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Doc Brown interview by Mike

Doc Brown Interview

interview 0281 added 11.02.05 words: Mike technical: QED

On the 13th January this year, I was kindly invited around to the house of one of the rising stars of the UK hip hop scene. Over the course of the interview I discovered about his manifesto to bring love back to hip hop. With the amount of time he puts into all aspects of the scene, it’s hard not to become infected with the love he himself exudes for his chosen path. His name is Doc Brown, you may know him from Deal Real, you may know him from his numerous hosting spots over London, or you may even know him from that hit that should have been even bigger than it was, Donnie’s Lament. Check what he has to say, and remember why you got into hip hop in the first place.

OK, first up, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are?

Yeah, I’m Doc Brown, from the Poisonous Poets click.

If you had invented a time machine, would you also have put it in the DeLorean like your namesake?

Yeah, yeah, I would have kept it original. I would have stuck with the DeLorean.

And is that a reason behind your name?

Nah, not really. It’s more of a coincidence. But to be perfectly honest, I can’t remember the ins and outs. I know that Browns was always one of my nicknames when I was at school for bumming cigarettes and that. To be honest, I couldn’t say it was linked to Back To The Future, but maybe it was, I don’t remember. But whatever, I like that film.

And on a serious topic, what did you think of the reports about Prince Harry dressing as a Nazi at a party?

I was just talking with my girlfriend about that earlier. It was kinda typical really, I wasn’t too surprised because he’s not a smart guy. If you look at William, William’s a smart guy. Most people would say ah, it’s the Royal family, that’s just how they are. I don’t really see it like that, cos I see people as individuals. I think Prince Philip is a dickhead, but I think Prince Charles is quite safe. And it’s similar with Prince William and Prince Harry, I think Prince William’s quite smart, he knows what’s going on. Prince Harry, he failed all his exams, the only thing he passed at A Level was Art, and he blatantly cheated at that! He’s always getting drunk, he’s had his whole life on a silver spoon, and he just loves it. He don’t give a fuck, he doesn’t know what’s right from wrong, he’s never talked to a poor person or tried to work out what’s really going on in the world. His PR company set up events for him to do, whereas his mum, his dad, and his brother, they’re more independent thinkers. Their PR companies set up shit for them and they thought wait a minute, this is actually quite interesting, let me look into it. Whereas Harry, he’s just a dickhead, and a young dickhead, so I think he actually thought that was funny.

OK, for a lot of people, ‘Donnie’s Lament’ will have been the first time they heard of you. What did you think to the response it gained?

I was loving it, I couldn’t believe it. Cos nothing was ever really going to happen with that song. I’m always making songs, up until now I’ve just been making songs regardless of whether they’re gonna come out or not. It’s the way of most British emcees, no one’s got a deal, no one really knows what the hell they’re doing, so they just record, and see what happens, perform their songs and it’s a very immediate kind of culture. But when I made that song, it was really just after I’d seen the film. I didn’t really think much of the film, but the last five minutes when that song came on, it was powerful, and I thought that piano loop, I’ve got to loop it up. As soon as I did, and I listened over and over to what he was saying in the lyrics and I thought this is perfect for a rap song. Especially from London, the stuff he’s saying is relevant. So I got the kid Lowkey to talk about going to school and I talked about the 9 to 5 and just kept it real, but I just sat on it, like a bunch of my other songs. I didn’t really know what to do with them, and I thought maybe I’ll give it to someone for a mixtape or something like that. Then Lowkey called me up and he said that he’d heard the original song on the radio. And it went number one, and from there, we knew we had to do something with it, but we didn’t really know what. And it was too late to take it to the label that put out the single, cos they already had the techno remix on it. And a bunch of people kept coming up to me and saying you’ve got to do this.

"...When you’re writing songs, they got to be about something that the world can relate to..."

