project. I’m excited about Illmaculate’s new project (Skrill talk) because he also writes sick songs aswell as being one of the greatest battle emcees to exist, ever. To be honest, we draw influences from everywhere or atleast try to. If you aren’t inspired somewhere in the life that you’re living, then ther’es something wrong. I love comedy, myself. Comedians like George Carlin, Ricky Gervais, Russell Brand etc because they touch upon subjects we can relate to, whether it’s the ‘political’ aspects of life or simple things. I like to remain balanced. I love to laugh and joke etc and use my music to speak on things I don’t necessarily speak about usually, so inspiration is always high.
Tell us something that isn’t a commonly known fact about Leddie and Smoggy?
Ermmmm …If neither of us had bad luck then we really wouldn’t have any kind of luck at all …Seriously. Luckily, we can shrug it off and keep going.
Who would be your ideal collab?
To be honest, I’ve never really thought about one ideal collab. We’re hoping after the EP and Album there’ll be plenty of collabs with other likeminded artists.
How’s you hometown scene going? Recently there seems to be a massive surge from Northen heads up there.
The hometown scene? …There really isn’t one. There’s people who like UK Hip-Hop etc but they don’t make the effort to go to nights with the acts they like performing. We’re hoping to set up a local night with a few more Middlesbrough artists early next year. There are a lot of sick rappers from Newcastle (I’m assuming the surge is from there!) Suus, Rick Fury, Skrufz, Text Offenders …In fact there’s a North East Hip-Hop documentary “Hip Hop is Dead” (Filmed by Nick Light) that you can watch here; http://vimeo.com/15896666 (British rappers rapping yankee get no love.)
So what’s the reason for your lack in south England touring eh?
Haha, EP and album prep. There’s nothing worse than going to see an artist that doesn’t really like their own material anymore, because to them it’s outdated. We’ll be down there 2012 …That’s a promise!! (If anyone wants to book us for shows, get in touch with us at LeddieAndSmoggy@Hotmail.co.uk)
Shout-outs?
Ahhhh, The section where everyone unintentionally misses people out …Smoggy (My Partner in Rhyme) Jister, Ts17Projekt, Reece, Yosh (#AntiSwagAssembly) …Everyone involved with The Peoples’ Army, and last but not least, the people who support by spreading the word, liking, sharing, downloading, buying and showing up to gigs.
Check this documentary featuring UK rapper Big Dutty Deeze. It was shot over 3 days recording his new album ‘ The English Gentelman’ produced entirely by dope Chicago producer Rediculus. The album will be released on Rediculus’ label Knowledge Giving Birth Records and distributed by Def Jam/Island.
Over the weekend we caught up with a few of the guys from the EIGHT (!!) man strong UK South West (Weston Super-Mare to be exact!) based group Tectonic Plates. If you live in the South West and have good taste in music then chances are you’ve heard of these guys, if not then consider this interview a little taster into the world of Tectonic Plates. We’ve been wanting to pin down these guys for time as we all feel they deserve more exposure and attention. Enjoy! Thanks once again to the guys for doing this.
For those not in the know could you give us a description of yourself and a little history of how you got into hip-hop?
[Kaos Theory] I’ve been listening to Hip hop half my life, got into it through my Dad playin’ NWA and alot of Ska music. Became part of the group around 2006.
[Matchstick] Got into Hip hop through my brother playing Wu-Tang Clan a lot. To begin with I didn’t get it but started to discover other artists, especially when we first got Sky TV and used to record MTV base whilst I was at school.
[Satch] Before I was into Hip Hop I used to go round Matchsticks’ as a kid, and his brother was always listening to ‘Wu-Tang Forever’ (hellz wind staff being the particular track). I was instantly drawn in to the music I was hearing for the first time, which lead me to discovering other artists and sound, before making the natural progression to practice making music myself.
How would you as rappers describe yourselves in the sense of what do you usually address or talk about within your music? Or is it simply anything goes?
[Match] For me, I try to keep it technical with style and flow. I don’t like sounding too robotic or generic. I’ve covered alot of topics in my time writing, and I’m always try to keep open and versatyle with subjects. In last few years I’ve developed a deeper sense of self so I’m always trying to come up with some kind of message that’s more relevant regardless of era…
[Satch] There’s no method to my madness….
What would you say were your influences? Other rappers or other things?
[Match] Some of my biggest influences are M.O.P, Dead Prez, Shady, Wu, DMX, Mobb Deep, House of Pain, Luda…all the regular heads that were big throughout the 90s…but when I stumbled on the UK scene that’s when it all changed for me…
[Satch] My influences are artists like…Wu Tang, Redman, Big Pun, Big L, J-5, Eminem, Klasnhnekoff, Jehst, Genesis, Task Force…John Lennon, Bob Marley, James Brown…But I also draw alot of influence from films and stand-up comedies.
Coming from the South West how would you say that that scene is developing and yourself along with it?
When we were starting off we didn’t even see what was going on around us (musically) we were oblivious to it. Soon enough CDs we were making for friends were reaching Bristol and other areas and people were loving it! We started meeting alot of Bristol artists when we went out to gigs or open mic nights, so it’s been wicked seeing local heads progress over the years.
