Mark B's profiles has been raised somewhat over the past 21 months. A multi-album major label deal has been started with the release of the Mark B and Blade album. Part 2 of this interview, unsuprisingly with Blade, will appear on ukhh.com next week
Town: Nottingham
Event: Sureshot
Club: Dubble Bubble
Date: Thursday 9th November ‘00
Location: small backstage area with open windows and the sounds of the DJ coming through very clear, the sounds of Mark B less so. Showtime -15 minutes
After a brief introduction and an explanation of what and where ukhh.com’s at we commence the chat:
For people who haven’t got a clue who Mark B is give us a quick resume from when you started out
[Mark B] In the 95/96 area, basically me and Vadim were making a lot of beats, nobody knew how to put records out except me, but at the time I was doing funk – bootleg compilations called ‘Nuggets Of Funk’, breakbeat albums, we were selling thousands of them. And Vadim was like ‘I want to put my own label together – you’ve got ideas so bring them forward to me’. So we did it ourselves, he put out a couple of records, I did one with MCM & Big Ted and an instrumental record called ‘Underworld Connection’ and from there…I always wanted to work with more MCs, but at the time I didn’t really know any, the ones I knew I thought they were ok, but not the best in the UK you know? And I think I got into it really, really seriously with Blade and the ‘Hitmen For Hire’ record and from there it snowballed really – I did the MUD Family record, another Blade record, Taskforce, Mello…now I’m working with the Missin Linx, we’ve got the Mark B and Blade album out, Swollen Members stuff coming soon
...I’ve got so much respect for people like Mud Fam, Taskforce, Mello. I’d love to work with them again...
Going back to your Underworld Connection EP, looking at it now it seems to have been a bit of a departure for you – it’s more downbeat than your work with MCs
[Mark B] At the time, I had a lot of breaks and I just wanted to make an instrumental, you know? There were a lot of records coming out around that time – DJ Krush, DJ Shadow and I thought, ‘I’ve got better breaks than them so I’ll put out an instrumental record’. That’s the record I’d made the most money off, up to last year that’s the most of any record I’d sold, they liked it in Japan, America. I made like 3 or 4 grand off an instrumental record and there were breaks on there that have got used since and it just shows that I was way ahead of my time
Doesn’t that say something - that an instrumental record sells more than one with UK MC’s on it?
[Mark B] Maybe at the time, Krush, Vadim started blowing up, so I was like ‘maybe I can get a deal if I do this record’….but now, that’s died down you know? Vadim still does instrumentals and stuff but it now features a lot of MCs as well, you know?
You’re working with Blade now, is that a long-term thing or are you moving on to other MCs, other artists?
[Mark B] People know what I’ve been up to over the past few years - I’ve worked with a lot of people. It’s hard to pin me down to just one person, I’ve got so much respect for people like Mud Fam, Taskforce, Mello. I’d love to work with them again. I saw Farma G last night and he was like ‘yeah we’ll hook up again’, cool. But right now, we’ve done the Mark B and Blade album and originally I was going to do a “Mark B presents..’ album with different MCs from America, England and also like Germany & Sweden, but I’ve put that on hold right now to see how well this record does, everybody’s saying we’ve blown up, there’s a lot of hype over it. One thing at a time, I was looking too far forward too quickly, I just want to focus on one thing at a time now, yeah?
You’ve got a lot of guests on your album, were they your choices, or Blades, how did you sort them out?
[Mark B] Basically when we first did a track, there were gaps with no choruses, there were lyrics and I’d be like ‘Blade, stop there and we’ll get Lewis Parker in there’. After Lewis did his verse after Blades, I was like ‘damn, I wanna hear Skinnyman on there’. So Skinnyman came in the next day, blessed it so bad, you know? The ideas come from me because I’ve got a lot of MCs around me you know, but it all goes through Blade and he’s got a lot of respect for the people on that record, like Rodney P an old school legend, they come from the same era. And Rodneys track, it was the last we finished, I had the beats, he came down, they did the lyrics there and then, put the chorus in, scratches and mixed it the next day. I done that track from start to finish in three days, quite amazing really. I see Rodney a week later and he’s like ‘how’s the track going’, and I go ‘oh it’s finished and mixed’ and he’s like ‘damn you work fast!’ The same with Chester, I could hear Chester in that chorus so I approached him and he was like ‘yeah, cool’. And there was a gap there were the chorus would have come in too late, so I was like ‘what can you hear in there’. Blade was like, ‘there’s only one person I can hear in there’ and we both said it – Westwood and we both had the same idea. I’m glad we had the same idea you know? So we called Westwood up, it took 3 or 4 weeks locking him down cos he’s so busy, I went up to Radio 1, recorded it in the studio there, went home and mixed it the next day.
