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  'Magic City' P Money Interview
interview 0336 added 22.09.05 words: K-Per
technical:
QED
P-Money is the diminutive New Zealand equivalent of Kanye
West or something.
Really I’m not joking, this guy is the
biggest producer in his homeland, whilst also being the ex DMC
and ITF champ and an all round sick party DJ. Ok I can already
hear you say that with the size of his country, being the
biggest producer is probably not that hard, but P-Money really
is BIG. Like a string of number ones, top fives and top ten hits
in the pop charts big, like being hassled by paparazzis outside
his house big, like… well you start to get the picture now.
However outside of NZ he may not really be that well known and
so he ditched the fame and glory of his temperate isle in June
this year to come over for a month long promo trip to London,
alongside label mate, MC and good friend of his Scribe.
The aim?
Promotion for Scribe’s new single and P’s new album, ‘Magic
City’, which were both released this summer on All City records.
With a smatter of featurings on the album including Capone, Akon,
Mystro and some of NZ’s finest mic talents it was only right
that we tried to catch up with P-Money and find out exactly what
the deal is on the album, where he’s from, battling, hip hop in
NZ and random New Zealand facts you won’t know. So Kper collared
him paparazzi style (well not really) and sat down outside a pub
on a busy London street on one of the hottest days of the year
to get the low down.
What you been up to?
 P: Basically I came over to London about 4 weeks ago with my man
Scribe from New Zealand and we just been doing PAs and little
shows here and there, trying to build some profile for ourselves
and throw our name out over here. That's basically been the
whole point of the trip. And also I've got my album, 'Magic
City', out in July on All City so I'm promoting that as well.
That's why I'm here.
Have you been enjoying the hot weather then?
P: Yeah man, it's a nice change of scenery from the last time I
was here. I came towards the end of the year last time so this
is great really. It's crazy it's like as hot as back home.
At least you don't have so much pollution! I actually wanted to
ask you how you got into DJing as that was how a lot of people
got to know you over here?
P: My first inspiration was Jazzy Jeff with his 'Live at Union
Square' record, the B side to 'Parents Just Don't Understand'
12". I must have been about 10 years when I heard it, maybe even
8 or 9, and I heard his transformer scratches and the sounds
they made and that just sparked my imagination. From there on I
just tried to find out how he achieved those sounds and what it
took to do it, I also learnt about other DJs, people like
Scratch from EPMD, Ritchie Rich from 3rd Bass, those were the
DJs that inspired me at a really early age. And as I got older I
discovered DMC video tapes, so I watch the old battles with Cash
Money doing his thing, right through to the modern ones which at
the time was like Qbert and Roc Raida who were dominating the
scene around the mid 90s.
"...I
must have been about 10 years when I heard [Live at Union
Square], and his transformer scratches and the sounds they made
just sparked my imagination..."
They were the guys to watch, so I
studied them as well and I just really watched the tapes, learnt
from it and as soon as I got my own set of 1200s at home I was
sitting there and my skills got a lot better. Before that I had
some shitty belt drives and a broken Gemini mixer, so I'd have
to go to my friend's house to practice on good equipment. When I
turned 18 I got my own set of 1200s and it was on from then.
Did it help you having the shitty set up? A lot of people say
that it helps honing the skills in a way.
P: Yeah I guess it did, at 14 when I had the belt drive set up,
I had that for 4 years and it was so frustrating. You had to try
a lot harder to pull off cuts and moves that were quite simple,
and so you practiced harder and getting a proper set up later on
made me realise that a lot of it was easier. And I learnt a lot
of things really fast from then on. It definitely paid off,
coming from the ground up.
And did you end up making beats and producing, was that like a
natural progression?
P: Yeah the same obsession I had for DJing I had for hip hop
production, I was fascinated by beats, where they got the breaks
from, what machines they used and how the whole thing was made.
Producers like The Beatnuts and Rza and the Wu Tang I was just
inspired by what they were doing. So I read up a few articles
and got my hands on some equipment in the same kind of way I did
with decks. It was bad equipment to begin with, I was practicing
with little drum machines and four track tape machines, and kept
practicing till I could afford better gear, and then eventually
my beats were good enough to play to people, which was made
easier by the profile I built up from DJing. So it all came
together nicely really.
"...The
same obsession I had for DJing I had for hip hop production..."
Did you find that getting a name through things like DJ battles,
helped you find a way to get your beats out there and promote
that side of your work?
