Me, Blue May, Jody Miller we made this album from scratch.
It wasn't like producers sending beats in and whatnot and I just knew that I wanted
the music to tell the story of like my life and my influences.
So with this track in particular, you get the hip hop in there, but you got the dance
hall from that baseline is coming in, the sped up vocal, which is quite garagey, you
know, UK garage.
It’s such a London tune.
That so that was kind of the inspiration musically.
Just like who we are.
I think I've done my part in the same studio as we created the tune in and then Kojo came
in as well.
And what's beautiful about this record, it wasn't like people just send it in vocals,
you know what I mean?
And that's how it goes sometimes.
Everyone's busy, you're in different places and whatever.
Even with the Popcaan thing, I went to Jamaica and recorded that with him there.
It's become a thing that don't really happen too much anymore.
But I think especially when the two artists are present at the same time in the studio.
In real life as much as like, you know, bad things that's happening, there's great things
happening, especially in the UK at the moment.
Young creative people like really, you know, making a name for their self and cutting through.
I look at, you know, Lethal B and Wiley and Bizzle and D Double E and all those people
that we started this thing with, flourishing now like 15 years later.
It's amazing man.
So sometimes we'll be patting each other on the back and just saying, "Yeah, big up man.
Like respect yourself.
We've got a long way to go.
But yeah, let's celebrate the fact that we're here."
People that don't know Bizzle, I know him as Lethal, Lethal B from More Fire Crew.
He's one of the originals, man.
Someone I probably heard through the pirate radio or whatever, someone I used to look
up to, became a peer of mine.
He's made songs like pow with all the MCs.
And I mean classic grime songs.
He's a part of the furniture.
Like he's a real important figure in our scene.
That's like pirate radio for us.
We used to call the grave shift during like the late night, you know, when hardly no one's
probably listening, but when you join a pirate radio station, that's how you got to start
out.
You know what I mean?
You're not just going to jump into the big slot like eight to 10 or six to eight or whatever.
Kenny is a guy from Canning Town, which is like East London, you know.
I don't want to say too much about Kenny.
But yeah, Network was his crew and they was like, you know what I mean, doing their thing.
They was in the streets.
Those were the guys buying all the big cars and whatnot.
And I was just a youngster just seeing that.
Basically those were the guys that would on stuff back then.
And balling out and what not.
And I guess a little bit of that rubs off on you.
That's why so now it's high end when I spend.
Now we have the opportunity to do that legally.
In terms of Canning Town East London, it was like a white area really.
You know, before black people came there, like my mum came over from Jamaica.
I guess that Jamaican culture has rubbed off on English people and you know, and vice versa.
Wearing pink Ralphs and that, that's not necessarily really a black thing.
And Versace blue jeans, I don't know if people know of Versace blue jeans, but they're not
jeans.
That's like, that's an aftershave.
Bashy is a mate of mine, he’s a good friend as well.
He's a good friend of mine and we got cars together basically.
We got the same car and the day we went to pick it up, they had them side by side laid
out.
We drove off the showroom floor together and the guy filmed it and sent it to us.
But we're both the kind of guys that are not going to post that kind of thing.
That's what I said, "We didn't even leak the shit."
You know what I mean?
The class of Deja is the self and the Bizzles and the Wileys and the D Double Es, Dizzy
Rascals.
That's to me like the class of Deja, which is Dejavu, the pirate radio station.
It's not about, you know, I was born here and this is, you know, the place I rap about
and I'm never going to leave here.
And you know, anyone that leaves is, you know what I mean as sell out or whatever.
You can grow, you know what I mean?
And you can move and you can move around the world and achieve great things.
I think it's not even about getting out, you know, it's not necessarily about a location,
it's about mentally.
I guess some people are just stuck in their ways or the way they think life is, you know
what I mean?
A lot of people have that kind of mentality, I'm never meant to be nothing and whatever.
And you know what I mean?
It's like, "Oh, but you're lucky."
You know what I mean?
"You do music and whatever.
And that's why you can, what can I do?
We're just out here man, we're just out here.
There ain't nothing going on for us."
And what not and that kind of mentality I would love for people to break out of.
Fly to Bilbao for lunch, you know, the ultimate stunt.
Everything's real, bro.
Everything's real.
My manager, Richard, who's sitting over there.
It was my birthday and he was like, yeah, we're going to go for dinner.
Bring your passport.
I was like, what you talking about bring your, it's like anyway.
I didn't know where I was going and went to the airport, flew to Bilbao, got
a taxi from the airport, drove to the restaurant, had the food, then drove back to the airport
and flew straight back and was back by the evening.
You know what I mean, he took me out for a nice meal for my birthday.
To an American audience.
Yeah, the manor is just like the neighborhood that you're from.
And no matter where I go around the world, because music has allowed me to travel and
go to great places and witness things that I never ever thought I would see.
You know, you still can't take the East Ham out of me.
First album's, Home, Sweet Home, second one, London Town.
You know what I mean?
This, I've always liked referencing my people and my area and East London and London and
when I'm in another country, I'm just more generally bigging up UK and you know what
I mean?
That kind of thing is very important to me.
And I think important for everyone.