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  Central Spillz Interview
interview 0579 added 02.10.08 words:
Safesoul
technical:
Spoon
With the current state of ‘true’ hip hop in decline and with passionate hip hop followers calling it ‘dead’; more and more artists are producing hybrid sounding music, a mixture of hip hop, dubstep and grime, to create something new and fresh.
One Bristol based crew, Central Spillz, are creating this new sounding hip hop and doing it very well indeed. Central Spillz comprises of three MC’s and a DJ; Koast, two brothers C-Strike-Z and Mackie Skillz, and DJ Johnston, these guys now live in musically thriving city of Bristol, but have come via London, Somerset & Lancashire respectively.
With each member taking an individual role within the crew; Koast providing the link up with many promoters through-out the Bristol music scene, C-Strike-Z bringing the work-rate and energy, and Mackie Skillz controlling the engineering of the tunes, these guys are putting everything they can into making Central Spillz a success.
Experimental hip hop is what they call it; meeting in the middle ground between the sounds of dubstep and hip hop. The natural sound they produce is down to experience within the other genres of ‘urban’ music; Koast and C-Strike-Z both started out rapping over garage until naturally progressing into hip hop but with still keeping the energy of garage. They feel they bring the content of hip hop through the lyrics along with the energy of grime; something that is definitely needed within in the hip hop scene today.
 How did you guys form?
[Mackie Skillz] Me and my brother have been spittin’ and both working on music together, but separately as we were on living opposite sides of the country at the time. One time we got a recording session together, did a few tunes and then eventually came up with the name Central Spillz. We thought of the name because we grew up on a road called Central Hill in Crystal Palace, [London].
[C-Strike-Z] And I lived on street called Central Drive in Morecambe, near Blackpool.
[Mackie Skillz] We didn’t want to call ourselves Central Hill as it sounded to ‘endzy’, we’re not a gang or something like that! Spillz rhymes with Hill and we also spill are guts on tracks and we always try to stay central with all that we do.
How did you meet Koast?
[Mackie Skillz] When I moved to Bristol I met Koast; we started spittin’ together and I actually ended up living at his house.
[Koast] I met him through Se Fire, another Bristol hip hop crew, and we just started to do a few tunes and shows together.
[Mackie Skillz] We were working on our music together and wanted to make it more official. Then C-Strike-Z came down to do shows and make music and he decided to move down for good, so now we are all together and it’s a next level we can take it to.
What do you feel you bring to the table?
[Mackie Skillz] I think we are not scared to experiment with what we do; like the beats that we spit on.
[Koast] I think in terms of content as well, I find a lot of MC’s are usually one dimensional; it’s either big punch lines or club tracks. Music to me is a like a diary; like on a certain day I would write a track about what’s in my head. You’ll hear that on my mix-tape. I got girl tunes, punch lines, and grime tracks. All the new music we have been working on is sounding fresh. Even when I say we are doing dubstep and grime, it’s not just bait 16 bar spittin’. We’ve worked with people like Forsaken: who has got a much more musical take on dubstep; Guido, he’s just different; and Blunt who produces dubstep with a hip hop influence. Our choice of producers does reflect us.
[Mackie Skillz] We are passionate about music but also passionate about contributing to music in general, that’s a big thing we bring to the table. We’re not just a crew that want to make money; we do it for the music.
What’s your opinion on the state of Hip Hop at the moment?
[Mackie Skillz] When people say hip hop is dead or is dying, it’s because they are allowing it to.
 [Koast] You got to take Westwood’s show and what he’s playing as a picture of what’s good in the mainstream. I started to listen to Westwood when I was younger; we didn’t have the internet or 1xtra. Anyone over the age of 21 who says they listen to hip hop but didn’t listen to Westwood is chatting shit as far as I’m concerned! He was playing hard music like Wu Tang and Biggie; sometimes he would play just an hour of Biggie. Now mainstream hip hop is now all this Lil Wayne... and I don’t even know that’s how out of touch I am! It’s not dead, people are just jumping the gun, commercially it is but there is some good stuff coming from different artists out there. It’s hard to make true to yourself good hip hop and make a living off it, like people used to.
[Mackie Skillz] People need to restore their faith, there’s a lot of other popular music going on, especially in this country, like dubstep.
[Koast] There is still some good music being made, but it’s not getting exposure.
With various hybrid/ fusion Hip Hop beats being made in the UK and US; do you feel that producers and rappers have to change their style to fit with what’s ‘now’?
[Koast] A lot of people have blatantly jumped on the bandwagon because at the moment that is what’s good, I don’t think you necessarily have to change your style to be successful. I don’t think you need to change your style to sell record; if you’re focused you should just be in it to make good music. The hybrid movement of mixing dubstep and hip hop is just me because of my involvement in music that started with garage, raving-wise and as an MC.
[C-Strike-Z] Yeah the same for me!
[Koast] For us it’s a natural progression bringing together what we’ve grown up with, what we used to do, what we do now and just putting it all together. I don’t think anyone needs to conform to anything.