P: Yeah for sure. I made a name for myself through DJing, doing
battles, doing clubs and radio at home and then meeting a lot of
MCs and just going 'eh check out some of my beats'. They knew my
name, knew I had a profile, so they were more eager to listen
and give me feedback or arrange hook ups. I just went on from
there really.
I wanted to ask you actually if your experience with battles and
the turntablism side of things had meant that you found yourself
using your turntable as a production tool in the studio?
P: I use it sparingly to be honest. I sample all my stuff from
vinyl but apart from that it's quite rare that I'd use my
turntables or scratching when I'm in the process of making a
beat. Once the songs are done I'll often add solo cuts here and
there. I've always liked the less is more approach to scratching
on records, like the old school guys used to do it. Scratching
in the right spots rather then through the whole songs.
I know you're quite big over in NZ, with songs in the top charts
regularly and quite a high profile publicly and so I was
wondering what it's like to be over here for a while and not
having the same reaction from media and people etc... having to
go round and show people your stuff, in a way I guess having to
prove your music again?
P: It's cool. To come over here and be to some extent kind of
unknown but also have all that experience and catalogue of music
behind me. It's really exciting to come to a new territory and
be like a new face and also you're not a party to anybody's
politics or anything like that. And you can come in fresh and
meet people, and more often than not they're quite impressed by
the work even if they never heard of it and makes them think
'what else am I missing out on?' and look into your other stuff.
"...Eventually
my beats were good enough to play to people, which was made
easier by the profile I built up from DJing..."
But also it's funny coming from home and having a sky high
profile, getting recognised in the streets etc... and coming
over here and being anonymous again. It's refreshing in a way,
being able to go to a bar and not having anybody come up to you.
Back home I can't go to a rap show and not get disturbed every
five minutes or having someone pass me a demo or shit like that.
Here it's cool and I'm actually the guy doing that anyway!
(laughs) So the tables have turned you know?
You did production for Scribe's LP, and you two have worked
quite closely on lots of various projects. So how did you two
meet?
P: I met Scribe in 99, I was playing some shows. I won the
national ITF title and so was touring around doing little
showcases at nights and stuff. And he was the host of the
Christchurch night, which is his hometown in the south of NZ,
and he performed a two song set. And I was quite impressed,
because I hadn't heard anyone at that point in NZ that rhymed
with a good flow, stage presence, the whole package type thing
you know? I'd seen people have one or the other, but he had
everything I was looking for in an MC to record with so I just
approached him with a tape of beat and we listened to them in
the van on the way to the next show. He liked what he heard so
we stayed in touch from there on, and about 6 months later we
recorded our first song. That was in 2000 and in 2001 I released
my first solo LP, called 'Big Things', which had 6 Scribe songs
and in 2003 we released his solo LP.
There was good chemistry between the 2 of you then?
P: Yeah for sure. We always vibe really well together, we got a
mutual appreciation of each other's skills and talents. We rate
each other and plus we got a good chemistry for live shows too,
which helps. He's a DJ too, which is good for our live shows.
"...It's
really exciting to come to a new territory and be like a new
face and not be a party to anybody's politics..."
Oh that's dope. Well seeing as the new LP is about to drop, what
would you say can people expect from it?
 P: You can expect to hear some real top quality hip hop that
kinda falls into its own category, it doesn't sound like UK or
US stuff, but it can stand up against both if you know what I
mean? I think that's the best bit of it, it's all beats that I
made while in NZ, and I got MCs from home, from the US and even
Mystro from over here too. So it's an international sound so far
as the vocals go and the beats are just my sound basically.
How did the hook up with Mystro happen?
P: He was in NZ once for this New Zealand vs Australia MC
battle, he was in Oz at the time but came over to NZ to judge
the battles and perform and one of the promoters who organised
that basically told me to come over and check for him, he's
really talented he said, and I'd never heard of him prior to
that so I came down to see for myself.
So we hooked up and ended up going out partying in some clubs in
town and we really hit it off. So from there he asked to check
out some of my beats, liked what he heard and so I said, 'let's
record something' and it was very spur of the moment, we went
back to mine, sat in the studio and did the thing. And I liked
the track so much in the end I included it on the LP.
So would you say that it's the same for UK artists going over to
NZ as it is for you coming over here? They won't be really known
by anybody, etc...
