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 Doyen & Cocka Interview
interview 0058 added 17.03.01 words Spoon
They created a stink with a certain Mr Vegas last year after the release of their 'Mobile Library' EP and are now settling on world domination....Spoon caught up with the manic pair of Doyen & Cocka after their recent show at 'Off The Hook' in Derby...
Ok then, Cilla Black time, what’s your names and where do you come from?
[Doyen] Ignore me, it’s not about me, It’s all about Cocka. Cocka’s blowing up this year, I’m nothing, I just rhyme over Cocka’s beats. Cocka’s not getting his respect.
It was all about you last year then?
[Doyen] It were all about me last year
[Cocka] He’s had his turn, it’s my turn now.
The mobile library EP, was that your first one together?
[Doyen] first one together. Me & Cocka have been together for about 8 years though. We’ve had albums out on demos. Years ago I had a record out with the Ruf which weren’t very successful. At the time we recorded 3 tracks, me on one and mine didn’t make it onto the release. That’s when I was in Manchester. I’m from Sheffield originally, lived in Manchester for a while, worked with the Ruf and that’s when I met Cocka, he started doing beats and we’ve been rocking it ever since.
You’re both in Sheffield now?
[Doyen] yeah, Cockas moved to Sheffield now in order to basically work on it. In these next 3 years I’m just going all out, I’m 27 now, before I’m 30 I’m just going all out…If I fail by the time I’m 30 then at least I’ve had a crack
[Cocka] basically we’ve been doing shit together for like 7 years and we just thought fuck it, lets take it more seriously
[Doyen] like British hiphop now is looking quite good. I still don’t feel that much of it, but I don’t feel much of anything. I come from like Hijack, Gunshot and Hardnoise. Then it had its own identity - it were like ‘hardcore’ it had its own sound. Now a lot is like watered down American stuff…but…along with the internet and stuff everything’s looking global, there’s not so many barriers, there’s a lot of room for people to succeed and to make money hopefully. That’s the aim…I’m not selling out, I need to eat! Basically
[Cocka] doing fucking hardcore hiphop that’s viable, that’s good.
[Doyen] 10 years ago Public Enemy were in the pop charts, Rebel Without A Pause…these were the hardest tunes ever. So me & Cocka are gonna bring it back basically.
theres some good MCs but all they want to do is stand on stage and rap their bollocks off...
[Doyen gets distracted by the discovery of a large Destinys Child promotional poster]
[Doyen] Whats up with fat girls?
What’s up with them?
[Doyen] They’re alright, there’s not enough of them on telly
[Cocka] Fat girls will give it up….they don’t know when their next sex is coming up do they? They count their lucky charms…like ‘lets go for now’
Who are your fat girl idols then?
[Doyen] Lisa Tarbuck
[Cocka] I think all women with big breasts should learn to continually lactate….the other night, 3 in the morning I was trying to have a brew, ran out of fucking milk….if I had a bird with me then it would have been alright wouldn’t it?
[Doyen] Doyen & Cocka are down with fat birds
[Cocka] skinny women should make more noise
So you want more big women at your gigs?
[Doyen] more big women. Big women are good!
How many shows do you get to do?
[Cocka] We just come back from Queens…last week.
[Doyen] As many as we can. If people want us to do a show we’ll do a show.
What was Erectified, the label the mobile library EP came out on?
[Doyen] While we were in Manchester, I hooked up with the Ruf, that all went pearshaped blah blah, his ego got in the way, he formed whatever he’s doing now with his gay little breakbeat type shit. He set up a shop, I was working in that. In walks Cocka, in walks this other guy from London, Alex. I’ve known him for years…Al-XXX, Erectfied’s his label, he set that up. He intends to bring out more, he’s having a chill for a minute…so me and Cocka are looking elsewhere….I’ve got the Money Shot coming out which I did with Supra, me & Cockas next joint is gonna be on a label from Wales….you know Junior Disprol and all that…what’s the label called….S.F.D.B. is the label..Same Family Different Bollocks I think it is. Them guys are talking about releasing a record…otherwise we’re open to suggestions.
What did you sell of the Mobile Library?
