You may remember last year I put up a little article on Bristol’s ever-expanding graffiti scene, and one of the artists mentioned was Vermin. Now I am a big fan of Bristol’s art scene in general, but there is something about Vermin’s work that has always struck a particular chord with me, so when the chance for an interview materialised, well, it would be rude not to, I thought. Here is what went down:
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A few weeks ago I was preparing some questions to email to BK-One for a little interview. But a few days later we found out that he was coming to the UK with Brother Ali and so we asked if we could interview them in the flesh. The answer was a resounding ’yes’ and so following on from our interview with Brother Ali yesterday, we now have the BK-One interview for you to get stuck in to. Aren’t we good?
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Brother Ali and BK-One hit London last week, for a sold-out show at Cargo. As usual they tore it up and got as good a reception as they always do when they pay us a visit.
Before the show we managed to have a little natter with Ali which I have painstakingly transcribed for you below. Be on the lookout for the BK-One interview coming soon!
S43: So how’s the tour been going so far?
Ali: Yeah its been great, I’ve been having a lot of fun. I’m enjoying it a lot.
S43: Do you notice much difference between the types of crowds you get at your shows, as you move from country to country?
Ali: Yeah. Germany and Scandinavia know our music pretty well and I feel like we’re just getting started there, y’know what I mean, but they’re very responsive. France, except for Paris cos they know our music and it’s great, but outside of Paris it seemed like a lot of people were there cos they heard there was music, and they didn’t know my music, they don’t speak English very well and I don’t speak French very well, so it was really interesting. The UK is really rowdy, excited and you have a lot of energy. I like it a lot.
It’s interview season here at Style43 and the next luminary on our list is Nottingham hip hop legend, Cappo. Read on to hear the latest news and views from everyone’s favourite Midlander and keep your eyes peeled for more rap & chat coming to the site soon…
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Skandal is a name that you will no doubt be seeing more and more of, as this year flys by. His album, “Hunger Pains“, was released towards the end of last year and it has been receiving plaudits and praise from press and peers alike.
We were recently offered the chance to fire off a couple of questions to the man of the moment, which we did, and here is what he had to say:
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INCLUDING the “LL COOL J MIX’ pt1 and 2, and the “MJ EXTENDED TRIBUTE MIX” !!
This week saw the release of the video for ‘Never Better’, the single taken from the album of the same name, released earlier this year. The third album from the Rhymesayers signed, Minnesotan hip hop marvel P.O.S, proved a huge success on the underground hip hop scene across the globe.With an album that represents his best work to date, leading to tours across the US - including the Warped Tour - supporting bands like Bouncing Souls, and relentlessly releasing some of the best hip hop I’ve heard in the past couple of years, alongside some of my other favourite rappers in the collaborative collective Doomtree.
With such success since the release of ‘Never Better’ and the Doomtree, ‘False Hopes’, album, it seemed high time P.O.S took some time to come out to the UK; bringing his good friend and fellow Doomtree member Paper Tiger along with him. Well here at Style43 we’re always ready and willing to hang out with our favourite rappers. This is what went down..
This awesome piece that has recently appeared on Stokes Croft in Bristol - from Vermin, Kid Zoo & Remo - highlights one of the things I am going to miss most about my hometown. Virtually all areas of the UK have been blessed by the can in some way these days and some outsiders could be forgiven for thinking that the graff scene was being commercialised, what with the current media penchant for all things Banksy. Luckily that is about as far from the truth as OJ’s alibis and anyone who lives in Bristol can testify to that.
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I think it must be like a two years now. But I was in need of some new shoes at the time and I remember getting some Lotek Deltas off of H-Man through Streetphire. I was pretty stoked on those shoes, so much so that I wanted a pair of Nightwolfs some months later and proceeded to go to H-Man again who informed he no longer had any Loteks to sell. He forwarded me to Mike, who runs 20Twenty and sure enough I got me some Nightwolfs. That was quite a while ago and Mike has helped me out with some other stuff recently as well. So it only seems right that I put up a Quick Q’s with him so anyone that doesn’t know of 20Twenty can find out about them and hopefully it might spur you to think next time you order something to maybe give Mike a call instead.
The Notorious IBE 2009… GOD-DAMN-IT!
