Rapping on _ Us 3 the Comer

Rip It Up, Issue 236, 1 April 1997, Page 14

Rapping on _ Us 3 the Comer

It came as no big surprise four years ago when English outfit Us 3 went down a treat in the USA with their debut record, Hand on the Torch. A loose collection of rappers and studio musicians, Us 3 took two essentially American art forms — hip-hop and jazz — fused them, and

sold the sound back to the Americans with stag-

gering success. Us 3 recently unveiled their second. album in the States to a drastically cooler response, but main man Geoff Wilkinson remains unfazed and optimistic.

A dismissive review in US mag Details was typical of the music media’s response to Us3’s new record, Broadway & 52nd, and suggested the band had been left behind by the progressive nature of dance music; ‘A cute idea in 1993, but too quaint too cut it now,’ it read. That theory left Wilkinson

goals as lofty as the ones he carries now. It was his wish that through Us3’s use of sampled music, lifted from the Blue Note back catalogue, the band would act as a point of entry for people to jazz.

“I always thought it would be fantastic if younger people got into it through the music of Us 3, that was an aspiration, but I never really knew to what extent that would happen, or if it would happen at all. Travelling around the world over the last few years and meeting people, it actually seems to have happened on a much bigger scale than I imagined. We met people who’d never bought a jazz album before in their life, and had gone out and discovered things they really liked after hearing Us 3.” It was the single ‘Cantaloop’ that introduced Us 3 to the world: it’s snappy, infectious swing-beat struck a chord with groove lovers globally, leaving Wilkinson to ponder the reasons for its mass popularity.

unmoved. “That’s the worst thing anyone’s written about the new album, but you always get people criticising where you are at. I’m not really concerned if Us 3 is cutting edge or if it isn’t, because I don’t think musicians make fashion; journalists make fashion and musicians keep on making music, and come in and go out of fashion as the media decides. Although I’m loathe to make big statements, I think what Us 3 are about, that’s the future. Any supposed boundaries that exist in music only stifle creativity, and that’s why fusion has always interested me, and I think different mixtures of different things is what will keep music alive.” Wilkinson is speaking from a London studio, where he’s remixing a track from the new album, for release on the flip side of a forthcoming single. A day earlier, Us 3 finished a European tour that stopped off in Oslo, Milan, Rome, Cologne, Hamburg, Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris. In a week’s time the group are off to the USA; “It’s very hectic at the moment, some down-time would be nice”, Wilkinson says. When Wilkinson formed Us 3 and signed to the famed Blue Note label in the early 90s, he began the group with

“\Ne could never figure out why it was so big. I wish I knew the answer ’cause it would be much easier to do it again if I knew [laughter]. It still sounds like a funky little club record to me; it doesn’t sound like, a big commercial' hit record, I’m quite surprised it was. Then when the album came out, we couldn’t believe it, we never felt it would sell as many as it did, or happen on such a world-wide scale.”

Today Wilkinson may joke about attempting to recreate the sound of ‘Cantaloop’, but in all seriousness, he

reveals that after the acclaim garnered by Hand on the Torch, Us 3 faced strong pressure from their record label to make a clone of the first album — a strategy unacceptable to the group, as it went' against their original philosophy. “At the very beginning, when I approached Blue Note with the idea of changing from album to album, using different rappers and musicians, they were really into the idea of that. After the success of the first album, they didn’t want to break it up, it was a like some kind of hit formula for them, they just wanted to make money. That was boring to me, I wanted it to change.” And change it has. There’s four major differences between this record and the first one: Broadway & 52nd has a markedly more organic feel than Hand on the Torch, due in part to the increased live playing on the album; Wilkinson has employed new vocalists, this time utilising the skills of New York freestylers KCB and Shabaam Sahdeeq; and he has also dipped further back into Blue Note history, choosing more obscure samples, “so this record would be less like a Blue Note greatest hits album”. However, the most effecting evolutionary change on Broadway & 52nd was the departure from Us 3 of Wilkinson’s chief collaborator, Mel Simpson.

“That was great, it made me a damn sight happier, we had really gone as far as we could as a working team. I never had a social relationship with the guy, we were just two people who worked together, and all of a sudden we were travelling : round the world, living out of each other’s pockets, which .1 didn’t like. After two years that was quite enough, on the new ~ album I wanted to work with other peo- • pie.”

In closing, Wilkinson (with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation) admits he’s already looking ahead to Us3’s next production.

“I’m feeling excited because I don’t know what I’m gonna do on the third | album, it depends on who I meet j between now and then. You can’t just repeat yourself all the time, it’s nice to challenge yourself and I think it’s good to challenge people’s perceptions of things | as well. When I was a kid I was really into David Bowie; listening back to his albums, they’re all completely different, and I think that’s the sign of an artist progressing. KRS-1 has this brilliant phrase that he uses when he describes his own music, ‘edutainment’, meaning, eduction and entertainment. That’s something I aspire to, to educate people with my music and entertain them at the same

time.”

JOHN RUSSELL