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YNR
- Usmaan, Asaviour & Tommy Evans
interview
0123 added 13.11.02 words
Kobi
UKHH: Right about now I'm with Tommy Evans, Usmaan and Asaviour…..
Usmaan: Everyone says it wrong! It's pronounced Oo-smarn…..Oos….
UKHH: Oh, sorry man…. So you're all part of YNR, How did you guys form, you all started up in Yorkshire?
Asaviour: Yeah, yeah back in…
Tommy: (Begins coughing) I'm just gonna choke now….
A: Yeah, back in Huddersfield man, I'm from Huddersfield, Usmaan's from Leeds and we were in a triangle in the same kind of areas we'd knock about the same places….
U: How I came into was that one of my friends was at college with Will (Jehst), and he heard I rhymed and that and basically we just hooked up through that, man…
A: I'd seen Will time ago, six or eight months ago with Nmemonic, I was at some festival watching them MC and I'd just started MC'ing, but I didn't know who they were and I thought they were alright….
T: Were you at that Brotherhood gig in Leeds?
A: See I never made it to that, I was gonna come…
T: Seen, seen 'cos that would have been like '95…NAH, tell you what the first time I think I woulda met you Nigel, was that gig you lot did that gig in Leeds where you lot got chucked out for smoking weed (Laughs) Where was it…Corn Exchange….
A: Nah but I knew you before that because I remember I first got to know you and we had…not like a battle, but we were all freestyling outside the Corn Exchange, like I'd just got to know who you were…
T: So, me I was in Leeds and Huddersfield, Halifax and we started linking 96,97…I things got properly underway in like 98…
UKHH: So with Will being in Champions of Nature…
T: They don't exist anymore, man…
UKHH: So what happened with that?
T: (Laughs) we shouldn't say, really…
UKHH: Okay…There's quite a bit of cross-pollination going on…you've worked quite closely with Lowlife and
Yungun….
T: Yeah, like Yungun ain't on any one label in particular, but yeah, we do work close with Lowlife, that's just a business thing 'cos we do our pressing through Independent and Joe (Braintax) deals with that. That was maybe the blueprint we were following when we started the YNR label…But also on a creative level 'cos obviously Will's done stuff with them and Nigel's on their next thing (nods towards Usmaan and Asaviour) You two are on that Lowlife album, innit?
A: Yeah we've just done a tune for it…
UKHH: So are you guys are just coming out, have you had regular output before or are you just coming out properly now?
A: As with regards to releases, for me, yeah, Usmaan has got this new single coming out…But artistically I wasn't really driven before…
T: It's a very slow process but up north, opportunities are limited, so I think for us… I've been down since 2000, and these two came down properly this year so I think a lot of opportunities are realised once you move to London, which is sort of a good and a bad thing…it's bad in that you can't really smack it hard in your own town where you came from, but then I can't complain 'cos by comin' to London its allowed us to achieve certain goals…
UKHH: So are there future generations of YNR artists in the pipeline right now?
T: I mean really what it is, is that YNR is a label that's run by myself, Jehst and Cee Why and what we do is we put our music and the music of our immediate crew like Nigel and Ozzie (points towards Usmaan and Asaviour), who've been down since day one and then we have the extended family like Klashnekoff, that's a good example of someone who's music we felt so we're put it out on there behalf basically. It's not like its signed over or we own the masters, we just pay to put it out, but there is a line-up of the next few people we want to put out, we'll keep that on the downlow for the time being, but what I will say is that we're doing a YNR compilation.
".
... I ain't trying to be no 35 year old rapper trying to relate to 17,18 year old
kids...."
UKHH: If you could work with anyone throughout the history of music who would it be?
A: Tommy Evans and Usmaan,
T: (laughs)
UKHH: That's a very diplomatic answer….
A: It's not even diplomatic, man. It's all good having your American heroes and all the rest, but these two people can relate to everything I talk about, they've seen what you've seen…
U: I reckon its better to be the hero yourself…
T: On a purely musical level, I'd have Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday and Jimi Hendrix…
UKHH: Jimi always comes up, him and Prince…
T: Maybe, Michael Jackson in his prime. I like that tune Butterflies that he's done. That's heavy, man
UKHH: The girls who wrote that come from London, don't they?
T: It was Floetry, wasn't it?
A: Did they write that?
T: Yeah….But I tell you if I could do a track with two rappers now it would be Blak Twang and Jay-Z….
UKHH: So at the moment where do you see yourselves as emcees going forward from here? Any big plans? Anything you're looking forward to doing?
T: With me, I think you should be aiming high. Personally I've got a five year game-plan for this music then I'm done with it, cos I ain't trying to be no 35 year old rapper trying to relate to 17,18 year old kids. It don't work now. If you look at all the classic music it's generally done by people in their twenties. Are people listening to Paul McCartney now or 'Rubber Soul' by the Beatles? Are people listening to Bob Dylan now or the stuff he was doing in the Sixties? [It's the] same with the Rolling Stones. So I'm just trying to cram it all in, over the next five years and smack it as hard as possible on a creative flex, and I'm on a level where I can speak to as many people as possible, get across certain viewpoints and political messages, I just wanna fun have, that's it at the end of the day though…
U: I just want to be as creative as possible and get my music out to there…It's not important to me to get really rich off what I'm doing just as long as people appreciate what I'm giving them….
