Q1. when did you all start out?
LEE SCOTT - I started writing rhymes as a kid, me and my friends used to record on a tape recorder over literally any instrumental we could find on cassette. Doing remixes and shitty stop tapes and so on. Always buzzed off hearing the sound of my own voice played back loud as fuck repeatedly.
SALAR - I think I started writing rhymes when I was around 12. I had a couple of friends who were already doing it and back then you didn’t have everybody wanting or even thinking about being an emcee, so when you did see someone doing it, it was cool. I used to write rhymes and compare them with my friends on the bus to school. It quickly became a passion and it was all I was doing in my spare time. Same as Lee, I recorded a couple of tapes with a voice recorder over Rakim instrumentals and remember being amazed at hearing my voice over a beat. Even though at that stage I was at my most elemental and the product and method was rough as fuck, it was probably the most exciting time as everything was new. I think I decided to take it seriously after I was in a school talent show and after it everybody in my school was coming up to me telling me how good I was. I had a taste of the props for the first time and I didn’t want it to stop!
Q2. what inspired COTD? and who's in the group??
LEE SCOTT - We were all into similair music and thought UK hip hop was boring as fuck. We was just all hungry and wanted to make some music together, it kind of just naturally came together when we all met in London doing some Antiheroes shows with Bill and Karlos a few years ago. Anyways, the group predominantely consists of myself that is Lee Scott, Salar and Bill obviously, Monster Under The Bed, T.L aka Tony Broke, King Grubb formerly known as Flash 4Dem for reasons you can all not know, Barebase, Dilner The Lost Kid aka Sly Moon and Dutch Master J formely known as Astonishing Jonathon due to various reasons some members have appeared on less shit than others and so on but thats the core, big up Karlos The Jackal too, he's one of the original members due to life Karlos is pretty much inactive but yeah he'll always be COTD. Big up Reklews, Mr. Molotov and J-Rel too.
SALAR - It was originally Lee, Bill and myself and wasn’t called COTD (we had a few different wack names). We used to chill and make tracks in Lees house and we were discovering the process of writing and recording tracks. Looking back we were very amateur but it was great fun, those were the days.
COTD came about when me and Lee were making noise with Antiheroes. We met the London section of the crew in London whilst gigging and quickly became friends as we were all on a level and had similar hiphop tastes. We all started chilling and making music and naturally formed a crew.
Q3. what you think of the uk battle scine?
LEE SCOTT - It's getting better, growing all the time. I wasn't really down with the whole live written battle thing at first but I can't really be bothered to disagree with it no more, I mean who really cares? At the end of the day it's just another platform, and all these little shitty only just started out never recorded a track types can just be filtered out and shit upon anyway so fuck it.
SALAR - The UK battle scene is at a point now where it deserves respect. I used to hate on it on some purist shit because of the written format, but its all good. Written battles deserve to be classed as their own separate art, like freestyle is an art in its own right.
At first I didn’t like our scene because frankly, it was filled with homo’s.
They were either amateur as fuck, had only just started pretending to be an emcee for 2 weeks, or embarrassing in appearance, voice and general behaviour, or a combination of everything I just said.
But now its sorted itself out a bit and the standard of emcees has risen sharply, more and more good emcees are stepping up to the plate and getting involved, the interest and hype in the scene is growing, you have Americans coming over to rep. I like it and think it has a lot of room for growth still. So much potential that hasn’t been realised yet but will be I’m sure of it. Look out for my Don’t Flop battle vs. Tenchoo 21st Feb, Manchester and Lee Scott vs. Lego at the same event but the day before.
Q4. what do you think uk hip hop is missing if anything?
LEE SCOT - Fans.
Q5. whats instore for COTD??
LEE SCOTT - COTD as a group do not have any scheduled releases or even any plans to make anything. Inidividual members are working on various off spring projects. Monster Under The Bed and myself have just completed recording for the Mcabre Brothers LP we are calling Gonzo Lyricism. I am looking forward to the release of this album, I believe it is by far the best thing we have made to date, definitely the most focused project. It features the legendary Craig G of the Juice Crew, Ramson Bad Bonez and Children of The Damned with production from the likes of myself, Reklews, Sly Moon & Hekla Kosh. We also just finished up another Hock Tu Down featuring Monster Under The Bed project entitled Something Strange with some dope appearances from Squid Ninjaz members and COTD heads of course. Look out for J-Rel.
SALAR - I have practically finished a solo EP, my first solo outing and this one will probably be available as a free download. Bill is working on a couple of EP’s in collaboration with a couple of outside artists, and Bill, Grubb and Sly are finishing up their joint JSA album. Reklews has just finished his joint album with Dark Star, our fam in the US who is sick with it. COTD feature on that heavily no doubt. T.L is finalising his solo album. The only concrete releases practically ready to drop are the new Mcabre Brothers and Hock Tu projects but there is a lot going on. 2010 should be a very productive year for Blah. Also, there is a big, big album on the horizon, deep in progress and it will force people to take notice with some exciting features but that’s for another time! Big the fuck up Mr. Molotov! Shouts to Mensah, blue cheese, Fray Bentos pies and Howlin’ Wolf!! PEACE.
DOWNLOAD A FREE ALBUM FROM LEE SCOTT & MONSTER UNDER THE BED (Mcabre Brothers)
CLICK HERE
www.blahrecords.com/mp3downloads/Lee_Scott_&_Monster_Under_The_Bed-Mcabre_Brothers_(2009).rar
the Password is: gonzo
Just Drink - Children Of The Damned Ft. Brad Strut (MUSIC VIDEO)
Go and Buy Hock Tu Down - Prozium Peddlin
Hock Tu Down - Prozium Peddlin is the new 16 track album from Lee Scott, entirely produced by Reklews. Featuring cameo appearances from Monster Under The Bed, Bill Shakes and Tame One. Available through ITUNES, AMAZON, CDBABY etc January 2010
www.blahrecords.com
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