Interview: The Beatnuts

Ok, if at first you don’t succeed, try try again, and I applied this method when going in search of the world famous Beatnuts. Legendary for their fat beats and their gritty word play they have made more impact on the scene than a bag full of dynamite.

So after tracking them down it came as no surprise to hear that they were busy in the middle of a tour and at that moment were being ferried to Brighton by bus. I was able to get a few words with a very tired Juju who enlightened me on their busy schedule and why making Hiphop for them is so important to their daily lives…

I would like to ask you how does it feel to be back in the UK and how is the tour going?
Juju: Its been good you know, pretty much every show we have played has been sold out and the reception we have been getting from the crowds has been amazing, it was quite surprising as we were not expecting such a big following over here but the uk has been crazy with the support.

What venues have you played while you have been here?
We spent 2 nights in London at the Jazz Café, then on to Oxford, we played the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham last night and now we’re heading down to Brighton. But we have also done shows in Scandinavia and Poland so its been pretty hectic for us. We have been flying and also using the tour bus, its ok because we are usually on 2/3 hours away from our next show in terms of geography so we have been able to travel but still not have to spend a night on the bus as we have been using hotels which is good to get a bit of rest between gigs.

Taking you away from the tours, have you been working on any new projects that the people should know about or be checking for?
"Erm.. because of the touring we have not really been able to carry on with any studio time, you know, we are just focusing on promoting the new album and letting people know that the Beatnuts are still rocking it. With the album its more of a return to the grittier Beatnuts sound, I personally feel that its just another chapter for us as a crew, we have used artists that are friends of ours and have just let that come together in the studio and just vibed off it.
"We wanted to use people that we felt needed more exposure. We got A.G from D.I.T.C on there and as you are probably aware he is an incredible lyricist so it was an honour to be working with him, we also brought Rahzel in to do a track again. He is an extremely talented individual who blesses everything he features on.
"Its just a cool little album which makes you think and raises questions at the same time. We are trying to show that there is more sides to Hiphop than the average sound that has become the norm, we want people to look into the past so that they can get an idea of what came before to form the music as it stands today.

With that said why do you think that you choose Hip-Hop in the first place as your way of expressing yourself?
"For me it all goes back to way before it was even called Hiphop, you know the whole scene is not more than 25 years old, So its like at the time it was just a new sound that I could relate to. The radio stations were just playing your run of the mill american bands Shit, which was not something that I could really relate to."
"Then this new sound came out of New York, you had mix tapes circulating the streets and you had jams in the park so it was hard not to get involved with what was happening. There was a friend of mine who had all the early Harlem World records, you know stuff like Kurtis Blow, The Breaks and christmas rapping and all the shit like that, and it just hooked me in straight away."
"So I started Djing and pretty much done everything cuz back in those days because it was such a new thing you had to get involved with every aspect of it from Djing to Mcing even down to promotion of your next jam. When the bedroom production side of it took off I was already ahead of the game because I had all the break records that I could get my hands on at the time, plus I had been Djing for a while so an obvious move for me was I got hold of a sampler and started producing my own beats with that. And things just went from there…

So you have worked with quite a few artists in your time is there anyone living or dead that you would have liked to work with during your career?
"Damn! Definitely Jay-Z, I would have loved to do something with Notorious B.I.G, Erm.. lets see who else? Probably G-Unit, eminem, and I hope that Mad Skillz would please come back on the scene as I would really love to do some tracks with him he’s a dope mc, and maybe do some work with some british artists. My theory is to just work with anyone that I consider to be dope..."