There was a dude from Lex Records, he took it to Zane Lowe at Radio 1. And he started playing it, well, actually, it wasn’t him, he was on holiday at the time, and it was Huw Stephens who took over his show. And he gave it to Jo Whiley, and then Jonathan Ross got it, and it was everywhere. I linked up with the guy, Gary Jules, and played him the song, and he was on it, he wanted to come and play piano on it. So I told him to chat to his label, and he said he didn’t really have a say at the label, but he talked to them. And the next thing I know, I was getting calls from Sanctuary talking about cease and desist and taking me to court and shit. I was just like, I don’t want to get involved in this, but to be honest, I didn’t really care if they took me to court because it would be like taking blood from a stone and it would make the song famous at the same time. I was in over my head, but I was just impressed by the way people latched on to it and really liked the song, and that was all I really gave a fuck about. In the end, Sanctuary just said do what you’re doing, we don’t want to know, so we put out 500 copies, we didn’t go over that number for fear of Sanctuary trying to fuck with us and take any money we didn’t have. So we just chucked it out there, and it became a little cult thing, and it is what it is. If I ever get the chance to re-release it, I will and give it the proper release it deserves, but for now it’s just a little classic, so I’ve got that under my belt, it’s nice.

So how do you think it’s affected your standing in the scene, do you think it’ll help push you forward in terms of sales?

In terms of sales, definitely. It locked down the people that’ve been following me up until now. Anyone who likes my stuff will have liked it off live performance. Because that’s what I’ve always done and that’s what I’m best at, no question about it. So that really cemented those fans who’d come to see me at the shows, you know, like, “Okay, he can make a song as well.” So they’re with me now, but also getting it on Radio 1, Capital Radio, having it played in the morning time, in the afternoon, it showed people that there is something else out there, and for it to come at the same time as people like Dizzee and Mike Skinner, for it to come at the same time as them, who are basically saying look, there’s more to the British so-called urban scene. There’s all sorts of things going on. It was a good time for it to drop in that respect, and I think more and more people are open to what we’re all doing now. So yeah, they’re open to what I’m doing, so when my album drops, people are gonna be ready. Hopefully!

And how did the hook-up with Lowkey come about?

It was really through the open mic that I set up at Deal Real. I really just wanted to have a common ground for emcees because that was the way that I came up, and I don’t really see anywhere like that. Like Kung Fu had the open mic, but it was exclusive, if you were a little kid and you wanna rap and you look at it and there’s all these emcees on the stage already, and Chester will just jump in and just spit, you’re not thinking I can get up and do my thing. So I wanted to have a common ground somewhere in the centre of London, cos when you go to Kung Fu there’s no people from south there, there’s no people from east, there’s no people from west, it’s just people from north, so Deal Real was somewhere anyone could come, of any age, any description and just do their thing. And we have 30, 35 different emcees every single week spitting, and it properly made me realise that everyone spits, everybody. Every little crew of kids, one of them’s a rapper and the rest of ‘em all listen to rap. So it was really a good way to meet young talent and also to meet producers, like a couple of producers on the LP, I met through that shop. So yeah, Lowkey was a kid who came in one night and when he took the mic, with every line, he just stared at every emcee who came up before him, with these eyes like daggers.

"...If you listen to my music, I’m not trying to sound larger than life. When I’m on stage, I’m larger than life, and for me, that’s what it’s all about..."

The balls on him is just ridiculous! He was alright, he wasn’t amazing, but he was good, he was better than the kids that had gone up before him. And I was like, yeah, this kid is serious. And then I asked his name, and he said Lowkey, and I was like damn, cos there was this other emcee I knew from a few years back called Loki who by pure coincidence was there that night. I was like shit, there’s gonna be beef! And the other Loki heard from outside and he came running in, and he was like who’s got my name, they’re gonna get murdered! So we set up the battle there and then and this new kid Lowkey tore the other one apart. It was sad for the old Loki, but for me, I was just like, this kid is coming under my wing now. And it was soon after that that I had the idea for the Donnie’s Lament tune and I thought I’m gonna get him to spit on it. I didn’t know how young he was at the time but I thought he’d have a better memory of school than I have. But he was actually at college at the time, he was only 17, so I was like, fucking hell, it’s perfect. And from there he’s just gone on leaps and bounds, he just can’t stop, he just doesn’t stop writing songs, he’s incredible.

