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deejay feature 0021 added 15.04.05 words Mike technical: QED
Even though he’s not one to court the limelight, he’s been at the forefront of this UK hip hop ‘Biznizz’ since the early 80s, starting out as a break dancer in Covent Garden, DJing with some group called the London Posse, touring with luminaries such as The Jungle Brothers, winning the DMC UK Team Championship, and all this before coming back round full circle to combine breakdancing and DJing in his recent shows with professional choreographer/dancer Robert Hylton. I caught up with DJ Biznizz after a hard day’s rehearsal for said shows, so we went for a pint to relax, and to chat about these hip hop theatre performances along with some of his other ventures, past and present. Hi there, can you introduce yourself please?  Yeah, I’m the infamous DJ Biznizz, or DJ Biz the Entertainer as people
call me, cos I’m the man of many guises. One of the En4cers crew, here
to do this, just for you folks.You’re currently working with the dancer and choreographer Robert Hylton, but older heads may remember you as the DJ for the London Posse. Would you mind giving us a brief description of life in UK hip hop at that time? Well, back in the days, when I was the DJ for the London Posse, hip hop was about living what was going on in the culture of hip hop. It wasn’t just about, as it is today, people just performing certain elements or only liking certain elements of hip hop. So some people like rap, some people like DJing, some people like to breakdance, whatever. But back in the days, when I DJed for London Posse, people lived hip hop, we’d go out to a jam and there’d be graffiti artists doing live graffiti, you’d have emcees, you’d have DJs, you’d have B-Boys, it was all elements of hip hop rolled into one. And those days, it was about fun and entertainment. Even when people battled, and the battle could be really vicious, but at the end of the battle? People would shake hands and it would all be friendly, it would all be love. Everyone just wanted to get down and jam together. And are you still in contact with Rodney P? Ah yeah, me and Rodney P are best friends, man! We do a lot of work together outside of hip hop, we still hang out together, and hopefully this year, maybe the beginning of next year, we’ve got some material that we hope we can get out. Rodney P’s the man at the moment for me, he’s always been my top boy. So what did you think of his recent album? I think his recent album was on fire! He actually had an album put together, it must have been over a year ago, but unfortunately, due to the circumstances of the way the industry is, the album didn’t come out. And the album was fantastic. But now, he’s got his time, he was able to record a lot of new material. I love that album, cos to me, it’s what hip hop’s about. He’s giving it to you straight from UK culture, you know, “This is my part of town, this is my life, this is the way I’ve experienced things, and I’m just giving you a taste of the Rodney P experience.” That’s what I love about his album.  "...Back in the days, when I DJed for London Posse, people lived hip hop..." So how does the UK scene of today compare to when London Posse were around? Boy, I’m sad to say the scene today doesn’t compare with the days when the London Posse were around. In the days when the London Posse were around, hip hop to me was hip hop. Today hip hop is about the corporate industry taking things to certain levels and doing certain things with certain artists and not allowing certain artists to do certain things. In the days of the London Posse, hip hop was about freedom, say what we want, do what we want, go where we want, and enjoy the whole culture of hip hop. You had Cookie Crew, you had Demon Boyz, you had Hijack, Son of Noize, we had an array of artists that were just out there living hip hop. It was what hip hop was supposed to be about. Talking of the Cookie Crew, you also worked with them and toured with some big names whilst doing so, how did that help your career?  I think that working with people such as the Cookie Crew helped me a lot
because they are one of the most down to earth groups I’ve ever worked
with. And because of the connection they had working alongside certain
people, they introduced me to a lot of people like De La Soul, the
Jungle Brothers, people like that. And it helped me by getting into
positions I may never have been able to get into just being on my own.
Cos sometimes the hip hop industry is one of those sorts of piggy back
industries, someone helps you, you help someone else. And I think that
the way hip hop has turned now, a lot of the artists and a lot of the
people that work within hip hop today have become very self-orientated.
