CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW)

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

JAM BAXTER (CONTACT PLAY) EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!!!!!!

MY MAN BAXTER GIVE US A LITTLE INSITE TO HIS CRAZY MIND!

Q1. why is your crew called contact play?and why are you called jambaxter??

Contact play is a mode on micro machines on the NES where if you're playing eight player and four mans flop it it goes into contact play mode where you can knock each other off the track. The name was about long before i joined the crew and none of the original members who founded it are in it today! As for Jam Baxter its just something that kept coming out of my mouth when i as cyphering with mr.key and then i put it in a verse and gradually it became my name. I dont rate MCs who just call themselves a dumb adjective I reckon its all about coming up with a jokes name you wish your parents had called you when you were born.

Q2. do you think complicated rhyme patterns are better than simple flow's?

I dont think one's better than the other, its all about the content and the flow, i rate MCs that i relate to and rate MCs that sound like they believe in what theyre saying. I never force a multi syllable rhyme pattern just cos it fits and it'll sound deep over a beat cos then you just end up losing the point you were actually trying to make just to make the rhymes fit. If I hear a verse that sounds like its coming straight from the heart and and I connect wth it it doesnt matter whether theyve strung a twenty syllable rhyme together to get it across or whether its just one syllable at the end of the bar. If it sounds sick it sounds sick.

Q3. where do you think hip-hop is going?

Everywhere! People that say hip hop is a dying genre are missing the point. Its a format for self expression and people are always gonna have shit they wanna get off their chest cos the world is a fucked up place. There are so many different styles of hip hop developing and spiralling off in next directions and I dont think it'll ever die as an artform

Q4. contact play are notoriously known for getting mash up? is there any advice you would give to waste-men around the country?

I wont lie, we do like to go on the odd quackhandle, a couple of years ago I was an absolute wrongun. Fuck that, a couple of months ago I was an absolute wrongun, I'd get mashup for no reason cos a lot of shit was going on around me that I felt I couldnt handle unless I was smooshed off my face, but I've had a few epiphanies lately, and i'm cleaning myself up, you'll be hearing alot about that on my forthcoming solo project. My advice to wastemen accross the globe is listen to 'moderation' by the 3 amigos!!!!!

Q5. what's in store for contact play?

All of the five of us are working on solo projects, my album is nearing completion, Dikes second album is pretty much done and its SICK, Scissortongue has all his shit written he just needs a few days in a booth, and Key has just started his album. We're gonna do an SMB mixtape in the meantime and then once all our solo shit's dropped we'll all come together for the second CP album. We're also buying a van with the proceeds from our album and we're looking to drive round europe busking and playing shows all summer, I heard you're looking to come meet us out there leaf! So yeah, we got a lot of stuff in the pipeline, looking to keep the work rate high

Q6. finaly wats your adivce to up and coming mc's!

Dont try and emulate anyone else. Do you, dont lie in your bars, unless of course its one of those verses about ripping planets to pieces with your bare hands and floating on a giant iron turtle in outerspace. But dont pretend to be something you arent.

Biggup Leafdog, we need to finish this RLD album son!


GO AND BUY HIS ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONTACT PLAY - CHAMPION FRAFF LP

Click on The link to Buy

http://www.wordplaymagazine.com/cp.html

THE LINK TO HIS MYSPACE IS ON THE RIGHT! RLD WE COMING!!!

DR SYNTAX (EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW)

REAL LIFE DRAMA BRING'S YOU A EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW FROM THE DOCTER HIM SELF!?
THE HAROLD SHIPMAN OF HIPHOP!? DR SYNTAX!!!!!


Q1. how long have you been rapping for?

SYNTAX-

since 1994
so, um, 16 years


Q2. is there any old syntax demo tape's that might see the light of day? and how has uk hip hop changed scince then?

SYNTAX-

there are definitely some old bits and bobs floating around i might leak eventually. an old friend of mine has got an demo of me rapping in an american accent before my voice broke. i should probably keep that one to myself! uk hip hop has changed immensely since i was a kid. the pioneering acts like gunshot, london posse etc. were mainly inner city people with that very distinct ive 'britcore' style and they paved the way for what we do now. nowadays you cant find a village in the deepest sticks without someone claiming to be a rapper, for better or for worse. i think it's become impossible to define 'uk hip hop' anymore as there are so many different kinds of people making hugely different styles of music.


Q3. do you think dubstep has had a good effect on uk hiphop?

SYNTAX-

definitely. i think in the last couple of years the level of production skills has increased massively, and dubstep is a huge part of that. there are more and more kids who've gone to college to study how to actually produce music, rather than just make beats, and software has got more accessible and advanced. the great thing about dubstep is its appeal - hip hop kids like it, hardcore punk kids like it, techno kids like it - it brings all the little subcultures together and inadvertently introduces them to one another. for example, ive met people who've gone to a plastician gig where me and stig were supporting, they've never heard of us and come and given us props after our show. i think it strikes a good balance as well - i prefer nights that have maybe one or two hip hop acts playing, maybe a dj playing breaks and then ending in a dubstep set. i dont really want to go and see 5 rap groups so a bit of dubstep adds a bit of diversity.


Q4. whats your take on people saying hip hop is dead??!!

SYNTAX-

well, on one hand, hip hop isnt the new, exciting, dangerous thing it was once was. you don't have people trying to ban souljah boy or lil wayne records, even though they can be as gratuitous as an old 2 live crew record. its a massively exploited corporate tool now. but on the other hand, if you ignore all that bullshit, it is alive and well, you just have to scratch the surface. hip hop can't be dead because you and i are talking right now, and there are countless people worldwide who are involved in hip hop and are passionate about it.