Someone I know mentioned they were disappointed that you didn’t shout out Kensal Rise on your North West London wrap-up on Think Back. Do you have anything to say about that?

All I can do is apologise! Cos I don’t know why it’s not on there, cos Kensal Rise is a massive part of my upbringing, I spent so much time there. And they’re gonna be even more gutted cos on the Citizen Smith mixtape, there’s a song at the end dedicated to MK and it’s all about the area, it’s all about North West, and I’ve got a feeling the only area I don’t mention is Kensal Rise! All I can say is I think maybe it doesn’t rhyme well, or something! I don’t know, maybe it doesn’t drop well!

You mentioned your Citizen Smith tape which has just come out, would you consider yourself an urban guerrilla?

Doc Brown - pic from www.thtc.co.uk I suppose it’s a similar thing to the Doc Brown thing, I guess I just don’t think things through! They just get equated with TV shows, people must think I just sit watching TV or something. But my surname is Smith, and I feel like I’m just an average dude. If you listen to my music, I’m not trying to sound larger than life. When I’m on stage, I’m larger than life, and for me, that’s what it’s all about. As Slick Rick used to say, people don’t want to see a bum on stage, they don’t want to just see a dude saying yeah, I sit around in my house, they want to see a superstar, and that’s what I try and be when I’m onstage, but really, in terms of my life, which is what I rap about, I’m just a standard guy. You can tell that when you meet me, so I just thought yeah, I’m just another citizen, and my surname’s Smith, so I said yeah, it’s got a nice ring to it.

What about your album, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, the album is called The Document, and it’s out in March of this year. The muscle behind it, in terms of industry muscle, is massive, and the songs, the songs are huge. I’m very excited about it. It’s an accomplished LP with a variety of songs on it. None of them are about ‘rap’, none of them are about how good I am at rapping, how good looking I am, or anything like that. That to me is all tired, and it should be kept for freestyle. When you’re writing songs, they got to be about something that the world can relate to. So basically, like any good rap album, it’s first and foremost a diary of my life, and secondly, it’s topics everybody can think about and think yeah, I’ve been through that. It’s everything, it’s love, it’s life, it’s streets, it’s everything. When everybody hears it they’ll know where I’m coming from! It’s just honest, an honest LP. I haven’t really tried to do what everybody’s doing or saying, I’m not trying to say I’m this or trying to say I’m that, I’m trying to make a song that’s interesting. Simple as that.

And are you gonna be touring the album, and if so, do you have any details?

My label and my management are putting together the bookings at the moment. I’ve only got a few dates I can think of off the top of my head. The very first one is in Bath at the Moles Club on February 16th, Brighton at the Zapp club the following night, Exeter on the 24th, and we’re gonna try and do a sort of Land’s End to John O’Groats type tour. Work our way up from the South West all the way up to Scotland. Everywhere hopefully, but at the very least, as many major cities as possible. And if I can get into the sticks, I’ll do that, cos they go crazy in the sticks for this shit, the go insane! I’ve performed on some big stages in my life, I’ve supported Busta Rhymes, and supported De La Soul, I’ve performed in fronts of thousands of people, but the craziest show I think I ever did was in Guernsey. The people were so hungry for rap, they just lost their fucking minds! So yeah, if I can get to the sticks, I will. But the dates, as soon as I get my website up and running, I’ll get as many dates on there as possible, and everyone will know, nationwide, I’m not just about London, I wanna get out of London and hit as many people as I can.

You do a lot of hosting of shows around London, is that something you enjoy?

Yeah, yeah, it’s something that really came about, it was never something I thought was for me at first, I always just wanted to get in the game. But I used to admire people who hosted back in the day, like Intenz and Jonzi D, people like that, people who had so much character about them. I really admired them and the way they held it together, I thought it was a skill, but I always just wanted to be a rapper. But once I got into the rap thing, I started realising how shit the majority of shows are in London, and what a negative vibe there is in the majority of raves. And I started getting worried that if I wasn’t there, something wack would happen. I just started jumping up and saying look, let’s do this, let’s do that, let’s not have this big gap between acts, let’s have these two acts on together.

