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  Sonny Jim Interview
interview 0388 added
10.04.06 words:
K-Per
technical:
QED
8 Mile has a lot to answer for when it comes to freestyling and MC
battles.
But while there may be an army of Eminem wannabees out there,
there are still MCs coming out of battles and cyphers everywhere in this
country who are proving their worth both on stage and in the studio.
Meet Sonnyjim, from Birmingham, who’s been making a reputation for
himself over the last few years as one of this country’s finest
freestyle and battle MCs– however ripping mics in half and freestyling
off the dome aren’t the only things that Sonnyjim can do, as is
demonstrated in his first release, the ‘Soul Trader’ EP.
With the help of local producers, DJs and MCs as well as Lotek (who
acted as sound engineer on the EP) ‘Soul Trader’ shows that Sonnyjim can
write dope rhymes and deliver them in the studio as effortlessly as he
can on stage. After hearing him for the first time on last year’s
‘Mixtape Blessings’ and getting a promo CD off him at Hip Hop Kemp,
there was no better time for K-Per to catch up with the man by email to
find out a bit more about his origins, what makes him tick, rhyming and
more.
“...I need to be out there as much as I can so if there are any
serious promoters reading this then please get in touch, put me on your
bill...”
Who is Sonnyjim? Where is he from and when was the first time he thought
of picking up a mic and why?
 SJ: Yeah its ya boy Sonnyjim aka the Soul Trader, reppin Birmingham
City…the first time I thought of picking up a mic? Well I been writing
rhymes since I was a yoot at school but I never really took it serious
until I grew up, I realized I could do what other emcees were doing, I
just used to listen close to rhyme schemes and cadence etc… And so
instead of spitting my favourite rappers’ lyrics I just started to spit
my own…I basically realized that it wasn’t very hard to rap. And from
there I just slowly started working at the craft - writing bars, hitting
up open mics, battles, radio, whatever. Back then I would travel
wherever as long as I could spit some bars…I just decided that if I was
gonna do this I wanted to do it proper, not no half hearted effort so I
just got on it.
Following from this, when and where was the first time you actually
got on stage (or in front of a pair of decks) live to spit some rhymes?
How was it?
SJ: The first time I got on stage was probably 6-7 yrs ago, it was at an
open mic spot in Birmingham, I spat a little written it went down
alright got a few props. Looking back now shit was probably wack but I
jus remember I was buzzin that heads were feeling it and so I got that
ego boost and decided I wanted to start entering battles and just get
mad competitive with it.
What's your best memory from an open mic?
SJ: I’ve had many random incidents at open mics man! Back in the day
when I was mad hungry just to spit some offensive shit, I went to some
party in the park type shit that had an open mic, BBC were filming it
with loads of cameras all over the place. I just got up and dissed the
headline act who was a well known popstar, I spat a few bars and the
camera crew just started turning their shit off, little kids with their
parents was booing me and shit, still some people were cracking up, but
no one turned my mic off I just kept murkin this guy for like five
minutes straight. But since learning more about the industry I don’t
really do that shit no more…because I want people to buy my music.
You've got a new EP about to drop, so can you give us the skinny on
it? Who's involved production wise, the story behind it and what can
people expect?
SJ: Soul Trader EP - it’s an 8 track EP out on CD and vinyl around mid
march 06…yeah it’s my debut, its an introduction into what I’m bringing
to the table. It’s taken over a year to make and over the course of that
time it’s taken certain twists and turns to become the shape it is now.
It should have been out sooner but just because of time constraints and
people longing me up with beats and shit I’ve had to wait till now. I
actually got the test press at the end of last year but as the money for
the pressing was coming out of my pocket I didn’t have sufficient funds
to tell the pressing plant to go ahead with the order till January, so
yeah it’s been long, but it’s all part of the learning process. The real
work starts now, just gotta push my product as hard as I can.
“...I just decided that if I was gonna do this I wanted to do it
proper, not no half hearted effort so I just got on it...”
As for guest MCs I got Kosyne and English. these are the guys I been
sparrin with and they both got sick bars so it only seemed right to get
them on there. Beats wise I got a bunch of cats that most of you
probably ain’t heard of yet but they all came through and did their
thing. And it was recorded and mixed down by Lotek, which put me at ease
because he is a studio nut and he knows how I work. For me I feel the
engineer has a very important role in the recording process and we
definitely worked closely together to get shit sounding right.