The Dutch IBE (International Breakdance Event) was first held in 1998 and over the past eleven years it has grown into one of the biggest events period. Spread over eight venues in the southern city of Heerlen thousands of worldwide connected bboys and fiiiine bgirls came together. Style 43 payed a visit to the legendary IBE which promissed to be the biggest ever, including the yearly All Battles All friendly continental dance wars and the already history-books-worthy Salah vs Bionic Man.
You might have noticed in the most recent issue of Ride that there was a complete bike review on a new complete bike that 24Seven is offering to the market. You may have also noticed the line “24Seven are making a very serious entry into the BMX world” [Ride issue 131 page 48]
Holland hasn’t got too many English lyricists any more since the Nederhop scene started rapidly growing. A buble has formed, a language barrier has been built. However, there is a small group of writers that do want to spread their words internationally. In 2004, SuperCharger Records was founded, and I went to one of the guys to see what’s happening nowadays. Bring your leish, and focus on my man: Ciph Barker.
The Dutch sweet water ponds hold a lot more sharks than most fish hope for. Read more…
Style43 got the chance to send Guru (Jazzmatazz, Gang Starr) ten questions, and so we did. Read the interview by clicking on read more…
‘Epic’, that’s what I call it, ‘Epic’.
BLOC 2009 is over. Travelling seven hours forth and eight hours back was well worth every second of what seemed a never ending journey at some points. If there were people praying to God for a good festival, I thank them along side the organisation of this massive underground electronic music festival, held in the beautiful countryside of Minehead. What a nice place to live that is, green hills, the sea, strong breezes, little lambs, pretty houses, lovely people, and BLOC!
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Regular visitors to the site will already know that here at Style43 we carry a torch for the Triple Darkness collective and M9ine in particular, thanks to his immense 2008 offering, “144,000″. So when the opportunity for an interview cropped up, we didn’t even have to think about what our answer would be. Here’s what went down:
EODub (End Of the Weak) was founded in 2000 as one of the few weekly platforms in NYC where hungry MCs could showcase and hone their talent. What started as a small Open Mic in the back of a restaurant has grown into the longest-running weekly hip-hop show in NYC and an International Hip-Hop movement. EODub now has chapters all over the world including: France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Spain and the UK.
Amy Hume reports back from the first ever MC Challenge in Africa…
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“Children Of The Can: 25 Years of Bristol Graffiti” documents the Bristol graffiti story from the early days of 3D’s New York-inspired work and John Nation’s grass roots influence at the Barton Hill Youth Club in Bristol, to the current crop of artists who have helped to make Bristol’s graffiti scene one of the UK’s most influential and diverse.
“Children Of The Can” features the work of all the city’s best-known and (until now) slept-on talent, including:
2Keen, 3D, Awkward, Banksy, Cheo, China Mike, Filthy Luker, Haka, Inkie, Jeff Row, Jody, Just Another Crew, Kato, KTF, Lokey, Mr.Jago, Mudwig, Nick Walker, Rowdy, Shimz, Sickboy, Soker, Souls On Fire, TNP, TUB, Turoe, Twentieth Century Frescoes, What Collective, Will Barras, The Z-Boys and many more…
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British Photographer Gavin Watson has taken an array of diverse images in his career which has spanned over 30 years. Particularly well-known for the book ‘Skins’ released a few years ago now, these images, amongst many others have become strikingly significant and historically valuable. More recently working for magazines such as ArtRocker & Vice, and photographing bands such as Gallows, we of course jumped at the chance for a brief Q&A with the man himself..
So I’m online the the the other day and decide to change up my email address and convert to a new one which meant re-adding all my messenger contacts. This got me speaking to one of my contacts Pete who I hadn’t spoke to ages. After some talk I found Pete is now working on a new clothing project, Dynamic Style.
Deciding to get some info on this project I thought I may aswell do a little bit of Q&A and introduce you to Dynamic Style.
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Up until a few years ago, the only things I knew about Minneapolis were that Tom Waits had written a tune called “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis” and it was the place where Prince was born. But other than that, the Midwest played a very small part in my life. Then Atmosphere exploded on to the hip hop scene, with Rhymesayers and Doomtree following close behind, and it wasn’t long before everything in my stereo was a product of the Twin Cities.
