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  Beefeaterz Interview
interview 0294 added 12.04.05 words: Nikesh & Lingo
technical:
QED
Beefeaterz are rapper
AggaMan the Mongrel, DJ Big Mac,
a whole host of collaborators, the elusive Squire and new
addition, Vee-Kay supplying some hard beats. They’ve had two
excellent EP’s out, taking in some beautiful well produced music
with a dark and edgy twist to it, all obliterated by AggaMan’s
witty, metaphorically twisted flows and rhymes. Working on an
album and coasting in the wake of their “From Here to Hereafter”
release, the Beefeaterz embody a sense of elder statesmanship in
hip-hop. Harking back to 87-92 attitudes and beats, rather than
some mid-90’s ish, their foundation is keeping things enjoyable
and keeping the music free of interference from outside forces.
Making music primarily for their own enjoyment, they put a lot
of time and effort into making some great shit and keeping it
flowing (the music, not the shit.)
Lingo and I caught up with the Beefeaterz on a blizzard-infested
day in Gravesend, at the Squire’s humble abode, whilst they were
recording and extended family Dead Residents were downstairs
talking about midget porn…
Introduce yourselves and tell us how
you like your steak?
 Aggaman: Bleeding on a plate with its arse wiped.
Swimming in its own juices.
Big Mac: I like my steak blue. Just pull the horns off
and wipe its arse.
Vee Kay: Vee-Kay. I like mine medium-rare and beefy.
How did the Beefeaterz hook up?
AG: Through a varying degree of crossing paths really. I’ve
known Big Mac for many years through my girlfriend’s brother.
BM: Yeah, the usual process of friends getting to know each
other and discovering they have similar interests and deciding
to put a group out. I scratch, Agga MC’s.
AG: Yeah, there were other people involved from years back but
as you get older, people drop out and start changing diapers and
nappies and drugs and god knows what else…I felt like this
line-up’s prepared and committed to do it. Big Mac is someone
who can kick my arse so it’s a good working relationship.
BM: We’re like Little and Large.
AG: Canon and Ball…
Describe the Beefeaterz sound. How do
you pick your beats and what lyrical themes do you tend to
explore?
AG: Well, I won’t talk about the beats. I retired from that side
of things a while ago. Now we have another youthful angry thing
to take over that department in Vee Kay, who I feel will be
doing the beats in the long run. I actually think the ideas come
from varying areas, different parts of the world, a lot of it is
us working out how we can contribute to the gaps already on the
shelf…
BM: Without being too Anticon…
AG: Yeah, without being too up our own arseholes… There is a
niche market for what we do and it’s not purposefully designed
that way. A lot of it has come about from people seeking us out,
us not taking ourselves too seriously but also us giving
ourselves a quality control we think is worthy of most punters
parting with their money. If you make music that generally
you’re happy with, ultimately a few more people will be happy
with it…
"...We
ain’t got beef with no one in hip-hop as it’s negative and it
hangs off your arse like a shirehouse’s clegnut...."
BM: We’re finding a lot more like-minded people coming together
now and making music we enjoy hearing. We try and keep a
raw-element in what’s going on, not keep it too Anticon but keep
a raw energy. Agga definitely has a laugh with his lyrics but
it’s also stuff a lot of people can relate to. Going down the
British Legion club and playing, like I’m sure everybody has…
Playing in some shitkicking village in Surrey where everyone
gets pissed on crap cider…
VK: And shits themselves…
BM: Stuff like that. There’s a good farmhand thug element to
that, which is good. But there’s a lot of people who have of
intelligence and talent who are starting to hook up. People from
round the valley putting good music together. And Vee Kay is
definitely going to be a welcome addition to join on with the
madness. We’re all from the same background and vibe, we all
like that raw element and we like a bit of a tear-up now and
then. One plus one plus one equalling six.
 VK: I haven’t done a British Legion gig yet. I’m hoping these
guys can help me break my cherry.
AG: It can be arranged.
VK: I know Agga likes his dark disjointed shit with heavy drums,
a bit of boom-bap. I’m just trying to do that, keep it funky but
make sure there’s a horrible element to it.
BM: With Vee-Kay joining the group as well, I know he likes to
rhyme but I know he wants to produce more as well. It’ll be good
for Agga to have someone with some energy to bounce off.
VK: Everyone can concentrate on their one thing…
BM: It frees Agga up to just think about the rhymes. The
future’s bright…
Is it orange?
BM: If you’re Ron Atkinson it is!
