Blades Interview and Britcore Rawmance 7 Deadly Sins 7inch Review
We love UK hip hop here at Underground HH HQ. You could say we're obsessed with it. But greedy consumers of all things hip hop as we are, we're no strangers to great underground music from further afield. As part of Britcore Rawmance's 7 Deadly Sins series we're covering, we're happy that UK hip hop graphic designer (for the 7 Deadly Sins series and much more) Mr. Tibbz had guests from the other side of the globe. All the way from Australia 'Blades' locked in for a chat.
Blades along with The Mantis Chapter have just upped Britcore Rawmance's 7 Deadly Sins series. Previous contributions to the series came from Planet Of The Fakes, Juice MCs and Lyrical Prophets. A collection of seven 7 inch vinyl releases from one of Underground HH's favorite independent record labels. The two tracks on the Blades 7 inch are 'Australian' and 'We Run This Shit' feat UK pioneers Monkey:Sons. Both come with a fast and furious feel and are filled with powerful furiously paced lyricism that makes the whole thing hit harder than Mark "Chopper" Read after a really really bad day. As with all Britcore Rawmance releases and in true independent label style, to buy you need to contact the website or the artist directly. Limited edition releases fly out fast so get your hands on a copy before they sell out.
The background... Kid Lyrical and Wiz, two names many wouldn't know separately, but say the name 'Blades' and you're certain to get peoples attention. They have been tearing stages apart since the early 90's and treating crowds to energetic and passionate shows. Starting out in rock rap circles they took the meandering path into hip-hop and built their legacy. Kid Lyrical being the older of the two brothers they have an understanding lyrically and mentally that works on different levels. Originally from Brazil but now residing in Australia, they have a name there as one of the best in the scene. The first Australian Independent act to perform at Glastonbury, the crew are proud of their touring history. Putting out tunes that many consider to coincide with the niche style of 'britcore', their prowess and musical offerings feel set to stand the test of time.
The Interview
The origins of blades were the same as many youngsters, bedroom cyphers and rap, who was the first one of you to write a rap down?
Summer of 88 we were around 10 years old, and our parents sent us off to a summer camp during the holidays where most of the kids were from Sydney . This one kid that we met had a 2 Live Crew tape, and all we did was listen to it over and over again. At the end of the camp we had to do a performance, and we wrote this sex rap where we replaced all the body parts with names of food. Our crew was called '2 Fried Food' and we got up on stage and did the whole rap. So I guess it was both at the same time. I remember it being a massive hit.
As artists your roots were in heavy metal / hip hop fused music, how did the progression to hip hop come about, and do you ever see yourself doing another heavy metal type track?
We were both always into metal. It started with Metallica, they represented the maximum point of going hard at the time, Master of Puppets, Ride The Lightning, Justice For All. Then after that our influences expanded outward into Pantera, Sepultura, the list goes on. But we were rapping pure hip hop for years before we started to mix them together. The first hiphop metal cross over we did that I can remember was in 1997, we recorded a track that had us rapping with Itch on guitar in drop D playing death riffs and John Hardy on the drums. Then around 2000 we formed a band called Head Poplin Fattness with us rapping, JC on guitar, Highlanda on drums and G on the bass. HPF was hip hop, funk, punk, metal, groovemoose drunnken bboy music all smashed into one. We had this one track (Volatile) that was proper throat wrenching belly roars with crazy scream raps, really pushing the limit of what you could do as an MC in a rock band format. We also have remixed metal tracks into hip hop beats and layed rhymes down on that, which is kind of coming from the opposite direction. Blades have a dope Metallica remix (Creepin’ Def) that we still rock in our sets from time to time, and Cannibalistic Act still gets an occasional run… I think we took the energy that we found in metal and projected it into our hip hop, and then fused them later. We also used to jam all of the time with Wiz on guitar and me on the drum, or just with different musicians, that live aspect was a big factor in the progression of the hip hop/metal fusion, sitting around rockin out making noise. I’m pretty sure Wiz has a half finished metal album from over 10 years ago sitting in the Zoom Box somewhere. Yeah we would definitely fuck with another metal track again no doubt.
Who where your favourites and inspirations growing up, hip-hop wise?
Ice-T, Naughty By Nature, Run DMC, Def Wish Cast, 2 Live Crew, NWA, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, The Fat Boys, Tone Loc, Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, Derek B, Eric B & Rakim, Young Black Teenagers, Sound Unlimited Posse, Herbie Hancock.
Originally Kid, Your name was Lolly Dee.. when did you change it to Kid Lyrical and what was the inspiration behind both names?
