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RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 25th November 2011 | Osh
This rapper and singer has had a busy year to say the least, storming the charts with his track with Wretch 32, he now has a new single set for release this month ‘Midnight Run’. We had a chat about his old skool rapping days and rise to fame.
On 4th December you will be releasing your new single ‘Midnight Run’ which is from your album Playing in the Shadows but I understand you are laying the ground for another album too?
Yeah it will probably be next year but I have started writing it. As soon as the third album came out which was like at the end of August I started writing the next.
Is it true that it was Wu Tang and Snoop Dogg that got you in to rapping?
I used to go to school in Wandsworth and when I was 12/13 one of best mates older brother who was about 16/17 used to come with these Yo! MTV rap videos but recorded on VHS and mixtapes with all sorts Wu Tang, Slick Rick, A Tribe Called Quest and Fat Joe. We used to go round his house and sit there giggling and just listen to the lyrics because when you’re 12/13 you don't know what all that nonsense means.
It’s the flow you appreciate?
Yeah, when I did English in school I used get quite bored with the reading but when it came to writing rhymes and poetry I used to love the rhyming. So then when I heard rap for the first time I was like ‘wow what is this?!’. Rap wasn't big back then I'm talking ‘93 and ‘94 then, people knew about it in the UK but it wasn’t as well known it was still underground and wasn’t played on daytime radio. So I just felt it’s quite exclusive that no one else knows about and that started my love affair with rap, but then I listen to everything. I listen to Motown or Rolling Stones, as well as jungle, garage, whatever.
You attended Royal Holloway College where you started film reviewing, was it at this time that you got into MCing too?
Yeah I mean I was always an MC I just had pages and pages of lyrics but when I was 18 I went to uni to study film because I wanted to be a film director. All my mates left school and they were always getting involved in all sorts of nonsense, they got good grades but they just turned and started breaking the law. So I went to uni and I worked all summer in 2000 to save up and pay my uni fees. I worked with my uncle who’s a painter and decorator, I got to uni and I had a couple of grand so I was alright to pay my fees. Then I needed money to live on so I started to MC at garage nights. I found it really easy to spit over garage because I had done a bit of pirate radio before in west London and that’s when I started getting more into performing. Up until that stage I had not really performed in front of a crowd as a rapper or MC. So that was like my first introduction in to performing music when I was 18 and then in 2003 by the time I graduated I had recorded maybe 50 demos as I used to use the music department at university.
OK so that was much cheaper?
Yeah it cost nothing it was good as they had the facilities and then that's where it just all started I released ‘Vile’ in 2004 it was playing on pirate [radio] and then my first play was Radio 1 and KISS 100. That’s where it all began really because before that I wanted to be a film director or an actor. I had three offers from Sony, Islands and The Beats which is Mike Skinner from The Streets’ label so I signed with him. It was me, Professor Green and the Mitchell Brothers all on the same label. That was five or six years ago. I have been around for time but I've kind of just homed my skills as a writer over time. I have always liked dance music and rock so I started rapping over dance and singing more rock. Sometimes it takes you a while to find your voice and I personally feel more comfortable with the music I do now rather than the music I was making five years ago.
Well obviously you grow as an artist...
Yeah some people might stay in hip hop forever and some people move out of dance and go into guitar music. There’s people in America in punk bands that start making dubstep, it’s just whatever suits you at the time and I think at the end of the day it’s all about good music.
The singles that brought you to the mainstream were ‘Watch The Sun Come Up’ and ‘Won't Go Quietly’ which peaked at number 19 and six respectively but ‘Kickstarts’ was the first number one smash. What was the creative influence behind that track?
I just wanted to do like a festival anthem because I have been touring for years, I’ve done loads of gigs but I didn’t start playing festivals until about three years ago and when you play a festival crowd they are different to a normal crowd, they are mad! It is like they are on something they just want to bounce and go crazy, so when you see that you just think ‘I need a song that will get every one's hands in the air’. ‘Kickstarts’ was just trying to make an anthem and I think we kind of got that.
