
CONFIGA Interview
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you have released?
Well I’m Configa, some might say the beat making extraordinaire lol. Well I’m mainly known for that “boom bap” sound, heavily influenced by the early to mid 90s sounds of producers such as Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Lord Finesse and Large Pro amongst others. Most of the time I don’t make music for you to dance to (with the odd exception), I make music that’ll make you want to nod your head to! I’m originally from Newcastle, and proud of it!, and have recently completed my PhD (which was on hip hop culture). So now a lot of people refer to me as Dr. Configa or Dr. Beats which is all good to me lol. Even though he’s a million/zillion whatever times richer, Dre hasn’t got shit on me in the world of academia (which helps me to sleep at night haha). The D.O.C can stop that shit too!!! Haha.
I’ve been in the game for a while and have a good few releases to my name. When I first started I was an M.C, and put out my first album by myself “Baptizm Of Fire” going under the name of M.C Unique, in 2000. I did the artwork, pressed it up, produced most of it, rapped on it, mixed it, blah blah. This came about after I had earned my stripes battling other rappers and releasing mixtapes (back then they were in fact tapes!). Going back further than that, I’ve been into hip hop since I was just about 8, and I started rhymin’ when I was about 16 and then made various connections both in person and by exploring the Net, which was new and exciting back then, and then just finally put some music formally out there in 2000, as mentioned. I believe I was the first Geordie rapper to release stuff in America.
Anyway, the most notable collab to come out of the first album was with a guy called B. Down in LA who then signed me to his Independent label “Rap Junkie Records”. And via them I was featured as an M.C and producer on “Independent Game Vol. 1” (2001), “Independent Game Vol. 2” (2002) and put out my second solo album “The King Of Linguistics” also in 2002. It might not seem so much now, but back then it was a MASSIVE deal to be in all of these stores via our American and UK distribution. I got in places like Sam Goody over in the States, and HMV/Virgin here etc. This is waaaay pre digital distribution, so it was all CD and all dependent on doing it via distributors, and in most cases they were liable to take the piss lol. I can laugh about it now!
Moving quickly on, I then left “Rap Junkie” in 2003, put down the mic, more or less, and in 2004 hooked up with 3 American guys, namely Wargasms, Arsenal, and C-Gully to form the “Slept On Fam” collective. We released one album, with me as head beat maker (sort of like 9th Wonder in Little Brother lol), called “Audio Crack” in late 2006. It got a massively good response, and I’m glad to say that the beats were very much appreciated by all reviewers! We even won an award for “Group of The Year” in 2007, winning at the second annual ‘Get ‘Em Magazine’ music awards in Florida, hosted by the legendary boxer Roy Jones Jr. And we just happened to beat Oscar winners Three 6 Mafia!!! After that I took a big break from music, through just being busy with my Doctorate, life, and the fact that 2 years of hard work ended up getting leaked on to file sharing sites. Cheers guys! Just steal from the poor! Appreciated you fuckers! lol. During my hiatus I did maybe one or two tracks with people who had sent out search parties for me, haha, but had no intention of doing anything big again. Then all of a sudden, at the start of this year in fact, I thought sod it, I want to do something again. I just started pounding the beats out again, I didn’t seem to have lost my touch judging by people’s reaction (thankfully!) and made lots of exciting new connections and re-connected with many old ones. Then I started serious work on two projects, and we’ll get in to them a lil’ later!
A lot of independent artist’s now run their own labels. Do you think this is the way forward? Or do you hope one day to get signed to a major or another label?
I 100% think it’s the way forward, which is why I’ve recently set up my own too. If you can’t beat them, then join them lol. So yeah, all of my music, and hopefully eventually from others, is going through my “Configaration Records” imprint. As far as I can see it’s the only viable way forward, although it is TONNES of hard work. Being signed would enable you to just sit back and focus on music, but realistically it doesn’t happen to many, and they fuck you over when it comes to royalties. And anyway, I’m too old to be told what to do. I would have bitten your hand off at 21 for a major label to come knocking, as I was young and naive, but now I’m more mature and realistic, I honestly couldn’t give a shit lol. I mean, I have experience of promoting anyway, as me and Wargasms did the majority of the promo for “Audio Crack” and I did loads of my own promo before that too. But yeah, it’s almost like a full time job, and it ISN’T my full time job! Making the music is the easy part really! This is just my hobby man, always has been really. Whoever just focuses on this and thinks that they’ll make a living off it is deluded. Most of the “big names” in the UK have day jobs of some variety! So yeah, I kept working and studying whilst making music. You just have to remember that people are fickle! And opinions are like arse-holes lol, so unless you are the hip hop equivalent of Justin bloody Bieber, you’re unlikely to get mass adulation and make a fortune, unless you are VERY fortunate. I totally subscribe to the ideology of it’s not WHAT you know it’s WHO you know, in the main. I know loads of dope people effectively blocked, as they don’t scratch enough backs.