A: Pretty much the same thing, man. Just being creative, just doing what I want. Don't get me wrong, I want people to listen to my stuff but I ain't gonna compromise what I do, hopefully it'll be good enough to get them to listen to it…I just want to be comfortable, get myself in a better position. I don't wanna be no millionaire driving around in a Lexus, that' s not what I'm about…
T: What was that you were telling me about setting up something for kids….
A: Oh yeah, definitely. Bringing a little money back into the community, just starting a new project or whatever. Ideally it would be music, putting money into the community that brought you up, or just anywhere….
UKHH: Don't you do some work with kids, Tommy?
T: (Laughs) Y'know what, I keep it on the downlow…My whole steez is I don't just wanna talk the talk I wanna walk the walk. It's all well and good saying a conscious lyric but what are you actually doing. So I'm trying to do hands on stuff….
UKHH: Where do you see British hip-hop going from here?
A: It's pretty exciting, It's a good thing that people are pitting themselves against other people. The standards gonna rise once the benchmark is set…
T: There's a solid fanbase now, It's stronger now then it was even two years ago, to the extent when we can go round the country and do nuff shows and it ain't even supporting Americans, it's just UK acts and you get hundreds of people turning out to see you. And I think the creative level is high. To be honest, I think the underground scene in Britain is better than in America. I dunno I think its just got stagnated in America. It's just saturated, it's too easy to put out a record now. Everyone's got a demo and they say "Yeah, lets put it onto wax!" And it's just a lot of cack, to be honest. Obviously the same applies to Britain, but because it's a bit newer and people are not as cynical as the Americans. I think loads of them are just like "Aw, I should be selling platinum".
A: The only thing I'd say, just being Devil's Advocate, is that you get a lot of people who say I'm not buying this or that because it's too jiggy or whatever…I see music as just being good or bad, I mean even if he's talking about guns, If he's talented, he's talented…It's just like people who say, "I'm not listen to US hip-hop, anymore I just wanna hear UK" or "I only listen to underground hip-hop"….
T: It's just divisions….It compartmentalizes, it puts everything in comfort zones . It's too easy and creativity ain't meant to be easy. It's just like a strange patriotism, man…
UKHH: So would you rather break mainland Europe or America?
T: In my heart I'd love to smack it in America, cos like it or not this music originated in America but you were saying smack it in Europe, someone needs to smack it in Britain first to be honest…I still don't think we've smashed it hard enough here…
U: No-one does massive figures over here, I think the most is 150,000…
T: Yeah, Blade's done about 40 or 50,000
A: But compared to the Americans that's still peanuts….
T: Yeah, when Jay-Z's doing 5 million…We need to smack it in this country first. Europe's a definite possibility. I did some shows there this year and a couple last year, as well. And there's a market for it. And blatantly when I've been in America and rhymed I know it took a lot of people back 'cos they'd never heard the true people from over here…I get people saying to me "Yeah I heard Chester beat Common" and "What's up with Roots Manuva and Blak Twang and them?…" The true people know…But when I rhymed out there people were like (Switches to a nasal American twang) "Wow, there's this cat rapping in an English accent? Yo, that's sort of hot man!" They couldn't believe it…But I do believe it is selling ice to Eskimos, really generally they're not interested, but maybe in 5 years time there might be one person who might smack it but I do believe that will be 'The One'…but someone needs to smack it in the UK first so lets do that….
".
... someone needs to smack it in Britain first to be honest…I still don't think we've smashed it hard enough here...."
UKHH: Anything else you'd like to add?
T: We runnin this rap thing (laughs)….Buy the Usmaan 12". Tell them a bit about it Ozzie…
U: It's called 'Stay Focused' and the b-side's called "Who Want It?". Its got Klashnekoff on it doing the hook and I believe in it as a song. I think it's a good song so I've got a lot of faith in it…
UKHH: So when have you got stuff coming out Nigel? Obviously there's 'People Under The Weather' (On Jehst's 'Return of the Drifter' E.P)
A: Well I'm on that…Is it out now? Then we got this Lowlife compilation that's coming out, which has me and Ozzie on it. Will's doing another thing on Lowlife too…
T: Yeah, I've got a tune on it and Kyza's on there too…I'm gonna be doing an album eventually too. It's a struggle though….
UKHH: Any shout outs?
T: Don't bomb Iraq and free Palestine….
A: Whoever knows me….Where's this going out? Is it going to be on the Internet? Okay all my Manchester people and my Huddersfield people and everyone I know really….
U: I wanna shout out myself (laughs)
Shouts go to Tommy Evans for the hospitality, and letting me hear the new material, Asaviour and Usmaan for taking time out, despite the endless reschedules and the rest of YNR. And British Rail too, for getting me to town….
Tommy Evans' Silent Mobius b/w Me/You is out now on YNR. Jehst and Asaviour's 'People Under the Weather' is out now on Lowlife Records. Usmaan's 'Who Want It?' b/w 'Stay Focused' f/Klashnekoff is out now on
YNR.
- Kobi
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