Well indeed you did, like we said it was a number one smash!
I just wanted a lot of sub in it, a lot of bass I didn’t want it to be like some David Guetta tune. I wanted a lot of sub and dirty synth, as well as the nice lyrics on top of it.
So yeah you performed and collaborated with quite a few artists I mean we’re chatting about Calvin Harris, Tinchy Stryder, Skream, Laidback Luke, and of course Wretch 32 with the runaway hit ‘Unorthodox’. Which one of these collaborations did you find most inspiring?
My favourite collaboration I have ever done was with Wretch just because he’s one of my favourite people, I saw him the other day at the Q Awards and we were just sat there having a laugh in the same room as U2 and Coldplay and like Noel Gallagher and Queen. We were just saying even though mine and Wretch’s music is different, I’m more like a singer and he’s obviously more like a rapper. My music is more dance but I think we both come from the mixtape and pirate radio culture. We both come from the same sort of place in terms of music and it was just quite weird being in the room with those legendary people, you know, these guys play stadiums. My favourite thing about ‘Unorthodox’ is the fact that my friendship with Wretch grew out of that. I took him on my UK tour, I see him all the time like we go out for a drink when we can. We’re hardly in London at the same time, he’s supporting me on my arena tour next year because I still feel there’s a lot of people who need to see him and discover him ‘cause he’s a great live artist.
Yes he is I saw him at the Chipmunk show down at the O2 Arena!
I’m seeing him on Friday, I’m performing at his London show. All the people I work with are amazing DJs or producers, singers they’re all inspiring in their own way but Wretch inspires me as a person because he’s got his head screwed. He’s so ambitious and also I can be quite rude to people sometimes, not intentionally, but I can get a bit moody and it gets me down but he is always happy, always up beat and I think that's something important to learn from you what I mean, just something positive.
Yes indeed he’s quite an easy going kid. “If we don't kill ourselves we'll be the leaders of a messed-up generation. If we don't kid ourselves will they believe us if we tell them the reasons why? Do we take it too far, take it too far? Did we chase the rabbit into wonderland? Lose a hundred grand, will they understand it was all to stay awake for the longest”. Those are some of the insightful and socially aware lyrics from the number one tune ‘Stay Awake’. What is the creative history behind that track and video? What inspired you to write it?
I was in Ibiza and I woke up at about 11am, I’d got to bed at about 3 or 4am, I looked down on my balcony and there were all these kids round the pool but they just got back from a club and they were just going in. They were in the pool drinking, fighting all naked. I was just like all right they’re on holiday having a bit of fun letting their hair go a bit, but then I just thought about the deeper meaning of it. It was just how is this gonna effect the future generations it wasn't really about a particular sort of person it was just about anyone who lives on the edge and is excessive and just has so many vices. Everyone has vices in a way and no one is perfect. It don't matter how you try to live your life everyone’s got vices but I just wanted to make more of a comment on how music does this to people. Music makes people stay awake all night or two or three days in some case, I know people who don’t go to bed for four days because of music or partying or clubbing or whatever.
I get two three hours sleep sometimes when I’m on tour and I just thought dance music at the moment it annoys me because a lot of it is just ‘put your hands in the air, get on the floor clap and say yeah’. You know all this generic rubbish like I could appreciate it as pop music and it goes around the world and sells millions of singles and be like ‘alright, I'm not gonna be able to do that, I can’t sell as many records as J.LO’. I just want music with some soul and some meaning! What better idea than to make a song about how music affects people and put that lyric in that song while that song is affecting people. So that’s what I was trying, but the song came out the same time as the riots and everyone was just trying to link it with the riots. I wrote that song January and it came out August and of course the riots were the end of July and beginning of August. It made sense ‘If we don't kill ourselves we'll be the leaders of a messed-up generation’ and the you switch on the TV and there’s all these crazy people. That’s why the song can mean what you want it to mean and I think great music should do that, and I’m not saying ‘Stay Awake’ is a classic song Its not but it’s been a big song this year and if people will remember it they will remember it for different reasons.