"...It was probably the mid ‘90s when it proper hit me, like this is it, this is all I ever need to listen to, just rap..."

I just started showing promoters do this, do that, it’s more fun, and talk to the people like they’re human beings, not like they’re just a pack of wild animals. I really started getting into it, and I started getting hooked on making things run smooth, because the majority of promoters I know, they don’t know how to do that. When they hire me as a host, they think we’ll pay the rappers but we don’t really need to pay the host as much. And they don’t really realise how much a host can structure a show and make it run smooth. And they don’t realise how much responsibility comes back on the host, cos if something goes wrong, people look at you, they’re not trying to find the promoter, they don’t know what the promoter looks like, they don’t know where the sound man’s hidden, they just look at you. When you come on and something wack happens, you have to try and laugh it off and make it seem like its all fun, and it’s all a laugh. To be honest, I just love hip hop so much, I just have to jump up there and say let’s have a good one.

Do you think it’s helped in any way, such as not being nervous in front of a crowd?

Doc Brown - Out There [Janomi] I’ve never really had that cos I did drama at school, and I’ve always just been involved in entertainment in some way or another from when I was a little kid. I always wanted to jump up and be the centre of attention. But it’s helped in terms of my rapping because if you’re not involved, you don’t know what the cutting edge is. Most emcees, as soon as they put out a 12, then they just disappear, and you just don’t see them, they don’t come to the raves as fans, they don’t come to the raves to be a part of it, they might come and perform, and that’s it. Anyone who knows me knows I’m always there, even if it’s shit, I’m there! Trying to make it good! Cos I feel dedicated to it, and for me, I never want to be that brer who’s just in the shadows, and then he comes out thinking he’s the hot shit. Cos a lot of times, if you do that, you’re like a year behind, you haven’t been seeing what’s going on, you haven’t seen the emcees come up, you haven’t seen the battles, you haven’t seen how far the lyrics have progressed, and what the nights are saying, what the people really wanna hear, what people are in to. So I just try and stay abreast of it through the hosting. But it does help how I am in front of people, it helps my own shows. When I do shows. Half the time these days, I’m hosting, and performing, which I hate doing, I’m trying to tone it down. Cos I think it’s a bit wack to just be on stage the whole time and say, “Okay ladies and gentleman, now it’s… me!” As if you haven’t fucking had enough of me for the past hour!

"...I’ve performed on some big stages in my life, I’ve supported Busta Rhymes, and supported De La Soul, I’ve performed in fronts of thousands of people, but the craziest show I think I ever did was in Guernsey..."

And do you think it’s helped in terms of getting your name known?

Yeah, no question about it. Last year, so many people came up to me and said you know what, I’m sure your name was on every flyer for every hip hop rave that year. And they’re probably not far off, it’s probably on 70% of them, cos I just wanted to make sure my face and my name were just synonymous with rap first and foremost, and then make it synonymous with good rap, with something good.

Can you tell us about you crew Poisonous Poets? Who are you, and do you have any releases in the pipeline?

