Author Topic: Skinnyman Interview (Read 367 times)

Dj Eskimo · « **on:** January 30, 2004, 06:00:05 AM »

If you want proof that Hiphop in the UK is real, all you need to do is look at our superhero. In films there’s a fantasy, their superheroes are called Superman, Batman and Spiderman. In Hiphop we don’t have any of that super, bad or spider nonsense, our superhero is Skinnyman. Why? Because he’s skinny. So please sit down and take time to read the deepest interview I have ever conducted, with UK Hiphop’s own superhero the legendary Skinnyman.

Having been in prison for a stretch, Skinny has been free for some time now. I asked him what the first thing was he did when he stepped out the prison gates…

When I came out I was expecting to be met at the gates but people with their late scheduling made sure that when I came out no one was at the gate waiting for me. So I took a little walk down the road and recognised a Benz with some nice blinging rims and the tinted windows. It pulled up and the window came down and they told me to jump in, it was my people. They had a nice bottle of Moet and a nice Philly blunt full of cess for me to smoke. So that was beautiful for me to get out and have that waiting for me straight away. As soon as I did that I went back to the studio where the foundations for PM Muzik had been built up and things were looking good up there, it was good to link up with my people straight away and obviously reach out for my son as that was who my heart was pining for most of all everyday. As soon as I’d done that and seen mum it kind of took me about a week at least to come out of the coma that I was in from all the weed and drink I was smoking on the first week. Then after the blur, after the smoke kinda cleared from the first week I started knuckling down to what I had going on. At the same time I knew I was coming out not to losing my deal but actually the label I was signed to had folded, which was Talkin’ Loud, a 12 year ongoing label with consistency and a profit to its margin. It was sad that it had to collapse and the financial backers had to pull out of that, because of that I had already been inspired by their A&R man Paul Martin to go ahead and make my album. I’d like to thank him most for giving me the most inspiration to go and make the material that I’ve made that I’m putting forward this year because he’s responsible for all of that. As well as first man productions and the producers I worked with as soon as I came out and even the producers that were sending me riddim tracks when I was in jail. From the minute that I came out I just knuckled down straight to work on recording my music. Obviously though I had no financial income so I found myself again having to take risks as far as my liberty and freedom was concerned in order to get financial gain as a means for me to survive for me and to provide for my family. I had another case, and that was going on all the way up until December 22nd 2003. Obviously on that day the judge that I was up in front of was a liberated thinker and he pardoned me for my cannabis. Whilst I was expecting quite a considerable lengthy sentence of up to 3 to 4 years custodial, I’m actually free here with nothing hanging over my head with no further cases and no financial matters, no fines and no community service. I’ve finished recording my album, I’ve submitted it to Low Life, Joe Braintax, which I’m very happy for it to be going to him and now I’m just taking every day as it’s a blessing. I’m really waking up in the morning and counting every blessing that I have in life such as the sun in the skies, the opportunity to go ahead and make this Hiphop music and the opportunity to be able to do what I can now. So from coming out of jail to speaking to you now, these were more or less the steps I’ve been taking in a nutshell.

You were on Talkin’ Loud, there was a rumour you were with Def Jam UK… What was that about?

I think people were planning to merge as labels and work and coincide with others, the whole scratch my back I’ll scratch yours type of thing. I’ve got respect for all of the staff at Talkin’ Loud and all of the staff at Def Jam. For example you have Semtex there, who is actually great for this UK Hiphop industry and he’s doing a lot because he’s doing it from the heart. Now we actually have people like that who are doing it from the heart, in a position where they can put people in positions and get their music across. I know Semtex is partly responsible for the success of people such as Dizzee Rascal (Danny Live “f***ing c**t”) and that’s a great thing because what he’s showing is a new development of urban music can come through and have light shed upon it by people such as Semtex at Def Jam UK. It gives people more inspiration to want to chase for that limelight that before seemed so unreachable almost seems within our grasp now.

Sitting next to Skinnyman is Middlesborough’s most famous gutter dweller, Danny Live. You can see him at most Hiphop shows in London taking the piss out of people. He was also co-star in the BBC3 documentary, Tower Block dreams where they portray him as an MC who stepped to Skinnyman to battle him. Danny has told us that in actuality Skinny started that battle by stealing his hat. I went on to ask Skinny what he thought of this documentary that co-stars this living northern legend…

