|
Code:Breaker
Interview
interview 0148 added
03.07.03 words: Lady Cook technical:
QED
 Code - Breaker is one third of the MC presence in London based
Hip Hop collective Buttercuts.
To celebrate their new release (the City of Greed E.P) I dug into my interview tape archive (yeah that shoebox) and discovered his first interview tape from 2002,
still interesting … due to facts like he is the voice of one of the radio stations on Grand Theft Auto
3 !!
Interview with full Buttercuts MC Crew (DJ Buttafingaz, Code - Breaker, Wildeye and Cult Cam) to follow shortly, check them out live if you can as they're often backed by 11 piece funk band The Pistachios, aided and abetted by uber-vocalist Christobel…
L.C: So before Hip Hop MCing, what were you doing?
CB: A bit of drum & bass. I did a lot of radio stations, I did Shadow, still doing some work for Flex now. I didn't do any
Hip Hop 'til about two years ago. I started doing Hip Hop because drum & bass then was just sick noise, it was a shit time! It's got a lot better since..
LC: Why was that?
CB: It was just so noisy - the music was terrible. About two to two-and-a-half years ago - it all became tech-stepping, industrial-heavy weight - emcees were just having a nightmare time trying to get any decent words out,….well, there'd be a break in a drum & bass tune where it's like a
Hip Hop break and I'd always sound better over that than when the main track dropped so I just wrote some beats, that's when I wrote "Doubters." So I stepped off of drum & bass for about two years - did the Grand Theft Auto thing about six to eight months ago.
LC: How did that happen?
 CB: I knew someone at Moving Shadow Records (Drum & bass label) and they do loads of music for computer games. He just phoned me up and said "we need an MC for this computer game" - At the time I didn't have any clue what it was going to be or how big it was going to become so I just did it. Eight months later and the fucking thing's blown up!
LC: What did you do for it? A character's voice?
CB: Nah, I did the emceeing. When you steal a car during this game Grand Theft Auto, there's like five or six radio stations that you can tune into … They wanted like a London-themed drum & bass pirate radio station.
LC: So if we play Grand Theft Auto we can hear your voice?
CB: Hell yeah!! The stations called MSX-FM. That's kinda elevated me a little within drum & bass and since the music's gotten a lot better, I've started drum & bass emceeing and producing again. I've got fucking loads of drum & bass things coming up, but I'm still bang on into
Hip Hop so…D&B aint taking over - a lot of places are playing drum & bass and
Hip Hop now anyway - I'm kinda performing both rooms some nights!
LC: So can you choose which one you prefer rapping over at the moment?
CB: If I want people to hear what I am saying, I prefer Hip Hop absolutely because people listen to your words in
Hip Hop. In drum & bass, a lot of it is about catchphrases and just shouting - it's a lot more of a younger scene - you can't express yourself as much as you can in
Hip Hop. So I'd say, purely from the lyrics side, it's got to be Hip Hop but my roots are so deep into drum & bass because we were junglists when we were like thirteen, my D&B DJ and me. We're the only two kids left still doing it out of about a hundred kids 'cus when we were younger, everyone was either a drum & bass DJ or a jungle emcee or something but trends change. That's cool but I love drum & bass! There's something particularly wicked and English about it that a lot of other music hasn't got.
LC: Do you think - well, a lot of people are saying that this whole So Solid-ish
Hip Hoppy - garage is like the new British Hip Hop - what do you think?
CB: The people who do real British Hip Hop, and I hope to consider myself in that, along with people like Mud Fam, Rodney P, them sort of people, to me they are the real
UK Hip Hop. I don't care that people say you shouldn't say bad things about other peoples' music and that but - Garage is tosh and you can write that! Hahaha! That's my opinion and I don't slate them as people. Some of the Garage heads they've already got more money than I'll probably ever have so I don't slate them for that, good luck to them - but there's a lot of stuff which comes with the Garage scene which I really, really don't like. I can't see it. I can't figure it out - but yeah, everyone's got a right to earn a living I've had offers to do garage tunes and I've had offers for Garage deals but I can't do that. You've got to do the music you love. Garage?….nah…
LC: Describe your style in three words?
 CB: Describe my style in three words? Aggressive, "the truth" - three words? Wasn't that three words already? OK, it's a bit London….There you go: London, Aggressive and Truthful.
LC: What do you think would make - well, there's a lot of talk at the moment about how British
Hip Hop is having its chance,Mark B and Roots Manuva's have been in the charts - What do you think is going to make kids want to buy British
Hip Hop compared to other genres like…Garage!? Haha!
CB; Well I think, I actually think people like So Solid have done people in British
Hip Hop quite a big favour. Albeit, the music is not the same a lot of people who know about the music will know that Garage and UK
Hip Hop are not the same thing, But to your average listener and pop buyer, they probably couldn't differentiate between Garage and underground British
Hip Hop. The fact that Garage and people like So Solid have gone so mainstream, it's made the public aware of the British tongue on record - just the sound of an English or a London MC - an Urban MC on record has become accepted. It was accepted three-four years ago, but the only people doing it then were drum & bass MC's.
