August 21, 2006 @ 12:46 pm

Rap’s Global Alchemists

by: Coryn Brown

For Bahamas-born Streetz and the UK’s Lady Sovereign, science is a lucrative thing. From their studio labs, these internationally born rappers have found a recipe for gold: break hip hop down to its base elements, interbreed it with a global perspective then witness chemistry at work. Now after veering from their native music, the up and coming MCs are cashing in on U.S. hype with hip hop from a Petri dish. Part 1:

Streetz’s Atlanta-based sound lab is a no dancehall zone. There you’ll hear southern production mixed with lyrical scheme inspired by rap’s foremost northerners. Meanwhile, So So Def producer Nitti and DJ Tomp of T.I.’s “You Don’t Know Me” are regulars to the studio, siphoning beats into history. To partner with Streetz, born Jerio Hutchinson, is to partner with the first Caribbean MC attempting a hip hop takeover. But as his “Patti Cake Man” single feeds growing hood demand with a nursery rhyme that children shouldn’t sing, the Nassau, Bahamas native is conscious of the islands. They’re hanging on his shoulders as he moves to shake-up rap. Formerly of the mix tape circuit, Streetz hooked up with Vibe.com to talk about island ghettos, his fateful encounter with a hip hop legend and why comparisons to T.I. makes him angry with the world. Vibe.com: Who is Patti Cake man to you? Not the baker from the nursery rhyme? Streetz: Patti Cake man is a hustler. If he got to sell pencils, if he got to sell paper, whatever he got to do, he does it. Coming up as a kid, life was just so hard that you would take everyday nursery rhymes and turn it into a way of life. And this is before me. If you go back to people being slaves, they would turn whatever they were going through into songs. Have you been signed yet? Streetz: I don’t want to drop names. There’s a lot of money going around from your favorite major labels. This is the first time America’s had a hip hop artist as far as from the Caribbean, so I have to make sure I get the right deal. Your mom sent you to Florida to get you off the streets, now you’re not even doing Caribbean music. Is there a disconnection between you and the islands? Streetz: I went to the south when I was 17, but I’ve been going back to the Bahamas my whole life. I’m still completely rooted there but if you need to get a job doing what you really could do, you have to leave. And yeah, a lot of people expect me to do reggae, but being from the Caribbean you get soca, reggae, hip hop--everything. One of the artists that I was listening to was Jay-Z. I remember feeling like this dude was from Brooklyn but he made songs with issues so global that he represented me. One of those issues was hood life, which for you as a kid was pretty rough. left Streetz: Yeah, at a young age I watched my mom get shot five times and still live because she was involved in a situation. A lot of times, you hear people talk about the projects in America. I’m not from those projects. I’m from nothing. I’m from where you go down the street to get a bucket of water. You have an outdoor toilet. I was doing grown man stuff since I was 13 or 14. All I know how to do is make it happen. With music, it ain’t no different. No disrespect to Baha men because they definitely shined some light, but they never represented 99% of what I rap about. I have over 20-30 million people from Caribbean hoods that I’m coming to the forefront for. How’d you get into rapping? Streetz: I was never interested in music, and this is the honest truth. I felt like music dudes weren’t getting money. I was getting money, so I was content. Then dudes started making songs about stuff I was going through in my everyday life and getting rich off of it. How were you getting money? Streetz: [Laughs] Come on, I’m not about to put that on tape. I use to throw concerts in the Caribbean. A few years ago, we brought down Big Pun. He spit a line then asked me to spit a line. I said something like, “I’m the type of MC that’s bound to get crazy, I could fuck the earth and make the sky have a baby.” He was like, “Say no more. I’m going to sign you as soon as I get my situation.” And he was a man of his word. Unfortunately, he passed before anything took place. After that glimpse I thought, okay, I can actually do this. And now with your southern sound, some are saying you’re better than T.I. Streetz: I don’t respond to that, man. This is the problem with people right now. We move on the black crab system. When one crab gets to the top, you pull him back down. But if Jay gets a shoe deal, that makes it easier for Streetz to get a shoe deal. If 50 gets movies, that makes it easier for Tip to get movies. I got my own lane and I’m on cruise control. If somebody else gets in I say come on, let’s get this money! I feel like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America right now. Part 2:

