Better Than You

DESPITE THE CRITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SUCCESS OF HIS ALBUM, K-LASH ISN’T RESTING ON ANY LAURELS. HERE HE TELLS HHC HOW HE’S ALREADY IN FOCUS MODE FOR HIS NEXT MOVEMENT…

To the untrained eye, it's been a pretty good year so far for Klashnekoff. His album with Joe Buhdha has won plaudits and acclaim, is selling steadily, and new converts are taking up his cause as the record spreads his name and his music beyond the often limited confines of the UK hip-hop milieu. But the man at the heart of it isn't ready to sit back and relax. Not at all.

Despite the album getting great reviews everywhere, you still seem concerned with people on the internet taking pot shots at you.

“I've come too far now, and their words sound like faint murmurs, as opposed to a lot of loud shit in my ears. I can 'ardly hear 'dem now. I got children, I got real life, I'm trying to start a business, I'm elevating as an artist, people are getting to know my shit.

"But I understand where they're coming from, that little point of view whereby you want what you're used to. I understand that mentality. You can't just keep doing the same thing, but I do understand, a little, little bit, because when I listen to ‘Lionheart…’, it hasn't got that ‘Sagas…’ X-factor to it. 'Cos I didn't put that type o' energy into it anyway.”

What do you mean? How would you define that ‘Sagas…’ X-factor?

“Zoning – when you go into a zone. When I was writing ‘Sagas…’, I was writing intensely, from a purely personal perspective. I just wanted to express all my inner demons at the time. And if you listen to the lyrics on ‘Sagas…’, which I don't think a lot of people really clock, there's a lot of bars in there where I'm crying for help, almost.

"When I was writing the Joe Buhdha thing, it was a different experience, because I'd also taken on board that this can elevate me, and I can't just keep rapping to the hood or to the same backpackers: I'm trying to get worldwide status now, I've got to - got to - simplify certain things for certain people.

“It's a thin line I'm trying to walk, bruv. I'm not gonna lie. I'm trying to be successful, I'm also trying to get a point across, I'm trying not to compromise myself while I'm doing it, and I still wanna sell records. I've got to feed my family, and then I got a responsibility to the youngers.”

So the next record – the one you view as your real debut – will be the place where this all comes together?

“Well, the next thing is Skribblah's album, but with ‘SoundKlash’, what I had envisioned originally was more reggae-orientated, but... Basically, it's ‘Sagas Part 2’. There you go. It's ‘Sagas Part 2’, but I think it's gonna have some, like, big artists on it. That's the next step for me: Just Blaze, Saigon, reggae artists like Damian Marley – that would be nice. But the bottom line is, lyrically, I'm going there. It's gonna be 100 per cent concentrated effort.

“’Lionheart…’ was, going up to Nottingham every couple weeks, then coming back and not really doing anything for a couple weeks, and then going back up there and banging out some tunes. We didn't take it really seriously, do you know what I'm saying? That's the truth! And it was only supposed to take, like, six, seven months – bang out eight tunes or something, keep my name going, keep Joe's name going, until our albums come out. But it just went into some long, snowball thing.

“I'm independent – I ain't got no record label, I'm doing my own shit, sometimes morale gets low, funds get low. People don't understand. It's hard like a motherfucker to keep doing that shit, man. But one thing I do do is I keep young people around me. Smasher, Skribblah, all them guys, they're the new era for me, in terms of this game. They're gonna amalgamate, bring that shit together. When we're going to shows, we're seeing grime kids, women, all colours, all ages, Asian guys, ghetto guys, college guys...”

To take in the rest of Klash's well wrought rant, cop the new issue of HHC.



Not the full interview but still...always good to hear about new projects from the Terra Firma crew. Will def be looking forward to hear Skribblah's album and of course any new Klashnekoff. Just hope its not as long a wait as last time.