The Making of Jehst Premonitions EP: An Interview with Evil Ed

Postie: How long did it take from completing the recording to getting the record out?

Ed: I think once the EP was on DAT the vinyl was out very soon, a month or two after.

Postie: What would you say was the most memorable part of being involved in that record?

Ed: There was a fight at the studio in Leeds over one line in one verse, that’s all I’m saying, maybe someone will expand on that sometime, but it was over the delivery of one line and every time I hear that one line now I can remember the fight, the drama, me and Nmonic, the calm one’s trying to keep the peace!

Postie: Looking back 11 years to when it came out, is there anything you would change given the benefit of hindsight?

Ed: I’d have made some better beats and got them mixed better! They sound so dated to me, I was just starting out and I think technically they aren’t that great, I think some of Jehst’s beats on there were better crafted. I suppose the bedroom, DIY sound gives it that charm though.

Postie: Did being involved in the record change anything/open any doors for you?

Ed: Definitely. That was my entry back into making records. It was my first vinyl since 1994! I had wanted to make a record since the HID one and it had just never happened. Premonitions got a great reception and that inspired me to do my Tournament Round 1 EP and put my own money into releasing that. Premonitions kick started my career, or really was the start of my career, I count HID and the other stuff I did after that prior to Premonitions as demos.
The Evil Ed sound people know about now started off on Premonitions. Having the wax was my ticket to take the production work further; having that out there helped other artists take me seriously. An EP like that is a serious business card! I’m proud to have been a part of it. I think it’s a classic UK rap vinyl, even if some people disagree. I know people did at the time and still do, but I know that EP inspired me and a lot of other people to want to make music and it was quality, even if it was a bit rough around the edges

The Evil Ed sound people know about now started off on Premonitions. Having the wax was my ticket to take the production work further; having that out there helped other artists take me seriously. An EP like that is a serious business card! I’m proud to have been a part of it.

Postie:  How many of the records were pressed and what did you have to do to actually get them in shops for people to buy?

Ed: I don’t exactly remember, I think maybe 500 of the first pressing. We took them around to shops, Jehst sold them at shows, just generally hand to hand, I don’t think we had distribution then, Disorda took copies and a few other people, Fat City, maybe we had Cargo doing distro, I don’t remember! We put copies in most shops ourselves – mainly Jehst I think. *Note: there are two pressings of this EP.  The original first presses have blue text on the label sticker – the later represses are in black and white.

Postie: At this point in time what was Jehst like as a character and creative individual? He was obviously already an extremely talented lyricist. Was he easy to work with? How did you complement each other?

Ed: He was very lively, always rushing around, young and restless like the label name, trying to hook up music stuff, recording, doing shows, going to gigs. When I first met him I think he was in the process of some court case over some graf he’d been caught doing. He had a lot of energy and could be challenging and confrontational at times with some strong opinions. A lot of drama and arguments with people, probably stress because he wanted to get the music career off to a start, so that kind of attitude that goes with someone who has a lot of ambition.

I think we complimented each other just because of our love for Hip Hop, making it and as fans, those kind of bonds make friendships, I wouldn’t have done music with him if we weren’t mates, that’s always been more important to me than the quest for success in music, the social side of it, if that’s not there I don’t want to know, unless it’s just a random verse off someone, but working as part of a team it’s like a family thing, you have stuff in common, you have differences.

I was always an outsider because they were established before I came along and I was also quite a lot older, but they welcomed me, it was a social thing, not just business like and professional. When you spend a lot of time with people you get to know each other, it goes beyond the music, you meet each other’s families, talk about life stuff, so I suppose pretty close back then. Things changed when he moved to London shortly after making the EP but that’s another story!

Postie: When you were working on Premonitions how did the initial creative process work before you actually started recording? I have visions of a smoke-filled university dorm room with everyone nodding their heads to your beats as Jehst, and Tommy Evans and Nmonic scribbled rhymes in their pad? What was it actually like?

Ed: There was no uni dorm room; it didn’t feel like a student thing at all to me! Jehst hadn’t started university yet, he moved to London for that a bit later on. It was my spare bedroom in my flat in Hudds. It could be smokey at times. There was mad scribbling going on and smoking and drinking, but only parts of that process happened at my place, it was rare the whole crew would be round, more just one of two of them at a time, but there was times when there was most of YNR in there, I have a freestyle tape of Jehst, Asaviour, Nmonic and a few others. I’d put on beats I’d been working on and record like 2 sides of a D90 tape of them just practicing verses and freestyling.

One time that guy Ruffstyles came over to interview Jehst and he did a freestyle verse that went on for fucking ages, proper Record Breakers, Guinness Book stylee. It felt good to be part of that, working with creative minds, Junior Disprol came over once and did a tune with Usmaan. I was meeting a lot of new MC’s. Jehst was definitely the one who kept that all the YNR MC’s together. He was the organiser!

Postie:What would you say is the difference between the scene then and now? Is there a real future for underground UK Hip Hop?

Ed: If you have been in it as long as me you see that nothing really changes. Back in the day the majority of UK MC’s copied the yanks then London Posse got people to think about using their own accents. Apart from the accents not much changed. When Canibus came out, everyone wanted to be like him with the punch lines, same with Eminem and 8 Mile. Now you got the majority of the more grime based MC’s trying to be TI .. Some of it’s dope, some of the beats are pretty sick, the b-lines and that, but I don’t feel the MC’s are saying much, just stuff about themselves, girls, clothes, it’s very shallow.

Back in the day you had people like Hardnoise, Gunshot, Blade, Son Of Noise, hundreds of other crews making more underground UK rap. The MCs like Jehst and Cappo, have now gone the way of the old Brit-core I mentioned so it’s now considered ‘old style’ and too hardcore for most people coz they’re into dubstep or the new rave-rap stuff. It’s bigger in Europe and among a few diehard fans over here. Every now and again underground UK rap get’s a bit trendy in the UK and you get a bit more of a student following but it is short lived.

There will always be the underground rap crowd and there’s a progression from the likes of Gunshot and Hardnoise, to the stuff from the last decade, through to newer artists out there like M9 and Obba Supa who I’m working with. It’ll definitely keep bubbling along as long as people love making that style of Hip Hop. At the moment people like Hey! Zeus, Obba Supa, Jon Phonics and M9  are killing my production – they’re trying to step it up, but to me it’s the continuation of the Gunshots, the Jehst’s and so on with a bit more modern sound dictated by new technology and new techniques – even though it’s rooted in the older Hip Hop sounds.

Big respect to Evil Ed for taking the time to provide some wicked 1st hand insight into this Classic UK EP. Ed can be found still making moves with Conspicuous the Coroner and still putting out Wax with the likes of Obba Supa, Jon Phonics and M9 on the wicked Project Mooncircle Imprint (who are still going the extra mile and putting out some real nice, top quality, well packaged vinyl records on the regular – check for them at…. www.projectmooncircle.com.)

 

This Article Originally appeared on the Spines on the Shelves Blog. Check it for regularly updated articles on the vinyl, tapes and magazines produced by the UK Hip Hop scene during the 90s and early 00s ©Spines On The Shelves