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  Blufoot Interview
interview 0320 added 07.07.05 words: Nikesh
technical:
QED
Blufoot is the UK hip-hop’s
producer’s producer, having
been on the boards for everyone from Mystro to Sway to Infinite
Livez. Finally, his album, “The Ablution” is out on Scenario
Records and it showcases some of the best talent in the UK as
well as some of the funkiest and tightest production from a man
with beats from days. From the dark menace of “Inntchaa” to the
hilarious storytelling of “Nathan Venus” to the immense
tour-de-force of the posse cut “Whispers”, Blufoot’s album is
simply unmissable.
But I’ll let the man talk about it. Cos he does go on. We met up
in London in June, to get the lowdown on one of the strongest UK
hip-hop releases of the year.
Please introduce yourself to the
ukhh.com audience and give us 3 reasons we should buy your
album.
 My name is Blufoot. Most people at ukhh.com must have heard a
little bit of my stuff before. The three reasons you should buy
my album are: you’re reading this on ukhh.com and the album is
technically classified as UK hip-hop; 2, because of the freshest
MC’s from this country you’ve heard are on it; and 3 because
it’s Blufoot bangers all the way.
How long did the “Ablution” take to
make and what vision did you have when you started it?
The album took a long time to make. To be honest, it was
finished and wrapped a long time back. People who know my stuff
have been waiting for this album for a while now. It was
originally with another label but that label wound down. I had
to shop the LP to another label, which is what the delay was. It
took me about a year from the point of deciding I wanted to put
an album together to it being finished and me having a selection
of tracks I was happy with. Then about that on top to try and
get it out. I wanted to show people that there’s a bit of
diversity in terms of what’s available in hip-hop in this
country. When I started making, there was only a couple of big
names in UK hip-hop who were covering and handling all the
releases. It was a matter of which of the ten available acts you
wanted to follow. The time it took to put together and put out,
by the time it was finished the scene had thrived and changed. I
wanted to get a few voices out there, expose a few flows and a
few different voices. Through those different MC styles, I get
the chance to mess around with my music and maybe sneak out a
few concepts I was working on.
Did the album end up the way you saw
it?
No, it ended up shorter than I envisaged it. I recorded over 20
tracks. I know a few people in this business and it was pretty
obvious I wouldn’t be able to release every track I presented to
a potential label. So I went beyond the call of duty,
track-wise. Then I had to trim it to what it is today. It’s
always disappointing when tracks you make don’t get released but
that’s the way it is. Everybody likes to have their fingerprints
on something. If someone says, I had that album come to me but I
cut it down to what it is, that’s their touch on something. It
gives the label a chance to pick and choose, rather than feel
something’s being shoved in their face.
"...From
the first point I was able to make my own musical choices, I’ve
been into electro and hip-hop..."
Will there be a Kanye-esque album
extras CD at any point?
Yeah definitely. I got a whole load of stuff. I got a bunch of
tracks I did with my crew, Genuine Article. That’s me, Mystro,
Skanky (off “Live and Learn” 12”) and K Lover, as a well as a
few other members. I got a load of those tracks, as well as
B-sides and tracks that never made the album. Ddubble Impacct, I
did a track with them that got cut, but it got picked up by a
guy doing a skateboarding video called “Rolling Through the
Decades”. That’s on the soundtrack. The DVD’s out now. There’s
one that got cut from the LP and another one I’ve done on that.
When you were making the album, did you
make the beats specifically with MC’s in mind or just shop them
around?
 Most of the MC’s I’ll hear when I’m out and about or people will
point me in their direction. I’ll then go somewhere to check
them out live. It’s important to hear people live and work with
people who you know can perform live. I’ve worked with excellent
studio rappers who get shook in front of crowds. I always like
to see people live before I work with them. Then it’s a question
of swapping contact details and bringing them over. When people
come over to the studio, I usually go through the spare beats
I’ve got to give them a feel of my style. Then we meet in the
middle. Sometimes they’ll hear a beat and say, that’s me and
they’ll jump on it, we’ll tweak it arrangement wise and make
minor changes. Or, I’ll start from scratch, they’ll tell me what
kinds of beats they’re feeling and I’ll make something brand
new. I’ll always tweak something to fit around somebody. I
haven’t got these cash’n’carry beats you can just take away…
unless the money’s right.
So you actually work with rappers
rather than give them a finished mastered beat for them to spit
over?
You have to work with the rapper. When I say I’ve been working
with Infinite Livez, I mean I’ve actually been working with him.
