Interview: The Elementz

Having worked with the likes of Scorzayzee, Karizma, and Skinnyman, it would be easy to try and label The Elementz as another Notts Hiphop crew, but their production skills run deeper than just mere beat fiends. The men known individually as Zoutr and Liati have been shaking up the local scene for years now with their DJ appearances and Heavy nights. They’ve also recently released their debut EP Elements Universe and are making waves in the national scene. We caught up with them to see what they had to say on all things musical and beyond….

How did you two hook up?
Liati: We linked up on the Jungle circuit in the late ’90s when it was all still going nuts. Zoutr was promoting shows like Kung-fusion and we were both DJing around town. I was doing some reviews for a magazine and ended up doing a feature on one of Zoutr's nights.
Zoutr: We just grew from there and started building a technique together and just developed musically as we went along.
Liati: Yeah, we had a solid connect like both loving funk music, we hooked up through that melancholy sound you get within some music – the stuff that makes you screw up your face cause you know something real deep came through whoever wrote it.

Why did you choose the name The Elementz?
Liati: The name is something that’s all encompassing. You know that nothing is new under gods sun. Everything has an "element" of this that, and that’s how we stay.
Zoutr: We take different elements and feelings when we build music. We aren’t straight up Hiphop producers, we appreciate all types of music with soul and we try to stay fresh with it.

Tell us about some of the Notts hiphop heads you’ve worked with?
Zoutr: First, I got to say, we’ve worked with some seriously talented Nottingham players.
Liati: People like Big Trev & Out Da Ville, 45, Daddy Freddy, Tempa, C-mone and so on, cemented Nottingham as a serious, no ramping, Hiphop Community. To work with people like Scorzayzee, Karizma and Nick Stez is very necessary for us to be a part of this Community and to try and take it to the next stage.
Zoutr: There’s so many more we haven’t worked with yet in Notts though.

What about artists outside the city borders?
Liati: We bring something different to the table for each artist we work with. We see what identity they want to give a track, or if they just want us to go bananas, we just get down the way we feel would suit that particular artist no matter if they from NY, Nottz, Jamaica, Sweden or wherever.
Zoutr: Right now we’ve done/are doing stuff with dudes like Skinny Man, Lowkey, Rukus and Big Cakes here in the UK…
Liati: ..and in the U.S we working with Blitz, Dead Prez, and a label / management company in Altanta called Street Work Entertainment who are holding us down in the south, with mans like Lethal, DJ Chuck T, Camaflage, Rodney King and Duke Cannons..

How do you feel your 1st release was received and how are you going to follow it up in terms of future projects?
Zoutr: The last units are getting snapped up as we speak so I think we did well for a debut record. daddy Skitz put one of our tracks on the Homegrown volume 2 compilation and we've already followed up the debut with some guest work. Stuff Records just released Big Cakes debut E.P with a banger from us called Never Had Time and we done about half of Karizma's forthcoming E.P on Dealmaker. We’ve just finished a track with Rukus from Ant records featuring Karizma and MB on a download only.
Liati: We’re still growing the Elementz sound, It’s young right now.
Zoutr: There’s a lot to look forward to. We got some major releases in the pipe. Can we just say thank you to Nottz and the big UK for holding us down and supporting our music as we grow. We need to put down the weapons and try to understand that we’re only killing ourselves in this madness. Stay one.