There’s none of that “I’m gonna help the next man.” Back in the day
everything was about a crew, you know? You’d have EPMD, EPMD would bring
out Das EFX, Das EFX would bring out blah, blah, blah, someone helps
you, you help someone else. Cookie Crew brought me in, they introduced
me to Mase, they introduced me to Afrika from Jungle Brothers, I ended
up doing two major tours around Europe as the DJ for the Jungle
Brothers. So for me, that was a great experience, it gave me a lot of
recognition.So how did you find working with Tim Westwood? And also, can you tell us his real age? Boy, I don’t even know Tim Westwood’s real age, that’s one thing man. I just know he’s a lot older than he says he is! But working with Tim in the early days was good. Nowadays it’s totally different, Tim’s doing what Tim’s doing. People look at Tim in different ways, people think “Tim could have helped a lot of people more than he has” but for me, Tim’s done what Tim’s done and that’s that. For myself, working with him back in the day was good, it helped me, it helped him, it helped a lot of us. When he was on the radio at Capital, we had a show called The Mack Daddy Show which encompassed me, Tim, MC B who was a rapper signed to one of Tim’s labels, Caveman, and another friend of ours, a rapper called Rollo. "...In the days of the London Posse, hip hop was about freedom, say what we want, do what we want, go where we want, and enjoy the whole culture of hip hop..." And between the five of us, all we did was crack jokes, the phone lines were just off the hook in them days! Radio shows now are not about audience participation, people make their phone-ins and shout outs, but when we had The Mack Daddy Show, it was about the audience participating in the show. We made them feel like they were part of the radio show. The show wasn’t about us five on there, it was about you guys. So they’d phone in and we’d crack jokes with them, we’d crack jokes about each other, and it was just so much fun. The amount of people that I meet around the world who say “I’ve got tapes of you guys back in ‘85, ‘86, ‘87!” And for me, that’s ridiculous, people have still got tapes of that? So for me, it was a good experience working with Tim, it did help me and it helped him. Onto more recent events, can you tell us a little bit about your current work with Robert Hylton and the idea behind “Verse and Verses”? Well, Robert Hylton for me is one of the most prolific choreographers that I’ve ever seen. He was a trained contemporary dance and jazz dance specialist, he learnt street dance cos he used to be a street-jazz dancer, and he also used to body pop back in the days. He’s one of the few artists, like Benji Reid and like Jonzi D, who has amalgamated hip hop and theatre and put them together. Now Jonzi D and Benji Reid do what they call theatrical stand-up hip hop theatre, Robert Hylton does dance theatre. Robert encompasses all the elements of hip hop dance, break dance, popping, locking, and he amalgamates them with contemporary, with jazz, ballet, and all the other elements he’s been introduced to while learning in school and college. And for me, working with him has been one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had cos I’ve learned so much about dance, music and the way that they combine. It’s been a great experience for me. As for “Verse and Verses”, what it was, I actually have a DJ routine where I cut different rock sounds and make different tracks with a rock guitar tone, and it’s with that tone that I make different rock songs like “Smoke on the Water”. And because  Robert
saw me making all these different tones, he was like “Damn, we could use
that to make a little piece.” So we made a ten minute solo called
“Verse” and cos it was just sort of off the cuff, Robert would move to
some of the scratches and elements of turntablism that I’d utilised and
it worked so well Robert really wanted to expand on it and make it into
a total show. So we sat down and we went trough a few ideas and Robert
came up with the idea of “Verse and Verses”. The initial idea was from
“Verse”, which was the individual piece, and now to make it into a
bigger thing, he’s made it into “Verse and Verses”. So a ten minute show
has become an hour long show now. There are four dancers, two female,
two male – Jake, Paula, Marso and Rose, that’s the four dancers
encompassing the show. So it’s them alongside Robert and myself, I DJ in
the show as well as performing a break dance section being as I was a
breakdancer from back in the day, and Robert, from being a popper and
contemporary dancer, also has a section in the show as well. So the show
has now become a one hour spectacular special, and we’re just putting
the finishing touches on it now, so hopefully, when it comes out in
April, people are gonna really enjoy it.And you’re about to start a long tour that will take up until the end of the year to support “Verse and Verses”, so is the show going to change at all during the course of the year or is it rigidly set so that you have to use the same vinyl every night and the dancers have to use the same moves every night? See, one of the things that I love about working with Robert Hylton is he loves off the cuff stuff. He never likes anything to be the same all the time. So when it comes to the scratches or the routines that I do, he allows me the freedom to do what I want to do. So one day you may hear me perform a certain scratch with certain records, the next day you may see the show in a totally different light. And the thing I like about Robert is even when he’s finished the show, and it is set, and we do it in a certain way, he always has this thought process of ‘work in progress’. So he will always change things as he goes along. So you may see it today and then see it in a months time and you’ll think “Hey, that wasn’t in