I haven’t just posted him a CD and him posting it back to me
with a rap on it. I like to get people involved when I’m making
a beat. I think it causes problems really. If you put together a
showreel and send it out to 20 different MC’s, everyone gets to
hear what you got to offer. If you have 10 beats, everyone you
give that CD to, knows your stuff. I think that takes away the
impact from your finished product. Everyone’s walking around
saying they’ve heard your beats. I like to keep things under
wraps as much as I can, until the final release. I think that’s
important. Also, if you send out a showreel, you can end up
agreeing to give one person a beat and then later on hearing
back from someone else and thinking, damn, I’d rather have them
on it. I prefer to make beats for people.
How did you choose all the MC’s?
If I think you’re a good rapper, I’ll go up to you bareface and
tell you you’re good, this is what I do, do you wanna work with
me? I ain’t got a problem doing that. I’m a grown ass man, dog.
Some people I’ve known personally, some I’ve been referred to by
friends so it’s a mixture.
The album “Ablution” is full of quite
uptempo tracks, whilst the two 12”s you did with Infinite Livez
show quite a dark side to you. Was it a conscious decision to
keep I uptempo?
It’s the way things worked out. I had a bunch of tunes put
together. One thing I’m trying to get away from when working
with people, is you ask them what speed they wanna rap on and
they say 90-94BPM. I’m trying to get a few more uptempo beats
out there. I was also wary of being accused of putting fillers
on the album. If you have a slower tempo tune and people can’t
rock it in a car or whatever, they tend to fast-forward that
tune. Once I’ve established myself as an artist, I’ll feel like
I can go out more and do different stuff. This is my debut album
so I’m gonna hit people with what they want, which is banging
beats. I’ll work on the more intimate stuff when people know who
I am.
"...After
they finished the individual recording of their individual track
on the album and they were starting to pack up and leave, I’d be
all Columbo and say, “Just one more thing, ma’am.”..."
How did you come to Scenario Records?
I had a lot of meetings and email exchanges with several labels
and Scenario seemed to offer me the best deal from a business
perspective. I’m really happy with them. I see them as a big
label in the UK stakes without being a major. They’re putting a
lot of effort into pushing my material and you can’t for more
from a label.
Which MC on your album do you think is
most destined for greatness?
Popularity-wise, I gotta say Sway. Everywhere I look, I seem to
see Sway. I don’t even tune into hip-hop stations or watch
hip-hop video stations but I see his name everywhere, which is
mad. You don’t see that with too many hip-hop artists,
especially ones off my album. Yungun is up there as well. He’s
definitely doing his thing. Mystro’s got a quiet before the
storm thing going on at the moment. Most of the people on the
album are destined for bigger things. That’s why I chose them,
that’s why I want to work with them. I wanna try and absorb
their energy and have the lesser known artists take that energy
from me and use it as a step-up. There’s people on my album who
have never released a record before. Artistically-speaking, I
gotta say Infinite Livez. The guy is incredible. The stuff I do
with him is quite dark and electronic. That’s because he’ll push
me a lot further than other MC’s. it makes for some fun studio
sessions and a lot of deleted songs that never see the light of
day.
Who do you wish you could have got for
the album, but for whatever reason, couldn’t?
 I wanted Skinnyman on there. But his motorbike broke down so he
never made it. That would have been a huge tune. I hooked up
with him towards the end of recording the album. He’s a big name
in the music that I make. But we still chat so it’s gonna
happen. The Skinny-Foot special. Watch out for it.
Who do you think is the best MC in the
country?
Wow, you’re really playing the name game aren’t you? Mystro.
He’s true to himself. I always like rappers who rap the way they
talk. I like transparent rappers who are who they are. Mystro,
I’ve known him for a while so maybe I’m biased. But he spits
what he wants. He can do the party vibe, he can switch to
political. He’s got all these angles to come from and he has
such clarity in his voice, which I think is incredibly important
for an MC. To be able to get your message across clearly.
You said earlier that between starting
and finishing your album, the scene has really started to
thrive. What do you think has happened to make the scene more
affluent?
The diversity of acts available to us is now bigger than it used
to be. Anyone who brings attention to people making music in
this country is a contributing factor. The Streets, all the
grime stuff… anything that’s got somebody rapping in a UK accent
helps us. If it draws attention to your scene, it’s up to you
what to do with it. People always want the attention to come to
them, but that’s not going to happen. It’s like any other job
really. You gotta chase it.
