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  Elite Team Interview
interview 0324 added 29.07.05 words: Nikesh
technical:
QED
Elite Team is a young
entrepreneurial set of fiery spitters,
rappers, DJ’s, producers and businessmen from South London.
Comprising of the fierce Mic Assassin, Rigga Romez, DJ Caution,
Archer Genius, DJ Bruce Wayne and producers Django Thief, they
released an excellent EP this year, “The Phone Home” Ep full of
top notch rhymes and rhythms, excellent productions and that one
that sounds like Transformers. Now they’re ready to look at
pushing their music forward with a sensible working business
structure. And their boundless energy is something will will
carry them forward for a long time. Close friends, excellent
wordsmiths and lots of talent spell a strong future for this
lot.
Nikesh caught up with Rigga Romez, Mic Assassin and DJ Caution
in a noisy Lewisham café for some words about the Elite.
Introduce yourselves and tell us your
favourite Transformer.
 Rigga Romez: I’m Riga Romes and my favourite Transformer is…
Sickshot cos he can turn into different tings and tear man
apart, you get me. Some old school Transformers.
DJ Caution: I’m DJ Caution. My Transformer… I don’t know any of
their names!
Mic Assassin: Yo, Mic Assassin. I got two favourtie
Transformers. One if Rodimus Prime, when he gets the matrix. The
other is Galvatron. I love both for the leadership qualities and
the sheer ruthlessness.
Explain to us the concept and members
of Elite Team and what you all bring to the table.
RR: Elite Team is exactly what it says on the tin. A team of
Elite artists, you get me? We’re top of the pyramid, connecting
together, making something progressive. I don’t think we have
one sound, just whatever sounds good to our and your ears.
Whatever it comes out as is what it comes out as.
MA: Elite Team is good music, but it’s also good business. In
terms of the label, we’re not trying to grind. We’re all
businessmen. We all have different parts of the company, which
we run. I’m CEO, Romes is A&R and Caution is Head of Marketing.
We all have individual sections of the company. Basically,
trying to put together good music with good business acumen,
trying to push it forward.
DC: Yeah, that’s basically it.
MA: He’s the DJ! He doesn’t talk much. He talks with his hands.
How did you all hook up?
RR: Me and Micz have known each other for a long time. We grew
up on the same estate in New Cross, running about. Known each
other for years and then by coincidence, we ended up spitting
together. We were feeling each other’s stuff, so we started a
crew, EOF (Elements of Fear). That was in 98. We were 14/15. We
were making gutter demos, spitting through headphones and shit.
We were trying to record everything. We came officially to the
UK scene around 2001. Hooked up with Malicious Street Team. We
were running with them, got experience in the industry, got a
lot of respect doing shows, hitting every open mic. We were so
hungry. It got to the point where we couldn’t even get in cos we
were too young.
"...I’m gonna spit on anything. I’ll spit on grime. I’m not
scared to think outside the box..."
MA: That was at Subterrainia. It was a 279 thing. The jam would
start at 10, we’d be there at 10 and the bouncers wouldn’t let
man in. We’d wait till the end of the jam and wait for breddas
to cypher and battle. Mans were like 14/15 and we had to get up
to go school the next day and we were crushing some of your
favourite local UK MC’s in cyphers. MC’s got crushed. We ain’t
gonna say no names.
Was any particular one of them more
memorable than the others?
 MA: Most of the time, it wasn’t even battling. It was cyphers.
It was about which man had the most bars. And man would be
spitting for long and certain man would not have any more
lyrics. We’d be spitting for hours. And then, in 2002, after
Malicious had parted ways, we started thinking business-minded.
We’d grown up, we were more intelligent so it’s like Caution
comes into it. Caution is Romes’ boy from school. We’re not just
a crew who come together. We’re people, we’re boys. Man chill
all the time together. Archer Genius came through. Archer was my
boy from college. Then, also, DJ Bruce Wayne who was our DJ in
Malicious. We all came together and that’s how Elite Team came
together.
RR: It’s like the birth of a baby. The sperm went in in 1998 and
the yout was born in 2002. That was a long pregnancy.
MA: We set up the label in 2003 and started taking it seriously.
We’re already good at doing music so we’ve been grinding the
business. That’s what we do everyday.
RR: Street grinding.
How did you guys hook up with Django
Thief? What angle do you hope to take the beats and music side
of things?