How much support have you had from him and Radio 1? Like the singles have failed to get onto the playlists and stuff
[Mark B] That’s not down to Westwood...with the whole radio 1 thing, there are people above the DJs, there’s a long format to getting your record played. Hopefully next year we can get onto the daytime lists, with ‘The Unknown’, and then we can break further from our current level. And that’ll be good for everyone, you know?
How’s your Wordplay deal sorted out? It’s the first time you’re actually responsible to a label instead of like Jazz Fudge where you were part of the whole set-up, now you’re actually reporting to people, how’s that going?
[Mark B] It’s wicked. It couldn’t be any better, there’s people up there who understand about hip hop and all the ideas come from me and them anyway, they come up with ideas, I come up with ideas and they can’t put anything past me, it’s all through me in my contract. I had a proper lawyer sort it out and my advice to anybody who’s go into a label is to get a lawyer you know what I’m saying? You’re not going to hear any house remixes or drum n bass tunes, nothing like that whatsoever. I have to sign for everything. And it’s cool you know. I’ve got a 5 album deal, the first albums with Blade and then we’ll see what happens. But it’s like in 6 months I could be dropped, you know? That’s the way it works. But when I first went there and they were talking about developing people so I don’t think that’ll happen and I was talking last week about ideas for the next album and they were like ‘cool, do what you want to do’. No-ones got control over me. They said to me ‘what else do you want to do’, I’m like ‘I want to do a record with Al Tariq’ - we’ve got a 12 coming out called the great ones, I’ve got a record coming out with the Arsonists. I bring my ideas, and it’s wicked
So is K’Boro as a label finished with?
[Mark B] As a label, for the moment yeah, as a logo, it’ll be on my releases, and if all this fails then I can go back to it, but I’ll try my hardest to make sure it’s not going to fail, but it’s hard to say in this game. Anything can happen
And it’s good that you can bring these UK MCs out onto a major label platform
[Mark B] Its only good, it’s not just me and Blade, but for like Rodney, Taskforce….I’d say they’re my favourite groups, Taskforce, Blade, Mud Fam, they all need deals. It’s ridiculous they haven’t got record deals, so it’s trying to get records out for them next year, the year after.
Buy this record
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By January there’s going to have been 4 singles off the album, don’t you think that’s stretching it too much?
[Mark B] You might say 4 is too much, but the way it works, we had two singles out, then the album, take it to radio, and that’s the only way we can get UK hip hop to break in this country through Radio 1, you get Robbie Williams, If he wasn’t played to death on Radio 1, he wouldn’t see anywhere near as much, you know? Simple as that. So we put ‘Building a rep’ out cos people were buzzing about ‘building a rep’, we did a new B-side and that’s that. After the tour, and TV stuff then we take ‘the unknown’ to the radio, and then hopefully get major playlist, you know. I’ve thought about it, the label have thought about it, it’s the right way to do things, there’s going to be new b-sides again, we’ve done a remix of ‘from the wordlab’, we’ve done a remix with Sain Supa Crew, they’ve done two verses and Blades done one, there’s a version in Sweden coming out with a guy called Peder, a version in Germany coming out with a German MC. We’re going to try and break all the markets cos it’s the catchiest track off our album by far.
So this is your first real tour then is it?
[Mark B] well, I toured with Taskforce before but that was just off the back of Vadims tour. I love it. It gives you a lot of pleasure to be up on that stage playing your own records. It takes a lot of balls to do your own shit. You get a lot of artists coming over here, like AG or whoever, rhyming over Simon Says, so it’s like ‘why aren’t you rhyming over your own records’. It takes a lot of balls. We’re getting a lot of press coverage, we’re loving it, the crowds are loving it, you see people singing along with the choruses, it’s a good fucking feeling.