About the video, now obviously I know you studied film directing.
Yeah I sat down with a director and I used the same guy Adam who directed ‘Changed The Way You Kiss Me’ and ‘Stay Awake’ and he done my new ‘Midnight Run’ video and I just sat down with him and discussed what I wanted to say with the video. With the ‘Stay Awake’ video I just wanted to represent sub cultures and that’s why you have all these crazy people at a festival off their face partying. Then you have all these people in a warehouse just worshiping speakers but then you also have the street gang. I don’t want to just represent just negativity and just the music, I want to represent positivity, too. There are these kids from a rough part of London and their expressing themselves through dance so I wanted to throw some positivity in there as well. Music used to be really political especially in the ‘70s and ‘80s people used to always try to make a statement with their music. I just think it’s a shame that so much music nowadays is quite generic and the message is just watered down. How many songs do you need to hear saying ‘get on the floor, be on the floor, I’m on the floor’. It’s like what are these people are they cleaners?!
The phenomenal song ‘Changed The Way You Kiss Me’ sold an excess 400,000 copies and was on the number one spot for two weeks; what’s the creative history behind it?
It’s just about when a relationship is going sour and I think sometimes it’s the little things that can give it away. People always write songs like ‘you don’t love me no more’ or ‘I don’t love her no more’ and I didn’t want to do something as obvious as that and I think if you can pick up little nuances that you spot. Like if you’re walking down the road with your girl and she ain’t holding your hand tightly, like she can’t be bothered and she has a limb wrist. That’s why I put in ‘Kick Start’; “Holding your hand but holding it loose” I did the same thing in ‘Changed The Way You Kiss Me’, if someone starts changing the way they kiss you there’s no passion in the relationship anymore it just real life that’s why people relate to it because it’s emotional music.
I know you’ve got this arena tour kicking off, you have some live dates during this year and some more next year!
Yeah, November and December in UK and Ireland that’s sold out that’s like 60,000 people and then April is going to be 120,000 and that’s like 70% sold out. It’s mad like London O2 Arena is like 18,000 and we have done like 14/15,000 tickets. I just can’t even comprehend that. Two years ago I was playing Hoxton bar kitchen in Shoreditch which is 300 people and when we sold it out I was happy. I was happy for days, I was like we sold out a gig because I used to play in pubs to like 11 people - there would be more people on stage than in the crowd. So when you can get to that arena level it’s a big statement it just makes you more hungry for success. When you get to do arenas you’re like now I want stadiums and that’s the plan man to headline Glastonbury, do stadiums and just travel the world. It’s a dream come true to travel and get paid for doing what you love.
We talked briefly about the next album the fourth album what direction are you looking to take that in? Is it going to have international collaboration maybe Rihanna, Kanye West, Jay-Z?
Yeah it’s going to be like still dance and rap and singing but I’m looking to incorporate rock and blues a bit more. So like start with guitar and piano riffs but quite moody like minor keys and then just take it to another big epic level. So start like moody blues riffs and stuff like that and then big and epic. I still will be working with the hottest guys people like Benga I have already got a beat off him then I will be going America and hopefully work with some hot dubstep people like Skrillex and UK producers as well like Skream and Chase & Status. I really like the dubstep world because it really understand everything that I’m trying to do, they try to understand the punk-rock aspect of it like the jump-up attitude. But then they got the soul there too, the bassline is really important to me because that’s what makes people dance and move.
So the single due for release on December 4th ‘Midnight Run’ is on heavy rotation already up and down the UK. The video is very engaging visually, can you tell me about the creative vision behind the tune and the video?
‘Midnight Run’ is about being out late at night when you should be at home and everyone’s done that and the video is about me falling asleep in the bath waking up in a lake and then going on a mission in a car to confront my demons - it’s crazy, it’s meant to be a nightmare. People are commenting on YouTube saying “I don’t know what this video is about?” - it don’t matter just watch it and make up your own mind!
