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Recently you were at Fresh 2000 how did you find it, performing with Rodney P, MCD, the whole thing?
Well I'd never performed with either of them before so it was always going to be interesting. I've got nothing but respect for Rodney P as a writer he's for me one of the best writers in hip-hop, full stop. And MCD he's just this infamous character that everyone's heard of but nobody's heard if you know what I mean. Both of them just fuckin blew me away man, just so amazing. MCD was just off the hook, and Rodney P was just his usual suave, debonair rude-boy self and it was just bad! It was a privilege, and quite an eye-opener for me cuz I don't usually get to work with craftsmen of their caliber and it was just properly wicked to be up there with them. For me it was a historical event for y'know three artists from three different corners of hip-hop, but the flipside was that the whole event was a bit of a downer for me. I felt that hip-hop hadn't really
to be frank I'd found that hip-hop hadn't moved on. I suppose because I've been working in other fields and coming back to the music form that I love first and foremost, I dunno, I felt kind of upset that people hadn't moved on y'know? People were basically just working to a formula. In a way
there's this artist Mode2 and I read an interview with him a couple of years back, and what he said about graffiti could be said about hip-hop in general. He said that graffiti basically here in Europe, when we get graffiti it's like an airfix model, and all we do is like paint colours on the model that's already made. We put together the pieced then paint it a different colour and go 'look I've painted a spitfire a different colour' kind of thing, but no-one thinks of putting together their own model, or not putting it together right, or not painting it, or just doing something completely different in order for us to claim our space. Basically I thought that a lot of people at Fresh were just painting airfix models, they weren't really showing who they are. I say that because a lot of people who I know, artists, I go round their house and I know that they listen to all kinds of music and stuff, and their fans listen to all kinds of music, a lot of the writers listen to all kinds of music, but when you listen to the music it's all very straight, very deliberate, and you'd never think that 'oh this persons into that and that', and I think that it's that that makes the music interesting, when you bring a bit of who you are into the equation.
...hip-hop used to be an American artform, now it's an international artform, and nobody can claim it as theirs...
I'm not saying you can't do the straight up stuff cuz that's cool too, but y'know for me hip-hop used to be an American artform, now it's an international artform, and nobody can claim it as theirs. The Americans do it best, but then they do a lot of things best like marketing films or whatever, but it doesn't mean that everything they do is the best, cuz we sell them shit back like Spice Girls or bring them something they've never had before like Massive Attack or Prodigy, like 'em or hate 'em. And worse case scenario, Fat Boy Slim. He's basically taken the hip-hop model, repackaged it and sold it back to America that's fuckin amazing irony of ironies y'know! Anyway Fresh, it just wasn't as individual and dynamic as I'd've liked it to've been y'know. It just made me think that y'know we've still got a long way to go. I mean Blade came on and did an amazing show, there were a couple of DJs that did some excellent stuff, but generally it was just a sham, a mockery of a sham man
So it was kind of like a double-edged sword cuz it was wicked on the one hand cuz I got to flex with some guys I'd never flexed with before, saw a whole lot of brilliant performances from Blade, Krispy, a whole bunch of other people I can't remember, and saw some freestyling that was just fuckin wicked, they'd put anyone in their place. But on the flip side, the way the stage was organised, the way the backstage was organised, the way that certain other performers were performing they were just doing the clone thing, whereas I'd've liked to have thought that we'd gone beyond that now y'know what I mean. That people would be embarrassed to do Wu Tang, or to do Dre or Snoop or fuckin Eminem, but people aren't embarrassed at all man. Blatantly just ripping it off and thinking it's wicked. And I heard a few little productions of stuff and like people are just doing old beats these beats have already been done, why not be yourself? Or take these beats and twist them around to make something new, make it yours y'know? Anyway, that's my little soapbox!
So who are you feeling in the UK scene at the moment?
Well apart from the obvious, I'd have to say that whole Mud Family collective are just for me the promise of tomorrow. They, more than anybody else, for me embody all the best things of international hip-hop. They're individual, their beats are amazing, and lyrically they can't be tested by anyone. And they just
when you see them perform, when you hear their stuff, when you kind of engage their material, it's kind of hard to fob them off, y'know what I mean? It's hard to not take notice. So I'd have to say foremost at the moment, they're most prominent in my mind. And when I say 'the obvious', I mean like Rodney P, Roots Manuva man Roots Manuva did an album last year that basically told everyone to shut the fuck up. He for me is anything is British hip-hop at the moment him and Mud Fam. When I say Mud Fam, I mean all them like hundred crews like Bury Cru and Skinnyman and all
Yeah like once Chester P gets going, he's incredible
yeah man when he's
ah man he's
y'know what I mean just
yeah
! He's like a cross between, it's like someone took a DNA sample from Rodney P, took a DNA sample from Komachi Sly, spliced it with some Blade, cross cut it with a bit of Mello, put in a bit of vinegar, some spices, and just shook it up in a jar somewhere, threw in a couple of speckles of me, then just like grew it in a lab somewhere, tortured it for most of it's life, and then let it loose on hip-hop! Like, later! Bad
And he's a proper craftsman when you see him perform, you know he's not someone who's just thought 'yeah I'm going to do Method Man now' y'know what I mean? He's a proper craftsman, proper.