[Doyen] We sold all of them, like 500, we’ve got a few left.
Another grim day in the steel city
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There was a load of shit when that came out about Tony Vegas trying to stop London shops selling your records and all that, was that true?
[Doyen] It were all true, let me start from the beginning. Tony Vegas - I don’t even know the guy but basically he’s a girl. I were in Sheffield, Tony Vegas came up one night playing with the Scratch Perverts. I was looking at Tony Vegas and he’s signing all these sweaty students arms and shit..and I was like ‘is that the price of fame’ and he turns round to me and his eyes are hanging out of his head and he’s like ‘you got any coke’….and that just created the line ‘I don’t want to be famous, doing coke like Tony Vegas’…went home, wrote the track, happened to put it out on record and he got upset…it’s funny cos in Mr Bongos, he’s snapped our records and then he’s wrote us a letter and its like
[Cocka] ‘I don’t know who you are and therefore you’ve got no right…
[Doyen] ’you don’t know me, I don’t know you, what right have you got to diss me’
[Cocka] cos you’re a bitch…
[Doyen] I don’t understand what his problem is. Whatever he does in his personal life it’s alright but when he’s in my face asking me for coke..
[Cocka] the thing is he wrote in his letter that it was a diss. It wasn’t a diss at all.
[Doyen] it were simply an observation
[Cocka] we weren’t saying he was wack…
[Doyen] I’ve got a new track called Apocalypse now talking about the whole thing…
‘Apocalypse hype sound omega blew up nike town
Paranoid DJs need to put the pipe down
and find out,i dont lie south,its them crack whores
Got me leaving middle England fingering tax laws
Back door enviroment decays even further
The last record i bought was 'Serve tea then murder'
stay flippin' burgers MC Duke forgot Riffin'
The Demon Boyz split without real recognition
home grown repitition eat cake and elevensis
i thought we'd all grown from taking the 70's
they cant see me but soon i'll bless 'em
until then whatever fuck an open mic session
MC's can freestyle for hours in a piss pot
can they make a decent record? i think not
live beyond the moment i expand your programme
i'm not feelin' no-one i'm not going to no jam
i'm talking to the dole man;you're in the holodeck
British bandana's do not make you Robert Beck’
It’s like British MCs, there’s a lot of good MCs, a lot of crap producers…all this American guys working with British producers, it’s a bit wank. But theres some good MCs but all they want to do is stand on stage and rap their bollocks off. Theyre not interested in putting a stageshow together, putting a record out, or making a song.
[Cocka] they just want to rap for hours and hours without any reason
Isn’t that because there’s no support for the scene?
[Doyen] Possibly so. But you’ve got to create your own, got to make your own hype. There’s money to be made realistically. Me & Cocka don’t think ‘oh we’re from Sheffield there’s no way we can make it’..we’re a rap act., as valid as any other act.
[Cocka] we’ve been doing this just for fun for fucking years
[Doyen] there’s not much to do cos we’re a couple of monkeys basically
[Cocka] we both haven’t got jobs, we’re both on incapacity benefit, we’re both sat around all day doing fuck all
[Doyen] so we might as well have a bash hadn’t we?
[Cocka] The thing is hiphop to me is about being yourself. If you’re going to rhyme then be yourself, if you’re making beats then be yourself. You don’t want to be the next DJ Premier. 90% of producers in hiphop nowadays try and be like DJ Premier…you want to be yourself, create your own sound. Do your own thing.
How are you going to do it then? Whats your plan for world domination?
[Doyen] Me & Cocka are better than everyone else in England, that’s how we’re going to do it.
[Cocka] I make beats everyday. I get up in the p.m. and make beast until the a.m. Doyen writes rhymes every day…it’s second nature now.
[Doyen]I think me & Cocka have got something unique…there’s an ideology and a personality, we’ve got a character in our material.
[Cocka] I give someone a beat and they can rhyme over it about nothing in particular, I give D that beat and he can create something out of it. A lot of people can rhyme for hours but cant make a song.
Are you working with any other MCs then?
[Doyen] Usssmmmaan!