OK, so after two excellent and
well-received EP’s, why are Beefeaterz still bubbling under the
surface?
BM: I think some of that is down is down to us not wanting to
get caught up in industry politics. We’ve always been
self-financed. We’ve never worked to anyone else’s agenda. We’ve
always done it the way we wanna do it. Which still keeps the
enjoyment there. If someone was telling us what to do, where to
go, how to do our own thing, that would create angst amongst the
group and as individuals as well.
AG: Essentially, from my point of view, Mac nailed it. We
purposefully avoid certain things that would put us more in view
of the people. At the same time, I admire Roots Manuva, who has
the backing of people on a wide scale and in media. That does
open doors up for people and doors are good cos they give us the
option to make our music more freely available. I quite like the
idea that you create something that you don’t particularly want
to see that happen to (become freely available). My personal
belief is that it does destroy the artistic control that you
have on it as other people are governing it.
"...There’s
a fascination, for me, in people who are slightly inbred and it
does breed a type of person and a way of thinking that you can
be somebody who is known...."
History has taught
the tale before where artists from the States and here have been
manipulated and their product has become a marketing tool and
commercialised. That’s like a cannibalisation, where music
invents a certain spawn of sound for people to buy into and then
it eats away at itself because it’s invented a monster. Like
Frankenstein, hip-hop music’s done that. Some of the fresh music
you hear is the stuff that hasn’t been marketed, manufactured,
pushed, published and promoted. That’s the consensus for the
masses. They will sit down and say the same thing time and time
again. When you first stumble across something, that’s the
excitement that you want most people to get from any music.
That’s what we make.
Is that why the EP’s are only available
on vinyl?
AG: To a degree, yeah. But from my point of view, I’ve joked in
the past that I’d like to see it on the front of Woman’s Weekly
with a knitting pattern. I do think that this is how we’ve
worked in the past. With Undercover and other magazines who’ve
promoted us and introduced us to a broader scale of people that
can listen to that music. So I’d rather give it away than sell.
Because once you start thinking about money, it becomes the
driving force for why you do it. It’ll become a growing entity
that you can’t cut off like a tumour on your arse. It’ll always
back you there though, if you put money before anything else.
So no duets with Ashanti then?
 BM: Get yer six pack out.
AG: I might do a rap with Estelle though.
How angry is Aggaman? Are you like Mr
Cross from Mr Men or Mr Angry from Mystery Men?
AG: From the Mr Men. That’s a more accurate description of me.
The name’s more a moniker from when I used to do graffiti and it
was how I tried to drum up a squadron of graff artists to come
paint a train. I would use ringleader tactics to get what we
wanted. It’s probably part of the reason why we haven’t become
more commercially available. Because I do say a few things near
the mark. And that’s how I am. If Mr Cross drives his car,
tooting his horn, shouting obscenities, that’s me…
So, how did y’all get into hip-hop?
AG: I used to have a friend who lived not far from me who knows
a few people like Tony Vegas. He was a good inspiration to me.
We went to see Bambaataa at the Lyceum or Electric Ballroom with
Wizzkid and that was a big inspiration to me. Graffiti, hip-hop,
it all merged together and it generally became a lifelong thing
when I started tattooing it on my body. If you’re prepared to
brand yourself with it, then it’s for life. I’ve always thought
that with age creeping up on me, it’s something that’ll always
be a part of my life. The music side for me has grown and become
the bigger part of it.
BM: I got into it in 89-90 when I got a Smash Hits mixtape and
it had the Coldcut remix of Eric B and Rakim’s “I Know You Got
Soul” on it. I just kept playing it and playing it. Prior to
that, I had Now 5, which had Run DMC and Aerosmith, “Walk This
Way” on it. And the beginning BOOM-KISH-BA-BOOM-BOOM-KISH and
the WIKKI-WIKKI scratch noise, I literally shitted my BHS
y-fronts. Listening to it on a Fisher Price tape deck… I then
went the normal route of buying vinyl, not being able to afford
turntables, starting off on an Amstrad stack and knocking the
shit out of all my 80’s pop 7”s and getting into it more and
more. Then suddenly, you’re immersed in the culture and it
consumes your whole life. I was into skateboarding and heavy
metal before that but those two songs changed all of it really.
I remember buying “Fear Of a Black Planet” and “Step In the
Arena” in Woolworths in Waltham and Jack the Groove, the housey
electro stuff. I started deejaying. Had a successful night in
Kingston called PIMP, that got shut down cos the manager was
doing too coke. Started recording and that was about it.
