Da Brakes Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 www.rapcommunity.de approached me a couple of weeks ago and asked me to do an interview for them. I gladly accepted and here it is: The links below are all in German but have good photos to go with it! The English text is below: http://www.rapcommunity.de/index.php http://www.rapcommunity.de/hiphop-specials...nterview/63.php Interviewbogen: Artist www.rapcommunity.de Hello, Da Brakes . First of all, thank you for taking some time for this interview! Can you introduce yourself to those who don't know you? ‘The most promising unsigned talent in the UK’ – That says it all. I’m a 21 year old UK rapper here to change the face of UK rap. I’m an actor/rapper and have appeared in many roles on TV. Most of which can be viewed at my website www.dabrakes.com Your new album is in stores now! What can we here on it? Yeah my new album is called ‘Business As Usual’ and its jam packed with some great songs. There’s some club bangers in there (“Make Noise!”), retrospective tracks (“Talking To The People”), battle tracks (“Rap City Road”), slow jams (“Pudding”), straight comedy (“Envious”) and a track which is THE guide for guys who want to know the secret to getting girls. My emphasis is on lyricism as well. There’s a lot of music out at the moment where it seems like the rappers aren’t even trying on the track. I enjoy writing and playing with words and flows. So if you want to hear some real lyrics and quality flow, this is definitely the album to check out. Which guests take a part on your album? And who has produced it? There are two collaboration tracks on the album. One of which will be a future release. This is a song called ‘Can We Try?’ and it features an up and coming singer called Chrysi. This is definitely a song to watch out for because when it gets released it’ll be big. The other collaboration track is called ‘Rap City Road’ and it features rapper Duane Tarique. He’s basically my partner in crime with all things behind the scenes when it comes to putting an album together. He’s completely honest and will tell me straight if he thinks a song is rubbish. Half of the tracks on the album were produced by James ‘JC’ Chandler and the rest was produced by myself. What is the first single called? Tell us something about it? The first single from the album will be ‘Understand’. It’s definately one of my favourite tracks on the album and has a real summertime/feel good vibe to it. The track was produced by James ‘JC’ Chandler and was actually written whilst I was waiting in the car for my girlfriend. She was judging a gymnastics competition at the time! I figured I had some time to kill so I picked up a scrap piece of paper and thus, ‘Understand’ was born. It has an addictive beat which samples Tanks ‘One Man’. Will you go on tour? And do you come to Germany? I’ve played a few venues around London and as yet have no plans to tour outside the UK. What I plan to do is build up a fan base and a buzz in the UK before I take it anywhere else. I do however definitely want to tour worldwide one day. I’ve got quite a few people who like my music from all over the world and it’d be great to go to these places and perform live. Who knows, we’ll see how this year goes and you might see Da Brakes in an arena near you very soon! Where can the fans buy your CD in Germany? My album ‘Business As Usual’ isn’t yet available to buy in stores but people can purchase it through my website at www.dabrakes.com. I’d advise everyone to buy a copy of it. You won’t be disappointed and all at the bargain price of 5 British Pounds. You can also listen to snippets of the tracks on the album at my website as well. There are also a few exclusive remixes (‘Understand’ and ‘Can We Try’) which can only be downloaded from my forum. These are well worth checking out as Kon-Tempt did an awesome job remixing the songs. How get the cooperation with Da Ace? I basically got an email from Ace saying that he had heard some of my music and liked what I was doing. I’d also heard Ace’s mixtape and thought that he had some skills. He then asked if I wanted to collaborate on a track with him and I immediately agreed. He produced the music and for a few weeks, we were going back and forth with audios writing lyrics and recording our verses. Finally we finished the track and Ace titled it ‘Partners In Rhyme’. It’s basically about our viewpoint of Hip Hop today and all the problems we see with it. This track is the truth and people need to hear what we have to say. It’s funny because Ace lives in the USA and I live in the UK but I think we managed to get it sounding like we were in the studio booth together. That’s what I think Hip Hop needs more of. Emcees from different walks of life collaborating to clean up the game because believe me at the moment the rap industry is very dirty. How have you come to the music? Believe it or not I always wanted to be a singer and not a rapper when I was younger. Me and my cousin Daniel used to sing all day every day writing stupid songs and recording them onto tape. Back then we must have had a hearing problem because we were absolutely terrible. None of us could actually sing and we were literally tone deaf. We didn’t let it stop us though. No matter what people said we kept on singing our little hearts out. As mentioned on my track ‘Talking To The People’ the both of us saw it as therapeutic. Singing and performing is where we felt really good and to this day both of us are still doing what we love. That’s basically how my love of music started. It wasn’t until I was 14 that I discovered my ‘talent’ to rap. It started out in a music lesson and the teacher had set the class the task to make a song about pollution. My best friend at the time decided that we should rap the song as opposed to singing it. I was a bit dubious as I had never rapped before but I gave it a go and it went down pretty well. From then I was hooked. My best friend and I decided to start a rap group called ‘Strictly 4Bidden’ and we took on the personas of ‘Syke and Brakes’. We were still starting out so a lot of the stuff we did wasn’t that great. But we kept on practising and perfecting our craft to become what we are today. I no longer rap with Syke but without him I wouldn’t