You can see it in his face when he's rhyming 100% concentration
Yeah totally. I mean for me, one artist doesn't make an industry, it takes a whole load of artists moving in general directions, hopefully the same direction, to make this stuff work. Another thing I like about that lot is that their material, the way they represent on stage and the way they represent on wax is the same. There's presence, power. If I was to check anyone in America and they ask what's happening in the UK, I can play them my stuff and not be embarrassed that the first thing they think is he's trying to do a blah blah. Total originality. Then when they hear that Mud stuff, Rodney P stuff, Roots Manuva stuff it's shut y'mouth cuz this stuff isn't only as good as, but in many ways better than what they're doing cuz we're not prisoners of that whole commercial aesthetic where it's more glamour than substance. With our stuff you're getting a proper balance of style and content.
Do you get on the internet much what do you think of it in general?
Well I'm getting my own site together now. For me, it's the new frontier man. It cuts out the middle-man gives artists the opportunity to reach a worldwide audience without having to go through half the shit we went through. The world's getting smaller, we all dancing to the same beat, for want of a better term, and we're all facing a lot of the same problems. In a lot of ways then, when we tell our stories from our corner of the world we have to tell them with an authentic voice, and the internet allows us to do that without having to compromise ourselves because some record exec who just spent two weeks in LA listening to LA stuff comes back and wants you to make the next LA thing, or waits until something happening in America is well established and then wants to establish it via you, only to find that the record-buying public already has access to the LA stuff, doesn't want your version of it, don't buy it, you get dropped and then it's binned and on to the next one. The cool thing about the internet, why I'm not too interested in labels at the moment, is cuz my live album is more than likely going to be available on the internet only, whether through mailorder or download or whatever. I'm not even thinking about labels. I'm just thinking about getting the shit together the best I can. I've been really lucky to get people like from the Royal Philharmonic come down and do some strings, mad musicians come down from all over the world, people like touring with Fugees coming down and representing. I've got Cleveland Watkiss a jazz singer from back in the day, does a bit of drum and bass now. Plus a couple of surprise people one with a French poet called Christine Gnoui, and a couple of French rappers. I hate French rappers they're everything we're not! They really get on my nerves they're so smooth, they make everything sound easy! I can say something like 'yeah yeah, iss like dat y'get me dough
' or something, then they'll say the same thing in French and make it sound all that more pleasant, to my English ears anyway. Probably doesn't sound the same to French ears, but to me anyway. They just came down to the studio, layed down the track and blam. Amazing. I've worked with a lot of people, and I've never worked with people like that. Apart from Gunshot crew maybe they just come down and been very efficient. They just came down, did their thing three or four times and they were wicked, none of this 'can I just do that bit again' or whatever. And that's another thing about that whole flippin Task Force, Mud Family lot. Did a duet like with a couple of them, and man just come down and they just blessed the track like that it's just easy. It's as easy as like, you opening the fridge. And that kind of talent doesn't go unnoticed, doesn't go away, and doesn't stay undiscovered for too long. In terms of talent, they're not that new really there've been UK bands and individuals with immeasurable talent who because of record companies, ignorance, peoples' indolence, haven't been able to shine like they should've. People try to take a diamond and make it into a piece of paper to write on. It's pointless you have to destroy it before you do anything with it, rather than realising that this is a precious stone and you might be able to hone it to make it into a particular shape, but you'll never be able to make it into something you can write on, which is what a lot of the American stuff is like I have to say. So much of it is this commercial stuff, but because of the power of their marketing, we get sold on stuff that quite honestly if it was from a local artist we wouldn't give it the time of day. There's good and bad stuff all around though, cuz I've heard bad stuff coming out of our shores too
But not from Finn, I have to add... I'm sure I'm not the only one dying to hear the stuff he's working on - in the meantime check the links below to catch up with his back catalogue.
Related Links
Huntkillbury Finn's official website - a developing site, with mail order for those with some Katching up to do...
Son Records website - An excellent site with an exclusive poem by Finn and a mail order section to buy back catalogue releases.
 
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