Any particular show highlights?
[Mark B] Every show’s been good, man
...You get a lot of artists coming over here, like AG or whoever, rhyming over Simon Says, so it’s like ‘why aren’t you rhyming over your own records’...
How about the Millennium Dome?
[Mark B] It was weird, cos we’d come back from Dundee the day before, nah, Aberdeen, so we left Aberdeen, flew from Edinburgh, the plane was two hours late, we had the soundcheck at4, but we got in there at 5 to 7, and it opened at 7! So we soundchecked for like 5 minutes and the crowd come in, so we went off and then we ironed all the problems out during the first track of our set, it was cool Blade jumped into the crowd, the DMCs were fucking wild, Blade had Tony Prince coming up after the show saying ‘that’s the best shit he’d ever seen’, you know? That’s the best shit they’d ever had. The only problem there was seeing the stage, but we appreciated what they did for us.
You’ve got a crate digging rep. Do you try and do that whilst out on tour in all these new towns?
[Mark B] The only places I’ve really done it were France, Belgium and Dundee so far. You wake up in the morning and you’ve got to go someplace else, everybody wants to get home, Blades got his family, I wanna see my girlfriend. If there’s an opportunity I’ll try and do it but it depends on the schedule, all we’re doing now is promotion, TV and stuff – I haven’t even got time to make a beat you know?
You did Trevor Nelsons new show, how was that?
[Mark B] yeah, wicked, we were the first rap group on there, and everybody, like the producers, cameramen, soundmen, everybody down there said we were the best group on there so far, the crowd went ape. It was unbelievable.. Everybody was upstairs in their nice clean sets, we were in the dungeons, we rocked it. Incredible.
So that’s just another step along the way, getting on a show like that?
[Mark B] It’s like Blade says in ‘the unknown’ – its not what you know, its who you know. We’ve got people trying to book these TV shows up, I don’t really think people out there try and buy our record in Mr Bongos, you know? Simple as that, you create a buzz, people want you on there show
Have you noticed anything positive from this exposure, like the free tape that came with 7, more of a dance weekly type mag. Have you had any people come up and say they’ve bought the album when they wouldn’t normally have or anything?
[Mark B] It’s only spreading more now cos we’ve got better marketing, promotion, better strategy. To be honest I’ve not really noticed, I don’t go out and talk to loads of people, I keep myself to myself. I do this show, go home and hang out with my girlfriend. I’m very modest, you know. A lot of people saying ‘you’re records bad’, you know, thanks man, I appreciate it, but it aint like I walk down my high street and get recognised or anything and I don’t want that.
You can hear from the other bloke next week
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Whats your favourite LP cut?
[Mark B] I’d say probably ‘Ya don’t see the signs’ cos it was the first track we did and that was probably nearly 2 years ago.
How do your think your sounds built up from the Jazz Fudge EPs
[Mark B] I don’t know I think it’s the same sort of shit, we’ve had a better studio to mix this stuff. What you’ve got to realise is that those Eps were 2/3 years ago on Jazz Fudge, we’ve changed. Youre working in a better studio it probably sounds cleaner. Went to New York and mixed it, did the mastering. Got more money can do better things, Blades got a better mic, I’ve got better kit.
Quick word on Fresh2000
[Mark B] Wicked, I loved it. Birmingham was really good place, centre of the country and all that, only thing I’d say is if they’re gonna have it again is they should sort out the speakers in the middle bit cos out the back you couldn’t really hear anything. I thought the ITFs went on a bit too long, that was it, hopefully next year we’ll be headlining.
In ‘UK hiphop: the movie’, who’s going to play Mark B?
[Mark B] (laughs), I dunno, you can! Have you seen Rage? I’m on the soundtrack for that. Wicked film.
...and off he went to do the show. Cracking live performance, Blade was his usual exuberant self, Defisis (DFXO) did the backing vocals, one of the Mixologists did the cuts, Cappo came on stage for a guest slot. Stagedives, crowd participation, jumping, free records. Everything a good hiphop show should consist of!
Check out the Blade interview coming up next week.
The Mark B and Blade albums and singles are out now on Wordplay and available just about everywhere.
Check the site
Thanks to Mark B and Dr. Laub for organisation and photos and shit.
Mark B & ... Interview
