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Skinnyman Interview Page 2

interview 0118 added 26.08.02 words Fraksha

As a veteran of the UK scene how do find its changed over the years. Is it as good as it's ever been?

Skinnyman It's changed from when we used to go 'hurrgh' now we go 'urghhh'. You could say its the best its been now but if you take it back to 1986 1987 in Covent Garden that was some wonderful moments there, loads of rap crews flowing, people were actually getting more tunes out then than they was now. If you look at it you got She-Rockers, Cookie Crew, you had Overlord X, I mean Derek B you had a lot of people from the old school years who have put out material and London Posse, a lot of people was popping back then. I mean if you if you think of Westwood back in the day 1987, he used to play a lot more UK stuff you know so I couldn't actually tell you if its better right now, though I do feel its flourishing, I do feel that because of the recent wave of house and garage emcees with So Solid coming from an urban street background with influences such as hip hop emcees and raggamuffin emcees have kind have brought their own unique British style, not only them but I think most of the house and garage British emcees at the moment, and I think this has reflected on our rap scene since from what we had since people have been screaming keep it real, a lot of people had to look at themselves and say well what is keeping it real, cos if I talk to mum in an English accent, jump onstage and my alter ego just turns into this American accent just so I can rap is that keeping it real and a lot of people in the British rap scene were hit with an identity crisis about what was really going on. Who they really were and where they really stood in society.

I don't think I've ever been confused, I think people like Rodney P has never been confused, has always been true to himself and I think because of that he's flourished and is seen to me as a legend now. And It's good for me to say he's a legend cos he's friend who I can go round his house and burn a spliff and the man is a legend in my eyes, so where you're saying Skinny you're seen as a bit of a veteran, yes I've been here since the start of hip hop in this country and I'm still here and I do see with the effect of UK garage its gonna become the urban youts voice all across the country. I think people are starting to work more and I think what's gotta stop for this to really happen is for everyone to appreciate every one for who they are and the minute they do that they can then say well this is us, this is who we've got in the UK, lets show love to each other and we can all expand and build. We've been saying this argument for years, but now people are actually open and they're wanting to hear what them people in Wolverhampton are saying, what the people in Notts are saying, they're wanting to hear what the rappers in Sheffield are like. I think the UK market is ready to embrace itself, that will be a first in itself, and I think that the moment that the UK does embrace itself for what it has we will have a magnificent thing where it will be a new trend that many are gonna set to follow.

"...I came to London with a Leeds accent and I was told I was from a farm and I drove a combine harvester..."

I definitely feel that what Timbaland's been doing and certain people that have been looked at as innovators of music, I just really believe that they are. It's been going on here for many, many years before with the jungle. What Adam F did, taking that sound to America almost made them realise especially since hip hop culture in America is embracing drugs such as ecstasy, which jungle music was more or less related to at the time, for the feelings that the bass lines would give you while you're on ecstasy, standing by the speaker. Now that's coming out in hiphop music, there's a whole new wave of hip hop music where you're gonna see a whole new trend to follow from that.

Do you think it's a good or bad thing the UK is very battle orientated?

Skinnyman and Crew Not a good or a bad thing, its just a thing. I think hip hops always been about battling, and one thing I remember about first coming to London is that hip hop kids were very cruel cos they would just cuss each others mums, I later found out that they'd use it as an imaginary secondary mum that you wasn't to take offence about, that you would just try and slander as much as you possibly could. It was fun and spirited as to who would win and who would lose, sometimes the winner would feel great and sometimes the losers would feel so disheartened they would want to shed a tear. You got to look at that, in the playgrounds kids are cussing each others mums, ones laughing and ones bawling and that's what the situation is and that's kinda what UK rap battles always remind me of which to me you need a progression of unification as opposed to trying to go at each other egotistically but there is good fun in having a sport and friendship between a battle of the wits by freestyling off the top of the dome and having competition with it.