What are some projects you’re currently working on?
The Mercalli Scale, a Compilation album, Satchman’s solo album ‘So Low’, and -solo project from Matchstick, 2012 will be the year for releases…
What are your plans for this next year? And shout outs?
Next year we will be GIGGING……If you want us to play at your venue, email us at techtonicplatesttp@gmail.com
SHOUT OUTS
…Big thanks for the interview, to everyone showing us love and listening, and also a BIG shout to Lash…watch out for F.T.L.T…..PEACE!
This has been a long time coming with Fordy! It’s always either he’s free and I’m not, or I’m free and he’s away in Switzerland at a Bboy comp (yeah you know that’s a cool excuse). Finally however we were both in the same place at the same time. He was at workshop in Bristol last night with the legendary BBoy Machine, and since I’m back in my hometown for a few he invited me down so off I mosey’d with my boy Giant Uncle Matt to have my our minds blown. The level of skill shown by Fordy, Bboy Machine and the respective bboys and bgirls was ridiculous, we couldn’t fail to be impressed. Fordy was kind enough to give me some of his time before he had to run back to Cardiff. We talked about some of the up-coming events, the Welsh BBoy Open, the four elements as a whole and a lot more besides.
Really interesting stuff!
Right man, first of all let’s get the little generic question out of the way just for the benefit of the people who aren’t fully aware of who you are and what you do: Well basically I’m the UK ambassador for the Universal Zulu Nation, and I’m also the European president of the Battle Holex Worldwide Crew. Both organisations we cater for all 5 elements [MCing, Graffiti, Bboy, DJing, Knowledge – Aimee] within the hip-hop culture. I’m an MC and I’m also a bboy. I’ve been a bboy for coming up to 30 years now, and I started MCing in 1985. ’82 Bboying, ’85 MCing.
So tell me quickly what you guys have been doing today?
Well BBoy Machine came over, we’ve just finished up a workshop tonight. It was pretty intense, it was really good. He didn’t go too crazy though, he kept it within the boundaries of what everyone could do. He’s just come down from Birmingham and then my friend is driving him to London.
Being involved in so many things you’ve also been busy with the Welsh BBoy Open which are held every year, this year was in September in Newport. How did you get involved with that? Well I’m very close with the guys at BBoy Wales, and I actually help out with them. I know one or two of the guys who I used to break with back in the day in the early 80’s, and we hadn’t seen each other for a while-but back in 2005 they put on the first Welsh BBoy champs and they asked me to perform. They also gave me an award at that event which was most contribution to hip-hop. Then by the following year I was a hosting a competition called “Last Man Standing” and that’s what I’ve been doing every year now, hosting that comp.
So how did this year’s BBoy Open go? Were there any crews or individuals to look out for, anyone that really impressed you?
My crew did pretty well this year, it was their first year here. Battle Holex turned up and did really well. Hulk from Unstoppabullz and Battle Holex Israel Chapter was the third man left in “Last Man Standing” in my view he should have been in the final. Zulu Kings, Floor Gangs. The two crews from Malta, Underground Shadows and Sharks Of The Earth (they’re Battle Holex Worldwide as well). This year was a little bit more special because there were crews from every where. Every year has just been getting better and better.
Besides hosting battles within the BBoy spectrum Fordy also hosts MC battles, especially in Barry in Cardiff with young and up and coming new talent. I asked him a little about what’s been going on with that and any future plans for himself as an MC and someone that puts on MC battles. I honestly have kept myself pretty low on the whole MC thing in the past year or so, but I am still doing a lot of hosting instead of recording tracks myself. I’m hosting some MC battles on the 26th of November in Cardiff in 40 Below Club on Charles Street which should be good. I’m also hosting an event in London called Battle Ground, it’s gonna be a big competition I would tell you who’s going to be involved by nothing’s been finalised yet. That’s on the 26th of this month.
To change the subject of questions a bit, this is a little vague but where would you say Breaking and Bboying is in relation to hip-hop as a whole today? Not counting radio-rap but real hardcore hip-hop. From what I can see it seems like it’s only getting better? The thing is with me is I’ve never really looked at like as you say at commercial radio-rap. The bubblegum children stuff, and all that bollocks grime shit. “I’m gonna stab your fucking grandmother after I’ve dug her up and buggered her”, I can’t deal with that shit. To me hip-hop, all elements of hip-hop weigh each other out on an equal balance. The true MCs don’t get wrong ’cause this is coming from an MC as well. MCs did start to steal the shine of hip-hop, and some did try to claim it as hip-hop was all about their element and as I said I’ve been rapping for 25 years so I’ve seen it all. The real MCs that started pulling themselves back and realising that it’s not just about them, you know when it comes to DJing, graffiti, MCing and Bboying I think it all weighs each other out, they’re all on the same wave length. They’re all on the same level. To be honest with you I don’t look on the MC level that much because there’s a lot of groups out there speaking the real shit, but there’s an awful lot of fakes out there too. Don’t get me wrong though because there’s a lot of bboys out there but there’s also a lot of breakdancers as well.