Doc Brown - pic from www.thtc.co.uk Poisonous is an incredible unit of emcees. We didn’t grow up together, we’re not like Wu Tang where we all lived together with nothing and then made it, it didn’t work like that. We discovered each other through rap, and in that respect it’s quite handy because sometimes if you grow up with people and you learn to rap together and one of you is shit, you’re never really gonna know how to tell him. With us, we discovered each other because we all knew each other was good. It’s almost like a constant battle within Poisonous, it’s like a non-stop competition to be as good as each other, if not better. So we drive each other in a lot of ways, even though we don’t necessarily hang out all the time, when we come together, it’s fire, it’s crazy. When we all drop, when we come with some music, it’s gonna be crazy. We came out with a mixtape about a year, a year or so ago, but we weren’t pushed the way we should have been. The Poets is basically me, Reveal, Tony Dangerous, and Therapist, and through a connection of Tony’s, we got signed to BMG, and we were there for like a year, and we made a whole bunch of shit-hot tracks that just never saw the light of day thanks to all sorts of label politics. Getting out of that deal was one of the best things that ever happened to me personally, cos I suddenly got reinvigorated and I just went at it hard. And since then, I’ve really been on the solo thing, real, real hard, but when we regroup, when we get back together, it’s gonna be nuts! Right now, we’ve got in the pipeline a sequel to that mixtape, and we’re gonna put that out, and re-release the first one and try and get a lot more interest in the Poets. And as parts of my tour, and when the album drops, and it makes the buzz that it’s gonna make, then again I’m gonna reintroduce the crew, and people are gonna get to know. But yeah, the Poisonous Poetry Mixtape 1 is available, you can hit us up at poisonouspoets@hotmail.com and we can hook that up. And Volume 2 is gonna be done as soon as I get off my arse and do the freestyles that I need to do for it, cos I think everything else is done! Oh, and DJ Snips is our producer, but we’ve got a lot of outside production as well, such as Farma G from Task Force.

Well, you’ve just answered my next question, I was gonna ask about BMG! But did you learn any lessons from the troubles at the label?

I learnt everything from that situation. Every single ounce of professionalism in me was learnt through that period of my life which was, in music terms, just the most depressing period. But at the same time, it was so enlightening, cos I learnt everything about how to carry myself in the studio, I learnt how to work with other people for the first time, I learnt how to share ideas and not be precious over shit, we all learnt how to deal with these industry people, we learnt how to talk with proper people, like business dudes, rather than what you’ve got in your head, we learnt about the reality of the game. The majority of British rappers, the vast majority of them, they really just don’t know shit about anything, they just sit in their rooms, they write rhymes, they come out and spit at open mics, and in their minds, they’re like, in the game. Like they’re these really important figures who everyone cares about, and they don’t want to get involved in the industry because the industry’s full of snakes, and they just live their lives by these rap clichés, instead of actually getting involved. I would never have known, if I didn’t put pen to paper and sign with BMG, what it was really like. But since then I’ve been involved with all sorts of industry people, and some of them are dickheads, and some of them are snakes, but some of them, they just like music, and that’s why they work in the music game. So I learnt a hell of a lot from that. But mainly I learnt how to make songs and how to be professional. If I could go back, I still probably would have signed.

"...Once I got into the rap thing, I started realising how shit the majority of shows are in London, and what a negative vibe there is in the majority of raves. And I started getting worried that if I wasn’t there, something wack would happen..."

So who are your influences, past and present?

I’ve got so many, man! When I was a little kid, it wasn’t all rap. My sister introduced me to rap, cos we used to get £1 pocket money a week, and they used to have the 7” that were 99p in the shops, so we used to just buy 7”, whatever was in the charts. But my sister bought a single by Queen Latifah featuring De La Soul, called Mama Gave Birth To The Soul Children, and she had other stuff, she had Tribe Called Quest, NWA, they were the first little bits of rap I heard. But there were all other sorts of influences for me as I was getting older, aged 7 upwards, and then when I was about 12, like ’89 or ’90, and I started hearing all the rap that was coming up. And that was the first big wave of rap in the mainstream that I remember. But alongside that, there was all the other influences that I had from older people, from my parents, a whole bunch of reggae, all sorts of stuff, Dylan, The Beatles, loads of shit. But in terms of rap, when I proper started getting into it, it was all the old school heads like Kane and NWA, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Brand Nubian, Gang Starr, and then it was probably the mid ‘90s when it proper hit me, like this is it, this is all I ever need to listen to, just rap. When I heard Nas, Wu Tang, Biggie, Tupac, that kind of ’93, ’94 type era, it was like, this is it for me, this is everything. And that really drove me, but what really inspired me to rap, and to pick up the mic, was Blak Twang’s album, Dettwork SouthEast. Cos when I heard that I thought, you can do it, you can do it in your own voice, and not sound like a dickhead. So I rapped for two years, sounded like a dickhead, then I worked out how to rap, in my own style. But I could say that was a defining moment.