VK: I started off as writer and all the people around me were
DJ’s and MC’s. I started working with a producer and I was just
a rapper. Split up with him and started making my own beats
really.
People said that last year was a
vintage year for UK hip-hop. What changes have you seen in the
scene?
AG: The main thing is that the industry isn’t supporting the
artist enough and the commercial point of view is driving the
industry machine. So we don’t get the options that should be
available to us. I do believe that a change is coming. The
product has got phenomenally better. The general standard has
risen, and the benchmark has risen loads. There aren’t that many
records that are put out with a disco bag and a sticker front
because the industry doesn’t really look at them like they used
to. There’s a need for people to put out records with quality
control. The scene has become a lot more… I preferred it when it
was a little nastier around the edges and a bit frayed. You used
to have to struggle a bit to make music. Now it’s a little too
easy and too nice.
"...And
the beginning BOOM-KISH-BA-BOOM-BOOM-KISH and the WIKKI-WIKKI
scratch noise, I literally shitted my BHS y-fronts...."
BM: And it’s spawned this bastard offshoot called grime music,
which seems to have got kicked out of pirate stations…
AG: It’s the general feeling that people abroad show a better a
following for our music than we do here. You can achieve what Ty
did with Japan and have a market in Tokyo to sell to and export
stuff out there. That really is saying a devastating amount.
Some people chase the goal of being commercially and viably
known. And you can manufacture a sound to be a bit more generic
so people can buy into it. I’d rather stay specialised by being
a bit more inbred.
Added to that, do you think that it’s
too easy for people to put stuff out there and that means that
quality control at the bottom end of the market goes down and
this puts record companies off?
AG: There’s a certain amount of people who make music for hobby
and as that stands, that’s great and if they send them to A&R
men, they probably think that’s the standard of the UK hip-hop
they’re going to receive. Maybe that’s the case but I think most
people can tell the difference between what’s shit and what’s
better music.
BM: A lot of people who got into hip-hop in the so-called Golden
Age of 87-92 probably have a very different perception of what
dope is. In those times, what was coming out was underground but
it was still commercially viable. Like Brand Nubian’s early
stuff and whatnot. It’s difficult. A lot of people make music
and think they can do garage, and if that doesn’t work, they can
do hip-hop, and if that doesn’t work, drum’n’bass. There’ll
always be a barrier on entry to the people making music who
don’t know anyone, in their bedroom. We hook up with people
whose music we like.
AG: We don’t hate people who make music.
 BM: There’s loads of people out there who’ll pay someone for a
beat or a guest verse. It’s not our policy at all. We’re about
people coming together and loving the culture. There’s a lot of
pockets of people who are keeping that alive, hooking up and
making it happen. It’s not a bad thing that you may see a few
more collectives popping up. As long as the music’s good and the
quality control is there, it’s good. You gotta be different
because you are, don’t prefabricate it. A lot of people try to
be leftfield to try and create a mystique. As long as you can
remain an individual in your collective though. If you all mash
and everyone drops verses on everyone’s stuff, you all lose your
sound.
VK: The way I see it, so many people do it for a hobby but some
take it too far. You all make music but not everyone makes their
hobbies public. Everyone then starts their own label and that
just saturates it to the point where there’s whole other genres
of music coming along. Like grime, people are making all this
weird distorted shit and there’s no quality control.
AG: People feel like they’re backyard celebrities! It’s like in
Japan, where they had those karaoke booths in malls, where you
could go home with your own tunes. It’s part of the intrigue for
inbreeds culture. There’s a fascination, for me, in people who
are slightly inbred and it does breed a type of person and a way
of thinking that you can be somebody who is known. Everyone has
that ability to feel like a celebrity in your own mind. Which is
good. We should all become like the Japanese and strive to be
Elvis.
With your breed of hip-hop and your
extended family, Dead Residents, who also bring it hard and
disjointed, do you feel like you’re creating an alternative to
UK hip-hop?
AG: There’s a good train of thought to that. We’ve managed to
hook up with some like-minded folk from the shires. We travelled
to Swansea in car journeys reminiscent of Jack Kerouac. I do
think that striving to go and work somewhere with someone for
fun weekends sets out the train of thought that we have Headcase
Ladz, Dead Res, ourselves, there’s a hybrid of music where the
quality is more flexible and the skills have come from people
who love hip-hop and have had to listen to some horrible music
to get to a stage where we’re our own worst critiques. We’ve
seen what the Headcase Ladz go through to make music and it’s
similar to us. With Dead Res and us, we’re alternative because
we’re accessible in a lot of ways and the things are very much
from real life and the music doesn’t sit on the shelf. I took
influence from Australia and Lyrical Commission, where they make
loose music that sounds very live and it’s fresh when it goes
out. That’s how you heard all the great records you did from the
states. The music was fresh and dope at the time.