 As far as what you can expect to hear on there. I got all sorts of
vibes, it’s not just on that battle shit that most heads know me for.
Rhyme wise it ranges from dealing with industry politics to the disease
to tearing a rapper’s face off with a hammer type shit. Lyrically
there’s stuff for the punch line enthusiasts and for those that really
like to break down the bars. But there’s also some more serious moments
on there, as well just showing me in a different light to what some
people may expect. Sonically the beats range from straight up in ya face
boom bap to more relaxed headnodders.
You're quite well known in the UK for your freestyling capabilities -
so in your opinion what makes a good freestyle MC?
SJ: Observation skills, confidence, a decent vocab. But what really
makes a freestyler is when you can just tap into the zone and black out,
just staying a few bars ahead. It’s all about that vibe man, not many
people can smack it like that ALL the time, so what separates a top
notch freestyler from an ok one is that he has the ability to get in the
zone at the drop of a hat.
How do you approach writing rhymes - where do you find inspiration,
etc... And do you think that it's essential for an MC to be able to do
both written rhymes and freestyles, or do you feel that it can depend on
the individual?
SJ: It just depends on who I’m working with. I almost always write the
bars to the beat it’s intended for. Sometimes people just send me a loop
and I’ll write to that and sometimes I’ll go into the studio and write
while the beat is being made. Just depends on the situation really, if
I’m honest I prefer to get a finished beat with dropouts cuts etc. and
write around it in my own time, I just work better on my own rather than
a studio full of drink and distractions where the phones are going off
every 10 seconds. But saying all that there has been times when I’m in
the studio and I’ll just catch a vibe, write a verse on the spot go in
the booth spit it in one take and the spontaneity of the recording
brings it to life. Really it all boils down to what the producer is
saying, some will just send me the beat and let me get on with it, with
pretty much full creative control. Others want to accompany me through
the whole process, like they worried I’ll take the song in a different
direction so they want to be in the studio with me to oversee shit. But
I’m strict with the quality control when it comes to my own projects, if
I ain’t happy with it, it doesn’t leave the studio.
As for inspiration… I just get inspired by hearing an MC just straight
tear shit up. Or sometimes an ill instrumental can get my brain cells
jogging. I only get inspired by emcees who I think are momentarily
beyond my reach, those that can do what I can’t do. I don’t get inspired
by rhymers that are on my level or below.
“...I just got up and dissed the headline act who was a well
known popstar, I spat a few bars and the camera crew just started
turning their shit off...”
Yeah I think its essential for an MC to be able to freestyle because if
you can’t then your just a rapper, and anyone can rap. An MC has to be
able to freestyle just like they got to be able to battle if they’re
tested. It’s not like you should feel obliged to do it but there are
certain weapons that any MC worth his salt must possess in his arsenal.
Plus in the cipher what you gonna do when you run out of writtens? It’s
a shame really because you got established acts that these kids look up
to who wont buss a freestyle at their shows because they’re too prang of
fuckin up and spoiling their little rep.
For you, who's impressed you the most mic wise in the last few years,
both in the UK and abroad?
SJ: In the UK I seen bare talent emerging recently, its just that most
of them for whatever reason ain’t putting out material regularly, off
the top of my head the MCs that have impressed me in the last few years
would be Kosyne, Ramson Badbones, Anti Heroes, Grimlok, Strategy, Soweto
Kinch, Wordsmith, Logan, Shameless, the list could go on. There’s just
nuff sick MCs doing their thing right now.
As far as emcees from across the pond, I ain’t really kept up with
what’s going on over there as much, I’m still bumping The Black Album
though. I think Jigga’s one of the illest, I been checking for a guy
called Supastition for a while now, I like Devin the Dude, Elzhi,
Ludacris… I been checking for Iron Soloman and Thesaures, I listen to
all sorts of rappers though, I don’t give fuck about commercial or
underground if they’re spitting tight bars I’m all ears.
You were down at HHK last year - what did you think of it
(atmosphere, shows etc...)? And what did you think of the open mics they
had?
SJ: It was a heavy festival, made some good links out there too…but I
ain’t sleeping in no fucking tent next time! Can’t be dealing with that
shit again. Rap wise we hit up nuff open mics and ciphers, some were ill
some were a bit swag because I couldn’t understand a word mans were
saying. The shows were sick too, Skinny did his thing reppin UK
overseas, Foreign Beggars smashed it up - they got one of the heaviest
live sets I’ve seen full stop. Yeah I think I’m gonna try and reach
again this year. And for those who ain’t been I would definitely
recommend it.