the show then,” and that’s just Robert Hylton, that’s just the way he works, and I like the way he works. It makes it exciting for audiences who see the show three or four times. And can you explain how “Verse and Verses” fits in with the overall aims of Robert’s company, Urban Classicism? Boy, that’s a difficult one for me, cos the aims of Robert Hylton and the whole company are in Robert Hylton’s head. And Robert Hylton is a complex guy! Once you sit down and start talking to him, it’s really fascinating to finds out his thought processes on all the different forms of art and the way he puts them together. Cos the way that he looks at music, it’s not the same way that I look at music, and the way he looks at the dance choreography is not the way I look at the dance choreography, and the thing I like about Robert, when we make a piece of music, we listen to it and we’ll amalgamate our ideas, and even though he is the choreographer of the dance by himself, me and him will also go through ideas, and he’ll take on board the ideas that I give him and literally manipulate the choreography so that it has ideas that him and I have talked about together. And this is what I love about working with Robert. "...Sometimes the hip hop industry is one of those sorts of piggy back industries, someone helps you, you help someone else..." So I find him a really complex guy, cos he’s always got something different, a different outlook on the different ways art can be put together, and I really like that. But for me to be able to say that this is what Robert’s outlook on “Verse and Verses” is, is a very difficult thing. You’d have to sit down and talk to Robert about that, but believe me, his ideas, and the way he puts dance and music together is always something against the norm, he wants it to be more improv, but even though it’s improv, it has structure, it has form. So you may see him do something, and you’d say that that was the form and structure of the piece, and then it will go into some total madness before going back to the form and structure. And when you look back at what was going on in the madness, you realise that the madness had parts of the form and the structure that he went back to, so you do see the link between all the pieces. You’ve been pretty busy since your time with London Posse, but to my knowledge at least, you don’t appear in the public eye very much, in terms of press. Why do you think that is?  I think, with press, they like to latch on to what they believe is new,
what they believe is current, so if someone comes out with something,
the press’ll put him on the cover of the magazine that day, give him an
interview that day, and if he comes out with a record the next time that
isn’t so good, the press leave him and move onto the next person.
There’s a lot of bandwagon jumping. For me, my career’s about longevity.
There are certain magazines, certain radio shows, and people who know
about where I come from, the beginnings of hip hop to where hip hop is
now, and they know that I’ve been there throughout that time. I’ve been
through every phase, every era, every change of hip hop, and I’ve always
been there, and they know that hip hop is something that I love and
something that I live, it’s not just something that is a phase to me. So
for me, I don’t mind not being in the public eye because for me it’s
about those that really know. Sometimes the best kept secret’s are the
one’s that are hidden away, you have to chip away at all that black rock
before you find that diamond. For those that do know about me and come
to see me when I perform at Scratch or when I’m hosting the DMCs or when
I’m performing with Robert, they know that when I’m on stage, I always
give 200%. Cos I’m not there for me, well, I am there for me in a sense,
but I’m there for them. My pleasure is giving them pleasure. If I don’t
entertain my audience, then I haven’t done my job.So what do you think about live performances from hip hop artists at the moment? Do you think they could learn from theatrical performances like the ones you have been involved with? I definitely think that at this moment in time, live performances from most of the hip hop artists I’ve seen is at a very low standard. If some of those artists would look at people like Robert Hylton and Benji Reid, the groups in America such as Full Circle, or the ones from France such as The Vagabonds or Company Kafig, who are all people involved in hip hop, they came from hip hop backgrounds and are now doing theatre, if artists would look at what these people have brought to the stage, it’s about performance and connecting with your audience. Nowadays, you see hip hop artists, they come to a concert, sing their songs, and go home. They don’t try to connect with their audience. And if you don’t connect with your audience then what you’re performing to them becomes nothing. Because it is about the audience, they are the ones who bring your music to life. "...I don’t even know Tim Westwood’s real age, that’s one thing man. I just know he’s a lot older than he says he is!..." Singing on a piece of vinyl doesn’t bring a song to life, it’s when people appreciate what you’ve done, that’s what brings that material to life. So when you’re performing, you have to perform in a sense that brings your audience into your material and your material into your audience. And I think a lot of these artists would benefit from two things, one, coming to theatre shows and seeing groups like the ones I named earlier, and two, going back and looking at what Rakim did, what LL Cool J did, what Run DMC did, what the Beastie Boys did, what Public Enemy did, what KRS-One did. These are groups that I’ve seen live, three of four times, each of them, and every performance was incredible. From maybe 1996, 1997, I’ve never seen performances that come close to any