And what have you been listening to recently?

Doc Brown - Citizen Smith I just listen to a whole bunch of old stuff, I’ve got an iPod now, and I just buy old CDs. I’m a vinyl head, I love my vinyl, but in terms of listening, it doesn’t make it easy, when you’re walking down the street and that, so I’m just bugging off of CDs. And I’ve been listening to a lot of old shit, a lot of the new shit, it doesn’t move me. But in terms of new stuff that has come out that is good, I’d say Council Estate of Mind, Skinny’s album, Immortal Technique, Jigga, The Black Album, Masta Ace’s album, I was amazed at how good that was, I really thought it was gonna be shit, I thought he was dead! But it was big. What else? Ghostface, Street’s Disciple by Nas. I’m bumping that nuff, I’m bumping Street’s Disciple every day actually. I know a lot of people think it’s wack, but I think it’s because they’ve only heard the singles. He’s put out like four singles, or he’s going to put out four singles, and they’re hands down the four worst songs on the album, I don’t know why he’s put them out! I guess it’s cos of the collaborations that he’s got on there, Ludacris, and his dad, and Kelis, but they’re all the worst songs, that album is wicked, people should check it out. And I’m always listening to British stuff, waiting to hear who the next brers are gonna be! I’m feeling the Elite Team CD that I got off Mic Assassin last week, that’s big. But there needs to be some more British heads, I haven’t heard a lot of stuff that’s really, really blown me away.

Can you tell us a little bit about Janomi, what’s it like being on that label?

Right now it’s wicked. I can’t lie, I wasn’t looking to sign to Janomi, for a long time, and they’ve been there tapping the back of my head for about 3 years, nah, longer than that, like 4 or 5 years. They’ve just always been there, cos I knew this one emcee, and he was down with them when they were just starting up, and it was the only label I knew, so it was exciting. And they did a 12” for me, but I never really signed to them, I was always thinking, one day, I’ll make it to a big label. But the troubles I had with BMG and the issues I had since then, trying to shot my stuff, and Janomi is still there, still saying you can get 50% of everything, do your thing, we’re not gonna fuck with whatever you want to do, you can do it. And I just started thinking, you know what, what am I playing at? These boys will put my music out the second I put pen to paper, and to be fair, they’ve really moved things along, and they’re not the label they were. This Evil Ed thing, it’s the first step towards something a lot bigger. When my thing drops, and then Yungun’s album, me and him are just gonna be like the marquee artists, and we’re just gonna push it to a whole new level. We’re gonna take Janomi international basically. In about six months time, people are gonna be talking about Janomi like they talk about 679 and XL. Our shit is highly touted, I don’t think people really realise, but it’s gonna be big. This is the last interview where I’ll actually be saying shit! When it’s the fiftieth interview, it’ll be like, “So who are your influences?” “Me.” “How did you get the name Doc Brown?” “I just got it.”

"...I just wanted to make sure my face and my name were just synonymous with rap first and foremost, and then make it synonymous with good rap..."

What are your aims in terms of hip hop, how far do you want to take it?

I used to always say to myself I’ll be happy if I’m a ghetto celebrity, and a hundred people know who I am, and there’s still an inkling of that, I don’t really want fame at all! But I want some dough, I’m bored of not having any money, I want some cash! I think I can make a future for me and for my family if this thing is successful. What I really want to do, I want to do this album, I want to bring the Poets through, I want to come with a Poets album that’s just gonna be crazy, off of the foundation of my album, and then I want to do another solo album, and then I just wanna get into radio, I wanna host shows, I wanna be able to be a part of hip hop forever. And you can’t do that through rapping, I’m not trying to be a 30, 35 year old rapper. By that time, I wanna have my props, I wanna be able to do a show whenever I want, and people to come and that, but mostly I wanna be making money off something that’s to do with hip hop, something that I deserve. Cos a lot of people I see making money off of hip hop, they don’t deserve it, they ain’t done shit, they don’t have talent, first and foremost, which really irritates me, they’ve got no history, no-one knows where the hell they came from, and they’re making dough off of what I sweat every day. So yeah, I wanna be there, but most importantly, I wanna have my own show to be able to turn around and say to the next generation of kids coming up, this is where you can get your shit played. And if I’ve got a name, and I’ve got fame, and I’ve got dough, and I’m on a mainstream radio station, and I can call the shots, then I could make it very serious. Stations like Itch and 1Xtra are heavy the way they give people a chance to get their music out there, I wanna do something like that, but on a bigger scale.