Formats of music are changing all the time, but we asked you ‘CD or MP3’ which would you say is better and why?
That’s a tough one, as there’s pros and cons to both. Now as someone who’s started running his own label, I’d say mp3z from a purely financial standpoint. They cost nothing to produce, and not very much to get out to all of the big sites via a digital distributor. Once you have the tracks made, mixed and mastered then that’s it. But they lack the depth/connection of a CD, you know that feeling of holding the goods in your hands! It prevents you from looking at the credits, which I’ve always done. And don’t we all like something we can see? So with that in mind all of my mp3 albums come with PDF booklets for people to print which act as basic CD booklets basically. I also DO sell cds also, again at http://configa.com/ as generally people above the age of about 25 want them, as they grew up with them, just like me. In the same way you’ll hear people in their 40s still wanting vinyl. It’ll be funny to hear the generation after the mp3 one acting like mp3z and iPods are for dinosaurs haha. So anyway, can I just diplomatically say BOTH, and that I cater for BOTH!!!
Apart from the genre of music that you make what else do you listen to?
Well as a crate diggin’ addict, I can’t help but listen to a tonne of other music. I’ve heard it all from Russian folk right up to Ska haha. But in all honestly, if I’m not playing hip hop in my spare time, I’ll be playing old school Soul, Rare Groove, Reggae, and 60’s Rock music, such as one of my idols Jimi Hendrix. The last genre is due to brain washing by my Dad as I was growing up!
Is there any music that you hate and just can’t listen too?
Yup, sure do, I’m very vocal about stuff I love and hate! haha. I generally hate all things “pop” or anything to do with the X-Factor/Pop Idol whatever you want to call it. I find it cynical, contrived, crap and any other ‘c’ word I can think of. Oh yeah, and speaking of ‘c’ words, Simon Cowell is one of them too lol. If he can make a basic retard (no offense to anybody, but she is) into a record breaking superstar (Susan Boyle), then he can literally do anything with the millions of zombie followers he has at his disposal. I don’t listen to the radio 99.9% of the time, unless I happen to catch a hip hop show, or they play me! Now “hate” is a strong word, and I don’t want to put too many noses out of joint. So now from hate, I’m going into my dislike section. I don’t like classical music, I find it pretentious. I don’t like grime music (not sure my American friends will know anything about what it actually is), I appreciate how they can keep on-beat and the flows, and that it’s British born, but the lyrics lack substance (possibly because of the speed of the beat) and the actual beats are SHIT (I get no sense of “soul” from them, they’re all casio based, and I need me some organic funk!) But then again IS it the speed?? Lowkey and Scorzayzee have both done one off grime tracks recently and they killed both STONE DEAD, as they are just lyrical geniuses to me. I’ve worked with Scorz and want to do so again soon, Lowkey, holla at me!!! And isn’t it funny how it used to be seen/still is seen as taboo to rhyme in a Yank accent as a Brit, when kids from the North and everywhere else are now adopting the “slanguage” of inner city London! And nobody says a thing!!! Two wrongs don’t make a right!…Also, I don’t like a lot of these so called “indie” bands either, the music is mundane, followed by bunches of teenagers who need a good bath. Don’t worry, I have no intention of working with anybody associated with pop/Simon Cowell/classical music/grime or indie lol, so there’s no bridges there to burn! Haha I’m prepared to lie for a big pay cheque though lol.
