Page 34 - Zone Magazine Issue 011

bazza's ragga stack
Vibes on toppa Vibes
Greetings friends. I recently heard rumours that Manchester's finest live Hip Hop crew: ''The Mouse Outfit'' were bound for the Emerald Isle, I wanted to get in touch with their head honcho Chini to get the low down. As someone who used to live in Manchester I know first hand about the strength of Hip Hop culture and scene up there and I wanted to talk to Chini about the fact that Manchester seem to be taking over the UK these days and the Mice are sitting right up at the top. Read more plus my top ten for this month below. Thanks for reading and feel free to get in touch if you have something I should see, read or here.
Top Ten
01) Chainska Brassika Ft. Tippa irie ''Just Love''
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjWXiClE1YA
Big London Collab here, I love the way this tune flips.
02) Kybaka Vs. Pyramid
http://reggaelizeit.com/videos/kabaka-pyramid-kabaka- vs-pyramid-video/
MADD!! Love this video and 90s style Ragga/HipHop - classic vibes!
03) Raging Fyah ''Raggamuffin''
https://soundcloud.com/raging-fyahcloud/raging-fyah- raggamuffin-everlasting-2016#t=0:00
This is so good taken from their album ''everlasting'' expect to hear this in every Reggae dance.
04) Blend Mishkin Ft. Skarra Mucci ''Come
Original'' (Vibration Lab remix) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhQyAR5c3hs Bubbling Digital Dancehall version of Blend Mishkin and Skarra Mucci.
05) Parly B ''Duppy'' (Prod Fleck)
https://soundcloud.com/scotchbonnetrecords/parly-b- duppy-ft-fleck
Big production from Athens' rude boy; Fleck. Parly delivers the goods vocal wise as per usual.
06) Mathman & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble ''Where i'm
From''
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw-sWGxqJD0
Big and classic Hiphop vibes from Dublin to USA as Mathman links with the lads from Hypnotic Brass ensemble.
07) Dutty Moonshine ''
https://www.facebook.com/duttymoonshine/ videos/10154451099504419/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
08) Rony Blue ''I'm So Sorry'' (potential Badboy Remix)
http://www.junodownload.com/products/rony-blue-im- so-sorry/3160600-02/?track_number=2
Massive remix from one of the best Jungle/DnB producers in the game at the moment.
09) R.I.P. Remix DJ Supreme Ft. durrty Goodz, MyDiggi, Curoc, Ramson, Badbones, Stylewarz & Devastate. https://www.youtube.com/watch? time_continue=95&v=DMD6rONIjGE
BIG. Quick rolling drum breaks, Tight rhymes and sick scratching.
10) ''Back To Life'' (Scrimshire waaaait for it edit)
https://scrimshire.bandcamp.com/track/back-to-life- scrimshire-waaaaaaait-for-it-edit
Do as the man says and... waaaait for it. You wont be disappointed.
Your brand new album is a 13 track remix LP. Can you tell us what kind of styles we can expect from this and how you picked and sourced the producers to remix the originals?
The styles range from jazzy hiphop through to drum and bass, ska, dub and bass music. It's quite a diverse collection, with faster club orientated tracks and more traditional hiphop that fans of the originals might like. The main influences are jazz and reggae with soul, funk and electronic elements. Some of the remixes have retained many of the instrumental parts and some have created an entirely new track around the original vocals. Chini, Defty and Pitch selected the producers to be involved.
Most of the remixers have some connection to us though the Manchester music scene or have worked with one of the MCs on other projects. There are loads of artists in Manchester that we wanted to work with so we contacted a few and they all agreed to get involved. Dub Phizix had worked with Fox and Sparkz before and they are both featured heavily on this album. Tall Black Guy and Mungos' Hi-Fi we’ve never met before but were just big fans. For some of the producers we had a particular track in
mind for them to remix but for others we let them choose. We’re hoping to work on stuff with many of them again in the future too.
You have a a large and wide crew, how does this work for your busy touring schedule? Do you need to work a trimmed down road form and then a family outing in Manchester / UK kind of thing or is it an all or nothing scenario when it comes to booking the Mouse Outfit for festivals, club shows?
All the vocalists we work with are also busy artists in their own right, either doing solo gigs or as part of other crews, so it’s very rare that we can get the full team together. Dr Syntax and Sparkz are on pretty much every show, but sometimes the stars align... or the money is right... and we can bring a few more rappers to the gigs. In Manchester I think the most we’ve had on stage at once is about 13...
You guys seem to press vinyl for each release. How important is it to have a physical product to accompany the standard digital releases these days.
It’s no secret that vinyl has made a bit
of a comeback. We recently did a tour of the Netherlands and sold out of vinyl without really shifting many CDs. Maybe that will change again in the future, but every musician will tell you it’s a pretty special moment when they get the first test pressings of something they’re working on, particularly if you grew up buying vinyl like most of us did.
You have many features on the new album. A lot with local MC's: Fox, Black Josh, Sparkz Ect. Is this a family only ethos or are there MC's / Rappers in the UK and beyond you'd like to collab with?
The main reason we work with local MCs is because it’s easier to get a vibe going with friends in the studio rather than putting a track together over the internet with someone who lives at the other end of the country. It’s also easier for us to keep an ear to the ground in Manchester and meet talented rappers or singers that haven’t quite forged a solo career for themselves yet. We will be working with some well known rappers on the next album but we can’t give that information away yet. I can say that there will be some female vocals on future tracks.
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