P: Certain might be famous or there'll be heads who are
knowledgeable about the UK scene but as a whole most people
don't know what's going on. The biggest UK star is Roots Manuva,
he’s very well known out there, underneath I'd say probably Ty,
because he's had one of his videos played over there. But really
there's very few people though getting attention in NZ... I've
seen Skinnyman's video once and that's it really. We get all the
US stuff shoved down our neck which I'm not complaining about
but nowadays it's getting to the saturation point.
"...Back
home I can't go to a rap show and not get disturbed every five
minutes..."
You've got a lot of collabos with international artists on this
LP, so I was wondering if there was a lot of back and forth
between you and them in the making of the tracks?
P: All the American acts were actually lined up. I had a friend
in America who helped me co-ordinate a lot of the features, and
then I booked out a week and a half trip for myself to go to NY
and we lined up all these people to be available in NY in that
time. So it was really a matter of making sure the people who
we'd approached and who were interested were gonna be in or
around NY when I was there so there wasn't any problems. So I
got there, and just called people up, like Sauce Money and got
them to come down to the studio. It was really spontaneous in a
sense, which was nice.
Oh so none of it was really done over the net or anything like
that?
P: No, I just went there, met people face to face, played them
the music, chilled with them. When Capone came in the studio, I
played him some beats, like 12 or something, he chose the one he
liked best and we recorded the verse for that. That's pretty
much how it went down. There were small fees involved as they
don't know me and there's no reason for them to do me a favour,
some I paid them some money but then it was worth for the fact
that I was able to record with them in the studio. That way you
can really be a producer, they'll do a verse, ask you how it
sounds, you can go back and tweak stuff on the spot, there's
input and interaction which is important to make a track sound
good. It beats being distant and sending them a track for them
to rhyme to and then it might not sound like you'd hoped.
What would you say was the most enjoyable collaboration then?
P: I think working with my guys back at home was the best, but
apart from that working with Skillz was pretty special man. When
he came in, he listened to the CD and picked the beat he wanted
to use, and he said 'gimme a minute, I'm gonna go and do
something' and he walked out and I thought he was gonna get his
rhyme book and sort out the rhymes. But instead he walked out
and literally came back ten seconds later and said 'cool I'm
ready to go'. So I don't know what he did but he got behind the
mic and I asked where his rhyme book was and he was like 'I
don't have it, it's all in my head'.
"...I
was quite impressed, because I hadn't heard anyone at that point
in NZ that rhymed [like Scribe] with a good flow, stage
presence, the whole package type thing..."
He started one verse, tried
it again and dropped a completely different verse instead and
then did that one again for a good take and then asked for the
second verse, did the chorus as well and then when it came to
third verse he went looking for his rhyme book. I was really
impressed with the fact that he had verses ready to go, he is a
committed MC. So I asked him if that's how he normally did it,
and he said he'd been writing rhymes for a similar type of beat
this week and had the rhymes fresh in his mind and so he gave
that to me. All top of the head though apart from the last verse
which was really impressive.
You said earlier on that you grew up watching the likes of Q and
Roc Raida on videos and then you've got Roc appearing on this LP
as well. That must have been pretty special?
P: The Raida collabo happened in NY as well. I met him when he
came to NZ in 97and he judged the first battle that I ever
entered but I don't know if he ever remembered me from that, but
I bumped into him again a couple of years later and a year after
that too so we started to develop a rapport. And then I was
hanging out in NY for two months a while back and I was living
up in Harlem with people that knew him, so we started hanging
out a bit, and he listened to my beats and he wanted me to work
on something for his album, which he ended up not using, so then
I asked him if we could use it for mine and he said 'nah let's
do something new'.
"...I
liked the [Mystro] track so much in the end I included it on the
LP..."
 So we went round his house, got some beats,
and he started scratching to some of my beats but wasn't really
into it because they were a bit slow, as they're mainly beats
for rappers. So he offered to make the track and do his cuts and
leave space for mine and that's what we did. He produced the
whole thing and the chorus cuts, laid his parts and left four 8
bar spaces for me to do my solo cuts. It was really cool to do
and a total honour as well. This is somebody that I've seen as
an influence and whom I copied style wise when I was coming up
and so for him to give me a song and appreciate what I do was
amazing. That was really a great moment.
You mentioned you do a lot of shows around. What's the thing you
enjoy the most about showcases and live shows?
