Res | “Delph Efficacy” (2015) Facebook.com/Res.SpUK Twitter: @Res_Oner
#1 How did you get your start into all this? I first started making music when I was about 15 years old. One of my friends’ older brothers was part of a rap group called Se Fire and they were like Bristol’s hot thing at the time; they were killing it. He rapped as well, so I was like, “fuck! If you write bars then I’m gonna write bars.” Bad Habits kind of brought us all together; he’s our producer and he is the reason that we are Split Prophets now. Upfront and I were introduced to him through a mutual friend and he was like, “this guy makes beats and you guys rap so you should meet up.” We were like, “alright, cool.” So we met him and he played us all these beats and we were like, “what the fuck!?” He was already working with people in the scene; he’s got a mic and the beats so we were like, “okay let’s go.” It really became serious when we were like 18 years old and we just kind of took off from there.
#2 Your work with Split Prophets is well-produced with great energy and professionalism. How did you hone that sense of quality & professionalism? I think it has kind of come organically, with just practice. Because we kind of got thrown into the deep end with Split Prophets. So it was like I didn’t have any sort of training, I didn’t know about the music business, I didn’t know about contracts or shows or a lot of these things. We kind of just got thrown in there so I had to learn a lot of it myself. The professionalism has just carried on through me over from the Split Prophets side. I had control over this album, so it was completely my thoughts and process of how I did it. There wasn’t too much influence from Split Prophets other than Bad Habits Production and he has a big part of making things run smooth. I had producers from all over on this one.
#3 There is a serious collaboration of MCs, DJs and Producers on “Delph Efficacy.” how did it happen? It’s taken about a year and a half to make, roughly. I’ve kind of been working on it since “Drugs, Booze and Dental Issues,” (2013) after that I was like, alright it was the next Split Prophets album and then “Delph Efficacy” so I could get a piece of myself out there. So it took quite a while to make, but having people like Evil Ed on there is like a crazy honor to me because he has produced so many classics in the scene — it’s just unreal, really it’s just unreal! The fact that he kind of co-signed it and he was like, “I am down to work with you” is really amazing for me. It’s just a great mix of people on “Delph Efficacy.”
#4 How’s the hip hop scene in England? The past year in Bristol has been crazy man! We’ve had Joey Badass, KRS-One, Method Man & Redman, Mos Def, Black Milk, Keith Murray, I could go on and on. Honestly there was a period of time where almost every weekend where we were like, “are we going to see Action Bronson tonight or KRS?” Obviously there is a lot of good local talent as well. There is quite often something happening in Bristol, the scene is strong, I would say that the U.K. is doing alright.
#5 Do you have good access to pot there? Really good! I was born lucky man, everyone says it, even Skinny Man has been quoted as saying that Bristol has the best bud in England. We always have had the best buds! Bud down here has a good reputation. In London, the prices have gone crazy, like 1.4 grams for 20 quid ($31) — crazy, crazy prices — and here in Bristol we still have good prices. There is a big growing community down here with indoor grow tents and a lot of guerilla grows outside of the city in fields. There is definitely a good strong growing scene and good vibe.
#6 When is england going to go legal?
pretty lenient with [marijuana] especially in Bristol, which is kind of like a Bohemian laidback city, especially with weed. There aren’t too many cities in England where you can walk down the street and through parks smoking, but I’ve also had police come up to me and say, “look there is a class of kids up there. Could you just give it 10 minutes until they can go bye and then you can spark up?” You do get the old dickhead cop every once in a while but in Bristol it’s considered pretty legal. If England was to go, I would reckon that Bristol and Brighton would go first.
#7 where are you playing these days? We do most of our shows out and around now; we don’t play that many shows in Bristol any more to be honest. When we started we did play quite a fair amount of shows here, but we get a fair amount of shows around the country and throughout Europe. It slowed down a bit because now we’re making music and putting together the album. We are going to France to do a festival out there, so the fanbase is growing but Bristol doesn’t get that many shows from us because we don’t want to saturate the city. Until you release new content, you are kind of riding the coattails of songs you wrote years ago. The launch of my album was crazy packed on a Wednesday night, which was insane; I was humbled by it all.
We just had a news release recently that a place called Durham in England is basically turning a blind eye to people who are growing weed for personal use. I’ve got a feeling that it’s really going to become something that is not legal but decriminalized. I think that the U.K. is #8 Larger festivals or small clubs? always following in the U.S.’s footsteps and I mean that the Internet is such a massive thing They’re different, you know what I mean? that has really changed things because we can It’s always quite different. Festivals are go on the Internet now and show countless always good fun because everyone’s on bits of evidence to councilors, police officers, to a good vibe, you’re in a field somewhere, whoever and we can show them the benefits of everyone’s usually quite waved and bouncy. weed and what it can do. It’s just really good energy at The huge benefits are so festivals, let’s put it that way. THERE AREN’T TOO hard to ignore now because It really depends on the show MANY CITIES IN of the Internet that you have ENGLAND WHERE YOU and where you are and how the to acknowledge that weed producers have done putting CAN WALK DOWN THE is a good thing. It’s like you the show together. STREET AND THROUGH have too; you can’t not! So We’ve also played shows PARKS SMOKING, I think we will clock on, where there’s fuck-all people BUT I’VE ALSO HAD definitely. Right now for there and it’s been an amazing POLICE COME UP TO simple possession you get show just because of the energy ME AND SAY, “LOOK three warnings; if you get THERE IS A CLASS OF they brought. It’s all about KIDS UP THERE. COULD caught again after that you energy; if the crowd gives it all YOU JUST GIVE IT 10... get a charge. The police are to us, we can give more back.
sept. 2015 FACEBOOK.COM/NWLEAF
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