So first up, introduce yourself?
My name is Skinnyman, cos I suppose by name or nature. Sometimes I wonder if my name should have been naughty, but it's Skinnyman cos I'm a skinny cos I'm a Skinnyman. So it's what you see is what you get, Skinnyman, I'm a Skinnyman.
What was it that first got you into rhyming?
I'd say one of my first influences was people like Leroy, people like Chas and Dave, people like Yellowman. As I got older I was very influenced by reggae influences, more people like Papa San with his lyrical patterns, fast tongue talking. Before then the Saxon and Coxon sound system circuit, you had people like Smiley Culture, Tippa Irie, Asha senator. All very good lyrically with lyrical patterns and chattin'. I suppose by the time rap came along, it was introduced to my life at a very early age, about 7. What they was doing, I thought this fits me, this is me, this is the culture that's come along in my time and I'm adopting it as mine and I think from then on I've been into hip hop. I've watched the first rappers, Electro Ascension and Wiggy Wiggy, all thing like that, Grandmaster, Melle Mel, Furious Five, MC Bizzy B, people like that and I thought "yeah man I can do this, this is me," I was built for this.
Though representing Finsbury you weren't born in London were you?
I was born in Leeds, Chapeltown which I can say at the time I was born was a beautiful community, a very predominately West Indian area in Chapeltown where I was lucky enough to embrace West Indian cultures and their music and tastes and came to love it. I love my reggae, my dancehall, my ragga, my bashment and I say it does play a very big influence on the music I make.
Do you remember your first time on stage?
First time onstage was when I was about 6 or 7 and we had to do a school play and I didn't wanna get down with the bullshit so I said the only way I'm gonna be involved is if I can write my own script for my part and they said yeah. So I built myself a Rubik's cube, put on a Rubik's cube costume and done a rap about the Rubik's cube and the mathematical structures of it. So that was the first time I was onstage doing a rap I suppose, when I was in primary school as an infant.
When did Mud Fam first come into being?
If you was to ask other people that question they would say Mud Fam came along long before my time and will be around long after. Some people take the biblical term that god made man of clay & mud and breathed into his nostrils and that's when Mud Fam came about. Mud Fam was established by myself in the early 90's just by, it kinda evolved into certain beliefs and philosophies that I myself Mono (Mongo) and Chester P had and we just decided we were gonna continue the name and call ourselves Mud Family. From then its expanded, we've featured certain other rappers who've got down with Mud Fam as Mud Family members, still going today and were getting bigger, better and building.
There's been a lot of talk about you connecting with Def Jam. What's the word from the horses mouth?
I've signed to Talkin' Loud, the A & R man who's signed me has been a friend for a number of years called Paul Martin. He's at Talkin' Loud and they're working on a connection with Def Jam UK. So they're making that link now. The first thing we got to do for them was a dub plate style jam for summer which has become a bit of a classic which was the Mud Family's version of the Adam f 'Lash Suttin' and we did that as a 2001 carnival dub plate for Def Jam and it got pressed up by Semtex and distributed and was really felt on the street, so that was able to let the public know the connection that we are working in conjunction with Def Jam, Soul Jam, Talkin' loud and of course Pmmuzik.com which is the record label that I've established.
So will you be looking to collaborate with any US Def Jam artists?
I think in this industry thing, where I'm happy to kick a rap to anybody, the industry will work on a circuit like who knows who and who can get the chance to get what. If you impress this person so much he's like the man from Del Monte that will say "yes!" and give you the budget and the go-ahead for the big videos, promotional marketing network teams. I suppose the person who's in the best position to do that for me would be Def Jam in America and that would be, his name is Lyon Cohen, the new president of Def Jam. So I think at the moment, my A & R man is trying to make a connection with him, well like I say my connection is with the street, that's where I'm at, y'namean, connecting with my peoples, they wanna hear me rap, I'll rap anytime.
Cos a while back you were being linked with Titan. What happened to that?