Lolly D is short for Lolly Dog which means “no worries” in hebrew. I picked it up when I was living there, I don’t know how it actually happened but it suited me at the time. I was this skinny kid with knotty dreads that rode a bodyboard and made music. Lolly D was mostly known as one of the rappers in HPF, and Kid Lyrical was more a Blades thing, so when HPF broke up I stopped using Lolly D. It actually came out from one of my raps which starts “coming lyrical kid it be real you see the skill…”, and it was like “Lyrical Kid, that would be a sick name” and then it got switched to Kid Lyrical. It’s a rap superhero name.
2003 the now legendary and hard to find self titled Blades of Hades release appeared.. how was that experience.. putting your stuff out in the public..and how was it originally percieved?
Blades Of Hades the album is probably the most important album for us as it was our debut album, it defined our sound and represented what we were trying to do. It was released at the point we were in rapid acceleration phase as a crew. everyone individually was pushing their element and progressing. We had been rapping for years as Blades Of Hades and still didn’t have a release. Kid & Wiz fresh from years of freestyling and breaking at live shows, Skoob was going next level as a DJ, Scotty B was making these really dark banging beats and it all just came together. Tim was in a band with Jane, he was doing a sound engineering course and offered to record us for free, then Jane started singing with us on stage we got her in on tracks, it just kept rolling. We were doing heaps of gigs, and had a lot of people believing in us, backing us and waiting for a release. When it came out I think it was perceived well. People wanted it, we were playing shows everywhere, tracks were getting play on radio, featuring on skate vids and film clips, they actually had the sound that they had seen at the shows. And this was before people were promoting and releasing music digitally, and thats how you had to create hype and get it out to the public.
It took a few years for the leak come together, where these 2 tracks come from... did the tracks go through many variations..and was that always the idea to do that or did you just compile old tracks together for it?
When we got back from the tour, we all moved into this house in Newcastle and started making tracks. We set up pretty much every piece of equipment that we had up in the living room and started making noise. It was off its head, there was heaps of jamming and variations with ideas all the time. We had been exposed to mad new styles from sick crews, and we just wanted to capture that and keep on going. Both of those tracks came from that era. After playing in Germany with Monkey Sons we were keen to get them on a track for the next album it just went from there.
Talking of monkey sons , you met them at mass hysteria in 2008 after you performed at Glastonbury (at which you were the first independent Aussie hip-hop crew to perform) What was it like? You must have had a blast?
Check this link you will get the idea.
Blades invade the Glastonbury Festival
Your opinions on current state of Australian Hip Hop.. and what can be done to better it even more?
Australian Hip Hop right now is bigger than ever before, in both a commercial and underground sense. Every element is represented with many artists rocking different styles on all levels, so it totally depends on who you are and what you’re into. Its very diverse. I think what would make it better is to connect all the elements back into the source of hip hop, like a hub to unite all the movements. We want spaces that you can go to where theres all elements going on at once, and venues that support live hip hop, so the movement can have strength and unity!
Both of you do a lot of work for your crew, Madhouse along side your friend Micks King, putting on events and doing videos amongst things .. who else from that can people check to get into more Australian Hip Hop and what you are doing right now?
Check the Madhouse Cypher releases and tune in to The Sound Cartel on Northside Radio every Friday night for the freshest tracks from top MCs from Newcastle, Sydney, Australia and beyond.
As of writing we know you have collabed with a few UK crews you and are getting your self out there more to new markets, Iceski & Merlin, Planet of The Fakes to name a couple, how has that been for you as a crew?
It's awesome to work with all the amazing talent coming out of UK, the Britcore scene is alive and we are stoked to be a part of it!
Who now from the underground scene are you feeling and would like to collab or work with?
Aalikazaam, Gambit, Exile, Bandog, Def Wish.
Who are you feeling hip hop wise nowadays?
Today was Kendrick and Run The Jewels.
Is it kid or wiz who usually gets a verse written and recorded first?
Depends on the day! And who has the studio! haha
You worked for a company label in Difrnt Music/ Universal doing where the fire's at single, and warner putting future out on digital download.. how was that in comparison to controlling your own music and keeping it underground?
Working with majors compared to releasing independently was a completely different approach to releasing music During the time we were signed we had financial backing to work with top producers in the best studios in Australia, had large festival spots, toured with major international artists such as Ice Cube, Pharaoh Monche, and M.O.P, had specialised merchandise releases, film clips, and play on national TV and radio stations. But we only had 2 single releases over that whole time, and we made probably 50 tracks behind the scene. The Leak was ready to come out before we got signed in 2009 and then didn’t come out until 2013, that why we called it the leak because we were going to leak our own album. So as creative artists it was very slow and frustrating to not have that control. When you’re independent you can record and release whatever you want whenever you want. . Having control to release independently is definitely where its at.
So finally, where can the people find out more about you as a crew and purchase some of your music?
Best to go to our
Blades bandcamp page, you can hear us there. Thanks to Mr. Tibbz and to Underground HH.
With new releases lined up be sure to watch out for more from Blades.
Mr. Tibbz