Coming from a freestyle/open mic background, how did you find it
having to sit down and put together an EP to be released? Did you find
it hard having to write down rhymes and fit them to beats etc…?
SJ: I was already making music when I was going to open mics and doing
battles so it wasn’t so much of a transition. In terms of creating the
ep it wasn’t that difficult but more so the time and effort put into the
organization of it all. It’s a mission trying to balance it with a 9 to
5. It’s been an extremely long process but it’s a learning curve though.
The hardest part was getting beats. I reached out to the producers that
I rated at the time but nobody really knew me, cats thought I was just
any guy y’know, so I got fucked around. I had too many people longing me
up with beats, but right now I’m in a position to be working with some
solid producers that I really rate, a few of which are within my
immediate circle, so I don’t chase nobody for beat CDs anymore. I’m
happy with the sound I got on the ep. I needed to find the right sound
so that was why shit took so long, just to piece everything together,
all the soundbites and interludes, that was what was creatively taxing,
plus I was working on all the songs at the same time, juggling a lot of
different ideas around at once, which looking back in hindsight was a
bit ambitious.
“...The real work starts now, just gotta push my product as hard
as I can...”
Other than that the hardest part was the actual
preparation of the release, because I don’t really know what I’m doing
man. I don’t really know how to market myself, I don’t know how to get
in these magazines, all over the internet, on the radio, I ain’t got
contacts like some of these people, and I won’t beg a hook up. But I
know how to spit them bars and I know how to sell my CDs hand to hand
which is all good but I’m trying to take it to the next level. I’m
slowly learning about the politics of the industry but it’s like I got
so much to learn and so little time. In an ideal world I’d get me a
press plugger and a street team but until then its just me on my jack
doing my thing, I’m just trying to be everywhere I can right now, just
going all over the country trying to sell records.
If the EP proves successful where would you want to go next with
things like releases etc…?
 SJ: My foots in the fuckin door now, its on now, from this point on I’m
just looking to keep on releasing material, I got a few more joints to
drop this year. There’s some works that are ready to go but right now
its all about the ‘Soul Trader’ EP. There are projects in the pipeline.
I got a few 12s coming out, one on Areosolik with Percy Filth and
another with Reggiemental, which is mixed down ready to go. And I been
doing 16s for various randoms so you should see my name popping up a bit
more this year. And you’ll definitely see a Sonnyjim and Kosyne project
this year, we done a few tracks so far and I can tell it’ll be one of
those releases that’ll make rhymers fix up their spitting game.
Would you say being in Birmingham has been beneficial for you to
make yourself heard/known in hip hop circles? People always say that the
UK scene can be very London centric but there’s always been dope stuff
coming out all over the country.
SJ: For me Birmingham has only been beneficial because there’s less
crabs in the barrel. But its musical environment hasn’t helped me
improve. There are regular open mics but they’re just full of mostly
swag emcees, it’s a bit shit when there ain’t a reason to step your game
up, it’s almost as if it’s too easy. But in London it’s a different
story, everyone’s hungry to impress…and I ain’t tryna let no MC outshine
me, so therefore its like I gotta bring the A game, I gotta step it up a
little and show cats how I do…when I’m in London there’s a little extra
pressure to smash it because I’m from out of town but there ain’t no
hostility, its a case of real recognize real, I get props from real
heads down there but some people always be hating on me but that’s just
bullshit because I know I got the tight bars, if you want to hate on me
because I ain’t from London you can eat a dick and die.
Everything is very London centric if your interested in open mics,
cyphers, live shows and just general opportunities to showcase your
talent and spit bars but if you want to be in a studio 24/7 grinding out
the tracks and sending them off to labels then it don’t really matter
where you are cos the music speaks for itself…and the heads in London
will tell you that there is good music coming from all over the
country…anyone who disagrees with that is a fuckin idiot.
“...For me I feel the engineer has a very important role in the
recording process and we definitely worked closely together to get shit
sounding right...”
You mentioned that you been writing rhymes since being a youth, so
who was the first rapper/group you heard who really made you think ‘I wanna do this shit’?
SJ: There was never one rapper that made me think that. Even up until
now I’ll hear MCs smash it and that will remind me why I do this shit
and it was the same back when I started, there were lots of rappers that
I rated for different reasons and whenever I heard someone kill it back
in the day I was always inspired. But looking back now I used to put
some pretty swag rappers on a pedestal, it changes when you can do what
they can do, you realize they weren’t really doing anything special.