As a quick aside, I’ve recently noticed formally credible, some might say “underground” rappers, such as Example and Professor Green sell their soul to rap over Calvin Harris inspired beats. STOP THAT SHIT!!!! When the kids eventually (as they will) decide that isn’t the cool thing anymore, then you’ll have to move on to the next so called “hot sound” like a prick, whistling to the tune played by the pied piper of your label. One of my proudest moments, didn’t even come from me. It came from Estelle breaking the UK top 10 with “1980”…I mean, that sounds like something I would produce!!! When Mark B and Blade had such success that was dope to me too. But this other shit NEEDS to stop. “Oh, but I’m all about diversity”, NO you’re not. You’re all about the paper chase, and about what your label tells you to do. End of.
If there was a position of power that was ‘world leader’ and you was chose as the person to fill that position, what laws or things would you change and why?
I would bring our troops back from Afghanistan for a start. Now I don’t usually get political, as nobody agrees generally, but I have to say that I think it’s a “phoney War” based entirely on oil. If it WAS about global terrorism, why aren’t we in Iran stopping that lunatic who is talking about Nuclear Warheads and how much he hates the West?? Also, what did he say again?, some shit about wiping Israel “off the map”. So why aren’t we there if we want to be the “police of the world”, along with America? What about stopping Robert Mugabi, who rigs elections, assassinates his opponents, starves his own people, and orders the murder of white farmers for their land?? Or what about the tyrant leader of North Korea, and who the fuck knows what he’s up to as nobody is allowed in or out of there to film?? I think I’ve made my point. Iraq = Oil, Afghanistan = Oil. And I’ve read from numerous sources that if they DID want to wipe out the Taliban, it would be way more covert and undercover, tactical, not obvious…Like a job for special agents to infiltrate…This whole tank and armour and big presence shit is to act as a deterrent to anybody from neighbouring areas who want to fuck with the underground pipes they’re currently building to send oil out to the West. Don’t forget that oil is a finite energy source, so its net worth is priceless. I could go on lol.
I would also make life behind bars MEAN literally life. If you do some unimaginable act, then you ain’t getting out after 10 years for good behavior in my world. You’ll rot in those cells for all eternity. I’m not too sure about corporal punishment, as for some that’s an actual easy way out. Make the prisons less cushy, MUCH more grim, like a basic “hell on earth”, and let the fuckers spend the rest of their days in there, thinking about what they’ve done and suffering along with it every damn day. Scrap the bloody TV’s, gyms, day trips etc. I’m talking Alcatraz style condistions!!! In Britain I’ve noticed it’s just way more comfortable for them than in America. Everybody screams “human rights!”, but if you take a life or do some vile shit, you basically aren’t even a human in my eyes, and therefore have lost your rights to claim to be one.
I would also cap the salary on athletes, especially football (soccer) players. Sorry mate, but when some prick with a ball is getting more than a surgeon performing the most demanding operations to save people’s lives then something ain’t right. Wasn’t it Jimmy Hill who helped to get rid of the salary cap?? Well I bet he never expected this, the big chinned wanker!!! So yeah, “wonder kids” from the age of like 16 are now basic millionaires when stolen by big clubs from the small clubs who moulded them. They used to clean the senior players’ boots back in the day, to earn their stripes, now they’re pampered little shits before they’ve even played for the first team. It’s greed on a ridiculous scale. We all remember Ashley Cole’s biography when he had to pull over to the side of the road trembling with anger because Arsenal had “only” offered him 60k a week. I rest my case!!! Fuck him. And he apparently hates “England and everybody in it”? Again, fuck him!
Keeping with sport, I’d make each boxing weight dvision have only ONE recognized champion. Now I’m a boxing addict, but even I struggle to keep up with all of the organizations (WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO and now the “new boys” like the WBF and IBO etc.) , shit is just a joke!!! And now they have several champions WITHIN each organization. Like “super champion”, “regular champion”, “interim champion”…No wonder most people have stopped watching it and watch MMA instead. There’s very few recognizable faces within boxing, just too many Eastern European champions with too little charisma these days. I’m glad David Haye has “made it” because I’ve been following him since he was an amateur Light Heavyweight.
People are saying that live shows are the way forward for acts to earn money, but then we hear its hard to get bookings? What’s your take on this?