LC: So how do you think people in UK Hip Hop can build on that?
CB: People's just gotta keep banging out the tracks! I think there's a lot of people doing it! Roots is killing it man! Mark B & Blade are killing it! Mud Fam are just everywhere at the moment! So many MC's just springing up from out of nowhere at the moment! I think a lot of it is in the production - I think British production of
Hip Hop is not as good as American Production at the moment - albeit there are a few that are good, Skitz is fat, Killamanjero is fat - I just think there's a lot of talent wasted MC wise on bad beats. If the beats were pushed up to another level then…
LC: What was the first record you ever bought?
CB: First record I ever bought?…Do you know what it was? Musical Youth! - Pass the dutchie? Yeah but I actually preferred the B-side…
LC: What was that?
CB: It was called "Let's give love a chance" or sommat - it had this sick reggae bassline. Yeah, that was my first ever record. I don't think I was old enough to have bought it myself, I must have only been like four or five or something. I must have had it bought for me I guess.
'...its made the public aware of the British tongue on record...'
LC: Is there a lyric from any tune, not just Hip Hop that really made you think "that is the best lyric?"
CB: Best lyrics? I say what lyric I did like which hit me pretty hard - it was an Eminem lyric off the Marshall Mathers LP from that tune "Amateville"(?) - it's just sick, gangsta, gun-toting sickness to the fullest - but yeah, it's a lyric he spit on it which is so angry and so sick. It's the one where he goes "so we steal, while a bunch of fucking idiots deal" (etc ). He's just fucking offkey on it, he just goes off! That's a sick lyric! Umm, another lyric? Not
Hip Hop wise but I like Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder's got lyrics and he's got the performance down too. Errrr, Roots Manuva man! Roots has got some sick lyrics man! Fucking untold sick lyrics man! I relate to Roots Manuva's lyrics a lot.
LC: Who's your favourite lyricist? Would that be Roots Manuva then? Stevie Wonder?
CB: Favourite lyricist? Ummm, Roots is pretty sick, Ghostface Killah Ghostface is dark.
LC: What's your favourite tune of all time?
CB: Do you know, my favourite tune of all time is probably a drum & bass tune. It's so fucking hard to choose but my favourite tune of all time is probably "Champion DJ" …you'd know it if you heard it, it's like 94-95 ragga jungle lick - used to love that shit! That's probably one of my favourite tunes of all time. I like a lot of old Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder but couldn't even say just one tune. Nah, I'll stick with "Champion DJ", no one will fucking know what that tune is except me.
LC: I find a real parallel between the old raving days where some younger kids never raved but experienced it through the tapes of the raves, and how now some peoples consumption of
Hip Hop culture is quite internet based. What do you think about Hip Hop on the Internet? Websites and forums and all that?
CB: I think it's wicked! The Internet is such a good tool! I used to do a drum & bass show on a station called Interface, that was the first Internet radio station, we were broadcasting to like ten thousand people and this was three, four years ago. Even just things like having a website where people can download your tunes is sick promotion! So yeah, like you were saying, it's like kids listening to drum & bass tapes like I used to when we was kids because we couldn't get into the raves. It's the same thing, just a different medium - now you can get it off the net instead of off tapes but you can still also get the tapes! Definitely valuable! Check my Webster
www.code-breaker.co.uk.
LC: Alright, I'll remember that. If you could work with anyone, whom would you work with?
CB: I'd like to work with Rodney P. I'd love to spit a lyric with Rodney. I just think Rodney's dark man he's just ruff! He just tells it like it is. He's got no preconceptions. Roots Manuva obviously! I want to do something with Skitz; I like Skitz's beats! Out da Ville, I really rate Out da Ville too! I'd really like to do shit with them, that's probably all the people in British circles I'd like to work with.
LC: What about artists from anywhere? Like a Dream Team - like Code Breaker's Dream Team, not necessarily
Hip Hop, who would you choose?
 CB: Hmmmm, Dream Team huh? I think I'd probably like to do something with drum & bass's Dillinja. I rate Dillinja, Roni Size; I'd like to do something with Roni Size. Dre. I'm not sure if I would like to actually work with them but I kinda rate the production team behind Michael Jackson, obviously I don't think it will fit anything I do, I'd just like to see what goes on and how it's made because I think they've just got it down, I don't think they're shit now but Michael Jackson over the decades - during the '70s and '80s just killed it man! And also any of the Motown people, Oh man! Stevie Wonder.
LC: I got one of his records the other day - "The Secret life of plants" - got it from a charity shop for £1.25.
CB: Charity shops are a good place to buy records!
LC: Do you think that as a music artist, you should see yourself as a role model or it's just you creating music and it's not your business what other people take from it?
CB: That is an extremely difficult question to answer and something that rappers like Eminem take a lot of stick for. Because in his opinion, like he says, he didn't know he was going to get this big and he was just saying the same shit now as before he got big. When you get big you become a role model whether you like it or not. I think being a role model's alright, I don't think I'm controversial enough to have to worry about that too much, it's more important to just do your music. If you don't like it, don't listen to it. That's the way I see it; But then I suppose there is a lot of stuff I don't say
LC: So you do censor yourself a little bit?
