Bovz 'n the Brotherhood

Rip It Up, Issue 225, 1 May 1996, Page 26

Bovz 'n the Brotherhood

For years nobody took British hip-hop seriously. Quality-wise, UK product struggled to stand comparison to year after year of Stateside classics. Meanwhile, the UK produced its own media manipulated musical frenzies: acid house, trip-hop, jungle and Britpop all have their fair share of media attention to the neglect of UK hip-hop. This is about to change. With the long awaited, proudly British, Underdog produced Elementalz, the Brotherhood have released the first genuinely good British hip-hop long player. The beats are produced by the Underdog, and are phat as, but infused with that unique, moody UK flavour. The Brotherhood are rappers Shyloc and Spice, and DJ Deckster. I spoke with Deckster one Friday evening about hip-hop, jungle and all things British. He was madly enthusiastic and fiercely protectively of his beloved hip-hop. There are three of you, all different nationalities, how did you all come together to be making hip-hop? “It’s more like we’re from different backgrounds

than nationalities. But I’ve been making rap music since 85, on independent labels with an MC called Kam, Shyloc did his first track in 89, with the Underdog, and Spice was just dancing and robbing and doing graffiti, and we all hooked up about 92. The Brotherhood has been going a lot longer than that, but the line-up as it is now has been going since 92.” Is there such a thing as the hip-hop way of life? “Depends how you make it, but yeah, there definitely is. The way I look at it is, the more hip-hop music I can make, the more I can support my family. Spice has always lived hip-hop, he’s more the street side of it, while me and Shyloc are the business side. There are different ways of life in hiphop, it’s not just robbing an’ that.” How would you describe the current state of British hip-hop? “At the moment we’re making a lot of noise, there’s a few more bands like us. People in England are coming out with their own lyrics. The

way we speak is British, we’re not really riding on the American tip anymore. We’re still fans of American music, but things are getting much better over here now. But I would say from a British point of view, we’re not very good at recognising talent in our own country. Especially in London, it’s meant to be the second hip-hop capital, but there’s no way it is really. If you look at France and Germany, their local artists outsell American artists, they support their own, and I think it’s only a matter of time before that happens here.” On your album you refer to a lot of British imagery. Was that a conscious decision or did it just come naturally? “It is a natural thing, but obviously we sat down and thought about what we were talking about. When we speak to each other we’re not like: ‘Eh yo’, wassup man? I’m selling crack and fucking hoes,’ we don’t do that. We’re like: 'Johnny lost a fiver down the dogs last night.’ That’s how we speak here, so that’s how we come across on the album. We’ve got a worldwide deal to promote British rap, and basically there’s no point in promoting English rap by talking about something that’s not happening in England.” You can’t write about what you don’t know... “Yeah, exactly, but a lot of people do, and they make a lot of money out of it. I think in England we’re a bit too honest. You can make a million bucks in the States rapping about things you just made up, but in England you can’t do that ’cause everybody knows your business.” Were you all involved in writing and producing the album? “Oh, yeah, the Underdog and meself come up with the music, and Shyloc and Spice will write some rhymes to match. We all discuss what we want to say... I mean, some days we’d just go to the Underdog’s place and do fuck all, we’d just eat pizza, drink beer, smoke a bit of puff and watch old Top of the Pops, and then the next day we’d just be vibing and it would come together. One of the reasons we called the album Elementalz was because all our elements, all our backgrounds went into to it.” DJ Pump Action, the original Brotherhood DJ, left the group in friendly circumstances to produce drum ’n’ bass as DJ Crystal, and now he’s using a rapper. What do you think of his sound? “Personally I like the person Danny Chapman, but I don’t like the way people come and go out of hip-hop. I don’t like the way when things aren’t really going right in the scene they move on to another scene, and then come back to hip-hop when things are moving again. I’ve never done

that and never will. Rap is my life, and I think if you love rap you should stick by it. I, myself, think Crystal’s a little bit confused. He’s Shyloc’s best mate, but I just don’t think he knows what he wants to do.”

Do you think it’s a credible record, jungle breaks with a rapper rapping over the top? “I just (think it’s a waste of time. I don’t really listen to it because it doesn’t say anything to me. To me the rapper’s a fraud anyway. I mean, anybody can stick a rapper on a record. Oasis could rap on their records, they’re into hip-hop, any fool can rap — well, rap pathetically. But it’s just not saying anything about the music. I don’t really enjoy people jumping onto hip-hop culture, whatever the angle. Hip-hop as music has not changed — things have come off from jungle has come from it, house has come from it, but hiphop has stayed pure.” So, you wouldn’t agree with the theory that jungle and its culture is Britain’s version of American hip-hop culture? “Nah, that’s bollocks, Brotherhood is the British version of hip-hop culture. Jungle is jungle, hiphop comes from graffiti, breaking and rapping; that’s not what jungle is about. Jungle’s about taking as many drugs as you can, dancing all night, pulling a few birds, and then whatever, you know. There’s no culture in jungle apart from getting pissed-up on a Saturday night and going out raving.” - Yeah, okay, let’s move on. How does the live set-up work? “Erm, basically, we’ve got two decks, me going off on the decks and the two boys doing the lyrics. If I feel like dropping in a different tune I’ll do that, otherwise I just play our instrumentals. I had some instrumental albums pressed up for me .to use.”

No DATs, eh? C 001... will the instrumentals be released? “Well, no, but I’ll sort you out with a few copies when I come to New Zealand” You’re coming over? “Well, I hope so. Why not, eh? If the vibe’s good, we’ll definitely come over, get some sun, eat some lamb.” Best smoke in the world here, you know... “Yeah... so ya say, mate, so you say!” Oh, so you have heard that before? “Well, yeah, I know this girl at Virgin who’s from New Zealand, and that’s what she was always saying, but we’ll have to come over and see what goes on, you know what I mean!”

ANDY PICKERING