P: When I play out, for the last few years, it's been more of DJ
sets than battle showcases. When I play clubs for me it's all
about having a party and playing the joints that make people
dance and have a good time. It's all about the party, play my
favourite songs, get the party moving, drop the right tune at
the right time and see the crowd go for it... that's one thing I
love most, it's one of the best feelings in the world. Being
able to play that tune that everyone knows and see them go wild
is a dope thing.
I've done DJ sets with a showcase worked into it, a tablist
orientated thing, but that was mainly when I was still battling.
But it got to a point where I was only really doing that so I
turned around and said to promoters that I'd only do 15 minutes
of that rather than an hour's worth with a set around it. But as
I got older, witnessing other party DJs that I'd grown up with
play out, people like Tony Touch, Vinroc was sick, Jazzy Jeff
who's an amazing DJ anyway, made me realise that's what I wanted
to do, the style I wanted to go with and so I made a decision a
couple of years ago to move towards that.
"...Certain
[UK rappers] might be famous or there'll be heads who are
knowledgeable about the UK scene but as a whole most people
don't know what's going on..."
And while we're on the subject, here's the obligatory 'do you
still follow what goes on in battles?' question!
P: I don't really follow them to be honest. For the last 2 years
I haven't bothered. I've just got really bored with them,
nothing was amazing anymore, nothing made me want to go home and
practice or made me think 'whoa'. My favourite time for that was
probably 96 to 01, because every year I saw a DJ that made me
want to go home and practice more. I stopped getting that
feeling, so maybe I just grew out of it or something.
People try different ways to push it forward, feedback, loops,
etc... and it might have reached a little plateau for the moment
but I'm sure someone will come back out and shake things up
again. There has to be another revolution soon basically, I
don't feel like it's over yet.
I also wanted to ask you about the scene in New Zealand, can you
tell us about it, what it's like etc...?
P: The hip hop scene back home is cool. There's a lot of groups
coming up. The last 2/3 years has seen a big commercial push,
meaning that record labels, radio stations and TV have all got
behind local talents to the point where we can achieve top ten
hits and number one singles on a regular basis. Which is pretty
amazing and I've not seen that replicated in any other country
apart from the US. On that level anyway. It's amazing for such a
small country. Scribe's had 3 number one singles and I've had
one and I produced all his as well. I've also produced other
tracks for people who've ended up in top 5 or ten. And that's in
the pop charts too, so we're competing alongside straight pop
acts, like Justin Timberlake and Black Eyed Peas. And we're in
there doing hip hop which is really unique and with an
underground perspective too, we all come from that background.
I'm just doing real hip hop, we don't think of who to get to
sing hooks or shit like that. We rap.
"...Working
with Skillz was pretty special..."
No corporations or big labels involved then?
P: No. I own the label, Dirty Records. Scribe's signed to the
company, so am I and we've also got a local group called
Frontline. And we do what we consider to be straight up hip hop
from our perspective and people love it. The kids on the street
seem to love it too, we get good reactions from crowds and
shows. I think it's a situation where we're speaking for the
youth of our country and they respond to that. They can relate
to it, identify with us and come out and support it. They're
embracing it, there doesn't seem to be a lot of animosity or
problems in the public or the scene itself.
Would you say the size of the country might have had an effect
in creating such a setting for homegrown rap? I was reading
something on Australian hip hop recently and it doesn't seem to
be anywhere near the same there, but the country is way bigger.
P: I think so. The size of it means you can tour the whole
country in a couple of days. We can get to the small towns,
reach to them and see the fans from all ages and all backgrounds
more easily.
Are the crowds varied then?
P: Yeah. When we started about five, six years ago. It was all
underground type hip hop clubs, usually more men then women, and
then it changed. More girls coming through, more young people,
more of the old people too, who are feeling it as well, and just
a wide cross section of people who like good quality music and
enjoy our stuff. Which is great too because then they might go
out and check out the culture, other groups etc...
"...[Being
able to record] with [people] in the studio [is great]. That way
you can really be a producer..."
So would you say that hip hop culture in NZ is embraced and
growing?
P: Yeah the market is growing in terms of record sales and stuff
like that. The hip hop culture and people involved with that is
bigger than it used to be but similar to what it always was.
People who understand the whole history and all the elements.