Q5.whats instore for dr syntax?

SYNTAX-

ive got a new ep coming out very soon, the 'benny huge' ep, followed by an album 'off the radar vol. 2'. i'm touring very soon with Stig of the Dump and DJ Manipulate to promote those, as well as Stig's new album 'Moodswings'. Stig's album is incredible in my opinion, and i feel like my new stuff is the best i've ever done.


Q6. who will be featuring on these projects??

SYNTAX-

Ive been working with some sick producers on 'off the radar vol 2' - ive got the evil sun on there, pete cannon who people might know from the 'louis' den' beat cyphers, an enigmatic newcomer called lord balrog that people need to watch out for, ghostown, steve clear... rap wise, i've got some dudes called 3 amigos on a track, i've got stig of the dump on a couple, enlish and scizzahz, who are funny as fuck and well known from the 'don't flop' emcee battle circuit...i've kept it all in house, but that's cool because the people i know are dope - i'd rather help a newcomer who's dope and hungry to get some exposure than pay mc once-met-someone-in-wutang 500 quid to knock something out on in ten minutes. stig's got rugged man on his album, but they got in the studio and properly connected. i didnt do a track with him but i did go fencing with him and got my arse handed to me. real talk.


Q7. last thing, whats the docter's Proscriptionfor the new year??

SYNTAX-

Fun in moderation. Hangovers are taking a couple of days to clear now. getting old sucks. actually fuck that, maybe its time to up the ante and go out in a blaze of glory. and copious meat products. also i forgot to mention one other thing - look out for the mixtape by myself, stig and dabblah from london zoo called 'live from the breadline', which will come out once we get our shit together. check out stigandsyntax.com for new releases and info, and for daily trash talk from stig and the odd money-saving tip from me to get you through these frugal times. Team Hate Beeeeyyaaatch!

GO AND PEEP MY MAN'S SHIT!!

www.myspace.com/drsyntax
www.stigandsyntax.com
www.facebook.com/stigandsyntax


PLUS!! PEOPLE LOOK AT THIS CRAZY VIDEO! FEATURING SYNTAX, STIG, FOREIGN BEGGAZ, SCRATCH PERVERTS, SHLOMO
SOME JOKES SHIT!!

SUGA BEAR of (CONSTRUCTIVE RUKUS) EXCLUSIZE INTERVIEW!!

Q1
what's next for the suger bear??
02:59Suga
Well I gotta get my new cd out there. I need to get more copies made so that I can ship them out
It's a slamin album just dont anyone know it's out there.


Q2. Whats happenin with constructive rukus these days?
03:04Suga
Well I am working on putting out that Album with the classics on it and some aftermath tour footy. We have been talking about making some new stuff but some of us are locked up.
And the rest are just trying to make it in the world today
It's crazy how many kids still love Constructive Rukus

Q3.Did skate vids push your career? Any classic tales from the Osiris Tour?
03:09Suga
All off them guys are my friends still to this day. We hang out and party and bullshit just like on the tour!!


Q4. What's YOUR take on the state of hiphop today?
03:12Suga
It's around, it's to much lack luster making it. It seams like if you dumb it down then you blow up. But if you push the art form then you fall off.
It's crazy cuz it seems like Em is the only one who can get ill with the word play and still sale millions.

Q5. And Finally... Who's the artist to look out for in 2010?
03:17Suga
ME and Leafy!!! Dont think I aint about to bang the shit out of that beat you sent me!!! Yeah im really working to keep hip hop 100% and it seem like they only like it 100% over seas. I really want to see more concious stuff going on in hip hop as a whole. And I will fire the first shoot! Blow!!!

Here's a Classic Track!!




Constructive R.U.K.U.s is a collective of friends striving to make good music. C.R. is the brain child of Good aka (Sugar Bear) and Willie Wasted aka ( Jamarkas) , friends since elementry school. After high school we got the idea together , to form a crew true to all the forms of hip hop. Dancing , Raping , Graphing, DJing and Getting Faded (Partying). Which is why you are probley barely finding out about us. Constructive originated in El Paso Texas. Where we started the crew up with a crazy ass music major,(Haj ) aka Hans who went to UTEP. Needles to say we blew up the spot at all the local venues. One of are high points was opening up for Das Efx and Onyx. After relocating to San Diego , California things took off. We added two new members Blue aka (Lou) and AL New aka ( Madd Nappy Vandel). With Al New joining on we got different beats and it just made are sound more divers. We honed are skills and made are stage show hype and party friendley. Are show is high energy and yet so grimmy. We have peformed at most of the major venues in San Diego , like 4th and B , Dream Street , Canes , The Belley up Tavern , The Blue Agave just to name a few. We are veterans of SXSW in Austin TX and of NXNW in Portland OR. We are also seasoned vets of a major US tour. The Aftermath tour by Osiris shoes. We have been underground favorites for a long time I guess we could be called the under dogs. We have had a lot of music on diffrent skate board videos ( Osiris ,The Storm ,Shorty's, Fulfill the Dream, Globe, World Cup of skateing and many others) and a few diffrent mixed cd's. And as far as the future goes we have been doing diffrent solo projects and some R&B projects with Brea Joesph and Anna Chaves new up and coming artist down with the R.U.K.U.S team. So the future is looking very bright right now. So now would be a the time to check out the Constructive Rukus experience. And keep your eyes open for some new projects.