"...There’s
a lot of hip-hop that I grew up with and I love and it sounds
fresh and dope but I don’t try and replicate it...."
BM: There’s a lot of hip-hop that I grew up with and I love and
it sounds fresh and dope but I don’t try and replicate it. It
comes out of me differently. People got into hip-hop when there
was an independent scene didn’t really know what happened before
that. It was all very much growing up and getting into
backpacker music and that’s all some people know. It’s quite
weird. With Big Daddy Kane, he was a superhero back then.
Who are you feeling at the moment?
BM: Foreign Beggars definitely. Consistent music.
AG: Yep, Sway too. Dirty Diggers. I like loads that’s floating
about at the moment. I listen to music from all over the world,
artists people might not have heard of. Like Josh Martinez and
some of the artists we hooked up for the new stuff. It’s just me
trying to get three fingered guitarists who rap on board and
keep it weird and disjointed. We’re driven by the Freudian way
of thinking. I really like Canada, I’ve always had an ear to the
ground in Canada, in Toronto and Nova Scotia and places like
that. Halifax like Peanuts and Corn and those boys. I know
mcenroe is coming over soon and hopefully there’ll be a
potential collaboration there. I like Australia too, the stuff
coming out of there. There’ll be more collaborations coming up.
We probably have more people in Melbourne liking our music than
we do here. That’s healthy. It’s nice to know that we can
introduce Australian rappers to the UK. I know people went out
and bought Brad Strut’s LP after hearing him work with us. It’s
a very similar vibe to our stuff.
 BM: There’s all extended Run 4 Kova fans cos of the Graff
connection out there.
AG: Yeah, when the graffiti died down and there wasn’t so many
of us involved, a couple disbanded and went travelling. One of
my mates formed a connection crew out in Melbourne. With Brad,
they’re all avid graff artists as well as music makers… Hilltop
Hoods.
BM: Australia is a wicked export market for UK hip-hop.
AG: I can honestly say I reckon Australians like UK hip-hop more
than we do here. And it’s a testament to what we’ve done and how
we may have inspired their music.
BM: They certainly get the lingo and the chat.
What is your 5 year plan for Beefeaterz?
BM (with a Southern drawl): 5 years is a long time in hip-hop.
AG: Keep eating.
BM: Keep eating, keep smoking, get tatted.
AG: As long as we can eat, make music and be merry, we’ll make
music for another ten years. I envisage one of us getting lung
failure or liver poisoning. I reckon I’ll be a granddad
rollerskater, I’ll still be rocking mics in BHS.
BM: Working on an album. That’ll keep us occupied for the next
few months. Keep travelling about, making new friends, like the
Littlest Hobo.
Who you got beef with?
BM: I got beef with Jamie Oliver and his 21 day old steaks.
AG: Nineteen pence extra for school dinners? Start with the
desserts first I reckon. I got beef with the local butcher cos
he’s put up the price of his sausages. We ain’t got beef with no
one in hip-hop as it’s negative and it hangs off your arse like
a shirehouse’s clegnut. We go to therapy regularly. I have
serious road rage but I can handle that.
BM: Working a 9-5 and only getting 20 days holiday.
What’s next for the Beefeaterz?
AG: The general plan for us is to put the album together in the
next 6-7 months. No real time limit on it. It’s going well.
We’re creating more than we need and I feel happy with it. I
know if we can spawn merchandise and back our own music through
independent channels, we can continue to enjoy it. There’s no
pipeline or key performance indicator. Keep checking the
website: www.beefeaterz.co.uk. “No Price for the Badge of
Honour.”
Finally, shout-outs and shameless plugs
AG: Mystro, Skanky, Genuine Article crew…
BM: Fat Club, Iron Bridge, Lyrical Commission, Dead Residents…
AG: Josh Martinez…
VK: Go buy my record…
AG: Flakey, drop the price of those silver skins.
BM: Shameless plugs… no one deserves it. Buy us beer and we’ll
plug you.
AG: Keep it Beefeaterz.
Thanks to Lingo and Dead Residents for help, atmosphere and
the Squire for the tea and the use of his facilities…
-
Nikesh Shukla
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Lingo
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