It's always been a healthy scene. For 3 years we had this thing
called the hip hop summit, which was really a big help I think
in keeping the culture going in NZ and making it what it is
today. From 2000 onwards, we had this big hip hop festival over
3 days, with breakers, graffers, DJs, live groups, battles like
ITF, movies and anything to do with hip hop. It got bigger every
year for 3 years, drew in more people, more kids and they were
all getting more exposure to all aspects of the culture, seeing
how all the elements work together, you know? Eminem doesn't
necessarily rap about all this other shit and they realised that
with the Hip Hop Summit. Eminem might be their entry point to
the culture but then they would come to the Summit, see us do
our thing and maybe decide to learn more and see what's beyond
the commercial stuff. It also shows them they don't have to be
good at music necessarily, they might be dope with a can or at
breaking, so it opens up other avenues for them. That's been
wicked but didn't have one last year, we had a similar thing
that wasn't as big.
Does the tribal roots of people in NZ and the cultural aspects
of the tribes who still live there, like the Maoris, have an
influence on some of the hip hop being made out there? I guess
in a way similarly to Australia where there is a growing
Aboriginal influence on kids and people who make hip hop.
P: Well in NZ there are Samoans, Tongans, people from Fiji, Cook
Islands, you name it they all live there, and then we also have
the native Maoris. So you have all these different cultures
there and that means that their music is also part of the
culture and it gets absorbed into what people do. Especially if
you live in or near a big town. Auckland for example as the
biggest Polynesian community in the world, there are more
Pacific Islanders in Auckland than there are back on the islands
where they originate from.
"...The last few years has seen a big commercial push, [with]
record labels, radio stations and TV all getting behind local
talents to the point where we can achieve top ten hits and
number one singles on a regular basis..."
 I grew up near Auckland to the south,
and all that stuff is part of the local culture and so they're
more likely to respond to black music in a way than anything
else. Reggae has been part of the scene for a long time, hip hop
was naturally part of the music too that you would hear growing
up as a kid, because they can relate to it even if it's not
Polynesian music. And then you have that side of the culture,
their music, which is very rhythmical anyway, there's a lot of
drums, polyrhythms, melodies. So they're a very musical cultural
anyway and that all gets sucked into the New Zealand heritage as
well.
Would you say those Polynesian musical influences appear in
local NZ hip hop as well?
P: You can't help it. So for sure. Hip hop is about who you are,
your environment so it comes out. These things are all part of
us. As long as you grow up accepting that and don't reject it
it's gonna show up somehow. You can't avoid it.
There's been a couple of groups that reference quite strongly
their Pacific heritage. There's a guy named Shaefu, who has a
lot of melodies, harmonies and arrangements that you can hear
are influenced by his origins, you can trace it back to the
Island roots he has. Then there is a group called Nijan Mustak
who rap and sing and their melodies are also quite influenced by
their roots. The beats are always quite melodic, with guitars
and drums. The drums are quite prominent and they had hip hop
style drums to it as well.
"...Scribe's
had 3 number one singles and I've had one and I produced all his
as well... And that's in the pop charts too, so we're competing
alongside straight pop acts, like Justin Timberlake and Black
Eyed Peas..."
The way they rap is quite different
to someone like Scribe for example who is more a traditional hip
hop MC. He's more traditional than them if you heard them
basically. There's also a Samoan rapper who uses a lot of Samoan
material and influences in his music. And also he shoots videos
back in Samoa, so he's bringing the culture through in that way
as well. Just repping for his people really strongly. And that's
really unique to NZ, you don't get that anywhere else.
Well that's it. You got any last words?
P: Shucks man! Good interview! (laughs) That's the last word.
Actually a few quick questions and then we're done.
What would be 3 things NZ has that nowhere else does?
P: Tuatara, which is a little lizard we've got. Kiwi bird of
course. And then... toffee pops! Which is a cookie with a
regular shortbread base with toffee and caramel on it and
covered in chocolate. It's the best shit ever and you can't get
it anywhere else!
"...For
3 years we had this thing called the hip hop summit, which was
really a big help I think in keeping the culture going in NZ..."
I want some now, it sounds well good.
Ok and 3 things NZ doesn't have which you wish it had?
P: More live hip hop shows. We're at the bottom of the world and
we don't get any groups coming through. What else? We got so
much good stuff we don't need anything else!
And 3 things people wouldn't know about NZ?
P: People often don't know exactly where it is! (laughs) Apart
from that I don't know what people wouldn't know, I need
something funny... Like we've got more sheep than people!
"...People
often don't know exactly where [New Zealand] is!..."
That's a pretty scary statistic!
P: Yup. And we have a hip hop scene and a history of hip hop
culture within NZ and you might not realise that.
-
K-Per
Related Links:
"...And
we've got more sheep than people!..."
 
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