Well, yes, live shows are the way forward for any act on their grind to make money. That much is true. Selling music now is more often than not, like “pushing water uphill”….You know, I’ve said before, pre Internet an album actually meant something and would stay in the public consciousness for at least 6 months. Now you’re lucky if you get 6 weeks. IMAGINE if “Illmatic” dropped now? It would be leaked, appreciated for a few weeks, and then lost in the mire of shit that is the common free mixtape, possibly forever. Hip hop in my time, has went from being too HARD to access (like my situation back in the day when I was stuck in Newcastle, pre Satellite TV, pre Internet, pre hip hop being on commercial radio (and that’s all we had) pre hip hop publications lol), which actually did make it fun waiting on any imports into HMV, you know the anticipation, to being too EASY. Nobody has to work at it now. Everybody is an “artist” few are happy to be fans. You can fling out some bullshit mp3 song that no CD distributor would have touched with a bargepole a few years ago, and spam up the Net with that. So CLEARLY doing shows is the way to make money, and to flog your merchandise there, but guess what! Everybody else has the same idea! Therefore bookings are thin on the ground. The recession doesn’t help either, people have less disposable income, so again, that affects numbers, and it’s a supply and demand business. It’s like everybody is fighting over an ever shrinking piece of the pie. Case in point, I’ve mentioned that I’m originally from Newcastle. Now, I’ve seen The Pharcyde up there, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Raekwon etc and even big UK acts like Blak Twang used to pass through. Now who’s coming there? Nobody. They bypass it. KRS-One is in the UK as we speak, and he’s doing Leeds then hot footing it to Edinburgh. There’s enough heads to justify putting shows on there, like in the past, but nobody bothers now. Maybe that’s just a sign of the times, where only big cities can afford decent enough money. But yeah, it’s grim for everybody right now let’s be honest. We just have to make the most of a bad situation, until things improve. IF they improve!!!
Who is or was the best musician in the world and why?
To me, it’s a tie between Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. Not only do they write CLASSIC songs, I surely don’t need to name any names, but they play basically every instrument going. Both have actually released albums in the last few years where they played EVERY instrument, and just kept overdubbing it. So they sing, write legendary songs, and play every instrument. Oh and to top it off, both are INCREDIBLE live. I’ve seen them both. But if I had to say one, I’d have to say Stevie by an inch. I mean the dude is BLIND!!! It’s just amazing to see that genius at work in a recording studio, there was a documentary on recently about how he had recorded “Songs in the Key of Life” and I was just in awe. And I’m not one who’s easily impressed as you may have realised with my answers haha.
So what does the future hold for you?
Back to little (or should that be tall?) “old” me! Only last month I released “Configa Presents…Pac To The Essence Vol. 1” which is a 2Pac remix album entirely produced by me to commemorate the 14th year of his passing and to re-right the wrongs done by his Estate to his music since his untimely death (which as we all know would have ‘Pac turning in his grave) so get your copy in!, http://configa.com . Fuck that bullshit marketing ploy of putting him on the latest “faddish” beat with the latest “hot” star, fuck making him into a cartoon. Time to get back to that REAL sound, that organic shit, hence the album title. I’ve made songs destroyed by people like Eminem actually credible again. I’m still on the promotion grind for that one, and the feedback has been immense. It was great to come back after all this time and still be embraced like I was with the Slept On Fam. This time solo! Finally, the other is my debut production album (with brand new rhymes this time), and is entitled “Inside The Echo Chamber” which should be out before the end of the year hopefully. Lots of juicy guest appearances on that one! If you listen to “Pac To The Essence” there’s a few clues in the drops! I’ve also recently set up my own Independent label “Configaration” records, as mentioned, and so everything is coming out via that. I’m starting off relatively small (but don’t we all?) but am definitely looking to expand if all goes well. You know, put other acts out via my imprint and things of that nature.
Give us all your relevant internet links!
Links to purchase “Pac To The Essence”
http://configa.com/album/configa-presents-pac-to-the-essence-vol-1-configaration-record
(downloads and CD’s available)
iTunes
itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/configa/id368434354
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003I3KUVU/ref=dm_sp_adp
Napster
http://music.napster.com/configa-music/tracks/13072534#
Links to get at me!
Website – www.configa.com
E.mail – configa@gmail.com
Facebook – http://on.fb.me/b18QDT
Twitter – www.twitter.com/Configa
Myspace – www.myspace.com/configa
Peace and thanks for having me!!!
Configa