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  Sway Interview
interview 0267 added 14.12.04 words: Nikesh
technical:
QED
Sway, formerly Sway
DeSafo, nee Dereck Andrew Safo is one of the most charismatic
and elegant gentlemen on the mic. He can also tear your face off
with his acerbic wit and street wisdom. Dereck Andrew Safo is
one of the hottest rappers in the country. He has laced tracks
by Caramac and the Last Skeptik, whilst retaining his own
productions for his own forthcoming projects. Having just
consolidated all his releases thus far and his background as an
introduction on to his mixtape, “This Is My Promo vol. 1”, Sway
is making a name for himself in the scene. His name is on the
tip of everyone’s tongue, and excitement about an album proper
is growing. Having just come off tour with Dizzee Rascal, Sway
also represents a strong sense of unity in the UK Hip Hop scene,
lacing grime tracks, working with garage artists and working
with drum’n’bass crews, his ethic is that it’s all music and
it’s all music he likes. Forget about labels, let’s create
wicked music.
I met up with him in November to record his first interview for
ukhh.com, and an eloquent one it is too.
Introduce
yourself:
 I’m Sway, also known as Sway DeSafo, representing the UK.
Tell us about
“This is My Demo”, who produced it, the lyrical themes on it and
what you hope it to achieve:
“This Is My Demo” is my first album, my debut and it’s the only
project I intend to release on my own, off my own back. I set up
a production company where I have up and coming producers coming
up underneath me called Dcypha Productions and I’ve just come in
conjunction with a group of guys called Alliance Recordings Inc
and we’ve come to get together to bring to you my debut.
Basically, my whole career is going to be based on my career. So
the themes that are going to be on my album are going to be
about before I get signed, when I get signed to what goes on in
the industry. So the listener will go through what I go through
in my career. That’s why this album is going to be called “This
Is My Demo”. The second album is called “This Is My Album”. From
then, I won’t say anymore. The titles are quite creative. I’ve
planned it all out. If it all goes to plan… the concepts on it
are everything I’m going through now. Like, I’ve got a tune on
there called “Crash” about driving lessons and about how I
crashed my dad’s car. It’s comical but it’s real. I’m talking
about how driving lessons cost too much and road tax and shit
people don’t rap about. I’ve also got a track called “Slow
Down”, which is about club violence that’s going on. I’m taking
the mick out of people who get a bit funny when “Superthug”
comes on. Not everybody wants to do what you’re doing so
consider that when you’re running around stepping on people’s
trainers. I’ve got songs on there touching on deeper subjects.
I’ve got a song about abortion. I’m really against abortion even
though I know a lot of friends who’ve been through it. I know a
bit about it, and I’m against it. I’m not condemning it but just
letting people see it for what it actually is. If you make a
mistake, other people don’t have to suffer for it. It’s a wide
range of different songs. It’s 12 tracks at the moment and it’s
80% produced by myself. Other producers are coming onboard at
the moment. It should be a good project.
Is there a diary
element to what you’re planning or is it all pre-planned?
It’ll be 50-50. There’s 50% I want to make happen. With a diary
you write about what’s happened in your day. With this project,
it’s going to be, this is what I’m going to make happen and if
anything doesn’t happen, I can say, “I told you this was going
to happen. It didn’t really happen”. And I could rap about it
like that. There’s going to be normal songs on there. But
theme-wise and conceptually that’s the thing. The album won’t be
just the title. I’ve got a lot to say. I’ve lived 22 years on
this planet. I’ve seen a lot of things and I’ve seen a lot of
little things. I just want to rap about what’s on my mind. I
can’t teach you anything but I can give you my perception, my
outlook and you can relate to it or just appreciate it. I’m just
someone wanting to do something for the people.
"...The
people that really got me into rap was Kriss Kross..."
What else have you
got in the pipeline?
Right now, on road, I have the mixtape “This Is My Promo vol.