And do you prefer emceeing or producing?

Doc Brown Well, I can’t produce, so emceeing is definitely the one!

Oh right, I thought you produced Donnie’s Lament?

Yeah, I suppose I did in a strange way. When I was mixing the album I was doing it with this guy Alan Mawdsley, who mixed pretty much every major British release that you’ve heard. He’s a don. And he was saying to me that it’s funny how all these dudes call themselves producers, and I was like what do you mean? And he goes, well, they’re beat makers. In musical terms, if you look at musical history, if you look at Motown, if you look at rock n roll, if you look at jazz, if you look at any of these genres, a producer is someone who brings the record to a sellable level, they create a song that is sellable, they might not have made the beat. That’s why he couldn’t understand why everybody cusses Dre, cos he’s not really making the beats. He’s a record producer, he produces hits. He’s got twelve guys working for him but he’s got the final pitch. And with me, I don’t get a beat off a brer and just rap on it, I never do that, I get the idea off the dude and I expand it. So in a way, I could put co-producer on every song on my album, but I’m not going to, cos I can’t twist the knobs, I don’t know how to work the machines, but I’ve got an ear for music that’s unrivalled with a lot of other rappers. So yeah, don’t get it twisted, and get emcees starting to ask me for beats, cos I’m not gonna give ‘em shit, I can’t do that.

"...The majority of British rappers, the vast majority of them, they really just don’t know shit about anything, they just sit in their rooms, they write rhymes, they come out and spit at open mics, and in their minds, they’re like, in the game..."

So you don’t make your own beats?

Nah, I don’t sit there with an MPC and all that kind of stuff, I can’t do that. I’d never take the credit of the other producers, but yeah, I co-produce.

And what would you like to be remembered for?

Boy, I haven’t really thought that far ahead! I don’t know, I’d like to be remembered as that dude who tried to bring the air of enjoyment back to hip hop. What I’d really love is just for this period to be documented, I’d love to think that there was someone, a writer somewhere, who’s experienced what I’ve experienced, and beforehand as well, before I was even involved. Back to Covent Garden, back to the early ‘80s, someone who’s seen this UK thing grow from nothing to what it is now. And people are like, “It ain’t shit now,” but it is, it’s getting there man. We’ve got Estelle, we’ve got Dizzee, we’ve got Wiley, we’ve got Shystie, we’ve got Jamelia, we’ve got Lethal Bizzle, we’ve got all these artists coming through. And people say “Yeah, but that’s not hip hop”. They’re English man, and they’re repping England hard, none of them are trying to be American, in any way, shape or form, so that’s good for all of us. So if someone could document it from then to now, I’d just like to be a footnote, where it said there was this dude, Doc Brown, and whenever there was a shit party, he’d get the party started.

OK, and lastly, any final messages or shout outs you wanna make?

I’ll just shout out my crew, shout out Poisonous Poets. Look out for my brother Luc Skyz and his whole Standard Procedures movement, he’s got a whole bunch of songs coming that people should definitely check for. Watch out for Lowkey, Yungun and anyone else who’s connected with me. And a shout out to everybody who helped me finish the album.

So thanks to Doc Brown, and his hospitality. Go check his Citizen Smith mixtape to get a flavour of what he’s saying or to hear that song in case you’ve been stuck under a rock for some time. Make sure to pick up his debut album when it drops on March 14th so that he can get the place in hip hop history that he deserves. And if you’re ever at a show in London, keep an eye on that stage, cos chances are he’ll be having the time of his life on it.
- Mike

Related Links:

Out There review

The Document review

Janomi