Kyza, Dubbleedge, Fozzy and Metabeats @ The Globe

Perhaps the best thing about the slowly closing in night of autumn is that they get swiftly filled with top class music as everyone rushes to promote their fourth quarter releases. One such disc doing the rounds this year is Kyza's Shots of Smirnoff mixtape/album (no one really seems to know where to place this one in the HMV Hip Hop racks).

So the Globe's Hip Hop heavy inaugural year continues on October 17 with support for Mr Sayso coming from other top class cat Dubbledge and homegrown talent from the Associated Minds boys Beatbox Fozzy and Metabeats. The whole event kicks of with Chrome Kids for the 8:00pm drinkers.

Bonus material: Mystro on AMTV



Image from Kyza's Myspace

Sledgehammer kisses and good natured disses

“He’s a c***,” says Mudmowth as a mischievous grin creeps across his face, before breaking into a laugh. He’s referring to friend, producer and Associated Minds label-mate Metabeats. While some might be offended, Mudmowth’s jovial jibes will come as no surprise to Metabeats who earlier in the week predicted this is exactly how Mudmowth would describe him.

This banter is indicative of a pair of artists who are totally in tune with each other. They met in Cardiff at the long running club night Higher Learning, six years ago and started working together a few years later. Having teamed up on Metabeats’ Metaphysical album and Mudmowth’s up-and-coming debut album, they found their working styles mashed so well it warranted its own project. As a result they are presently working on Sledgehammer Kisses a six track collaborative EP, due to be released in early 2009.However it wasn’t until much later that the pair started working together through mutual friends.

Needless to say having worked on many projects together they had quite a bit to say about each other.

Meta on Mud

Definitely the more subdued of the pair Metabeats has a relaxed personable manner. It’s almost difficult to imagine him playing off of Mudmowth’s brash vibes but then opposites often attract.

This abrasiveness was actually one of the things that sparked Metabeats’s interest in Mudmowth when he saw him years ago. “He sounded more American,” he says of Mudmowth’s early performances, “a lot more abusive.”

Although it was the punch lines that caught Metabeats’s ear the first track they worked on, Concrete Buttercups, confirmed that Mudmowth had hidden depths. “That sort of stuff was where I first heard him being, not just a punch line rhymer but a story teller and opening his heart up more,” he says, “it’s a lot more personal sort of stuff, which is exciting for me because I’d not heard him do that.” Mudmowth is, it would appear, a lot more versatile emcee than people think and not a guy easily placed in any one box.

Certainly he’s no joker in the studio as Metabeats praises his professionalism and enthusiasm to get going with creating material, a process which doesn’t take him long, “I can give him a beat and he can get it recorded within a week,” says Metabeats, “sometimes you have to wait months to get material off people, whereas our processes work a lot quicker. I think the energy of stuff works a lot better that way as well because things are happening quickly and the thought is still there. You can leave stuff for a month or two, or half a year, some people leave stuff too long and they lose the concept of what they were aiming for in the first place.” This quick work means the EP should see the light of day before Mudmowth’s already completed album even hits stores.

Mud on Meta

“Taking the piss out of people behind their backs, it’s the Mudmowth thing,” says Mudmowth before reassuring the other members of Associated Minds present, “I love you all really.” It seems that having some level of bile spit at you from Mudmowth with a knowing smile is just a sign of acceptance.

When it comes to getting down to business Mudmouth may not always be serious but then this is music, not heart surgery. “It’s not even work,” says Mudmowth, “work’s the wrong word, it’s a joy to do. It’s fun, we bounce off each other.”

A crucial part of that bounce is encapsulated in Metabeat’s bassbins, for Mudmowth they hit all the right spots from day one, “There’s a lot of people that try to imitate what he’s doing” he says, “but no-one does it as good as him. From going to Higher Learning you’ve always got producers chucking you beat CDs and Metabeats’s stood above the rest of them.”

That’s not to say that Mudmowth hasn’t seen Metabeats’s style develop over the past few years. Mudmowth explains that he thinks it’s important that with so many producers using similar drum patterns that anyone aspiring to make Hip Hop beats needs to try and carve themselves a niche. That’s why there’s a touch of pride in his voice when he says, “He’s got that sound now I can hear a beat and know it’s a Metabeats beat.”

That’s probably why Mudmowth is so optimistic about the prospects of the EP when it’s released next year. “The two tunes I had recorded before I even though we were going to do the EP, I knew how good they were,” he says, “not wanting to sound like an ego maniac, I knew if we could expand on them we should have an EP that would blow and I know we have. We don’t fuck around.” He’s not joking this time.

Mudmowth's top 5 emceeing tips

The Early Escapades of Willo Wispa

It's been a long time coming but finally Willo Wispa is set to have new material in the shops, but first how about we take it back to the old stuff. Associated Minds have put together a retrospective of his early work as is only fitting for the unique emcee that he is.

First time I ever heard The Colony was on Evil Ed's excellent album The Enthusiast. The thing that always stuck me about them was that here was a crew without one weak link in the chain.

In fact if there was any weak link it was simply that Willo Wispa has been decidedly slow in getting a solo debut in the shops, while Sir Smurf Lil has made it to his second album with many plaudits along the way. Well he need not be addled to that list any more as his album I'm assured is being prepped for an early 2009 release.

To proceed it the guys at Associated Minds have begged borrowed and stolen a whole bunch of old stuff and it's available at Amazon and iTunes for your downloading pleasure right now.