1”. I don’t want to confuse people so the “This Is My…” thing
will only be a three part series. “This Is My Promo vol. 2” will
follow. Volume 1 is on Suspect Packages and the internet. I’m
just trying to keep it cohesive. A lot of rappers come out and
they just make songs and throw out album and make up titles last
minute. I like to plan things. I want people to appreciate the
effort I put in behind the music. Even with the simplest
concepts. I try and take my time with things. I don’t rush into
songs.
How long before we
see “This Is My Demo”?
I’m working on “This Is My Demo” and “This Is My Album”
simultaneously. Target date for “…Demo” is February but I have
a funny feeling it’s going to be April. February is the target.
Who will be
putting it out or will you be doing it yourself?
 Yeah, Dcypha Productions, along with Alliance Recordings Inc.
Alliance Recordings is a label started by some guys in my area.
They’re in a similar position as me so we thought we’d use my
project. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I didn’t just
come through. I did a tune, “On My Own”, which did well on the
radios and that. It’s very different to what I’m doing now. I’ve
gone through an evolution as an artist. I’m trying to write
songs now rather than rapping my life on beats.
Is that the
difference between collaborations you do like “Simple and Plain”
and “Prior to the Present” and tracks you do yourself.
“Simple and Plain” was made at the same time I made “Flo
Fashion”. “Flo Fashion” is my first single off “This Is My
Demo”. I just shot the video for it. It’s an accessible track.
It’s still got intelligence but I’m putting it in a way I can
reach a wider audience. No one had heard me do that kind of
style. I’d done it loads in my bedroom. And when I came out with
it, it was very different to the UK underground scene, Hip Hop. Caramac gave me the beat and I was like, you know what I can
still spit. So I spat something lyrical on that. It wasn’t song
structured. It was three verses on a track and people were like,
oh wow, Sway can still rap. “Flo Fashion” makes a lot more sense
to people after they’ve heard that song. When I make tracks,
when I produce the beat and I write the lyrics, it’s 100% Sway
you’re getting. When someone else does the beat, even if it has
my name on the track, it’s still a 50-50 thing. It’s not just my
vibe on the track. So of course my featured songs are going to
be different to the songs I do on my own. Another thing is that
I originally came out as Sway DeSafo. That’s derived from my
real name, Derek Andrew Safo. There’s another Sway in America
that does interviews and the wake-up show and all that and I
didn’t want to be confused with him. I was thinking long-term,
just in case I do crack America and I do reach my dream. I don’t
want people confusing me with Sway over there. But then it got
really complicated here. 'Cos everyone was spelling it wrong and
mispronouncing it. My PRS money wasn’t coming through because
DJ’s were playing it and writing up what they were playing and I
wasn’t getting paid 'cos it was spelt different. So I ended up
registering up the pseudonyms. It cost me a bit of money but it
was just easier. In the end I thought, Sway’s just easier. I
established myself on the underground as Sway DeSafo so I could
use that platform and come out as Sway.
How did you get
into rap?
I’ve always been into music ever since I was a little kid. The
people that really got me into rap was Kriss Kross. I was into
pop. I used to like pop music. I don’t mean nowadays pop, I mean
Michael Jackson. When Kriss Kross came through, I was mimicking
other peoples’ songs and doing my own versions. From there I
branched out into writing myself. I didn’t really want to be a
rapper. I thought it was something I’ll do privately. My main
forte was production. I wanted to be a producer. I looked up to
all of them…
That’s interesting
'cos you’re more known of as a rapper than a producer…
Exactly. Exactly. It’s done some kind of turning. Anyone who
knows me will know I’m more into my production than my rapping.
But I’ve seen rapping at the moment is my strong point. I used
to freestyle and I got pushed into rap from the people around
me. I did enjoy it and would have eventually done it but me
being an artist has come as a bit of a surprise to me, myself. I
enjoy it though. I’m doing both of them. Rap don’t last forever.
I’m not LL. I’m not trying to be ten albums deep.
"...I’ve
gone through an evolution as an artist. I’m trying to write
songs now rather than rapping my life on beats..."
How did you go
from kicking rhymes and beats around with your mates in a
bedroom to where you are now?
