Five Times UK Hip Hop Went Viral
Viral marketing is a style of promotion that uses social networks to spread information quickly and relies on an audience to generate the message of a product or service. Marketing would be considered ‘viral’ when it reaches a point where this audience is sharing on a grand scale, rather than just the initial target audience it was intended for. If done correctly it can result in thousands of shares and views but sometimes a message can unintentionally go viral also…. but what happens when these techniques are applied to UK Hip Hop?
The following are five great examples of UK Hip Hop that used viral marketing either intentionally or unintentionally and are collectively responsible for nearly 2.5 million views on YouTube, as well as countless likes and shares.
- ‘Jehst is my Postman‘ was a very clever campaign, where a video was apparently released showing Jehst going about his day delivering letters as a postie, absolutely nothing wrong with that but leading to some farily ‘interesting’ comments on YouTube. Part one was uploaded on 10th Feb 2011 by wwwdotnet, allowing ‘controvesy’ to build around this ukhh legend delivering people’s letters.
“Jehst is the man. Terrible that he still has to work. Most lyrically talented uk rapper ever.”
YouTube Comment
‘Jehst is my Postman’ (part one) generated nearly 33K views on YouTube (at the time of writing this article). Then a part two of the video was uploaded on 5th April 2011, a gap of nearly 2 months was left after publishing the first part, allowing for the video to be shared and commented on numerous times.
‘Jehst is DEFINATELY’ my postman !!’ aka the music video for ‘Starting Over’ shows Jehst once again going about his business delivering the post, when suddenly just as you think the person filming is going to open his door and have a word with one of his heroes, it actually opens onto Jehst’s brand new music video (at the time) for “Starting Over” taken from the ‘The Dragon of an Ordinary Family’ album. This video generated nearly 443K views on YouTube and has to be one of the first of a kind viral marketing Hip Hop videos seen in this country.
“one of the best marketing campaigns ever this, the videos of him delivering the post, posted to all the hip hop forums”
YouTube Comment
2. Def D Fire’s ‘Operation Zombie Nation‘ aka ‘OZN’ campaign was a live music event in London held on the 21st October 2011 at an undisclosed location on Great Eastern Street. It used the guise of an impending zombie apocalypse to promote the launch of DefDFires’s (DDF) new album (at the time) “O.Z.N.”. In the weeks leading up to the live music event a series of emails and videos were released which offered ‘sanctuary’ from the approaching chaos of the zombie virus, it asked for anyone seeking refuge to come to the ‘stronghold’, a ‘safehouse’ which had been secured by DefDFires, there would also be ‘morale boosting musical entertainment’ on the night.
All potential survivors would need to do is simply contact DDF requesting a place in the bunker and for any additional places for loved ones but ‘space is limited, we only have so much tangfastics and tea’, it also requested that people bring torches. As well as videos and emails, a ‘real’ newspaper the Evening Slander bearing the headline “London to be Evacuated” was placed at various tube stations around the capital promoting the event, both referring to the zombie apocalypse as well as the live music.
“London is on the brink of chaos, a catastrophe approaches unlike any we have previously witnessed”
A few days before the event anyone who was lucky enough to secure their place in the bunker was contacted with it’s location. On the night of the 21st there were zombies walking around wearing ‘The End is Nigh’ billboards herding survivors into the venue for the night’s music and ultimately the survival of the species!
The combined series of apocalytpic videos were uploaded by defdfires and Emerging Species and have over 30K views on YouTube.
The videos, emails, newspaper, team of zombies and the actual music event made for a fantastic concept piece, a great example of viral marketing, probably one of the best in regards to a live UK Hip Hop event seen thus far.
“DESPITE OUR GOVERNMENT’S ATTEMPTS TO COVER IT UP, SIGNS OF THE UNDEAD VIRUS ARE NOW EVERYWHERE, THE FURTHER FINANCIAL CRASH, HUNDREDS OF CITIZENS REPORTED ‘MISSING’, DAPPY REACHING NUMBER 1 – THE END IS NIGH…”
3. Harry Love’s “Records” feature in an IKEA promotional advert and sees the legendary DJ talk about his love for vinyl, in particular some of the storage issues he has housing all of his sound equipment and records, even the toilet is not out of bounds! The challenge that is illustrated by the advert is the need for creating a separation between music and family in the home.
