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Twelve years ago, back when the UK underground was
actually underground, when Blade's songs fucked up
your radio rather then get heavy rotation on it, when
Normski irritated everyone to submission on national
tele and Ice Cube wasn't shit, the Criminal Minds
ventured onto the desolate battlefield that was UK hip
hop with the 'Guilty as Charged'EP. Everyone has
their favourite records, normally the usual suspects
like Tribe or Nas, Public Enemy or Dre. For me
Guilty as Charged is up there with the best of them,
it's my Illmatic, it's my Midnight Marauders.
Released in 1990, I got hold of a copy for 7 quid
which had no cover and no track list. Even now I
don't know the names of all the songs. After posting
up a message on ukhh.com and going via a man called
Adee from Switzerland, I managed to get in contact
with DJ Halo, one of the beatmakers for the Criminal
Minds. I'd known they'd released a follow up to
'Guilty' called 'Tales from the Wasteland' but had
never seen or heard it. I found out that a
subsequent album was recorded but shelved after sample
clearence problems when according to Halo; "we started
getting phone calls from Warner and other labels
threatening this and that". Along with this setback,
Halo began to get disillusioned with hip hop in
general; "if you remember the scene around 92/93... it
was when US hip hop took a turn for the worse... and
that really put the UK stuff into decline." Halo
continued making beats with fellow DJ Spatts on a more
drum n bass/dance tip but TCM are now set to return to
the UK hip hop scene with a new 14 track album in
March/April. (this is the equivalent of Muhammed Ali
returning to the ring and kicking every contenders
arse, live on pay per view). It will include the best
of what they've done over the past 5 years plus some
new stuff as well. Below is the transcript of an
interview with Halo, the UK hardcore style is about to
make a bigger return than the jedi :
You started TCM back in 1985 which is early on for
most people in the UK scene, what got you into hip hop
in the first place and what year was that?
OK .. When I was 10, living in Essex, my best friend
moved to the states to live in the US. I moved to
Milton Keynes. We kept in contact and in 1983 I went
to stay there for a month. He was already into a lot
of early rap. He took me to a huge record store, where
I bought a huge stack of rap records. I was hooked
from then until now. I did the whole breakdancing and
graffiti bit like a lot of other people.
Who were your influences at the time and who are
they now?
Influences then ..hmm ..well I remember listening to
Sugarhill and Tommy Boy stuff, a lot of pioneering
electro crossover stuff, and it wasn’t long before
Mike Allen had a rap show on capital radio, so I used
to tape that every week, to catch all the latest US
stuff.
TCM seem to have a legendary status amongst some in
the UK hip hop community, how do you feel your new
releases will fit in with the current UK scene?
I don’t think they will. And if they did .. I wouldn’t
release them.
Will the new tunes be in the same style as the older
stuff?
The lyrics will be hard and firing, the breaks intense
and dark .. much like the older stuff. We know our
strengths and also our limitations. I personally do
not like the more laid back sound .. it doesn’t
reflect my personality, and I wouldn’t enjoy creating
anything that didn’t sound intense. I like creating
thought provoking and emotive music. The beats will be
more updated though, fewer loops and more bass and
snare patterns. For anyone that liked the older stuff
..they’re gonna love the new stuff.
Can you give us a break down of planned future
releases?
OK ..the first release is Iceski’s album .. a fourteen
track album consisting of the best tracks of the last
five years, and many new tracks. It’s an intense, dark
album with typical Iceski lyrics delivered with venom.
Backup vocals come courtesy of Safe D and CMD, who
also have a track each on the album. I am trying to
sign Scottish rapper Eastborn for the second release,
who also has a harder rap style. Then Safe D and CMD
will have 12” releases, after which we are going to
Switzerland and Germany to tour.
You used samples on ‘Guilty as Charged’ which were
not the usual things that got sampled (ie Duran Duran,
Star Wars). Was it a conscious decision to use less
conventional sources?
It wasn’t a conscious decision, more what we saw as a
natural progression. At the time, people we knew were
predominantly using rare groove, funk or soul breaks
.. and we just thought .. why limit yourself to that,
when there’s so much amazing music out there from
other genres, we just broadened our horizons a little.
Has the problems with sample clearance had a large
detrimental affect on what you try to achieve?
Yes. It’s annoying when you get everyone on your case
trying to tap you for cash, or trying to stop you from
releasing stuff. It denies the listener a good 12” or
album for the sake of musical snobbery. We have
ourselves been sampled on a number of occasions and it
gives me a real buzz to hear our stuff on someone
elses record, I would never be so hypocritical as to
ask for money. Ultimately though, when you start
getting solicitors letters from major labels .. it’s
time to take the philosophical approach and swallow
your pride. The new album is riddled with samples
though .. so fuck the lot of em! It’s only available
from a handful of carefully selected people, so
hopefully no-one will let us down, or track us down!
You’ve had a break from releasing hip hop since
1996, what have you done in the meantime and what made
you decide to return to hip hop.
I have been writing for TV and video productions, and
I took a long break after our album got shelved, which
pissed us all off immensely. What made us return? ..
basically the demand for new material. I started
mailing a few people that I knew abroad after a few
years out .. and quickly became inundated with mail
asking about new material .. I really had no idea how
popular the tunes were abroad, and the kind of
following that existed. No one has heard the new
album, yet we have presold 1000 copies abroad alone,
which is staggering.
What other music genres do you like? What other
favourite bands?
I like anything that provokes emotion. I like Rap,
Reggae, R’n’B, Trip Hop, Classical, Flamenco, Opera, a
little Jazz .. not much, actually I can listen to just
about anything. My favourite bands ..The Doors,
Hendrix, Sly And The Family Stone.
You mention that hip hop kind of took a downturn
around 92, can you elaborate on that?
I just thought it started to lose its edge, in the US,
there was a lot of G-Funk stuff, and a lot of stuff
that seemed over produced and lacking in creativity. I
don’t know if this was due to the bigger labels
starting to get their claws in or what, but I stopped
buying so much stuff then.
How do you feel about the scene now? The US
underground has supposedly gone on a bit of a
renaissance recently.
Definitley .. I am really into the scene at the
moment, there’s so much stuff coming out, particularly
at the harder edge, it seems to be really slamming
again. I have heard some nice breaks to go with the
hard beats too .. which is good to hear again.
What current hip hop are you listening to at
present? (UK and US)
The US scene .. I really like. I’ve been listening to
D12, DMX, MOP, Dilated Peoples, Xzibit, too many to
mention ..a whole load of stuff. UK ..well by far the
best stuff I’ve heard is Eastborn, which is why I’m
trying to get him on the label. Last album I bought
..Mark B and Blade .. Favourite tune .. Wha Blow. Like
I said though .. I like the harder stuff, so the laid
back stuff I don’t really listen to.
Thanks to Halo for help, time and patience. Thanks to Adee for inspiration.
© 2001 ukhh.com
interview 0055 added 27.02.01 words Karnage