I appreciate that Danny Live was around to bless it because he’s the official Mud Family’s candidate of the fanbase. I’m sure we put him in charge of all of them. Obviously it was great that Danny could grace us with his presence on the documentary and we were very grateful for that. But, as far as documentaries and the BBC as a whole are concerned, one thing they’re having to come to terms with is the reality that we’re not living in such a civilised country in 2004. We’re almost living in ultimate chaos and anarchy all over the country. Whether it’s drug epidemics or crime rates, the statistics alone of the society we’re living in is really scary. Now the BBC have caught on to the idea that people want to know more about these real life shows, real life people, real life characters but what you also have to take into account is that nine times out of ten these documentary makers already have an idea of what documentary they wish to make and what they want to portray. They are merely looking for characters to fulfil those roles as media scapegoats to reinforce the stereotypes that they wish to portray to the masses today. I for one am not going to be someone who will have the wool pulled over my eyes and let them seize that opportunity to use me as a scapegoat. They’ve done so before when they tried to bring a derogatory term ‘wiggers’ around and I actually spoke out against that word. They tried to label me as such a thing, it’s a derogatory word and I have nothing more to say on that matter. But it shows that the BBC portrays these kinds of images so we have to be careful of these documentary makers because we know what’s real to the heart and we know what’s real to us. I could say something, and it could be chopped and edited and put across in a different light where people could get the wrong impression about what I was trying to put across to them in the first place. It’s obviously very important to me not to get our message lost within these documentaries. Our message is based upon truth and rights and anything based upon that foundation alone can’t steer wrong. Therefore I had no fear doing that documentary although there were many occasions where the interviewer would ask me questions that I wouldn’t really agree to and my answer would have to be thought of very thoroughly so that he wouldn’t get an irrational answer. I feel that was the reaction they were looking for throughout all the filming. The amount of footage that they filmed was loads and the amount they used was very little. They asked me why my lyrics were based around drugs and crime within the area – so I said do them “let’s speak about drugs”. What is the number one killer drug in this country? The statistic tells us that the drug that the most people die on in this country is paracetamol. Far from anything class A, it’s something that can be bought or prescribed. When we look at the second biggest killer in this country, it’s alcohol and if we look at the way that alcohol is promoted to our children via alcopops and other promotion ideas of media packaging to our children trying to create alcoholics in society, we see the effects of alcohol and we see that it is a poison. Yet there are corner shops all over urban and suburban areas where you have lower working class majorities. You find that alcohol is on every corner either in shops or public houses where they’re serving alcohol. When they look at something like cannabis which has been known to cure or alleviate many medical illnesses and is used in medical research, they wish to prosecute people who wish to use cannabis for their medical purposes or for their humanitarian rights or religious reasons. That’s the sort of answer I gave when responding to the questions about drugs and issues involving my lyrical content. I went on to speak about crack cocaine because that seemed to be what he was most interested in. It seems to be what gets the most media attention, it seems to be a big word CRACK COCAINE, it’s very grabbing in the media that word there. As my man who smokes all the fags said, I don’t know his name, but “anybody who’s going to smoke a drug named after a part of your body which is your butt has to be out of their mind”. Crack cocaine, we don’t make it, we don’t bring it to the country but it ends up on our street corners and it’s promoted to us. For many of the urban youth who are finding it hard to survive, between the ages of 16 and 18, thanks to Maggie Thatcher with her YTS minimum wage slave labour apprenticeships we have youths between the ages of 16 and 18 now suffering with no forms of income who are left to resort to crime on the street or drugs as an alleviation to the stress that is placed upon them in society today. This is just within our own urban societies, and our own back gardens that we’re seeing. These youths are actually pushed into positions where they have to fend for themselves. If you take four hungry lions and throw a pack of meat in the middle, then four lions are going to fight over that meat. They’re not going to act civilised and share that meat equally, and this is what they’re creating for the youth in the urban environments. Everybody has a dog eat dog mentality right now. It’s a scary situation that’s been created within our society. If you look at crack cocaine, that’s made everybody lose their morals. A lot of people are hooked on crack cocaine now, it’s highly addictive, and the crime rate has soared as a result of it, but we don’t bring it here. We don’t own the ships. You have to look at these elements and these facts and reflect upon what we see is here in front of us, nobody seems to be coming up with solutions. So I’m sat here looking for answers and I’m sitting here waiting for the revolution to happen when it comes to these subject matters.

When it comes to Skinny’s first full-length album being recorded, it’s clear he’s excited at the prospect of it coming out. Even though it will be dropping on a considerably smaller label than Talkin’ Loud, he seems very happy for the (sick) UK Hiphop label Low Life to drop the LP.

I’m happy that I’ve done my first album which I merely see as my first offering. I wasn’t going to stress myself out about being too self critical on how good it would be or how poor it might turn out. I thought “let me merely give an offering for what I’m representing in the state of mind of how I feel now”. Merely reflecting on my circumstances and my surroundings at the time, basically my inspiration for the music and the material that I put together was many of the youths. When I say youths I mean minor children who are under 16 that I find hanging around Finsbury Park council estates that I call “the children of the lost souls, the forgotten generation”. They inspired me to create an album that I am going to entitle Council Estate Of Mind. This is because everybody is in a council state of mind, if you’re from a council estate you have a certain way of thinking because it has made you that way. I hope it’s an offering that the youth who hang around my estate and my dwellings whoa re suffering for direction and opportunity and prospects, can take this offering I’m giving them in a musical form and listen to it and take certain lessons on board so it can steer them in a certain way so they don’t revolve to the negative aspects that are often glamorised within our society that become a trap within a vicious circle of the way we live. The album is more like an offering to those children so that can hopefully break to new boundaries. On top of that, anyone else who listens to my material who can gain anything from it or who’s inspired by it in any way, I’m honoured and I’m flattered to know that. Obviously my music is for all and I don’t prejudice who I want to listen to my music I hope the whole world could share the message of truth and rights. It’s for the children’s benefit, for the next generation and the next generation and the generation to come. We are responsible for our grandkids’ grandkids’ grandkids this is how I see things. Think of the state we’re living in now, what’s it going to be for them. It’s all about fix up look sharp like Dizzee Rascal says (Danny Live: “f***ing c**t”), we just have to keep striving for what we are. On the second album I want to incorporate more world issues and not only things that people in my area can relate to first hand, but also things that people no matter what race, creed, nationality, sexual gender or anything, there should be material everyone can relate to because everyone should be able to relate to what’s right and what’s true.

