classic – I remember speaking to Jay-Z off my tits and doing his head right in, but you know – it was a top laugh and there was the serious angle of altering perceptions about interviews, stardom, formulaic patterns and so on.
Being young and into hip hop, presumably a lot of these guys were people you looked up to at the time– how much did some of them take themselves way too seriously and how much did others surprise you with how open and genuine they were. What I found was that the guys who you thought were going to be really serious and a bit up themselves turned out to be really nice, and the ones who you were expecting to click with turned out to be arseholes. Naming no names, you’d get some wicked MC on the phone – someone who you really liked and they would just be unpleasant from start to very quick finish. And then you’d meet someone like Tim Dog from the Ultramagnetic MC’s who’d make you tea, sit you down, cross his legs and start asking you questions about your family. And then there was Primo. Proper
hardcore. Now his press officer was falling all over himself to warn me that Primo was a real arsehole who hates journalists, especially white English ones and that he was in the studio making a beat, so it was pretty much guaranteed that after 5 minutes I’d be told in no uncertain terms to fuck off. Get yaself ready for that bombshell son. I finally left about 9 hours later after a beat session with him and Guru who came in halfway through. It was mental. I was sat there at the desk being shown how to make my first beat by Gang Starr with Primo grinning at me shouting ‘Yo…. You know who’s sat in that chair before you? Biggie Smalls. Big Daddy Kane. Jay-Z’. Madness. As an artist and a DJ now, I look back at 10 years of interviewing people and I can’t help but feel that those experiences have rubbed off on me – almost by osmosis rather than conscious focus. That works both ways – obviously it colours how I approach interviews now it’s me on the spot, but it’s the little things you pick up from people in the game