This is a charming video that sees various pieces of IKEA furniture used to store Harry’s equipment built to his own soundtrack and cuts, for instance they use shelving units for the vinyl, coat hooks for headphones, cutlery tray for disks and shoe racks for keyboards, it’s all very clever.
Although this video (uploaded by IRF Industries) only has a couple of thousand views, the advert was shown on British television in 2013, so the reach would’ve been fairly broad at the time and the discussions/social posts that followed would’ve pushed this into viral territory. There is also a series of beats produced by Harry Love especially for the Ikea advert, that you can listen to here.
“Make room for your life”
4. ‘Rapper proposes to girlfriend during rap battle‘ has a whopping 1.9 million views on YouTube and was uploaded by Don’t Flop Entertainment in 2013, Don’t Flop is the largest rap battle league in the UK. The video shows Mos Prob proposing to his rap (and life) partner Rapunsell during a doubles battle against Eek and Enigma, the full battle can be seen here but in comparison only has 65K views on YouTube. It just goes to show that the spectacle created whilst proposing during a battle can garner far more interest than the battle itself, not to take anything away from the Don’t Flop episode as 65 thousand views is nothing to sniff at.
Over the years we have seen similar gestures but never in a UK Hip Hop forum like this, so this is the first of a kind and a highly unlikely setting for a wedding proposal, it’s a lovely moment captured on film.
“I guess a simple “No” would’ve been the best rebuttle ever”
YouTube Comment
5. The ‘MysDiggi “Food Dancing” Sainsbury’s advert‘ was a FAB Award finalist and featured on British television in 2017, it shows Sainsbury’s workers and families dancing whilst making food against the highly energetic stylings of MysDiggi. This advert had massive exposure during it’s television run time and socials were constantly sharing this content, viewers happy to hear a ukhh legend on an advert for such a quintessentially British brand like Sainsbury’s.
MysDiggi also featured in Subway’s ‘Wrap Battle‘ where he raps his food order to Truemendous and Truemendous recently featured in Pepsi Max and McVitie’s commercials, so it’s good to finally see bigger brands notice and feature some of our beloved UK Hip Hop artists on such a mainstream platform. The stage is definitely set for more of this but MysDiggi seems to be the first to test the waters.
What were your favourite viral Hip Hop moments and did I miss any? Let me know if you have more examples where UK Hip Hop went viral and tweet me your thoughts.
Words by Theo Specone
Photography credits for header image: Mike Massaro
Verb T & Harry Love Interview
WHEN a master lyricist comes together with a musical maestro, the result can be sublime. From Morrissey and Marr to Cube and Dre – when two fantastic talents collide they can result in some of the most uplifting and exciting artistic endeavours. Unfortunately such musical partnerships rarely last – ‘musical differences’ and huge egos often result in the implosion of such beautiful partnerships.
Thankfully for us all, UK Hip Hop legends Verb T and Harry Love have stayed on talking terms over the years and right now they’re dropping their first full length collaboration with Bring it Back to Basics. We’ve heard it. It’s dope and we demand to know more…
UKHH: The album is set to drop soon and the first single, Delusion, had fans and critics foaming at the mouth. How are you both feeling about the LP release?
VT: Feeling good, and relieved. Hopefully critics will go from foaming at the mouth to full blown rabies. But yeah it definatly feels good to have the album out there and hopefully people can get into it.
HL: I’m happy, interested to see the reactions. Now it’s all done I want to not listen to it for a while so I can come back to it with fresh ears and hear it as a listener would hear it.
UKHH: Verb, you have, of course, worked together many times before to great effect. Why does the partnership work so well and did you personally dabble in the production side of Bring It Back?
VT: We work well because we learnt our craft together, and are good friends so it’s just natural when we work together. Also we don’t have to worry about being honest in being critical of each other so there’s no ego clash we just get on with it. If I feel like insulting Harry and singing stupid songs for half an hour when he’s getting me to check the mic than that’s just part of the process, and if he calls me names and decides he wants to fuck about on the mic for a while for his own amusement then that’s all good too. For this album I didn’t make any of the beats but had input as far as ideas.