The ‘Midnight Run’ single is out on December 4th. Keep up to date on Twitter @example
Yeah it will probably be next year but I have started writing it. As soon as the third album came out which was like at the end of August I started writing the next.
Is it true that it was Wu Tang and Snoop Dogg that got you in to rapping?
I used to go to school in Wandsworth and when I was 12/13 one of best mates older brother who was about 16/17 used to come with these Yo! MTV rap videos but recorded on VHS and mixtapes with all sorts Wu Tang, Slick Rick, A Tribe Called Quest and Fat Joe. We used to go round his house and sit there giggling and just listen to the lyrics because when you’re 12/13 you don't know what all that nonsense means.
It’s the flow you appreciate?
Yeah, when I did English in school I used get quite bored with the reading but when it came to writing rhymes and poetry I used to love the rhyming. So then when I heard rap for the first time I was like ‘wow what is this?!’. Rap wasn't big back then I'm talking ‘93 and ‘94 then, people knew about it in the UK but it wasn’t as well known it was still underground and wasn’t played on daytime radio. So I just felt it’s quite exclusive that no one else knows about and that started my love affair with rap, but then I listen to everything. I listen to Motown or Rolling Stones, as well as jungle, garage, whatever.
You attended Royal Holloway College where you started film reviewing, was it at this time that you got into MCing too?
Yeah I mean I was always an MC I just had pages and pages of lyrics but when I was 18 I went to uni to study film because I wanted to be a film director. All my mates left school and they were always getting involved in all sorts of nonsense, they got good grades but they just turned and started breaking the law. So I went to uni and I worked all summer in 2000 to save up and pay my uni fees. I worked with my uncle who’s a painter and decorator, I got to uni and I had a couple of grand so I was alright to pay my fees. Then I needed money to live on so I started to MC at garage nights. I found it really easy to spit over garage because I had done a bit of pirate radio before in west London and that’s when I started getting more into performing. Up until that stage I had not really performed in front of a crowd as a rapper or MC. So that was like my first introduction in to performing music when I was 18 and then in 2003 by the time I graduated I had recorded maybe 50 demos as I used to use the music department at university.
OK so that was much cheaper?
Yeah it cost nothing it was good as they had the facilities and then that's where it just all started I released ‘Vile’ in 2004 it was playing on pirate [radio] and then my first play was Radio 1 and KISS 100. That’s where it all began really because before that I wanted to be a film director or an actor. I had three offers from Sony, Islands and The Beats which is Mike Skinner from The Streets’ label so I signed with him. It was me, Professor Green and the Mitchell Brothers all on the same label. That was five or six years ago. I have been around for time but I've kind of just homed my skills as a writer over time. I have always liked dance music and rock so I started rapping over dance and singing more rock. Sometimes it takes you a while to find your voice and I personally feel more comfortable with the music I do now rather than the music I was making five years ago.
Well obviously you grow as an artist...
Yeah some people might stay in hip hop forever and some people move out of dance and go into guitar music. There’s people in America in punk bands that start making dubstep, it’s just whatever suits you at the time and I think at the end of the day it’s all about good music.
The singles that brought you to the mainstream were ‘Watch The Sun Come Up’ and ‘Won't Go Quietly’ which peaked at number 19 and six respectively but ‘Kickstarts’ was the first number one smash. What was the creative influence behind that track?
I just wanted to do like a festival anthem because I have been touring for years, I’ve done loads of gigs but I didn’t start playing festivals until about three years ago and when you play a festival crowd they are different to a normal crowd, they are mad! It is like they are on something they just want to bounce and go crazy, so when you see that you just think ‘I need a song that will get every one's hands in the air’. ‘Kickstarts’ was just trying to make an anthem and I think we kind of got that.
Well indeed you did, like we said it was a number one smash!