I’ll weigh it up like this: you’ve got your commercial rap and you’ve got your hardcore rap. Now the hardcore rap is a bboy, and the commercial rap is a breakdancer. The term ‘breakdancer’ came from the media not us, to be honest with you it’s quite a bit of an insult to call a bboy a breakdancer. A ‘rocker’ is different, toprocker came from rocking like the gangs with their leather jackets and cut off selves. So a bboy and bgirl as BBoy Machine was saying earlier has their own way, and culture and they do everything with style. Whereas a breakdancer will learn a couple of spins and flips, and a powermove or two but he hasn’t got a clue about his foundation, he doesn’t know anything.
What then would you say was the most undervalued element if there is one? I would say DJing. CD DJs, I think it’s an insult to a DJ where there’s a dude walking around with a little box and a laptop, and Sorato can get everything up. You know I like the guys walking around with a bag full of vinyl, there’s not really any skill involved in pressing a few buttons on a computer.
So what are your future plans for BBoy comps or workshops or the like? Well hopefully I’ll be going over to Malta. I’m also returning to Switzerland on the 25th of February to host alongside MC Trix, a well respected MC that hosts all the major bboy competitions. It’s gonna be a big comp! The next BBoy Open should be early or mid-July but the date isn’t confirmed yet, and it should be pretty good. It’s gonna go off because there’s a lot of preparations going on for that.
Just in case you forgot hip-hop isn’t just about loud shouty cats talking fast into a microphone…For all those unable to process sarcasm that part was a joke. Anyway peep this very interesting video with Amjad from the legendary Seven Dollars Crew talk about the past, present and future of the bboy scene. We should have an interview with Darren Fordy from the Battle Holex Crew very soon, I’m just trying to grab that man on Skype.
DJ Ames is one of the leading mixtape DJ’s in the UK who has hosted and mixed mixtapes for numerous artists in the USA and both here in the UK. Tricksta hooked up with him for this exclusive interview…
Easy bro, hope your good fam. So let’s start at the beginning. When did you get into Hip-Hop and how long have you been dropping mixtapes?
First off thanks for the continued support Tricksta, it means a lot. Id say it all started at college 1999 when I was passed some DMX albums I would say that’s what ignited the fire and got me hungry to do more with it but was just a case of what and then I was passed some DJ Clue mixtapes on cassette and that got the cogs turning even more. After a few years of Westwood albums and see what he did it kind of gave me the urge to do something new and of course I discovered MySpace and dropped my first album Raw Talent Vol 1 which kind of flopped financial wise but I reaped other benefits such as getting my foot in the door with certain companies and artists but it gave me the hunger to progress and do more and see what I could do from it. I’d say I’ve been dropping tapes around 3 – 4 years now.
Tell us about some of the US rappers you have worked with and what you consider to be your best releases and why.
That’s a tough because I’ve worked with some many and came across so many talented artists and if I picked one I know it would cause politics with some artists haha. But I don’t work with untalented artists so I see everyone as a stepping stone in there career and another brick in my building my foundation.
Here in the UK you’ve hosted tapes for loads of people. For those in the UK that have been sleeping, tell us what UK tapes you have dropped in the last year.
Quite a few really just to a name a few Pound Sterling, Sway, Malik, USG, ILKO, Rain, Tusche De Costa, Stinga D, All Notts & Manchester tapes with J-Lounge, Kid Pest, Fonzo, Downside, Precha and Rukus.
The mixtape game changes all the time and evolves so quickly. How are you seeing the mixtape game at the moment and how’s Hip-Hop treating you?!
Change is good but you get some DJs under cutting us for poor work just cos they have a pc and windows media player so that kind of ruins things Music wise thou its strong and you have new artists coming through with genuine talent of course you get some artists in the spotlight that are terrible but hey that’s just how the industry works and money talks and can make anyone famous.
So apart from the mixtapes do you ever play in clubs or on the radio?
I was on radio but stopped for a while and the same with clubs so it’s something I’m getting back into within the next few months to strengthen myself as a DJ.
Have you ever thought of getting into production?
I have yes but I get very lazy and need a good kick up the arse to do it. I have all the equipment and software thou so very soon.
If an artist reading this wanted to get you to host or mix their tape what would they do and what are the costs?
The best thing is to just check my website www.djamesuk.co.uk as it gives you a breakdown on prices and packages as I do 3 packages with 3 different prices ($500, $750 and $1000) prices do vary thou with me being in both markets and the currencies of course so its just best to contact me with questions and quotes as I will work to someone’s budget.
A lot of DJ’s are part of syndicates, are you involved in any mixtape crews?
Not currently I was in the past but moved away from it.
Once again shouts to yourself Tricksta for the continued support. Shouts to J-Lounge, LAD & AMG / Embassy ENT, Hood Celebs, Moka Blast & Narccisst ENT and anyone I have worked with in the past 3 – 4 years.
Who would be your ideal collab?
hiphoplifeandtimes 