HL: Yeah, Verbs came with a load of sick ideas for the skits too, it’s us two on the album. We never could think of a fitting group / band name but it’s cool, I like the fact that most people know us individually and who we’re associated with. It’s not just the two of us who solely come with all the ideas, we had plenty of contributions from the people close around us from family to friends to experience so our mutual experiences, environment, friendship and inherent trust is a good basis for our working relationship.
UKHH: What comes first – the lyrics or the music?
VT: The egg, or possibly the chicken. It differs really, one thing I will say though is that there are a few tracks where I wrote verses and hooks independently and then linked Harry and he played me a beat like “check out what I just made” and I would spit the lyrics I had and it would work perfectly, that’s not how we did the whole thing but much of the album would consist of us in the same room not talking, Harry making a beat and me writing.
HL: I think beats often have a big influence on the mood of the mc as in what they want to say or how they’d say it. But there are lyrics that Verb’s wrote and I ended up making beats that matched perfectly. Often subconsciously. Run Amuk and Make It Hot from the delusion ep were like that. Verbs had that lyric since he was doing A levels including the hook. I heard a break one night that made a sick double-time feel and I hooked it up. One of the sections actually perfectly fitted underneath the hook he’d written which was a double-time lyric.
UKHH: Harry, Bring It Back has a very timeless feel. Where did you draw your inspirations musically because it seems that movements like grime have not touched the album? Would it be fair to describe it as a traditional Hip Hop LP – whatever that may be?
HL: Well I think a lot of the album was actually written before grime really even existed, round when garage was dying a lot of the concepts were formed. That and grime are dance orientated music and we weren’t really trying to make an album on that flex. We were about putting our thoughts and concerns down. With the overall mood of the album as an album project we couldn’t really see where we’d put a ‘club banger’ or whatever but that’s not to say we ain’t gonna make no club records or we don’t like them. We just crafted a piece of work with a particular feel and mood. My influences stretch far and wide from obvious ones like hip hop, soul, jazz and electro to 70s rock classical and reggae. The older, the more my experience grows the wider my source of inspiration. I suppose I gotta say during the making I was especially in love with the 70’s sound.
“…We just crafted a piece of work with a particular feel and mood. My influences stretch far and wide from obvious ones like hip hop, soul, jazz and electro to 70s rock, classical and reggae…” – Harry Love
UKHH: Verb, tell us about some of the themes explored on the record.
VT: Social issues in general, paranoia, of course delusion, love, sex, relationships, action/adventure. I wrote most of the verses from a more subconscious point of view, stuff that came out when I was writing that I didn’t necessarily try to say but then once I read over it I realized that this was the shit I wanted to get across but couldn’t force it just came naturally. When it came to writing hooks though I just tried to pull it all together by making the choruses put the verse in the right context if you see what I mean.
HL: New world order.
UKHH: Tell us about some of the lesser known collaborators on the album such as Rosie.
VT: Rosie is a really talented singer we have both known for a while, she’s got a really good voice and contributed to the mood of the track chaos greatly, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what she can do really.
HL: Yeah, Rosie aka Rosie Wilson is the voice on the hit gorillas track “Dare”, she’s our homegirl. People really ain’t seen nuttn’ yet. I don’t really think we can say anything about lesser known when she’s got the number 1 under-belt! haha. luv ya girl! We got my big bro Big Red on there with Ramson Badbonez (the secret member of task force) who I’m working on blowin up. Karizma formerly from Out Da Ville (that’s my Notts fam – bare luv) and some other more known cats on there like Jehst and Kyza.
UKHH: Harry, you are one of the most famous and well respected producers on the UK scene right now. Would you say the album sees a producer at the top of his game?
HL: I dunno, people are very fast to take someone’s single piece of work and brand or categorize someone with it. I don’t feel like I’m at the top of my OWN game at all. In terms of certain skills I built up over the years yea I know there aint a whole load of cats to rival but I got a lot of peers and elders that I highly respect and I never underestimate the younger generation. In my heart I believe I only covered a small percent of what I’d like to achieve and accomplish. This album represents me heart up to this point in my life. I’m now a full grown man with a big life mission ahead… Sorry if I’m giving long answers.
UKHH: Similar question to you, Verb. You have been spitting for a long time now. Are you happy with where your career is right now?
I’m happy because I’ve met a lot of great artists and people who I still want to collaborate with which keeps me hungry to create. I’m happy as well that there are people we are into what I do and that I can make (almost) a living off doing shows and selling records (or though I’m doing a part time day job still). And most of all, I’ve learnt a lot about the creative process and how to record as well as a bit more about the business in general so I feel like I’m in a good position to elevate.