[Mackie Skillz] If you’re an MC or producer you might be changing for the money. We just try to do something new, we don’t conform.
[Koast] I think seeing people like Wiley and Dizzee do well with stuff that sounds different has obviously inspired artists, and now a lot of people are trying to jump on the bandwagon, but my advice is; try and jump on whatever bandwagon you want but if it’s not natural to you then it won’t sound right. You can have good rhymes and a wicked beat but it’s not natural to you then it will sound forced.
As well as the Central Spillz joint projects they also have individual projects that have been released and more to come. Koast has recently released a mix-tape within Bristol that has a very grime, hip hop and dubstep sound. C-Strike-Z has released an album in his home town and surrounding area, this album is just straight up experimental hip hop and dubstep. Mackie Skillz is due to release his album in the next few months.
Koast, you have huge praise from the Bristol music scene for your recent mix-tape ‘The Koast is Clear’, how does that feel?
[Koast] It’s nice but I’m not getting complacent with it. Bristol has got a wicked music culture and heritage. But the UK alone is a lot bigger than Bristol and I do need to take it a lot further than that.
How did the collaborations come about?
[Koast] Its mainly just people I know. There is like one or two artists that I had to be introduced to, but most of the people I worked with are my friends. We all do music so I just said do you want to jump on this track with me. Obviously these two [C-Strike-Z and Mackie Skillz] are in my crew and there was couple of dudes from London that are from a crew I was in before Spillz. Most of the artists are people who I see out on the regular, the same as the producers.
When’s the next release?
 [Koast] Not anything solo from me for a while, the next project is the crew. Skillz of Steel [Mackie Skillz mix-tape] is next, then we’re gunna drop a crew mix-tape; maybe some free projects; just to let people have a taste of us for free. We will then eventually start working towards an album sometime next year.
C-Strike-Z, tell me about your recent album release, ‘It’s Never Simple’.
[C-Strike-Z] I released it about four months ago in the North West Lancashire, but also Blackpool, Manchester and Lancaster and that kind of area. The album topic is day to day life, a really deep album and it was across a period of two years that I was writing lyrics for it
What is that the kind of style of it.
[C-Strike-Z] I would say experimental hip hop. It’s deep with a couple of bangers on there. Blunt produced most of the album, as well as another producer Microbe; he’s from Morecambe, also a guy called Pike from Bristol. Its different for everyone, I’ve even had responses from people who relate to the bars on it.
[Mackie Skillz] Out all the projects so far C-Strike really shows the style that Central Spillz is working towards.
[Koast] We had the idea of where we wanted to go but that kind of cemented it. That album set our vibe.
Mackie Skillz, do you have any albums or mix-tapes coming out soon?
[Mackie Skillz] Yeah I have ‘Skillz of Steel’ coming out early October, I’ve been working on it for ages. It’s a mix-tape, but it’s basically an album as the topics featured on it are personal to me. It’s the first taste of what we are doing with all of us on it. The majority of it is Central Spillz. We’re also working on an EP with a crew called Demorus (Noodles and Dee Green.). We get a lot help from people; production wise, engineers and other artists.
What will it sound like?
[Mackie Skillz] A lot of dubstep influences and hip hop, something that I can’t even describe.
[Koast] It’s kind of a middle ground between my mix-tape and C-Strikes album, the older stuff we are doing and the futuristic. Big hip hop tunes and some made Guido and Blunt.
Can we expect any collabs?
[Mackie Skillz] Mista Fire, Rising Son. Hollie G, Redskin, Blunt, Guido, Dr Strange and Interface production. Interface is also going to master and mix the whole thing.
What can we see next from Central Spillz?
[Koast] One or possibly two free mix-tapes. At the end of the day we’ve got a lot of talented people around us so we want to feature them on the mix-tape which will be full of collabs; production and MCing wise. We’re going to do a best of Central Spillz for people who are too stush to buy the individual projects so they can have a little taste, that’s how nice we are! We’ll also be working on the Central Spillz album, Demorus project , Krazys next project – The Prototype, Balance Mix CD – Rise of the City 2, Who You Reppin DVD and also Krazys DVD.
 [Mackie Skillz] We’ve already started receiving beats for our album, but that’s a long long way away.
[Koast] In The hip hop scene its quite hard to get shows at the moment but we are working hard to get them, like residencies for hip hop and dubstep club nights. We just want to get our music heard, tunes that people can relate to and vibe to, just keep checking the Myspace! In the next year you are going to be sick of us!
Koast - ‘The Koast Is Clear’ and C-Strike-Z - ‘It’s Never Simple’ out now, Mackie Skillz - ‘Skillz of Steel’ coming soon, Central Spillz ‘The Story So Far…’ and ‘Mashing Up Dubs Volume 1’ also coming soon.
Purchase The Koast is Clear mix-tape from
Chemical Records
If you want to find out more about Central Spillz and any of the artists mentioned in this interview then please check the plethora of links below for Central Spillz, friends and affiliates...
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Safesoul
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