Yeah , I mean I get down with the whole of Titan, everybody on their camp are a foundation of people that come from urban cities apart from the countryman himself and just reflect on our British surroundings and they lifestyles they live and they are very true to their game. Titan, I think every artist they got on their roster who's worked with them so far... they can be proud of, so I definitely hold my name to that Titan sound thing and I believe in what Skitz is doing with the sound system and we'll definitely be hiring him any time he wants. Skitz... any time you wanna dub plate I'll let u know...
So the EP's all done now yeah?
Its the Mud Family ep, consisting of 4 tracks, 3 produced by DJ Noize and the 4th track, 'F*** a Concept' is produced by Farma G featuring the Taskforce which we've shot the video for so everybody look out for that. I think I'm gonna give it to ukhh.com so you lot can view it on your site and spinemag and everybody else. Try and try get it on The Box and MTV and circulate that, to help increase sales for better money to do our next project.
How did you find the video, cos you seemed to be running it more so than the director?
Yeah, I found it does take a lot of energy. I feel like we've all got to get up and go and we've only got one chance in this. We've got to look at where were coming from. Tomorrow we could be sat in a jail cell for next 10 years because some dumb idiot wanted to front, y'namean? So you gotta look at life and how you're living today and just say "lets do the best most constructive positive things we can with our time whilst were here." Trying to organise the video set, I did have a lot of help, from everybody in the Mud Fam, basically everyone who came down, took part was my help. It's people like that, that make the Mud Fam become what its is, y'know, the love and foundation of the spirit of what were doing that makes Mud Fam what it is and that why people like yourselves, people who are fans who heard it broadcasted on the radio that we was interested in having our fans come to our video shoot came down and took part, paid money to help with the costs cos they knew we didn't have a budget, so that's love from the ghetto. To go out for the day and have a days fun and make a constructive work, and hopefully we'll be able to make something we can sell from it.
So what you gonna be concentrating on more now, solo or group shit?
Well I mean musically recently (phone rings Soon enough Skinnyman is back...) lets roll, are we rolling. For future projects, at the moment lyrically I feel inspired I think what inspires me is my surroundings and our social circumstances to write material. Whether its working with Taskforce, Mud Fam, Skinnyman as a solo project, Skinnyman featuring someone, working with other artists like Fire Demons, Titan sounds and anything like that I'm down for that. I think that one thing that inspired me recently, is my friend said he had writers block and I think I had to remind him of his own lifestyle to say you've got so many things you should be able to speak out about, how could you possibly have writers block and I think that really inspired me to flow more and if you were to ask at the present moment how I feel, whether its to fling down a freestyle or sit down and pen a lyric I feel that right now I've got adrenaline firing in my blood and its ready to spit, to flow and give you the best of me. So right now I'm like I'm peaking from within and that's a good feeling to have y'namean? It's sad when a writer gets down and feels that he cant have anything to write about but I feel like I'm on fire and I can churn out material like that (clicks fingers) so I'm ready to work with everyone and everything, I think consistency is a good thing. I'm inspired by Beenie Man when it comes to consistency. It seems like every month he has a reggae dancehall hit and I'd love to do that on the hip hop circuit every month.
So you got no concerns with being on a bigger label?
Thing is I'm not about my record never coming out on a major label, I'm not concerned with getting dropped from my major label, I'm not concerned with who my A & R man has to answer to, who his MD might be, or a fact that he might not like what were doing, all of them can suck, you get what I'm saying. Drop me from the label do what you're doing. If you wanna get the reality to the streets here I am, if you don't then don't front. I think with majors everyones got someone to answer to and they've all gotta be yes sirs and no sirs and lick a lot of arse, and I don't do that at all and I don't compromise my material and so because of this I'm gonna be who I'm gonna be and they're gonna be who they're gonna be and if they want to work with me then they can do it on my level, they can join me at my level rather than me bowing down to any MD of any major corporation who just wants to make money raping our hip hop culture, which is all he'll want to do.
Continue on to
Part 2