MA: Just good music. We keep saying it’s good music because
that’s the only way we can describe what we do. Man can be
rhyming over a drumbeat on a plank of wood with pidgeons
squawking but if it sounds good, it’s gonna be melodic. Django
Thief, we hooked up with through JB Sparks. He used to go by the
name of Lyrics, he was in a crew with Cyrus the Virus and Sir
Ster and DJ Smasharelli, who’s Estelle’s DJ. They all used to be
in a crew together. We met JB Sparks through open mics, and
Django Thief is his band. In terms of production, Caution makes
beats so he can tell you more about that, if he’s willing to
talk!
DC: It’s the sound of the future. The sound is anything. You can
give these guys anything and they will tear it up. They are that
versatile. Give them any genre of music and they will tear it
up.
"...We’re gonna be exterminating all the whack shit out
there. We’re gonna be picketing outside certain shows where man
are whack, certain radio stations that won’t play our shit..."
RR: Our sound is an energy thing really. I think a lot of UK
stuff is lacking in soul and feeling. A lot of people ain’t got
feeling and charisma in their music. They’re just spitting
punchlines. There’s no emotion and no feeling in the music. We
want to make stuff that will stand up in 30 years.
So you wanna the soulful but rowdy UK
hip-hop version of MOP?
 MA: People have said that to us. Cos we do anthems and to us,
classic hip-hop is anthems. Whether it’s a Big Daddy Kane tune
that’s laidback, anthems that are singalong and all the Biz
Markie choruses, and the MOP rawness, they’re all anthems. To
compare us to MOP is funny because other people have said that,
in how our choruses are and we grind it out. We’re energetic and
a more super-lyrical version of MOP.
Which takes us nicely into the
“Transformers” track (“Starscream”)…
RR: That’s an idea I’ve been trying to do for years. I’ve been a
Transformers fanatic for time. I got bare old Transformers toys
in my attic. I used to make beatas and I’ve been trying to flip
the Transformers sample for ages. It always used to go off-beat
and I couldn’t make it work. I’ve been bugging Django to make a
Transformers tune for a while. Finally, they laid it down. When
we heard it, we just went nuts. We knew what we had to do.
MA: We wrote the track that night. We obsessed over getting that
track done. The time signature changes all the way through the
song so there’s no way to use the sample. You can only play it
live to get it.
RR: Big up Django Thief!!
DC: They murked it.
RR: I don’t want to hear anyone try and flip that sample cos
they murked it.
Will you drop it on wax for the DJ’s to
tear up clubs with?
MA: From a business-perspective, dropping vinyl isn’t really
that viable because we haven’t built up a fanbase we know we can
sell our vinyl to. So, if we can press up CDs, anyone on road
with a CD player is a viable customer. We’re in this to push
ourselves but we’re not going to invest in records we can’t make
money back off just yet. The whole point is to make money to put
out the next record. In the future, we will.
"...Everyone knows that if I get my foot through the door,
it’s going to be easier for all of us..."
Mic Assassin, you’re an accomplished
MC, you’ve been to FKO, you’ve stepped up on loads of different
tracks, how come you ended up putting out a band rather than
solo stuff?
 MA: I’m a rapper but I’m not a solo artist. I have solo
projects, just like the rest of the boys. If you hear me on a
Blufoot record or an Evil Ed record, it’s not just Mic Assassin
on the track, it’s Elite Team too. Everything I do is to
represent Elite Team. Whenever I’ve been in a battle, I’ve
always shouted out the members of my crew. I was really hitting
battling and that really got me more noticed than the other
members of the clique but it’s not a thing of jealousy. Everyone
knows that if I get my foot through the door, it’s going to be
easier for all of us. The dynamics of the crew is obviously
going to change. When we start pushing Riga Romes as a solo
artist, he’s going to be out there more than any of us. It’s
just a thing of knowing that when one of us is out there, all of
us is out there. It’s straight crew shit, I’m just the first one
to get some recognition. But, we are boys, we eat dinner at each
other’s houses, we know each other’s families. We are boys, so
there is no ‘I’ in team.
So, who are your favourite UK
contemporaries at the moment?
RR: I ain’t going to lie to you, I ain’t feeling many people in
the UK. Salute to Doc Brown though. He’s put out some ill
material and Lowkey, who’s put out some ill material. Salute to
Manage, who’s put out a nice 12”. There’s a couple of artists
doing their thing I like, but I’m not gonna front. I’m feeling
more breddas in grime than in UK hip-hop. And that’s being real
with you. They’ve got movement and energy. Most UK MC’s sound
the same. It’s a punchline every two bars and they can’t make
songs properly. Most of the MC’s I feel ain’t even got anything
out. They’re just MC’s you hear on the block and around. Apart
from that, in the US, Ghostface, Doom. I haven’t been listening
to many new people. I’m a classics, a 90’s man. Mid-90’s, that’s
the sort of shit I listen to. The old Mobb Deep, the old Nas,
Pete Rock and CL Smooth. That’s the sort of shit I listen to.