“… I’ve learnt a lot about the creative process and how to record, as well as a bit more about the business in general so I feel like I’m in a good position to elevate…” – Verb T
UKHH: Verb, do you look back with fondness on the open mic days of the late nineties and would you say it is an essential part of the apprenticeship of any young MC? Tell us what it was like to step to the mic for the very first time as a fresh-faced teenager in front of a crowd howling for an mc’s blood?
Yeah it’s essential really, I was in my teens when I was doing those open mics and it taught me that no matter how good your lyrics might seem to you and no matter what you think the crowd will react – you’re probably wrong. I learnt a lot about how to deliver lyrics and which flows sound best live from doing the open mics. But all that being said I was never booed or anything like that, open mics helped me build up a bit of a name among the people on the scene at the time and other artists and stuff.
UKHH: Harry, you have your own label, Medication Records, do you have any raw talent we should be expecting to hear from any time soon?
HL: Like I say we got the Ramson Badbonez projects coming, I got my lil bro Jetsun coming thru with the beats and my big bro as an all rounder (in more ways than one – in joke). Also Escapade: Microw and R-Kayne coming soon.
UKHH: What gives you the biggest buzz? Is it the production side of the game or slaying the crowd at your regular DJ slot at London’s Kung-Fu?
HL: Erm, I suppose the live thing is a huge buzz when you got a receptive audience. However I get the same buzz from getting my record fresh from the press and putting it on the turntable for the first time.
UKHH: Is there anything you miss from back in the day?
HL: Yea the vibes, haha. I miss buzzing when I’d look through the record racks seeing all the sick new 12″s. I miss school even though I hated it. I miss Michael Jackson in human form. But I still got all them records and stuff so it aint all bad.
UKHH: Verb – You’re currently working with William Orbit who will be familiar to most for his atmospheric instrumental albums…what can we expect from the partnership? Do I smell an album for ‘smokers’?
VT: We have done a few tracks, nothing is definite yet in terms of when or if they will be released, but we kind of did go out there on a couple of the tracks, as well though we did a very straight up radio friendly sounding number, we’re planning to do more tracks together, but I’m not sure about a whole album.
UKHH: Harry – Corny question time – You have supported some of the true legends of the Hip Hop scene. Jungle Brother, Mos Def, Run DMC and Talib Kweli to name but a few. Tell us at least one juicy back-stage tit-bit. Come on boy, let it all out. You must have a stack of stories to tell around the Hip Hop camp fire.
HL: Erm… one of the funniest times was when me and Mystro were in our room blazin some stinky icky sticky shit. I came out the room for something and Jeru was outside our room sniffing round the corridor. We just looked at each other with that look and he was like ‘yo, you mind if I come smoke with you?’ and I was like ‘how can I turn a man down who sniffed himself all the way here?’ Funniest thing is that was like the 3rd time I met him, none of them ever recognize me but they always squint their eyes and say ‘brother looks maaaaaaaad familiar yo’ hah.
“… I was in my teens when I was doing those open mics and it taught me that no matter how good your lyrics might seem to you, and no matter how you think the crowd will react – you’re probably wrong…” – Verb T
UKHH: Verb – What are you up to for the rest of 2006. Can we expect you to ‘tour the album’ with Mr Love?
VT: We have a couple of dates hooked up, but the proper tour is gonna be us along with Mr Thing and Yungun when their project grown man business drops. But yeah in the mean time we’ll be appearing here and there. Also before the end of the year I’ll be putting out a c.d album of tracks I’ve been working on the past 2 years, production from myself, Chemo, I.Q., Ghost and others, it’ll be a bit of a limited edition thing as I’m funding it myself, and it will be co executively produced by killer chemo.
UKHH: Verb – You have also enjoyed a very fruitful partnership Kashmere, do you have plans to hook up again?
VT: We have done a few track together, I feature on 2 tracks on his new album the hour of chaos which is crazy by the way, people need to check that when it drops. And also we have just made the decision to do an album together which will be the part 2 to the record we had out together, the difference this time is we will do more tracks together rather than going track for track.