I was a bedroom MC and we were in cyphers. I was in a collective
called One. We had 11 MC’s like Pyrelli, Mr Tibbs, Guvnor,
Shucks. There was a lot of us that came from this 11 member
group. We used to have loads of cyphers together. We were
hypocrites because we were all rapping in our bedroom and we
were all very talented. One to this day are some of the best
rappers I’ve ever met. I look up to them like other rappers out
there. I put them on a pedestal. We taught each other a lot. We
were very talented from a very young age because of who we were
around, who our influences were. We used to look down on the
British game a lot. We used to look in, go to Kung Fu and see
people, drunk guys in the crowd go “WAAAYYY!!” to every crap
punchline and man talk about rapping. It was boring and we
didn’t want to be a part of it. We looked down on it for time
but then we thought, we’re cussing these people but they don’t
even know who we are.
"...I
would say I’m a bit of a British chap but I’m also a bit of the
man dem..."
Everyone was like, well wait till our
album. I thought, I’ve been on pirate stations but I wanted to
know how to get on to the mainstream. I did a tune called
“Drifting” in 1998. I thought I’m gonna try and get this played.
So, I went to Choice FM, left it in an envelope for 279 and I
didn’t think anything of it. It was so tacky the way I left
there but it was worth a try. I was on my way home later and I
heard it on the radio. Some guy was parked up in a jeep and I
heard my tune. So I run up to his chair, asking, How did you get
my tune? He’s looking at me like I’m some weird guy, like, stop
banging on my jeep window. I’m like, how did you get my tune?
Roll down the window. He’s getting a bit scared and starts his
jeep. It’s my song, it’s my song. He realised it’s my song. And
he says it’s on Choice FM and then 279 comes on saying, Yes
brand new from Sway… I thought, Ok, it’s that easy. So I did
that with every other radio station. Every DJ played my tune. I
couldn’t believe it was this easy to get on radio. I couldn’t
understand it. That was my first out the bedroom experience.
Which rappers and
producers are you feeling in the UK scene at the moment?
 Right now I’m collaborating with a whole heap of people… I sit
on the fence. I don’t consider myself to be a British Hip Hop
act. I consider myself to be a rapper so that breaks down a lot
of barriers for me. I’ve done tracks with DJ Wonder, an
ex-member of Roll Deep. I’m doing tunes with Terra Danger, he’s
also from the grime scene. At the same time I’ve done tunes with
The Last Skeptik and Caramac. People like SkinnyMan, I come up
with SkinnyMan. He was the first person to ever put me on, on
his show on Raw FM. In 98 or something. The first time I’d been
on pirate. Taskforce… Chester P… I battled him when I was 16,
when I first came on the underground scene. I lost but I reached
the final. I’d taken out everyone from before. He was the
finalist at the time. I recorded my first ever group track at
Farma G’s studio. They said if we ever needed studio time,
they’d help us out for nothing 'cos they liked what we were
doing. They really helped us out. Farma G especially. Taskforce
really brought us through and showed us a couple of things. I’m
working with a lot of people. DJ Turkish, my DJ, has a beat on
my album. First Man Productions, they do a lot of stuff for
SkinnyMan and Sincere, are doing something for me. Working with
loads, including One members.
What about
producers and rappers you don’t work with? Who do you think is
making good music out there?
Right now, there’s actually nobody that I can’t work with that I
haven’t discussed working with. That’s realistic. There’s a lot
of people. There’s a guy called Bruiser, from the UKG scene but
to me it’s all rap, no matter what label you put on it and it’s
twice as fast. In America, you have Down South rap, West Coast
rap, East Coast rap, the Canadian stuff, it’s like that to me.
It’s not UKG and two-step, it’s all Hip Hop. Like different
areas come up with different sounds. Like the East End came up
with the grime sound. It’s just another element of rap to me.