of these, other than De La Soul whose show is incredible, and a Nas show that I saw. Other than that, performances have not been up to par, and artists have to step up to the plate. Back to Robert, you’ve just done a video with him recently starring a load of pensioners dancing, how did that come about? Well, what it was, we were working with people from the Purcell Rooms in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and they said they could give Robert a budget to do a project. They’d seen two films that Robert had performed earlier, they were low budget, really good artistic dance films. And they asked him what he wanted to do and who he wanted to work with, and Robert said, “Well, I’ve worked with young people all my life, I want to work with someone totally different, I want to work with pensioners.” And it was a bit shocking for them as he does modern dance amalgamated with hip hop, and so they were wondering how he was gonna do it with pensioners. But Robert just told them not to worry, cos where there’s a will, there’s a way! So they found a place in Kilburn, an old people’s home, and introduced the old people to Robert. And what they did was pick pensioners who’d been involved in dance before, people who used to do the tango, the waltz, tea dancing. So they were already involved with dance, it wasn’t alien to them. We went in, sat down and talked to them and they were really funny, really humorous. "...I definitely think that at this moment in time, live performances from most of the hip hop artists I’ve seen is at a very low standard..." They didn’t seem like they were 60, 70, 80 years old, they seemed like they were the same age as us, in their demeanour, in their actions, in the way they spoke. So Robert gave them some moves, some body popping moves which they started to do, and the thing that was funny was that they enjoyed it so much, it was like having a laugh. So when Robert developed the choreography, which was fairly simple as a lot of these people have hip replacements and stuff, it was so beautiful to see these people perform the movements that Robert had put together. And they were so graceful because of the types of dance they had come from, they still had that poise and that grace within the movements that Robert had given them. So for us, it was a nice experience, and we’d really like to work with them again, cos they were so enthusiastic. You think that when you get to that age, all your energy’s gone, all your enthusiasm has gone, but it was like they were 16 again! And they used to make us cakes, bake things for us, we’d come out of rehearsal like a stuffed pig! But it was lovely to be able to give them that experience. So what did they think of hip hop music? After doing what they did with Robert, myself and our film maker, Curtis, they really changed their outlook on hip hop. It wasn’t that alien thing that they thought it was, just for youngsters. They looked at it and thought that they can appreciate certain aspects of it now a lot more than they did before, now that they know more about it. Cos Robert didn’t just teach them things, he talked to them about hip hop and what it’s like for us to be involved with it. We’d sit down and drink tea and have these discussions about the different styles of dance they did, how they got into it, what they liked about it, and we would discuss the same thing about hip hop, how we got into it, why we got into it, why we like it. It was a nice shared experience. And can you tell us a little bit about the other film you’ve been involved with, Jaffa Man? Well, Jaffa Man was a combination of Robert and a film maker called Ollie, and what Ollie wanted to do was bring the hip hop theatrical experience to the big screen. So he had an idea of how to put together a short film about a person he called the Jaffa Man. Now, this Jaffa Man’s whole thing was about dance. Every problem he encountered, he’d solve through dance. And so through his collaboration with Robert and myself, with the music, we found a way of forging this link between the Jaffa Man and solving the problems he may have encountered through dance. Even though it was short, about a six or seven minute long film, it was a really nice experience. "...Some one who’s well known like Gene Kelly doing modern style movements and the way that they’ve compared the styles of what he did then and the styles of dance now, I think it’s really good. It’s an experience for people who don’t know or understand hip hop dance..." There were a lot of good dancers, there were a lot of scenes that had fifteen, twenty dancers doing set routines together, which was really nice. So it was about the experience of the Jaffa Man going from the City to Embankment and other places in London and the experience of what happened to him when he went to these places and how he used dance to get in and out of situations. I think that is one of the films that made Robert really want to forge links in the film industry and do more theatrical hip hop theatre for the big screen. And that’s what helped us get that film we done, “Two Sugars”, the one we did with the pensioners. And Robert’s got ideas for another two films which hopefully we’ll be able to put forward in the next year or so and get them done. Have you seen that recent advert with Gene Kelly? If so, what did you think of it and could you compare it to the work you’re doing with Robert?  The way that you see that advert, it expresses things in the hip hop
world the same way that Robert expresses it. Some one who’s well known
like Gene Kelly doing modern style movements and the way that they’ve
compared the styles of what he did then and the styles of dance now, I
think it’s really good. It’s an experience for people who don’t know or
understand hip hop dance. It’s the kind of experience that will help