UKHH: Harry – Is it fair to say that Tim Westwood was responsible for giving you a big step up when he invited you on the Mixmasters Weekend?
HL: Yeah he was one of the first people to put me on that level. By that point I had already done my own radio show on pirate and community radio but yea Timmy put me in the show when I was 14 after I harassed his offices to do the mixmasters weekend slot. I always give him his props for that cos that definitely kicked a lot off for me, as well as giving me self belief.
UKHH: Do you think it is time Westwood got some respect from UK headz? No one can deny he is passionate about Hip Hop.
HL: I don’t think anyone can be told to respect someone but personally I think he’s done a lot. He plugged so many of my sick favourites, people like London Posse, DJ Riz. I even heard Biggie there first. I don’t know about what he’s highlighting nowadays but what can I say, the dude’s had a big career and he knows fucking good music.
UKHH: Verb – Tell us a good joke…
VT: Two dyslexics were skiing and one says to the other “I’m gonna go over there and zag zig down that big hill” the 2nd dyslexic says “No no, your wrong, it’s zig zag not zag zig” the agument goes on unresolved so they decide to ask a third party “excuse me sir we have a question about skiing”, the third man replies “sorry lads I don’t know about skiing I’m a taboganist”, the dyslexic says “oh right, well can I get 10 Bensons then please”. Oh sorry you said good joke, I don’t know any of those.
HL: Check out the album, and keep an eye out for us appearing live around the country, if any one makes it to Hip Hop Kemp this year I’ll be there too. Nuf luv to my peeps and my enemies. Keep that world spinnin.
UKHH: Gentlemen, thank you for your time and good luck with the album.
Thank you, all the best – peace.
So there you have it – UKHH has squeezed every drop we could out of Mr Love and Mr..err..T . What…are you still here? Get ye all to your local record shop and don’t come out till you’re clutching a copy of the album cos Bring it Back to Basics is the future.
Bring it Back to Basics is out now on Medication.
Check out what Harry Love is up to on www.myspace.com/harrylove4medicinalpurposes and www.kungfu-london.com.
– Straika
Mystro & Harry Love Interview
Interview With Harry Love and Mystro for the Rockett Time radio show on University Radio Bath (URB)
The interview was recorded in two parts, before and after Mystro and Harry Love took the stage in Babylon, Bath for the ‘My Type Of Party’ club night. The show was presented by Shoestring in association with Undercover magazine. This monthly jam is currently the only live hip hop in Bath after the recent disbanding of the fortnightly Stonegruve Social that had served the city so well for the last few years. We grabbed a few words with the crew backstage at the venue before and after they’d ripped another live show…
RT: You’re both known well through your hosting of the monthly Kung Fu shows, has this stage helped you promote your profile in the scene?
HL: Of course, having a regular spot where we show what we do and we also help other people come on and show what they do. It’s helped everyone on a bigger scale. That was the idea for setting it up in the first place really. That was our whole idea for linking everyone together with a regular platform that everyone knew was reliable and consistent with the three main residents holding down the corners all night. Its helped us to get where we’re going to and it helped other people.
M: Definitely its helped us to give a platform for the younger talent coming out from the UK. For me I was glad to get on board as most people knew me from the open mic circuit and it was good to take control and say ‘this is how the kids should come on’ and all that. Also we get so many people wanting to come and perform there as its got so much credibility, so its good to be part of that as well.
RT: What has been your favourite Kung Fu party over the last few years?
HL: I’ve always gotta say my birthday parties man. The first big birthday party I did was when we moved from the smaller venue to the bigger venue of the Underworld. That was one of my favourites cos everyone was there, that was the whole idea of it. Get everyone that we were involved with, were mates with, worked with and shit like that. It was a really good event, the whole venue was packed out, there was a road block and everyone came through, did their thing. That, for me is what it’s all about, and why I do everything and put in such hard work, to see things like that happen every now and again. Obviously its fun most times we do it. There are different memories, there’s so many that have happened now that it all blends. I get three that blend into one. I can’t really remember specific things, but I remember that ‘I had this feeling at this one and that feeling…do you remember this brere who came in the club and did that.’ There’s all sorts of funny things that go on, and it’s a wicked experience cos I’m there with people that I like working with and that I’m close to, so it’s a good time. I’d say all of them to make it easy!!