I just wanted a lot of sub in it, a lot of bass I didn’t want it to be like some David Guetta tune. I wanted a lot of sub and dirty synth, as well as the nice lyrics on top of it.
So yeah you performed and collaborated with quite a few artists I mean we’re chatting about Calvin Harris, Tinchy Stryder, Skream, Laidback Luke, and of course Wretch 32 with the runaway hit ‘Unorthodox’. Which one of these collaborations did you find most inspiring?
My favourite collaboration I have ever done was with Wretch just because he’s one of my favourite people, I saw him the other day at the Q Awards and we were just sat there having a laugh in the same room as U2 and Coldplay and like Noel Gallagher and Queen. We were just saying even though mine and Wretch’s music is different, I’m more like a singer and he’s obviously more like a rapper. My music is more dance but I think we both come from the mixtape and pirate radio culture. We both come from the same sort of place in terms of music and it was just quite weird being in the room with those legendary people, you know, these guys play stadiums. My favourite thing about ‘Unorthodox’ is the fact that my friendship with Wretch grew out of that. I took him on my UK tour, I see him all the time like we go out for a drink when we can. We’re hardly in London at the same time, he’s supporting me on my arena tour next year because I still feel there’s a lot of people who need to see him and discover him ‘cause he’s a great live artist.
Yes he is I saw him at the Chipmunk show down at the O2 Arena!
I’m seeing him on Friday, I’m performing at his London show. All the people I work with are amazing DJs or producers, singers they’re all inspiring in their own way but Wretch inspires me as a person because he’s got his head screwed. He’s so ambitious and also I can be quite rude to people sometimes, not intentionally, but I can get a bit moody and it gets me down but he is always happy, always up beat and I think that's something important to learn from you what I mean, just something positive.
Yes indeed he’s quite an easy going kid. “If we don't kill ourselves we'll be the leaders of a messed-up generation. If we don't kid ourselves will they believe us if we tell them the reasons why? Do we take it too far, take it too far? Did we chase the rabbit into wonderland? Lose a hundred grand, will they understand it was all to stay awake for the longest”. Those are some of the insightful and socially aware lyrics from the number one tune ‘Stay Awake’. What is the creative history behind that track and video? What inspired you to write it?
I was in Ibiza and I woke up at about 11am, I’d got to bed at about 3 or 4am, I looked down on my balcony and there were all these kids round the pool but they just got back from a club and they were just going in. They were in the pool drinking, fighting all naked. I was just like all right they’re on holiday having a bit of fun letting their hair go a bit, but then I just thought about the deeper meaning of it. It was just how is this gonna effect the future generations it wasn't really about a particular sort of person it was just about anyone who lives on the edge and is excessive and just has so many vices. Everyone has vices in a way and no one is perfect. It don't matter how you try to live your life everyone’s got vices but I just wanted to make more of a comment on how music does this to people. Music makes people stay awake all night or two or three days in some case, I know people who don’t go to bed for four days because of music or partying or clubbing or whatever.
I get two three hours sleep sometimes when I’m on tour and I just thought dance music at the moment it annoys me because a lot of it is just ‘put your hands in the air, get on the floor clap and say yeah’. You know all this generic rubbish like I could appreciate it as pop music and it goes around the world and sells millions of singles and be like ‘alright, I'm not gonna be able to do that, I can’t sell as many records as J.LO’. I just want music with some soul and some meaning! What better idea than to make a song about how music affects people and put that lyric in that song while that song is affecting people. So that’s what I was trying, but the song came out the same time as the riots and everyone was just trying to link it with the riots. I wrote that song January and it came out August and of course the riots were the end of July and beginning of August. It made sense ‘If we don't kill ourselves we'll be the leaders of a messed-up generation’ and the you switch on the TV and there’s all these crazy people. That’s why the song can mean what you want it to mean and I think great music should do that, and I’m not saying ‘Stay Awake’ is a classic song Its not but it’s been a big song this year and if people will remember it they will remember it for different reasons.
About the video, now obviously I know you studied film directing.