them feel more connected, and it will help them understand that all
forms of dance are the same. Whether you do the waltz or whether you do
break dance, it’s just understanding that the forms are all
interconnected but they can change. And they can change in different
ways, but they can all be put back together like a puzzle, like a
Rubik’s Cube. You can turn it in many different ways and think that it’s
all just loads of different colours but when you move it in certain
directions it becomes a box where every side is one colour. That is the
same as dance, you can change it into many things, you can change it
back into its original form. And that’s what I think that Gene Kelly
advert brought to the table, and it’s a very similar expression to what
Robert Hylton does.And can you tell us about your other theatrical work, such as the stuff you’ve done with Jonzi D, Claire Missingham, and the dance theatre group Twitch? And is this a direction you want to concentrate more? For me, it was like adding another string to my bow. Being a DJ, and then becoming a musical producer of hip hop records and then moving away from just making hip hop records to making music for theatre was an experience that I really liked. So yeah, for now that’s a direction I’m gonna keep going in, but for me, I’m the sort of person who likes to reinvent themselves every few years, so who’s to say that in two or three years I won’t be doing something totally different. Because for me, it’s about keeping myself in the realms of hip hop and having longevity. So I have to be able to see the direction hip hop is going and be able to diversify what I do to be able to be current to that but still be true to my roots of what I know hip hop to be. "...For me, it’s about keeping myself in the realms of hip hop and having longevity. So I have to be able to see the direction hip hop is going and be able to diversify what I do to be able to be current to that but still be true to my roots of what I know hip hop to be..." I’m definitely gonna keep that theatrical direction, cos working with Claire Missingham was a great experience, working with Robert Hylton is a great experience, working with Twitch was a great experience. And all of these people look at hip hop in different ways, cos some of them are more hip hop than others, so their experience of amalgamating hip hop into dance was totally different. Jonzi D, he takes hip hop from a political aspect, he uses more vocal things. It’s a bit different working with Jonzi cos he uses dance as well as his vocal experience. So his is a bit more of an awakening to what hip hop really is in its different aspects. So for me it’s just nice to work with people like them who have great ideas and to have these experiences with people who look at hip hop in different ways, and it helps me to look at the many diverse ways that hip hop can be looked at. How did working with Courtney Pine help you develop your turntablism skills?  Well, working with artists such as Courtney Pine, when you work with
someone who’s a premier saxophonist, guys who change the scales of
music, as you know them, it can only help you. Because as a DJ, you may
learn certain skills and put them skills out to your audiences, and
you’ll work with certain time signatures and musical notes, but when you
work with someone from the jazz realm, they look at things in a totally
different perspective. The way that they look at music, and the way that
they hear music is totally different. So when they’re telling you about
3/4 beats, 3/3 beats, 7/4 beats, you think to yourself “What are you
talking about? I know about 4/4 and I know about 8, but I don’t
understand about these other things!” So for me it was just another
thing for me to learn, I was able to learn how to scratch to beats that
were in different time signatures, that was something I couldn’t have
done before I worked with Courtney Pine because you learn from the realm
of experience. It was something that I didn’t know that I needed to do,
but it was something I needed to do, to be able to expand my musical
experience.How did it feel to win the DMC UK Team Championship in ’99? That’s one of my greatest moments ever! Cos the experience of that, it wasn’t just the winning, it was the fact that when we entered that competition, it was when hip hop had changed and the turntablist had come about. Now, in the early days, the En4cers – me, Pogo, Swift – and a lot of the other DJs from that era, we looked at DJs as entertainers. So a lot of DJs would do body tricks and all sorts of other things to entertain their audience. The era of turntablism came about and everything became very technical, very stiff, less humorous, less enjoyable. At that time there was this thing of turntablism verses old school DJing, the entertainment value, what is better? "...The whole thing of turntablism as an art form is about enjoyment and expressing what you do, not about how technical you can get..." The crew that we ended up against in the final, the Scratch Perverts, they were everyone’s favourite, so they were gonna win cos they were the technical kings, and us old guys, all we do is body tricks and try to entertain you, but it’s about how technical you can be. And for us, the greatest thing was to win, and to know that entertainment outshone technicality. Technicality is good, but it’s about enjoying the experience. The technical things in life can be wonderful, but if you miss the enjoyment of life, then you’ve missed out on what life’s about. So for us, we wanted to bring those things to the table, it was more important for us to win that competition to allow people to understand that the whole thing of turntablism as an art form is about enjoyment and expressing what you do, not about how technical you can get. So do you still work with the En4cers then? Yeah, I still work with the En4cers. We don’t get much time together, Pogo’s of touring, he’s in Brazil, Swift works for DMC, and I’m off touring with Robert, DJing for Ty, working alongside Future Sounds of Jazz, so there’s so many things that we’re doing separately, but we do get together. We have a few DJ workshops coming up in May and June. We like to put back, give back to the kids, cos at the end of the day, hip hop gave us something, we want to be able to give that back. So we still do a lot of DJ workshops for the kids, they deserve something back from what gave us a lot of pleasure and enjoyment. Do you think the En4cers will enter the DMCs again and if so, do you think you would incorporate the work you’ve done with the theatre?  Boy, I don’t think we’ll enter the DJing realm again. Like a lot of