You mentioned that Lotek engineered the LP. How did you guys hook up
together? Is there any particular why you believe the engineer can be
such an important aspect of the record making process? This isn’t
something you always hear, and it seems a lot of people overlook the
importance or don’t emphasise it enough.
SJ: I met him at a Foreign Beggars show in Brum, he told me he ran a
studio I told him I had an EP to record and the rest is history really.
I went down to the studio a week later and it was the right type of
environment where I wanted to record. I mean, it was vibes and that but
it was a professional atmosphere as well, and it wasn’t just heads
hanging around getting high and playing X Box, because when I was there
to work I was there to work y’know, most of the time it was just me and
the engineer, I feel like if you ain’t working on the song with me or
you can’t sit silently then get the fuck out the studio… I wouldn’t come
to your workplace and watch you work a fucking till ya gets me!
The engineer plays a vital role. I hear too much music where lazy
engineers don’t know how to get the best out of an MC’s vocal take. Too
many cats using punch ins, I mean I understand sometimes its got to be
done but at least do it properly, this is especially the case in ‘UK Hip
Hop’ where kids with bedroom studios think they’re sound engineers but
can’t even do a proper mixdown. And these are the same kids putting out
shitty records and getting raving reviews for them because they know
this guy who works for that magazine.
Are you planning to try and bring the EP to live stages around
Birmingham and the country, or is that something for the future?
SJ: It’s all about the live shows man. Fuck recording in the studio,
it’s all about the live element. On stages and in ciphers is where I
honed my skills, that’s what I’m about, but I prefer to rock a crowd
full of heads rather than some drunk Ben Sherman Kevs, it’s like you get
more props and that from the crowd of pissheads than you do from other
MCs but I don’t really give a fuck about that because at the end of the
day I write rhymes for other rappers to vibe off. Its like the live
shows is where I can road test my bars, plus I’m nice with the freestyle
thing so it’s a bit of a chance to show off.
“...I don’t give fuck about commercial or underground if [an MC
is] spitting tight bars I’m all ears...”
Most of the live shows I
got Kosyne and DJ Cro with me as standard and between the three of us we
hold down a pretty tight set. We always try and have fun with it though,
because I fucking hate it when you see cats cuffin the mic, rapping to
the floor, its like they’re prang to be on a stage and it’s dire to
watch that shit man. I think a lot UK Hip Hop acts have very shit live
shows, it’s easy to spot flaws when making a transition from studio to
live stage. I got the record to push now so I just been trying to reach
out to promoters right now you know? I need to be out there as much as I
can so if there are any serious promoters reading this then please get
in touch, put me on your bill, I can guarantee that you can put us in
any environment and we’ll smash it, because were not on no fuckabout
shit man, its very important to us that we murk every show we do.
Right we’re nearly done, so have you got any last words for the
readers?
 SJ: Yeah go buy the Soul Trader EP from
www.sonnyjim.co.uk or you can
cop it from the usual outlets nationwide. Your support is appreciated.
Ok before we wrap this up, here’s a series of short questions and
answers for you (some of them might not make a lot of sense!). Off the
top of the dome please…
3 things about Birmingham that people wouldn’t know?
SJ: It’s got more canals than Venice and that’s it.
Favourite movie(s)?
SJ: Hmm, I dunno, I like different types of films for different reasons,
the last thing I watched was a film called ‘Everything is Illuminated’,
good film, its got that lord of the rings kid in it, the one who done
the football hooligan film.
Video games or board games?
SJ: Board… because I play chess…but I’m still rinsing them out on
Streetfighter Alpha X though… other than that I ain’t fucked with games
since the Master System blud!
Kebabs or sandwiches?
SJ: The killer kebab.
“...I’m slowly learning about the politics of the industry but
it’s like I got so much to learn and so little time...”
Big Daddy Kane or Rakim?
SJ: Kane.
Premier or Jay Dee?
SJ: Premo.
Jay-Z Ludacris?
SJ: Jigga, all day every day.
Goths or Heavy Metallers?
SJ: Neither, they’re both on some weirdo shit.
Bus or Train?
SJ: Bus.
Weed or Beer?
SJ: Weed.
You can cop the ‘Soul Trader’ EP from
www.sonnyjim.co.uk and most decent
shops, and catch him on the road in the coming months.
“...If you want to hate on me because I ain’t from London you
can eat a dick and die...”
-
Kper
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