Culture

Booof speaks with Beau about, like, MCing and shit.


Your role in the nightlife and musical culture of Dunedin is long and involved – how did you get started?
Damn, you're making me feel like an oldie! I first got into free-styling by mucking around and having fun. I listened to hip-hop a lot, but then I got serious with it. I started to get more seriously involved in hip-hop alongside my friend Ants, because she had turnies, followed by other genres. My first gig was at Re:Fuel at these multi genre parties called Convergence. Basically one thing led to another and it was a natural progression.
 
From being an live MC, through to running your own clothing line and releasing mix-tapes and organising parties, and producing your own beats, your involvement with music and the grind is multi-faceted. Do you think this is a necessity for being successful in this game, or do you actually need to have five hundred things going on at once to keep you entertained?
I don't think its imperative that an artist is multi-faceted but it doesn't hurt to at least have a basic understanding of how things work in terms of everything besides the music. I guess I'm talking about the business side of things. If you don't have some idea of how things work and what you’re worth, somebody somewhere will definitely shaft you. It’s funny – a lot of artists become totally useless as soon as you mention the ‘business’ word but then again there are some great entrepreneurs within the music industry, too. Personally, some days I would love to delegate some things to other people to let me focus on the music more, but I don't trust anybody as much as I do myself to promote me and my brand. I have been doing it for so long now that I don't know that there’s anybody who could do it better.
 
At the moment, you're working on an album – what is the focus of this album? Any mad collabos in the pipelines?
My debut album is titled On My Way and is scheduled for release later in 2010 through my label Dudstown Recordings. I'm working with a whole bunch of cats – locally this includes Woosh (SBK), Max Dad E, Nga AKA Kozmo (Koile), Amin Payne, Jesse Jahmal. There are some high profile collaborations in the works too, but its all under wraps at this point. There will definitely be some heavy hitters.
 
How many kicks do you actually own?
To be honest, too many kicks – over 50 or 60. Favorite ones are my Reeboks – shot Greg! Shameless product endorsement. I have a problem, I know.
 
I reckon I have some wicked lyrical skills, and I MCed some pretty cool parties at my bro's flat - whats the best way of me taking this to the next level?
Get your own gear and start learning how your voice sounds recorded. Don't wait or rely on anybody else - just make it happen. Jack some instrumentals, make a mixtape and post it up online. If you have skills you might get the attention of some beat makers looking for MC's. Just be proactive and get the ball rolling. You'll be surprised how small and supportive the community can be. A lot of MCs get a li’l shine in there circle of friends and find it hard to go watch other MCs play or perform, but that is the best way to learn. Force yourself to listen and watch dudes that are way better than you. Work on stage presence, mic control, crowd control, diction, rhyme patterns, flows, tone, lyricism and so on. 
 
Do you wanna battle? I'm pretty good.
Ha ha, you can try. Get in line.