M: My favourite, oh man, there’s so many man to be honest. The one where Pace and MI5 performed. Chester P for Mayor. That was free so we had about 700 in there and 700 outside. Obviously the Harry Love birthday Parties, like he was saying, the beach parties that I’ve had.
“…Most people knew me from the open mic circuit and it was good to take control and say ‘this is how the kids should come on’ and all that…”
HL: The first one we did the launch of Music Mystro.
M: Yeah, the first one I performed at and that was off the hook. Who was it that I got to perform at the other one? Oh yeah, that was Pace and MI5. Theres so many that it’s hard to say, ‘that’s my favourite one, but you do have moments that you’re like oh that was crazy’.
HL: A lot of the classic moments are open mic things where someone like Skinny, or Ramson, or Chester, or Kope or anyone has come and blessed the open mic on a regular thing. There are certain times when it just sparks cos we all know each other so well now. It’s like one of those things with everyone playing in perfect timing. That’s my favourite thing about Kung Fu, the spontaneous things that just click right and make it clear why were doing what were doing. There’s no one event, other than I can obviously my birthday parties. I was playing at my last one standing there all starry eyed like a little kid!
RT: Right, we’re back with Mystro after the show.
M: Damn right we’re back right after the show.
RT: How did you think the show went?
M: The show was alright. I cannot complain about the show at all. Everybody loved it and we got to do some of our new stuff as well, which was good, and we got a good response.
RT: How did you first get into the UK Hip Hop scene?
M: I first knew about the hip hop scene from London Posse and Gunshot. Mainly from those two, cos those were the crews that I was bumping at the time. Obviously the Syndicate were from the area, and you had Demon Boyz and quite a few people. That was early, when I was only about 11 or 13. That was how I found out that there were people in the UK doing stuff. At the same time I never took it that serious, that they were like stars or anything. It was like ah, there are people here rapping as well. It was about ‘95 when I heard about people like MCD and Blak Twang.
“…When you count how many artists have been signed and dropped in the last few years on the UK side of things, it’s a joke really…”
I heard tapes flying around and was like ‘shit, there’s people still do it.’ I heard all the Cookie Crews and the Dark Mans, but I wasn’t really into it as it just sounded like someone trying to sound American. I love Money Love and all that stuff. At the same time I never thought that it was anything serious, cos I thought that was what you had to do to get there. Till I started hearing Twang and MCD, then I started realising that there’s people out here doing the same thing but doing it in their own style. Id say around 97,98 was when I started thinking, alright I’m gonna get into thing properly now, and started working on my style, that’s when I really got into it.
RT: So was it those boys that influenced your style today?
M: In a way, yeah. I was heavy into the American stuff at the time. I don’t really get buried under that influence, I still know that if I’m gonna do this, I have to be me and not like anyone else.
RT: Who are you particularly feeling at the moment? Is there anyone coming up for the future?
M: Definitely, most of the people out at the moment that I’m feeling. People to look out for are Young Blood, he’s from East London. MI5, obviously Jargon, Valiant and Diligence…Lowkey, Poisonous Poets, Yungun, Verb T….there’s a lot of people man, DJs as well, Smitty, Bruce Wayne, he’s a nice DJ. There’s a lot of people coming out. I’d say look out for a lot, cos right now there’s so many people doing it, but there’s only a few that are putting their heart into it. There the ones to look out for, the ones you can feel.
RT: You manage to guest on quite a lot of other peoples stuff, who do you most like to work with?
M: I just like to work with people who are worth me working with. I’m not really into this thing of doing tracks with everybody in the scene. It’s like if you go to a jam and you keep see the same people performing, it makes no difference. I just try to work within my family, and just with people that I find it’s worth working with. We can get together and build a big tune, rather than just another one that will be forgotten next year.
RT: So is there anyone that you’ve got your eye on to work with?
M: At the moment I’m gonna work with Ramson Badbones, I definitely wanna get him out. From the background- Shoestring!! Shoestring, if they’ve got beats. With producers, I’ll work with anyone who’s got beats that I can work with. I’m always looking for beats, so if I hear it and I like it then we can do something. At the moment I’m keeping myself focussed on what I’ve got to do. I’ve just dropped the mixtape ‘Tip Of Da Mysberg Volume 1’, and we’re gonna move on to the volume 2, we’ve got the Natural Born Spittaz stuff coming, and also the Top Of The Food Chain, and MI5, so there’s a lot going on already.