people, like Roc Raida, Rob Swift, The X-ecutioners, The Skratch Piklz,
we feel that sometimes you have a statement to make, and once you’ve
made that statement, you sit back and make other contributions. So we
believe we’ve made our statement within that realm of DJing and DJ
competitions, so now we’re just gonna sit back and help push what we
believe to be a good, firm future for DJs. We say to them that this is
what we do, this is what we learned, so enjoy our experience, maybe you
can take from that experience and add it to what you’ve got and make
yourself better. And that’s all we really wanted to do.As mentioned before, you’re a very busy man, but can you give us a quick breakdown of all the other projects you’re currently involved with that haven’t been mentioned so far? Well, at the moment, I’m off to New Zealand with Robert Hylton. As soon as I come back I’ll be ion tour for a week with Ty. After that I come back from that and I’ll be doing a few shows with Mos Def, cos fortunately for me I’m in the right place at the right time. After that I’ll be going away with the Future Sounds of Jazz, then back with Robert Hylton. And then hopefully I’ll get back to the studio cos I’m trying to finish an EP and an album that I’ve been putting together for a little while. And it’s like an amalgamation of all the different musical experiences I’ve been through. "...I’m one of those ones fortunately blessed to be able to have a job where I can go and see the world..." That’s my main aim, to try and get that out. Alongside the music that I’ve produced for the “Verse and Verses” performance with Robert, me and Robert are gonna sit down and try and take those pieces of music and take them out of the form that they are for the theatre show and actually remould them and change them and make an album of it, so we’ll have a “Verse and Verses” album of the show, but the music won’t be exactly the same as it is in the show. It will be a little different, and some of the tracks, we’ll try and get some vocalists, maybe singers, maybe rappers, to perform on those tracks. It’s gonna be a different experience! And how do you split your time between so many different obligations? You know what, I don’t even know how I split my time! Between working with all those different artists and having a family, cos I’ve got two kids, it’s one of those things where you don’t know how you do it but you just do it. And you do it because it’s the thing you love the most. For me, this is my life. If I wasn’t out on the road, if I wasn’t making someone else happy, then it wouldn’t make my life an experience. For me to go away for a month or so, I miss my family, and then for me to come back and see my family, that is an experience. So I wouldn’t change it for anything. I’m away a lot, I see the world, the world in itself is an experience to be seen, and I’m one of those ones fortunately blessed to be able to have a job where I can go and see the world, and meet people around the world, not just see them on a flat screen TV and hear about them from someone else’s perspective, I’m able to meet them and share things with them. For me, here’s no greater education than travelling the world and meeting people and learning about the other human beings that are on this planet. And what have you enjoyed most in your years in the music industry?  That’s a good question! What have I enjoyed the most? Winning the ’99 UK
DMC Team Championships, that was one of the greatest experiences. Going
to the New York Seminar and battling American DJs on their soil in one
of the greatest competitions ever, the New York Seminar, with Cutmaster
Swift and Pogo, in 1989. Joining the London Posse, I remember us being
in my house, and me cutting up breaks and them lot rapping over the
breaks, working out the demos were gonna use. Buying my first turntables
- we put on an event, all the hip hop guys back in the day, me, Pogo,
Cosmic Jam, Imperial Mixers, a guy called Victor, we put on an event
called Freestyle 85, which was one of the first hip hop jams ever to be
put on for the people, by the people. It was all the people involved in
UK hip hop in London, and we put the event on ourselves, we invited
B-Boy crews from Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester, and they all came
down. We held that in Covent Garden, it was a fantastic event and the
day after that event, I took my money and went and brought my first
turntables. The first time me and Robert Hylton performed “Verses”, that
was an experience, cos we were doing all this headbanging madness, and
the audience were like “What the hell are these nutters doing?” And to