Now that the scene is thriving, what
are the positives and negatives of people being able to put out
posh CD-Rs of their stuff?
I don’t think there are any negatives. I think it’s great people
are doing their thing. If somebody’s no good, they’ll just
disappear. I don’t think anyone who’s making good music should
feel threatened by CD-R culture, it’s just more diversity and
choice for a potential fanbase. If your stuff is as good as you
think it is, people will always gravitate back towards it so
don’t worry. Take the Buddhist approach.
"...We’re
still interested as a whole in making quality music and
marketing that and making it sell through the quality. We’re not
making temporary music..."
What do you think it is about the UK
sound that defines the UK hip-hop producer?
I’ve said it before, I’m a hip-hop producer. I’m a hip-hop fan
so I make hip-hop. I’m not trying to make some sort of
groundbreaking hybrid music. I just wanna make good quality
hip-hop that people can dance to or chill to. And the sound is
more in the MC. It’s an accent thing. It stops there. We do have
these fashions that come round with British hip-hop related
music. But hip-hop remains constant. We’re building up a great
back catalogue as a community and as a scene. The sound is more
with the vocalists. I don’t think you can make a beat sound
British. And if you could do it, I’m not sure why you would want
to do it. I’m not down with this whole nationalistic thing so
whatever.
From looking at different producers in
the UK and the US at the moment, the UK is still very much in
sample-based music whereas the US is using synths and composed
music a lot more.
 I guess that’s more to do with the way America sounds rather
than the UK. We’re making hip-hop as you know it over here. In
America, they’ve moved on to making hip-hop that will sell
really quickly. That’s the difference in the sound. It’s all
about making a big hit. It doesn’t matter if you’re going to be
around afterwards, it’s all about making that one big hit. You
can hear the sound of money behind it. I don’t think we’re on
that in this country. We’re still interested as a whole in
making quality music and marketing that and making it sell
through the quality. We’re not making temporary music. As for
the sampling, I still do hear a lot of sample-based music in the
states. I was trying to move away from sampling anything that
was bigger than a second long and trying to put together these
intricate pieces. And then I realised there’s all these people
across the pond making a mint from blatantly sampling stuff. And
I thought, it’s not worth worrying about. Just do it. I can’t
sit here and worry about not being a real artist, I gotta make a
living. You listen to Ghostface or 9th Wonder or Kanye, people
are making a mint off big samples. People are making a mint off
jacking for beats.
I guess I meant more the crunk thing
but yeah… despite not saying much on the album through your
voice, how well do you think MC’s convey your message through
your album?
Most of the MC’s were there when the beat was born so we’d start
working on concepts in front of each other. It’s a bit of
everything. Some people came, they already had their lyrics
written, I had no control over the lyrical content. But, other
people were asking me, what do you think we should make this
song about? It’s just to and fro with different artists,
different situations.
The three I’m interested in most are
the “My Biro” track, Sway’s “Nathan Venus” and the excellent
posse cut, “Whispers.”
“My Biro” was written. Mic Assassin brought that to me and it
was done. Sway’s track he wrote a few lines while I was making
the beat and it was just looping around and around. He was
scribbling bits and pieces. He tried it and I was feeling it. He
told me it was going to be a weird medieval storytelling thing
and I thought that sounded great. “Whispers” was a surprise to
everyone. I sprung that on them. After they finished the
individual recording of their individual track on the album and
they were starting to pack up and leave, I’d be all Columbo and
say, “Just one more thing, ma’am.” I’d tell them they had 20
minutes to put together a couple of bars and they had to carry
on the story from where it was left off. I’d play them the track
up to where it pauses and they’d have to carry it on for 2 bars.
That was a laugh. Some people were like, “What? You joking? In
20 minutes?? I can’t do that.” The first few bars are Riot, he
said he was happy to kick it off. Basically, if you listen to
the track, the order the MC’s appear on that track is the order
I recorded the tracks in the studio. That’s useless information
for you.
"...If
your stuff is as good as you think it is, people will always
gravitate back towards it so don’t worry. Take the Buddhist
approach..."
What did you say to Riot to get him to
kick it off?
Nothing. He asked what I wanted him to rap about and I told him
it was up to him but he only had two bars. I told him, “I’d hate
to be in your shoes!” I wasn’t very encouraging! I’m happy with
the way it starts quite ambiguously. It opens up a scene with a
classical storytelling moment. I don’t rap but I’d hate to go on
the beginning and the end. The middle would have been easy.