be Da Brakes. I’d be some terrible singer trying to make it in the business! What is your greatest goal for this year? 1. Release 3 songs off of ‘Business As Usual’ 2. Have my videos in regular rotation on all major music TV channels 3. Increase my online forum community 4. Change the face of UK rap (I really believe that there is not a lot like me and really feel that given the chance people will really like my music) And now some simple questions! Here's a few and all you gotta do is tell us what pops up into your mind! Fav. Lyirc: This changes from week to week but at the moment it’s from a song by Kel Spencer called ‘Wanted’: “I’m poisonous, the confidant man works in silence So I understand why y’all making noise in this Y’all young boys in this, I'm wanted” That’s how I feel about myself right now! UK: Some serious undiscovered lyrical skill but chances are the masses will never get to hear them US: A place I will one day conquer Music: Listen to it every second of the day. No matter what I’m feeling it gets me through anything Fans: I love you all. Thank you to everyone that has supported me and brought my album. Without you guys I wouldn’t have had the chance to get this in motion. A very special thank you to all the people over at www.jazzyjefffreshprince.com for supporting me from the beginning. Thanks a million for the interview! And I hope that sometime we'll be able to interview you again! Do you have any last words for the people of Rapcommunity.de? Thanks for giving me this interview and I’d love to be interviewed again in the future. I really appreciate it. And to all the people reading this right now. Don’t sleep on this. Support Da Brakes and ‘Business As Usual’. Be sure to check out the following sites: www.dabrakes.com - Official Website for Da Brakes www.myspace.com/dabrakes - Myspace page for Da Brakes Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fresh_from_sofia Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 man that's great :1-say-yes: ... i wish - u and Estelle make a track together ,some day :wiggle: , i think u got kinda the sama positive style :jus4coz: and would be dope! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Da Brakes Posted April 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 I do like Estelle! She's got some skills when it comes to rapping. I didn't like her last album much tho, too much singing for my liking!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trey Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Great interview, Brakes! I'll be getting your album soon so, I can't wait! :2thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzy Julie Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Thats great brakes, i never knew u used to sing lol. Is this website popular in germany? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Da Brakes Posted April 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Thats great brakes, i never knew u used to sing lol. Is this website popular in germany? Apparently its one of the biggest Hip Hop sites in Germany! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trey Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Holy.... cow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fresh_from_sofia Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 I do like Estelle! She's got some skills when it comes to rapping. I didn't like her last album much tho, too much singing for my liking!! i though she got only 1 album :hmm: , i like it - it's fresh and ''1980'', ''Free'' and ''On And On'' are all dope... the girl is the future in UK :1-say-yes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Da Brakes Posted April 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 I do like Estelle! She's got some skills when it comes to rapping. I didn't like her last album much tho, too much singing for my liking!! i though she got only 1 album :hmm: , i like it - it's fresh and ''1980'', ''Free'' and ''On And On'' are all dope... the girl is the future in UK :1-say-yes: I agree! She's pretty big already! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonny 5 Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 good work Brakes, I assume you'll be stepping up the focus on the album after you finsh university (this year?) :2thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luigie Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Cool intrview Brakes, congrats man, hope the good things will keep comin! :2thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzy Julie Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 Thats great brakes, i never knew u used to sing lol. Is this website popular in germany? Apparently its one of the biggest Hip Hop sites in Germany! cool, you've hit the big time now. Thats gotta be a pretty good break for you (pun not intended lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Da Brakes Posted April 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 good work Brakes, I assume you'll be stepping up the focus on the album after you finsh university (this year?) :2thumbs: Most definately. As soon as my last piece of coursework is done, its full steam ahead! And my last piece is due in on 24th May! Thats great brakes, i never knew u used to sing lol. Is this website popular in germany? Apparently its one of the biggest Hip Hop sites in Germany! cool, you've hit the big time now. Thats gotta be a pretty good break for you (pun not intended lol). Yeah I'm well chuffed! hopefully this should get some more traffic towards my website and forum!! :1-smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ash trey Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 cool, you've hit the big time now. Thats gotta be a pretty good break for you (pun not intended lol). :rofl: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turntable Posted April 1, 2006 Report Share Posted April 1, 2006 (edited) That was cool. The part about the singing made me think of that Milli Vanilli part you sing on the album. :rofl: Anyway, intresting read. Oh, and when you go outta the Uk, dont forget the netherlands. :pony: Edited April 1, 2006 by Turntable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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