see the reaction of the crowd was fantastic.And how did you get into listening hip hop and then performing it in the first place? I think I got into hip hop seeing Jeffrey Daniels on Top of the Pops, cos I was a staunch watcher of that show. Back in those days, pop music was pop music, not manufactured nonsense like today. You listen to some of those groups, Visage, Duran Duran, ABC, Madness, they made real music. Toyah Wilcox, The Eurythmics, they made real music. The nonsense they make today? That’s not real music, that’s manufactured. I used to listen to that all the time. In the top ten at the time was a group called Shalamar, and they had a record with Jeffrey Daniels called “There It Is”, and Jeffrey Daniels was actually performing popping in the video, and he was doing mime, miming a bar, miming glass. "...I love dancing, but I wanted to be the man that makes the party hot, and that’s what made me take up DJing..." And as I was watching it, I was like “What the hell is this guy doing?” And the next thing I know, everyone was phoning each other up, “Did you see Top of the Pops? It was wicked!” and one person said to someone else that they’d heard they do it in Covent Garden and it kind of went around all of my friends. And I told them I was going down there, so me and one of my friends went one Saturday to Covent Garden by ourselves. We didn’t know anyone, but fortunately Covent Garden was a place were street performers hung out, so you got jugglers, all different types of performers, and we saw some body poppers there and we were like “Damn, this is the place to be!” And from there, we were there in the summer holidays, every day. And every day, you’d meet someone new from another part of town, and you’d learn a new move. And that was me sold on hip hop from then! So when you first started DJing, what was your dream and have you achieved it? You know what, when I first started DJing I never ever had a dream or expectations of what I wanted to do with DJing. All I knew was because I was a breakdancer, and hip hop was my first love, all I wanted was to be part of that era and just live and enjoy hip hop, that’s all I really wanted to do. And I thought, being a breakdancer and popper from the years of ’81 – 85, I just thought I had done and experienced so much. Cos I’d been away to perform, I’d done live shows in England, I’d been on TV, I’d done so much, but I wanted to do something else, I wanted to experience something new. And unlike a lot of the other breakdancers, I used to hang with DJs, cos DJs were the ones who played the beats for the B-Boys, and back in those days the whole hip hop culture was based around the DJ, he was the king, from Kool Herc to Bam to Jazzy J, the DJ was king. The emcee was the hype man, he hyped the DJ, the B-Boys danced to the beats that the DJ played, so I wanted to be that man, the man who makes the party hot! I love dancing, but I wanted to be the man that makes the party hot, and that’s what made me take up DJing. Cos I was around Pogo, Cutmaster Swift, Cosmic Jam, DJ Street Ahead, these were the premier DJs, I was like “I want to be like those guys!” So I never really had any aspirations or expectations of achieving this or that, but to think that where I am now, from where I was at the beginning, it’s something I never ever would have dreamed of. I would never have dreamt that DJing would take me to the places that I’ve been, the artists that I’ve performed with, and the things I’ve experienced. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. So you still listen to hip hop obviously, but is it the classic stuff or is it more the current trends?  Oh both. You come to my house on the weekends, I’m listening to my
Public Enemy, I’m listening to my KRS-One, and when I say KRS-One, I
mean the Boogie Down Production’s South Bronx. I listen to the Eric B &
Rakim album, Paid in Full. And when I’m running around town, you hear me
listening to my Dr. Dre, to my Eminem, you’ll hear me listening to the
Game, MF Doom, Edan. I like all different types of hip hop. So I like to
listen to everything and see what everyone is trying to bring to the
table. At the moment, my more favoured hip hop is independent.
Independent hip hop guys, I think, are forging a nice direction for hip
hop. I think a lot more of the major artists are getting a bit lost in
the commerciality of what’s going on. But yeah, I listen to everything,
every type and style of hip hop there is, I listen to it, even French
hip hop. I love it.And what are your current favourite singles or albums? Singles and albums is always hard for me cos my favourites are never what’s out now, that’s the problem! It’s always favourites from before, things like Glimity Glamity by the Demon Boyz, that’s one of my favourite ever. Doomsday of Rap by Hijack, all those types of things. Eric B & Rakim’s Paid in Full, Check out my Melody and Eric B for President, those are my favourite singles. Welcome to the Terrordome by Public Enemy, Run DMC’s Peter Piper, things like that. Any KRS-One, every KRS-One! He is my man! I do listen to a lot of the current stuff, I like some of the stuff that The Game’s doing, MF Doom’s my man at the moment, Madlib, Madlib’s hot. I like the Erick Sermon, the album he’s just had out. But right now, what I’m really into is some West Coast funk, that West Coast gangsta shit. "...Those West Coast guys are changing what hip hop’s about, because they’ve always made it about enjoyment and entertainment. Even though they’re talking about guns and bitches and all that foolishness, when it comes to making music, they make music that makes you get up and shake your booty!..." I don’t know why, it’s not what they say, but it’s the music and the vibe that you get from the whole track. It brings back the days when was about enjoyment and entertainment, that’s why I like listening to it. So at the moment, I’m listening to so much West Coast, people just think I’ve gone bonkers! At the moment for me, East Coast’s had a lack of inspiration, they need something to make them step to the plate and look at what’s going on and say “Damn! We need to step up properly!” Cos for me, those West Coast guys are changing what hip hop’s about, because they’ve always made it about enjoyment and entertainment. Even