Respect to Riot and Infinite Livez for starting and finishing
the track, it was originally going to be a hidden track, playing
10 minutes after the album had finished. But Scenario loved it
so much, they asked why we were hiding once of the best tracks
on the album. So it got listed.
It’s almost like a cypher, like a
campfire vibe to it.
I’d really like to do a video for it. No fancy special effects,
just one take. I really wanna do it.
So, going way back when now, when did
you get into hip-hop?
 I’ve been into hip-hop since I was a wee child, when it was the
done thing. Everyone was break dancing. I did a bit of breaking.
I was into electro. It transformed into hip-hop as we know it.
It was great times. I used to love music. We used to carry our
linos about and break in shopping centres. I stuck with it as my
friends got into house and jungle. I went to jungle raves and
squat parties and spiral tribe parties with my friends (cos you
shouldn’t fall out over music) but I remained into hip-hop. I
ended up hanging about with a load of rappers in the area. I was
kicking myself off as a DJ because they wanted to rap and needed
a DJ. The first crew I ever made music was called Destructor
Force. I’ve still got that stuff. That was me, Ddubble Impacct
and a guy called Patrick, who doesn’t rap anymore. The
production thing came after becoming a DJ. I was trying to
double-cut beats so people could rap over them. I wasn’t very
good so I saved up for once of those mixers with the sampler on
and we’d sample the beat and they’d rap and I’d scratch the
chorus. Slowly, slowly everything grew. It ended up becoming a
lot more than a hobby. I bought a sampler, a keyboard off a
friend and that was it. That’s when “Open Mic” came about. It’s
all I’ve ever been into. From the first point I was able to make
my own musical choices, I’ve been into electro and hip-hop.
How did the name Blufoot come about?
When I was in Destructor Force, I was known as DJ Wrecker and
soon after that, a guy came out in America called DJ Wrecker. It
crushed my world at that age. I thought, “What the fuck am I
going to do now?” even though I was nobody and no one had ever
heard of me except in my village and he was from the West Coast
of America. For some reason I thought there would be a clash, so
I thought I would bow out and change my name. I could have kept
the name as noone knows who the hell he is now. It damaged me,
the whole name thing. I thought, let me think of a name no one
else will use. I was hanging out with some guys in Peckham at
the time and I heard them say the word, “Blufoot”, they called
someone a “Blufoot.” I asked what it meant and they told me. I
swore never to tell anyone though. It made me laugh and chuckle
so I thought, that’s such a weird name that I’ll have that.
"...Through
those different MC styles, I get the chance to mess around with
my music and maybe sneak out a few concepts I was working on..."
What are you currently working on at
the moment?
I got another single coming off the album and I’m working on the
flip for that at the moment. It’s too early to tell which one.
I’m trying to collaborate with some Scottish MC’s, like Loki.
I’d like to work with the London Lowkey as well. I’ve recently
spoken to Stylah as well. I’ve got to start working on the new
album as well. Considering the amount of time I spent working on
the “Ablution”, I’ve decided I gotta start the next album
straight away. That’s what’s on my mind right now. I made a beat
for Beefeaterz. I got a double mixtape coming out called “The
Old Testament.” One CD is old skool US hip-hop and the other is
old skool UK hip-hop. It’s a bit of a journey back through time
and a history lesson for people who weren’t there. It’s got a
lot of classics as well as some forgotten about stuff. Ice Cube,
Public Enemy, NWA, X-Clan. I wanted to get that down. So get
that, it’s going to be everywhere. I’ve also got a mix coming
out with a guy called Diagnostix. It’s called “The Homecoming”
and it’ll feature UK hip-hop from all across the UK. We hope. We
obviously couldn’t cover every single hamlet but we’ve got
North, South, East and West. Go and cop that on Bare
Necessities. Diagnostix has picked the tracks and given them to
me, and I’ve mixed it all. It doesn’t go back far but there’s
some good stuff on there. Go and cop those in the mean-time.
And finally, shout-outs, shameless
plugs…
Pick up my album, “The Ablution”, out on Scenario Records, it
should be out everywhere. If it's not being stocked, go in and
order it. Also, the “Homecoming” mix CD, the “Old Testament” mix
CD. I gotta shout out Mys-Diggi, Alia – my special Alia, EV, all
the MC’s on the album, my man Ghost, 563… if I start naming
people, you’re in trouble. I gotta big up everybody who’s helped
me along the way. As well as the people who have hated on me cos
they’ve helped me too. Thanks across the board to everybody!
“The Ablution” LP is out now on Scenario Records.
 -
Nikesh Shukla
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