As far as collaborations on this album are concerned I worked with producers including Baby J, who I’ve worked with for a long time, he inspires me with my music. He makes beats that inspire me to write, they have that head nod factor that gives me the feeling that got me into Hiphop in the first place. It makes me want to breakdance. I also worked with Adam M who’s a producer I secretly discovered under the nose of his step dad who is the A&R that signed me! He failed to see the talent that his son had working in his bedroom, but every day I was walking past whilst looking for the right kind of production and kept hearing dope beats coming out of a bedroom door. So one day I stormed into that bedroom and said “what beat is this?” and he said “I’ve made this”. I said “I’ve been listening to 100s of demos every day and yet you’ve got what I’m looking for and your dad doesn’t even know it”. I also worked with a producer called Stone who has got a lot to offer, obviously a producer for the next millennium with a new electro sound. I also worked with DJ Flip from Self Destruct Music, Mud Fam’s very own DJ and DJ Noize the DMC World Champion who is now just kicking out beats for me and others, he’s sick. Big up DJ Noize!

MC Collaborations?
No there weren’t any MC collaborations, I didn’t want to distract from myself.
Danny Live: “you big headed c*nt”

Is your mum really that bad on the mic?
When my mum picks up the mic that will be the day the revolution is on.
Danny Live “Does your mum really love me?”
She’s got so much love for Danny Live, she’s so proud of him. You’re her number one and that’s on the real, I can’t even front.

In the documentary it shows you going to Sony. Has there been any progress since the documentary with any majors and are you even interested?

I have never been under the illusion that there would ever be interest from the majors in urban music that speaks out against mass corporations. You have to realise that Sony are a mass corporation themselves. *Donnie’s Lament (Mad World Remix) comes on in the background. It’s a Mad World we’re living in, this track is beautiful. Danny Live: “It’s so heavy”.
The way they’ve remixed the Hiphop version of Mad World is just beautiful. Anyway, when it comes to mass corporations like Pony Music and other people we could mention, Molydor, Bercury and all the other companies that we could mention. I am the kind of artist that speaks out about fair trade, what kind of fair trade is there in the music industry? The music industry and the major labels are merely for the artist, one of the highest rated interest bank loaners that there has ever been in the industry of banking. Many artists have fail to see this because they are creative and just want to get out there into the world. They get caught up in the smoke and camera and think, “yes, I’m getting my shine, I’m on top of the pops and I can show my artistic flair”. Later on down the line they come to realise how much these corporations are profiting off them and treating them like prostitutes within this industry. It’s sad when it comes to a reality for the artist whose first intention was because they want to give their music as an offering not because it was a business working on a cut throat regime. Now that people are coming to see this you are seeing many independent labels popping up and you have these majors that want to mother these labels so they can still get a cut out of their piece. You also have an explosion of urban music coming to the surface within London and across the country that these mass corporations want to monopolise on and where they see that these independent labels have created their own industry they’re not going to be able to make money off that. What they want is to create and dilute and repackage to us, and this is why they are using means such as 1Xtra. Seeing as we’re not down with urban and we know nothing of it, we’re going to take it repackage it to urban and play it back to them, but still censor the playlist and decide through our middle class, white, rock listening radio programmers and directors and have the final say. An example is the same backing track that they used for the 1Xtra advert on television, that record is actually banned from being played on 1Xtra. What does that say about their being the spokesperson for the urban ghetto, when they are actually hypocritical makas which means shit, who are only trying to take what is rightfully ours, dilute it, manipulate us and package it back to us the way they want us to have it. Let’s not have these people such as major corporations in the industry and radio stations dictate to us what it is or isn’t we shouldn’t be saying. They are trying to censor us because they are scared of us being too politically righteous to expose all of the wrong that’s going on in the world. They know that revolutionary thinking musicians have been known to be the key to being successful in this field, and this is why we are a threat to their regime.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
There are two things I would like. Fresh air and clean food for all the children of the world.
The music industry?
I wish I could change people from being so critical about the things that they hear and just embrace it and enjoy it for what it is. Let’s not be so critical about who is better than who and who you prefer, let’s just think about what we do like within our music and build on it. That especially goes out to the London audience, because I’ve seen too much back biting and hatred. If I could quote my brother man Chester P “Hating each other is like hating our reflection in the mirror. We only hate ourselves and no one else.