Lady Sovereign can’t swim. She has nightmares about the sea. For the 21-year-old Londoner (nee Louise Harman), brain space is used to pump hip hop with drum-n-bass, spit hyperactive hooks against electro-beats—not to rationalize her fear of the tide. Then Def Jam called. Now, with her first full-length album, Public Warning, due out in October, her Vertically Challenged EP circulating stateside and a pretty good gig in the U.S. awaiting her transatlantic move, S-O-V still ain’t swimming. But on Hov’s bill, she’ll fly. Vibe.com caught up with the MC to find out what becomes of high school dropouts, why wearing a hoodie in the UK will get you hated on and her non-beef with Chingy. Vibe.com: I heard your mom and dad were punks. Sov: Yeah, back in the day they were. My dad was a ska, reggae man--that Lee “Scratch” Perry kind of reggae. Whereas my mom was more of a hip hop, drum-n-bass sort of chick. Everything was playing in my house. I’m surprised they named you Louise. Sov: [Laughs] Yeah, well they weren’t going to name me Peppy. I’m lucky they didn’t. Is hip hop the type of music to get a lot of play in the UK? Sov: Oh god, no. It’s indie. There’s been this whole outburst of indie bands. Some of it is alright but when that’s all the national radio station is going to play, it’s annoying. They’re going to play that and not anything else so no one else gets a chance. Here your music raises a lot of interest because you’re mixing hip hop with everything: dancehall, electronica-- Sov: Yeah, there may be a bit of that. I can’t describe my music. The thing is I worked a lot with this guy called Medicine. He’s like some funky crazy Russian guy, so if I ask him to make hip hop he sort of makes his own version of it. I’m not really looking to make any kind of sound. That’s just the way it comes out when we work together. It’s just unusual. Where did you meet Medicine? Sov: When I got kicked out of school, I went to a drama theater, did this low budget film and a song for it. One of his friends was working on the film set and sent a CD to Medicine without asking me. So we just hooked up. This is all the result of being kicked out of school. You’re an advocate? Sov: [Laughs] Yeah, I don’t encourage people to do it. It’s just the way things go sometimes. I heard you got kicked out because the teachers hated you and you’d get into laughing fits? Sov: Yeah, I just couldn’t figure school out, really. It became uncomfortable. How’d you get into rapping? Sov: Just out of boredom. Seriously. I wasn’t too tough at school so I stayed at home. I was the only one there and there was nothing to do but to write. So while in the UK you got expelled from their schools, you shunned their indie music and you wear hoodies, which gets a lot of opposition. Do you ever feel like a stepchild over there? Sov: Yeah. It’s like the UK is getting funny these days. It’s getting too politically un-correct. If you’re under the age of 25, it’s basically like you’re not meant to be there. You get hated on and singled out for things. Like for rocking a hoodie? Sov: Yeah! There’s this whole thing where you can’t go into certain places with your hood up or on, period, because if you put one on, it hides your face from surveillance cameras. They’ll literally say “You cant come in here, get out,” and they’ll drag you out. Good thing Jay-Z could care less what you wear. How’d you guys meet? Sov: He heard someone in the Def Jam offices playing my songs and then my manager got a phone call from him saying he wanted to meet me ASAP. That was last year. Did he make you spit? Sov: Yeah. It was harsh. I don’t like standing in front of one or two people doing my thing. But it went good. Everyone is thinking like it was an audition, but I didn’t see it like that. I saw it like, I know this guy is interested. I’m just here saying hey. On Vertically Challenged you mock Chingy’s southern drawl and you get on Jessica Simpson in the press. What do you have against Americans? Sov: [Laughs] I don’t dislike anybody. America is just full of characters. Some of it makes me laugh and some of it just makes me sick. Jessica Simpson makes me feel both. It’s like, yeah, you’re a disgrace. She’s famous for nothing. As for Chingy, it’s not me being horrible; it’s just me sort of laughing with you, love. I’m sure to you guys I sound like some punk little Muppet baby, but you know that ain’t the case. Read more vibe.com online exclusives.

Article tags: Def Jam, Essohvee!, Jay-Z, Lady Sovereign, Medicine, Nitti, Patti Cake Man, Streetz, T.I., Tip, Vertically Challenged, Waffle House 

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