CB: All it is is my opinion but if you put your opinion on record, it doesn't become your opinion anymore, it becomes a grand statement rather than just a personal statement. But at the same time, music like
Hip Hop is there to provoke big reactions. It is there to make people look and listen - I dunno - I don't think I'm controversial enough to have to worry about this.
LC: Would you ever write a political message for one of your tracks?
CB: I don't deal with politics man, I know we all should but I don't. To me I find politics in this country as well as any other country, the state of affairs with regards to voting and all that, it's always kinda like having to choose the best/worst guy if you ask me. They never do what they say they're going to do anyway. Rightly or wrongly, I choose to ignore a lot of politics. I know a lot of emcees do get involved with it but it's not my thing, it's not for me.
'...if you put your opinion on record, it doesn't become your opinion
anymore, it becomes a grand statement rather than just a personal statement...'
LC: How do you write your lyrics? I mean, it might be different for you coming from drum & bass but do you say, sit down and write lyrics or do you just spin lyrics out from little ideas in your head?
CB: Something usually pops into my head. I'll see something, someone will say something to me, it's usually when I'm driving or sitting on a train, something will pop into my head and it'll become a lyric, then become maybe a chorus or the start of a verse - it's usually once you write the first line of a chorus or the first couple of lines of a verse, once you get a subject or a theme going, the rest kinda writes itself. I never used to write lyrics at all for drum & bass. I used to remember everything but then it got to a stage where I had so many lyrics in my head I thought, "I've got to start writing it down." That's probably when it started to become more structured. Yeah, once I've got an idea in my head, like a chorus or a verse or something, I do sit down and try and structure it into verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structures. I know a lot of rappers just like to rap for 50 bars continuous which is cool - I mean, like Phi Life know how to do that well - they don't have many choruses, their high-speed flow just goes for like fifty bars, but they're pretty much the only guys who pull it off. A lot of people just get monotonous -
LC: Machine like?
CB: Yeah, so I like to have a chorus. It's quite bad but I read into quite a lot of things and analyse even like pop songs, just stupid things like Kylie Minogue 'n that. It's all about getting an emotional response and you see how people respond to certain structures of verses, bridges and choruses. If you apply the same ideas to
Hip Hop, I mean, if you think about any of the biggest Hip Hop tunes, a lot of them have got sorta pop hooks, pop structure in the way they are written in terms of verse, chorus and bridge.
LC: To you have to be on your own in silence to write?
CB: Yeah, I'm quite a loner man. I'm good on my own in the studio. I'm probably going to go blind staring at computer screens for so long, but you've got to burst that bubble, get out because you start to lose it, you don't know what's good and what's not good after a while. You can spend eight hours on the same bar!
LC: At least you don't puff? You're alright there, if you puffed you'd be sat there for hours going "Awh! This is so good" but then the next day phhhh?
CB: Yeah, I know what you're saying. My version of that is I stay up late till like five in the morning and I go to bed thinking "that tune was fat!" And I'll wake up to find it's fucking terrible. So yeah, my version of getting stoned is staying up and getting busted during a tune due to my lack of sleep. You've got to know when you've done something that's not good as well - I think that's quite important. A lot of people don't know necessarily when they've done something that's not that good. You've got to have a constructive view of yourself and know when you're dope and when something is good. But also be able to read other peoples' opinions. If it was down to me, half the tunes that have been out of mine wouldn't be out - they'd be in the bin or sitting on my shelf and nobody would ever hear them. That's like with the guys at Buttercuts, they say "you've got to run with this tune or that tune" I'm like "You really like that tune?".
LC: How do you find performing live? I've always found being on stage quite
nerveracking.
 CB: Yeah I get kinda like that in the band - The Pistachio' funk band I do a reggae tune with them and it's like sorta singing, but I don't like singing. Rapping's fine, MCing's easy I've been doing it for so long and I've never ever stumbled on a track. It's like reggae singing/rapping and it scared the shit out of me when we did a gig. Doing that reggae tune just busts me up - singing's a whole different ball game, it's so much more about being on-point - 'cus with rapping you can kinda get away with it and slur things it doesn't matter, even if you're drunk it doesn't matter if you know your shit.
LC: That could be your style?
CB: Yeah, you'll still sound good. But singing, everyone knows if you sound shit.
LC: You have to use whatever noise, whatever ugly noise you've got - like you're the male Macy Grey or something - and you can go "well it's just a funky style!"
At which point the tape descends into total indecipherability, one charge which can never be levelled at Code-Breaker, as his DnB schooling has ensured that his lyrical consonants are crystal clear. In my humble opinion he represents 'the future' of UK
Hip Hop if UK Hip Hop can allow itself to embrace bigger beats and not be scared of the live band experience.
Check out the Buttercuts crew when you can, I dare you to be disappointed by the show you see ……
www.buttercuts.com
Many thanks to Codebreaker for the interview.
BIG UP Sumo for the transcription, and QED for the coding.
- Lady
Cook
Related Links:
 
|