Big up the UK artists doing their tings. Don’t dismiss it cos
you ain’t heard their thing before. There’s some nice artists
coming out. Even at Deal Real, there are a lot of MC’s that are
murking. Like Rippah, he’s murking it right now. But I do think
90% of the shit that comes out in the UK? I can’t really vibes
to it. It’s boring and it ain’t got no charisma. You all got to
smile more. Everyone sounds so angry and miserable!
DC: I agree with Romes. Artists I’m feeling… I’m not really
feeling anyone new. I’ve been digging in Romes’ collection. He’s
got crates of old school hip-hop. I also like the new Nas double
disc. UK artists, the same: Lowkey, Doc Brown, Possessed,
Conflix. Big up the Character Assassins mixtape. Other than
that, big up the grime scene.
"...we are boys, we eat dinner at each other’s houses, we
know each other’s families. We are boys, so there is no ‘I’ in
team..."
MA: Big up music in general coming out of this country. Whether
you’re a band like Django Thief or artists like us or DJ’s like
Smasharelli or Bruce Wayne, everyone trying to push music
forward. Most of the artists with records out at the moment, I’m
not really feeling. There’s a couple of records out like Corey
Johnson. I think he’s a super-dope lyricist. I like the
realness. I like Terra Firma. Big up Tommy Evans. He’s one of
the few established artists that I’m feeling.
What’s next for you?
 RR: The “Seen Seen” video is coming soon. Obviously, we got a
next EP. We’re gonna start flooding the streets, flooding the
radio, flooding the bootleggers. We’re gonna have CD’s mainly
for the bootleggers cos that’s a big industry. I’m gonna be real
with you. I’m a bredda from road. If I see a CD selling for £12
and I see the same CD selling for £5, what are people going to
buy? The bootleggers are feeding the streets! We got our eyes
peeled on the scene and we’re trying to put our foot in places
we haven’t stepped before. We gonna keep putting out qualities
bars, quality music that people can feel. And the Dalek Street
Movement. We’re gonna be exterminating all the whack shit out
there. We’re gonna be picketing outside certain shows where man
are whack, certain radio stations that won’t play our shit. If
you wanna get down with the movement:
rigs@eliteteament.com.
We’re looking to exterminate whack shit with music, rolling
through the streets with megaphones, shouting at breddas.
Basically, the Daleks are coming soon to shut down a lot of shit
that myself and a lot of like-minded people ain’t feeling. Mics
has got a lot of features popping off, eating up a load of MC’s
on their own tracks. So, there’s a lot of stuff coming on.
DC: My future ventures… I’m going to take over the mixtape game.
The mixtape game is going to get crushed.
MA: In terms of trying to push the label forward, I’m going to
be jumping on bare features. If I jump on a feature, that pushes
us forward. I’m gonna spit on anything. I’ll spit on grime. I’m
not scared to think outside the box. Actually, I’d like to big
up Sway cos Sway’s not afraid to cross those boundaries and
that’s inspiring. We thought we were the only ones thinking like
that. We don’t plan to be some super-underground artists. In 10
years time, we expect to eat off this.
Final shout-outs/big-ups/plugs:
DC: Shout out to Battleware Clothing, they supply us with the
goods. www.eliteteament.com.
RR: Big up the fam of MC’s that have supported, everyone who
bought our Cd’s, all the DJ’s that played it. Everyone on the
ends doing their ting trying to get forward. Lewisham’s got a
lot of talent in it and we’re coming out right now.
DC: Dami at Darkling TV.
MA: Big up Dami. If you wanna book us for shows, hit her up at
Dami@darkling.tv. I wanna shout out everyone who’s showed us
love after they didn’t know who we were. Big up to those who
bought the EP, Battleware Clothing. Steph and Chris who did our
video. The “Seen Seen” is fire, and that’s a pun. Big up to all
the reviewers, the DJs like Shortee Blitz and Big Ted for
letting us go up on their show. Dan Greenpeace. All the Dj’s
playing us. The DJ’s playing us, Excalibah and Skully. If you
know you’ve been true to us, then show love. Big up those who
stay true to Elite Team. One love to everyone.
“The Phone Home” EP is available now on EliteTeamEnt. “Seen
Seen” video can be seen soon on the frontpage.
-
Nikesh Shukla
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