Yeah I sat down with a director and I used the same guy Adam who directed ‘Changed The Way You Kiss Me’ and ‘Stay Awake’ and he done my new ‘Midnight Run’ video and I just sat down with him and discussed what I wanted to say with the video. With the ‘Stay Awake’ video I just wanted to represent sub cultures and that’s why you have all these crazy people at a festival off their face partying. Then you have all these people in a warehouse just worshiping speakers but then you also have the street gang. I don’t want to just represent just negativity and just the music, I want to represent positivity, too. There are these kids from a rough part of London and their expressing themselves through dance so I wanted to throw some positivity in there as well. Music used to be really political especially in the ‘70s and ‘80s people used to always try to make a statement with their music. I just think it’s a shame that so much music nowadays is quite generic and the message is just watered down. How many songs do you need to hear saying ‘get on the floor, be on the floor, I’m on the floor’. It’s like what are these people are they cleaners?!
The phenomenal song ‘Changed The Way You Kiss Me’ sold an excess 400,000 copies and was on the number one spot for two weeks; what’s the creative history behind it?
It’s just about when a relationship is going sour and I think sometimes it’s the little things that can give it away. People always write songs like ‘you don’t love me no more’ or ‘I don’t love her no more’ and I didn’t want to do something as obvious as that and I think if you can pick up little nuances that you spot. Like if you’re walking down the road with your girl and she ain’t holding your hand tightly, like she can’t be bothered and she has a limb wrist. That’s why I put in ‘Kick Start’; “Holding your hand but holding it loose” I did the same thing in ‘Changed The Way You Kiss Me’, if someone starts changing the way they kiss you there’s no passion in the relationship anymore it just real life that’s why people relate to it because it’s emotional music.
I know you’ve got this arena tour kicking off, you have some live dates during this year and some more next year!
Yeah, November and December in UK and Ireland that’s sold out that’s like 60,000 people and then April is going to be 120,000 and that’s like 70% sold out. It’s mad like London O2 Arena is like 18,000 and we have done like 14/15,000 tickets. I just can’t even comprehend that. Two years ago I was playing Hoxton bar kitchen in Shoreditch which is 300 people and when we sold it out I was happy. I was happy for days, I was like we sold out a gig because I used to play in pubs to like 11 people - there would be more people on stage than in the crowd. So when you can get to that arena level it’s a big statement it just makes you more hungry for success. When you get to do arenas you’re like now I want stadiums and that’s the plan man to headline Glastonbury, do stadiums and just travel the world. It’s a dream come true to travel and get paid for doing what you love.
We talked briefly about the next album the fourth album what direction are you looking to take that in? Is it going to have international collaboration maybe Rihanna, Kanye West, Jay-Z?
Yeah it’s going to be like still dance and rap and singing but I’m looking to incorporate rock and blues a bit more. So like start with guitar and piano riffs but quite moody like minor keys and then just take it to another big epic level. So start like moody blues riffs and stuff like that and then big and epic. I still will be working with the hottest guys people like Benga I have already got a beat off him then I will be going America and hopefully work with some hot dubstep people like Skrillex and UK producers as well like Skream and Chase & Status. I really like the dubstep world because it really understand everything that I’m trying to do, they try to understand the punk-rock aspect of it like the jump-up attitude. But then they got the soul there too, the bassline is really important to me because that’s what makes people dance and move.
So the single due for release on December 4th ‘Midnight Run’ is on heavy rotation already up and down the UK. The video is very engaging visually, can you tell me about the creative vision behind the tune and the video?
‘Midnight Run’ is about being out late at night when you should be at home and everyone’s done that and the video is about me falling asleep in the bath waking up in a lake and then going on a mission in a car to confront my demons - it’s crazy, it’s meant to be a nightmare. People are commenting on YouTube saying “I don’t know what this video is about?” - it don’t matter just watch it and make up your own mind!
The ‘Midnight Run’ single is out on December 4th. Keep up to date on Twitter @example