[Cocka] Yeah Usman
[Doyen] I’m working with Supra, Danielson, Cocka’s got Usman, some guys I know, Bungle, Tiger 9…who else we got on roster?
[Cocka] Kool G Rap’s coming round next week…..erm, yeah, anyone that wants to basically
[Doyen] I’m a pretty nice friendly guy, we’ll work with anyone, but give me a mic and a platform to speak and I’m gonna tell you what I think. And that scares some people but that’s alright as well. I don’t mind scaring people. Its better than respect or something, some joker said, DMX was it?…right next question? How do I get this Destinys Child poster out of here’d be a good one…
The random ukhh standard questions…If you had a pub, what would you call it?
[Cocka] The Thug Inn
In UK hiphop the movie, who’s going to play Doyen & Cocka?
[Doyen] Johnny Saxon & Bill Shatner
[Cocka] Johnny can play Cocka and Bill Shatner can play Doyen…you can just see them on stage can’t you?
[Doyen] Yeah I want Shatner definitely……and Roger Moore for Rix
[Cocka] Roger Moore…I want Roger Moore.
[Doyen] You've got Johnny Saxon, Rix can be Roger...He’s got that cool style Rix hasn’t he?
Promote your 12” then
[Doyen] the 12, yeah it’s called the Money Shot and is about nutting on girls faces basically
[Cocka] which is nice...
[Doyen] The B-sides called The Quest which is like a little story about ‘self determination and positivity’
[Cocka] Think about it, you buy this 12 and its got porn on one side and then you can find yourself on the other side…
[Doyen] it’s pretty different. The Money Shots like a straight up backpacker tune and the bsides kinda different….I were on drugs when I wrote it.
[Cocka] I’m always on drugs
Ok then, shoutouts….
[Cocka] Usman,
[Doyen] Evil Ed, Danielson, DJ Rix, Supra, Bungle, Tiger 9
[Cocka] Tragedy Gadaffi, Brother Ling Chung (?)…ask us what we’re listening to
[Doyen] All we’re listening to now is like, west coast…what would you call it. Brother Ling Chung, he were on Blackmarket records which is like an independent west coast label but it’s not backpacker music
What’s backpacker music?
[Cocka] backpacker is your typical fucking…hiphops been underground or whatever, nowadays evreybodies into it…and you get crews that come out like…
[Doyen] DJ Premier biting beats, rappers talking about metaphors and science and shit like that.
[Cocka] you’ve got like hiphop and you can buy and I can put on anything from 86…right now there’s a lot of music coming out that works very similarly, it works on a Premier formula. You get this music that’s good, if you’re a bboy you’d listen to it, but you wouldn’t buy it and five years down the line you wont listen to it. Real short shelf life….
[Doyen] I listen to what they used to call gangsta rap, I don’t know what the fuck they call it now.
[Cocka] I just listen to Ced Gee everyday
[Doyen] Cocka lives in 88 basically
[Cocka] ‘88? 86 more like…
[Doyen] I just listen to west coast gangsta shit. X-Raider….he’s locked up for life
[Cocka] they’ve given him tape recorders, smuggled into prison, he raps down the phoneline. You want to listen to an MC that’s straight from the fucking heart…
[Doyen] personality and passion…he is good.
[Cocka] sometimes the quality’s shit..
[Doyen] but it’s hardcore. Thats the point. Hardcore mentality…there’s nothing wrong with being male and being hardcore, you see the gay little one in boy bands with their long coats like theyre in the Matrix..I think women are more hardcore than men are these days…I read this thing that said like ‘rap moved on in the 80s from all this bravado and men holding their penis’ and I’m like ‘that’s when it went shit’…
[Cocka] there needs to be more individuality coming from hiphop
[Doyen] I’m feeling Slim Shady me, I know everyones dissing him. But he’s a good lad
[Cocka] He’s never left my house without nicking all my teabags though…
The Doyen 'Money Shot' 12" produced by Supra is out now on landscaperecordings. The remaining copies of the Mobile Library EP can be picked up from johnny-walker.com. The next Doyen & Cocka 12" will be out in June on SFDB, a three tracker with 'Cock Deezal', 'Duck Season' & 'Apocolypse Now'
 
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