There’s a guy called Bruiser who I really like. The other day I
got in contact with him, turns out he was looking for me. So it
was a mutual respect and we’re hooking up in the studio
tomorrow. There’s a lot of people I’d love to collaborate with
but I don’t want to saturate myself. I’m just taking it easy.
What production
set-up do you have at home?
I got an MPC-2000XL, Logic Platinum, Novation, JV-1080, lots of
little things on the computer. I love the MPC cos it’s solid. It
gives a different sound to every Hip Hop artist and it’s really
precise for drums. You can always hear when the MPC is behind
the drums. My first beat I ever made, back in 95 was on the
Commodore Amiga. It was on some free thing called Boombox. I
started from there.
"...“This
Is My Demo” is my first album, my debut and it’s the only
project I intend to release on my own, off my own back...."
Who has given you
your biggest helping hand?
Everybody has. 1Xtra have helped me a lot. If I was to go down
all the DJ’s who have helped me there, we would be here all day.
Then I got my boys around me, One. A lot of people. When I sit
down and think about it, there’s a lot of people. It’s because
I’ve put myself in a position where they have to help me,
because I’m hungry. If I was lazy, no one would be phoning me to
tell me to get out of bed. I put myself in a position where I
can be seen and ask how can you help me to get there. When
people see that you’re keen and hard-working, they want to help
you. It’s a natural instinct of human being. DJ Semtex, DJ
Excalibah. When I first went to Semtex, he wasn’t feeling my
stuff and I thought he was a hater. But when he broke down to me
all the things he didn’t like about it, looking back on it now,
I can see exactly what he was saying and subliminally I took a
lot of his advice and it worked. And with Excalibah, he put me
on the Hip Hop Connection cover CD, which took me to a different
audience. People in Leeds and Nottingham started hearing about
me. Recently, I’ve just come off tour with Dizzy Rascal for his
Showtime tour and a lot of places I went, people had heard of me
through 1Xtra and HHC. I didn’t realise them mediums were that
big. Even down to the internet, like I hear that I’m getting
written about on message boards and things like that. I’m not
really an internet person but I’m trying to be now 'cos everyone
wants to send me e-mails.
Describe your
rapping style.
 I read a review in
Hip Hop Connection a couple of days ago and I
think they broke it down quite well. They said, “half
street-schooled soldier and half elegant gentleman”. When I read
that, I thought that person’s on the ball. I’m quite articulate
but at the same time I’ve got street knowledge. I’ve from a
background where it’s 50-50. I come from Hornsey and that area
is in between Muswell Hill, quite a middle-class posh area and
Wood Green, which is a slum. It’s ghetto and grimy. There’s a
lot of trouble that happens there. I live in the middle of that.
I think that’s influenced me in my whole posture. I can speak to
people on the street, I can speak to people in the industry and
not offend anybody. I manage to find that balance. I would say
I’m a bit of a British chap but I’m also a bit of the man dem.
I’m 50-50 and you hear it in my style. And I’ve got a bit of a
sense of humour that pops out every now and then.
Ok, finally, any
shout-outs and shameless plugs you wanna make?
Yeah, definitely. “This is my Promo volume 1” the mixtape is out
now. “Volume 2” out in December. “This Is My Demo” out in
February, but probably in April. Also look out for my boy
Pyrelli. He’s one of the hottest rappers coming through. He’s
got his album coming out in January, “Tha Organ G”. Shout outs
to Alliance Recordings Inc for helping me out. A lot of people
saying they were going to help me when they didn’t help me, a
lot of opportunities and label crap coming at me. I though, Fuck
it, I’ll do it for myself. Shout outs to Fifth Element, a drum’n’bass collective. You’ll find out a lot about me from
“This Is My Promo vol. 1”. Thanks.
It’s been a great year for UK Hip Hop in this country and one
person who has kept it cohesive, consolidated and exciting, all
with a touch of humour, is Sway. His promo mixtapes are
definitely worth picking up to hear a glint of the passion and
integrity he puts in his work. When “This Is My Demo” drops, be
it February, be it April, it’ll be an important release and most
likely one of the albums of the year.
-
Nikesh Shukla
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