Baby J Rawroots.com interview. 27.07.06 How long have you been producing? 17 years the baby name came along time ago. How long did it take for the ‘F.T.P’ to be completed? It was done over a long period because a lot of it was my favourite track out of a batch of work that I had done with an artist so some tracks were about a year and a half old by the time it came out. Where you pleased with the results and the response? Yeah its been big. I felt it worked well as an album and the feedback from the people has been great. In the past I've always been the guy behind the artist so it was a little weird to be the main person in the spotlight. But the response from the uk hip hop community felt real good. You are based in Derby. Do you see this as an advantage or disadvantage? It has its good points and its bad points. On one hand it gives you an outsiders view of the scene cause you don’t get caught up in the London hype, I seen a lot of London artists who had a buzz in London who didn’t realize that no one had heard of them outside London. On the other hand theres a lot of opportunities you miss out on because your outside London where all the media is based, theres not much being in the right place at the right time going on in derby! Your new mixtape features a big bag of UK talent. Who exactly features? Wow. Theres like 66 mcs on there. Its nice cause a lot of times theres new cats that I think is nice but I don’t always get chance to put them on. So on this mixtape you’ve got all the big boys like skinny, klash, fallacy, Rodney p, jammer etc but I've also put some new dudes on there that no ones really heard of. Is there any MC on ya mixtape that really stood out for you? It changes all the time but right now im lovin big P, big V and Rukus. You also produced Blade’s album. What was it like working with such a legend? It was a honour, simple and plain. Theres a lot of artists I've got to work with in the game that’s mad talented, but certain people, Blade, Rodney P and Bionic, Mc Mello, those people are legends to me, I used to run out and buy there records. So to get to work so closely with one of them was amazing and he was real open minded in the way he works too. Some older mcs are a little stuck in there ways and there formula but Blade was willing to work. Will you be doing a second Baby J album in the near future? Yeah. Its just been finished. F.T.P.2 Fight the Power. Itll be landing later this year. Im not saying to much right now but I feel it’s the best body of work I ever done. How you finding the British music industry right about now? Well, a lot of people are always bitchin sayin they never sign us and rah rah rah. But I guess I kinda gave up on relying on a music industry cheque a long time ago, and when your not expecting anything, whatever comes your way is a bonus, so im not mad at the industry. Right now you have to be able to support yourself in this country in black music to survive. I make beats, release records, teach kids, I got a video company, a studio and a radio promo company. These things pay the rent, not the British music industry. You’ve always worked with New York acts. Are you still doing that? Not really. Im still in regular contact with A-Alikes, they just dropped an album through Nervous. Im happy to work out there if something came up but right now im real excited about out here, it feels like New York in 96. Who actually distributes the label in the UK and are you getting good feedback in Europe or Australia or any other countries that are supposed to be backing UK rap? Depends on the project. The mixtape is going through Dat sound but the album is on All City and Blades on something different again. On the whole I do good in Europe, I usually sell more in Germany than in the UK. I think over the last year or so they’ve started supporting there own music which has had an affect on sales of UK music but in the long run it’s a good thing for hip hop. Don’t think im out in Australia though, I know Jehst and them does real well out there. What material are you working on right now? F.T.P. the mixtape - out 7th August Whats you’re My Space page? |