There's no harm in that its just when people take it so personally offensive that it harms them and harms their feelings and it upsets them and they have to think well am I really in something that I want to do to go around upsetting everybody, maybe some people do, there might be an emcee out there that that wants to upset every emcee, y'know, there might be one like me that wants to make every emcee feel good, even that one that wants to upset everyone.

What do you think of people who criticise you for the words you use and the accent you flex, saying you just chat fake yard slang?

For a start, we're all biters, we're all copying each other cos we're all speaking a language that was designed and devised by the Masonic brotherhood who run the laws of the land and the construction of the planet and they've got us speaking in the language they choose us to speak and the way we choose to have our broken word vocabulary and break down into society where we have our own slang's thru our choice and thru ways of relating to each other so we can relate and understand so that we can best set the impression of what we choose to say, like if I want you to understand "the brown dog walked across the road" the best way for me to say it would be to tell you that "the brown dog walked across the road", now if we were speaking French I would say that in a French tongue, but we speak English and y'know its kind of like a segregation and a barrier to the fact that we cant understand our brothers in France when they're rapping and providing their part to the hip hop culture, we cant fully embrace it cos there's a language border that's stopping us doing so, whereas I'm sure they've got a lot to tell us that we could benefit from, educate ourselves from and relate to their experiences from, like what we do in British hip hop.

So I feel by any means necessary, use whatever vocabulary and twang and tongue you have to use to express your message, don't ever let anyone make you feel bad because of that cos you're getting you're message out the best way you can, being heard and understood the best way you can. So the thing with the language is, people in Scotland cant understand people from Wales sometimes, and some people from London can't understand people from Liverpool and were all English speaking and were all speaking the same language from the Gideon's of the English dictionary, so lets try to all understand each other a bit more better and not mock each other for the words that were choosing to use.

"...hip hop kids were very cruel cos they would just cuss each others mums, I later found out that they'd use it as an imaginary secondary mum that you wasn't to take offence about..."

What's your view of people saying UK hip hop is London hip hop and not taking regional stuff seriously?

Well this is my whole point, I came to London with a Leeds accent and I was told I was from a farm and I drove a combine harvester, they truly believed that I wasn't till they saw me breakdancing and they thought there's no way possible way he's from a farm or how could he breakdance like that. I think people from London are still gonna, y'know you still got placeism, besides racism you still got placeism. You see it in football teams, you see people representing their areas and people feeling proud of where they're from but really were all children of the universe who should harmoniously get along and accept that were all from parts of the world. I mean what placeism does, it makes you think right if you're from Finsbury Park and you're an Arsenal supporter and I'm from Tottenham and I'm a Tottenham supporter then there's already a barrier y'know we shouldn't have these competitive sport barriers in rap, we should unify and I think its already happening with people like Phi-Life Cypher who are from Luton who are on an universal intergalactic message linking up with Taskforce who are like-minded people from two different cities embracing the mic and bring their poetical skills, then you gotta look at people like myself who'd love to work with people from Out Da Ville, Scor-zay-zee and Kamikaze and people from Nottingham I've heard that I'd love to work with y'namean. Birmingham people like Moorish Delta 7 I'd love to work with and things like that. I'd say its more about embracing the difference rather than being scared of it cos that's what, that's what's the fear!

So what's the deal with Pmmuzik?

Skinnyman and crew I've got a partner who's being helping me immensely to set up this business and his dedication has proved to be so strong that can only respect him for it, he's helped us organise someone who can build and set up a website which I mean I got two views of the website. I've got the paranoid things to come state of mind, which is soon will it be the world wide serpent where you can only buy and barter from in a cashless society which is a prediction, well for now its a way of us linking as a media with people all around the world and anyone else who might be out there, so if a kid from Japan was typing on to see what was happening on ukhh.com he could see an interview of me. Maybe he they would have never had that opportunity had it not been for internet websites, internet explorers, so I see it as good thing. It's all good, especially if you can sell units abroad and cut out your distributors by having that personal connection with your customers by selling them records via mailing list via the e-mail and website, its a great thing.

Continue on to Part 3