“…There are certain times when it just sparks cos we all know each other so well now…”
RT: Since you dropped Music Mystro in 2004, you’ve been working on the mixtape, is there anything else that you’ve been developing over this time?
M: Yeah, I’m doing a DVD. I don’t know what to call it yet, but we’ve gathered so much footage over all these shows that we might as well. I’m also working on an album with C- Swing. He’s more or less finished it, and its all his production, a mixture of hip hop and R and B, different singers and that. I performed one of the tracks tonight, so that should be coming out soon….Just my own stuff really, working on the Volume 2 of the mixtape, keeping it moving, but I’m definitely recording, so look out for a few singles here and there. I got something with Mentat that I recorded a while ago, so I think maybe that could be next.
RT: The UK Hip Hop scene seems ready to break through. Will commercial success ruin or enhance the quality of tracks going out?
M: I think that nothing will really change. There’s going to music that comes out that people aren’t going to like, then stuff that they are gonna like. I don’t think its really gonna water it down too much. Already, with Channel U, you’re starting to see videos on there that people who know what is good, wouldn’t really get into. Everyone’s cracking up about the video, rather than saying it’s heavy. It’s more entertaining in a way of how stupid it is. That’s the problem, but I think we’re always gonna have that, as the industry tries to set the trend. Sometimes it’s the wrong people trying to set the trend. When you count how many artists have been signed and dropped in the last few years on the UK side of things, it’s a joke really. That’s why we stay where we are. Why am I getting signed to have people who don’t really know about the music that I’m dealing with trying to tell me what to do with it?
RT: How do you find the crowds outside of London?
M: The crowds outside of London are wicked. I tell you one thing, they’re not spoilt, so they really appreciate what comes out. Like in London I get a lot of love, but when I see some people performing, it’s not appreciated as it should be. Compared to when you go somewhere else and its like ‘oh man, thanks a lot for coming out, listen, have a good time, do you want a drink?’, all that kind of stuff. In London, you do get that, but the attitude all in all is ‘we’ve seen it’. Too much comes in to London. Other places, like rural areas where not much happens, obviously they’re going to appreciate it a lot more as they don’t get it so much.
RT: So where’s your favourite place to play, other than Bath?
M: Other than Bath? I don’t know man, I’ve had some good times. I’ve been to Germany, and had thousands in the crowd screaming, I’ve been to Australia and had a nice time. It’s a hard one, can we move onto the next question?
RT: You’re doing so may shows, so do you have to mix it up to make it more exciting?
M: Sometimes it’s like that. But with my show, it’s pretty hard on, and there’s a lot going on for at least 20 minutes. People have said to me ‘even though I’ve seen that track live before, the next time I saw it, it was like a new track.’ That’s what keeps me going, you can play about with what you’re doing. As long as people are hearing it and understanding it the way they’re supposed to. That’s what I love about music and performing, you can improvise and not necessarily change the lyrics, but the maybe the style of how you rap it, or change up the chorus a little bit. Nah, it’s never that bad that you get bored of it, but sometimes you do switch up. Like today we decided to do some of the tracks, because we wanted to get real feedback. From the crowd straight off and hear it loud. See if I can rap it live. We had some mess ups and stuff, like Awkward Thief. Yeah, with that I messed that up worse than the tracks that I don’t really know that well. It does put you off when people right next to you are trying to rap along as well. They were going a bit fast, y’know.
RT: Any shouts, or plugs to make before I let you go?
M: I wanna give a shout to Harry Love for looking after me. Shout to Big Will. Shout out to the Shoestring massive- My type Of Party for real. I wanna give a shout out to MI5. Look out for Verb T, Yungun, Extended Players, Medication Records. Look out for the Tip Of Da Mysberg Volume 1 CD, its out right about now. It’s got some bits and bobs that I’ve done over the last couple of years. There’s some exclusive stuff that isn’t out yet on there as well. I wanna shout out to all the people that give us a lot of love.
Rockett Time is a radio show on Bath Student Radio (URB) and is purely UK Hip Hop. Broadcast on Mondays 9-11pm, it can be heard on 1449AM in Bath and www.1449urb.com. For more details see show pages onwww.1449urb.com. Wac20@bath.ac.uk to email Rockett.