though they’re talking about guns and bitches and all that foolishness, when it comes to making music, they make music that makes you get up and shake your booty! And where do you think hip hop will go from here? I think hip hop’s about to take over the world! People just ain’t seen it yet man. When you see Gene Kelly and they have to turn him into someone doing body popping, you gotta realise hip hop is in every aspect of life! People now have to accept it’s not going away, it’s not a phase, for us, we can say we’re twenty, twenty five years down the line. But how many years are America down the line, thirty five years or so! So people have to realise, hip hop is not going away, it’s influenced every music you can think of. When people like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ask people like Pogo to come in and help them with their scratch competition to go with their classical music, then you know hip hop is about to go global. It’s everywhere, in everything, every kind of advert you can think of, it’s influenced. All the new music you can think of that have come out – jungle, garage, if it wasn’t for hip hp they wouldn’t be around. Hip hop is not going anywhere, it’s here to stay. And what would you most like to be remembered for? I tell you what, that’s a hard question, man! I’d just like to remembered as the guy who made people happy. That’s all I ever wanna do. When I see people smile, when I’m on stage and I’m cracking jokes or doing something stupid, and I see my audience laughing, that’s all I ever want to do. I just want to entertain people. There’s too much destruction going on in the world, too many unhappy faces, all I wanna do is be someone who brings a tiny, tiny amount of pleasure to those people I perform to. And if I can do that’ I’ll be a happy man. "...Hip hop’s about to take over the world!..." Is there currently anyone out there you wish you could work with? Oh, I wish I could work with everybody! The people I wanna work with, it’s not the Eminems or the Dres, those cats are cool, but I wanna work with some old classic masters! They’re the ones who bring inspiration to me. So, when I see people like De La Soul getting the opportunity to do a song with Chaka Khan, I’m jealous! People like Erick Sermon making songs using Marvin Gaye’s voice, I wish Marvin Gaye was still alive so I could work with someone like that. For me, those are the real greats. When you listen to their music, it had life, feeling, expression. Those are the people I’d really like to work with. If I could dig all those guys up and bring them back to life, I’d do it just so I could make an album, just so I could sit in the studio and feel their vibe, and be able to take on board some of the experiences they had, I’d love to be able to do that. This has kinda been covered already, but what’s next in your immediate future?  I’m about to get on the bus and go home, that’s the most immediate
future for me, when I leave here. But it’s about time I get myself
together and get my music out there. I’m still gonna be doing the
touring with Ty, with the Future Sounds, with Robert, but for years and
years, I’ve been planning to put my stuff out. And every year goes by,
you put your stuff to the back burner and do someone else’s stuff. I
think it’s about time I put my stuff out, alongside the En4cers cos
we’ve had a lot of material that we’ve started recording but never
finished. So the En4cers’ EP and album, and my own, which is not gonna
be like anyone could imagine. Cos people are gonna think it’s straight
hip hop, but it’s gonna be some wacky madness!Do you have any final messages or shout outs that you wanna make? Not really man, final messages? I always find those kind of things hard. I just want more love and entertainment in the world of hip hop. When hip hop first came about, it was about, as they say, peace, love, unity, and having fun. That’s why Bam made a record about that. In the future I’d like to see those words being used in a true fashion, because people don’t experience those things the way we should. And life is something that’s too short not to experience it. People have too many regrets. We’ve got to life for today. If you do something bad to someone, be the bigger person. Don’t feel ashamed to go up to them and say sorry. Don’t wait until that person’s gone and you can’t speak to them, we’ve got to live for the moment, cos we don’t know when life’s gonna end. "...I just want more love and entertainment in the world of hip hop..." Enjoy life, life is about enjoying. I want to bring enjoyment to people, cos for me, people don’t enjoy life the way it should be enjoyed. If I can make you happy for a second, then it makes me happy, it makes my life pleasurable. And shout outs? I have to give a huge shout out to Swift and Pogo, those are my boys, the En4cers in the house. The Scratch Perverts. I love those guys, they helped us to take ourselves to another level through the little rivalry we had. Mr Thing, Big Ted, Shortee Blitz, Ty. Ty and Roots Manuva, they’re the future of hip hop. I want people like that to keep their shit up, don’t ever give this up man! To my kids, and to everybody who knows me and knows that I’m a crazy, freaky, off the hook madman. To the boys at Scratch. Peace! Many thanks to DJ Biznizz for those words of wisdom. His current work with Robert Hylton is a definite off-shoot of hip hop, whilst still being grounded in this culture. The first shows of “Verse and Verses” are at the Laban, Creekside in London on April 22nd and 23rd and then it’s off around the country on their extensive national tour of this show, before finishing back in London in 2006. Tickets for the show can be purchased by calling the venue, Laban, on 020 84699500. Be sure not to miss this experience! - Mike
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