Style 43

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:

Hunger Pains seems to have been getting some really good reviews since its release back in October; how are you finding the reaction in general, a lot of positivity coming through?

Yeah, the reviews have been mostly positive. Obviously I can’t please everyone and there have been some comments I haven’t agreed with, or some ratings that were questionable, but at the end of the day it was my first release so people are still getting used to me.

For people trying to come up at the moment, what do you think is the biggest challenge they face in the industry right now?

Mmm I can only speak from experience and that is a lot of doors shutting on you, people not warming up to you as quick as you’d like. A lot of other artists have had an easy way in the door; I haven’t been as fortunate. I’m sure plenty more artists will go through what I have. That might be their biggest challenge.

Who and what do you think have had the most influence over your career so far?

My career? A number of things, my past for inspiration and drive to succeed in the music game. Beat Butcha, Chemo and The Last Skeptik for some great musical direction and Charlee over at Vision for really getting my name out there and doing a great job as my PR.

There are a couple of guest spots on your album, from Ramson Badbonez, Brad Strut etc… is there anyone else you’d really like to collaborate with in the future?

Sure, there are a lot of heads I’d like to collab with. Some of those I already have (check Mystro’s and TY’s new releases coming this year). As far as names go, I’d say Klashnekoff, all of the OGz (P Money, Littles and Blacks) I’d like to do a track with Mike Skinner too; that would be cool to see how that came out. Black the Ripper also.

I know you’ve got a lot of respect for the grime scene; is there anything that you reckon the hip hop world could learn from them?

Yeah no doubt. There’s sooo much the “uk hip hop” scene could learn, before they end up extinct, and one of those is releasing consistently good music. Not disappearing for more than half a decade and coming back expecting to have a scene to come back to, lol. Hard work brings rewards. There are too many slackers and people assuming because they have talent they should automatically be signed to a label and funded. Nothing could come of that attitude.

What do you think 2010 has in store for UK hip hop?

It should be a very good year if things go well out of that scene, Klash (who kinda blurs the lines between UKHH and UK rap) will drop his new album, Jehst is droppin an LP, I heard Kyza is droppin an album and bouncing (a big shame cause he’s sick). Taskforce are droppin an album, Ramson Badbonez is sitting on a ridiculous amount of material; TY, Mystro, soo many more are coming back this year. Then there are all the up-and-comers like myself dropping plenty, so it should be the best year since Sagas and Council Estate of Mind dropped… 2004 right?

What are we going to see next from you?

I got a single dropping produced by Beat Butcha, late March. Look out for the Big Boi remix coming too!

Sweet

Tags: hip hop, Skandal