Interview With Rhyme Asylum

Rhyme Asylum Interview - By Edd Bundy, Jodie, Jim Reaper, Flyin' Moose.



To start off, for all of those who may not know you as well as we do, what is Rhyme Asylum all about and who are the 'members' so to speak?

What's good? Rhyme Asylum is a raw lyrical hip-hop group consisting of 3 artists from London, UK. We're trying push the boundaries of lyricism, taking it where it's never been taken before, whilst maintaining tight all round music. The crew is represented exclusively by: Psiklone, Possessed & Skirmish.

When did you first start writing/recording? and what attracted you to do so? Who were your main influences?

We've all been bumpin hip-hop (amongst many other genres) since we were kids... Possessed and Skirmish started writing bars when they were about 15 and Psiklone aged 16... In terms of hip-hop our main influences are really old Eminem, old Canibus, Big Pun, Big L in terms of lyricism and Wu-Tang Clan, CNN, Mobb Deep, Jedi Mind Tricks in terms of bangin beats and general vibe!

Many people see you as underground music, another word used is lyricism which is a good break from commercial stuff, do you think your style will ever change?

Our style is already evolving in some areas, although we will NEVER depart our fundemental philosophy of superlyricism, banging boom bap beats and a tight all round musical package!

One person that springs to mind when Rhyme Asylum comes up, and that is Possessed, do you think the WRC he featured in helped Rhyme Asylum get their name out more?

Fuck Possessed! nah Haha... the hype from Jump Off definitely has added to our noteriety, it was certainly a good look in terms of promo!... Having said that, we mainly really attract people from other promotional avenues, namely through word of mouth and the internet. There's only so far you can really go in the battling scene until it becomes repetitive and boring, so Possessed's contribution was just right - jumped in for a minute, burnt (almost) everybody, then jumped off!

Would you say Possessed is your focus point? As in he's the one battlers and Jumpoff fans seem to look for. Or does everyone bring in the same amount of views?

Who's this Possessed guy you keep mentioning?! Haha nah it's almost definitely the case that initally Possessed was a bit more known but as time's progressed its seems to have evened out...

State Of Lunacy was a brilliant debut for Rhyme Asylum being held in high regard as one of the most lyrical UK albums to ever drop, is anything in the pipeline to come out soon? Or are you waiting for people to practically be on the edge of their seats?

Thank you! The album has been very well received, which no doubt we're extremely pleased about (thanks for the love everyone by the way! Keep it comin, it helps with the motivation - belee dat!)...

We're currently at work on our second album and surrounding material.. Some of us are busy cats with a lot on our plates both in and out of rap so its madness at the moment, but this summer we're planning to get it all wrapped up! As for putting it out, there are obviously inevitably going to be problems; the scene and the music industry as a whole are not in a good place right now! But just hold on, its coming... and we can outright promise you it'll be well worth the wait!

On your blog on Myspace a while back, you mentioned how difficulties with Babygrande Records meant a collab with Vinnie Paz would not appear on State of Lunacy. Did you actually complete the track? If so will it be released at a later date, and if not will you make one with him?

The track got completely finished mixed and mastered... However it will never be released! We'd be up for working with Vinnie again if the opportunity should arise!

What UK producers and emcees, do you rate at the moment and if you could collab with any producer and artist, who would it be?

Probably Harry Love and Lewis Parker... I suppose it doesn't count if we name artists from our own crew right?

Do you think grime has had a good or bad effect on UK music? A lot of people think the popularity grime has had recently has taken focus away from what they see to be more talented lyricists in the UKHH scene, would you agree?

Grime seems to have maybe clouded UKHH from the public eye in a certain sense... But to be honest there probably aren't thaaat many people who otherwise would have been into UK Hip-Hop that are really into Grime... There's still room to like both anyway! Grime is a much more commercially viable music as its more uptempo and can therefore be played in more commercial circumstances, so its inevitably going to get more popular. If it was the 90s again hip-hop in this country might have stood a better chance...

Have any of you ever thought about quitting the game because of the state it is declining to?

We don't really watch the scene too tuff because its comprised of a lot of crap... we obviously want it to grow at least back to what it was, as in terms of events and shops almost everything has dissappeared! (Big up Rarekind!) Most of the shows put on nowawadays are pretty pathetic.. We're not gonna quit this shit because we're here to get our music heard and get what we feel we deserve! (Watch the f*ck out, we're comin!)...

Too many people talking about 'reppin the UK', but for us although we would love more exposure in this country its actually all about good music regardless of where your from.

Finally, for those who do not know you, where can people find some music of yours to listen to? and also where can they buy State Of Lunacy?

You can cop State Of Lunacy from our myspace and iTunes...

Check out our music on:
http://www.myspace.com/rhymeasylum

There's music and free download and all that good stuff on there! ...and tell every muthaf*cka you know!

Thank you for your time!

1Luv!

Thanks and much respect.

Interview With Arkaic

Arkaic Interview - By Edd Bundy & Jodie



First off i would like to say thank you for taking the time out for this interview and it means a hella lot. You may feel you don't want to answer certain questions, perhaps if they are too personal, in which case thats fine, we don't mean any disrespect, we just want a good interview.

Arkaic, a name known mainly as a battle rapper, does battling give you a bigger name than you would of first thought getting into the music scene?

It's given me a bit of a head start, jump off have been good throughout the whole thing and people watchin the battles on you tube is a decent way of gettin ya face known

You are regarded highly in said battle scene, but do people tend to over look you because you are british?

I find the americans tend to over look alot of artist from out here because we're british and talk slightly differently to them, but it's whatever the weather.... our time will come they'll HAVE to pay attention

With that said, for those who may not know, could you explain what happened in the Jumpoff WRC and why it was a major talking point in that year when you teamed up with Eurgh?

Well basically... We were battling the new york team frankie juce and jaze wapps and we were in the third leg, so like whoever won that battle then went to battle illmac n saurus in the final. On the tape u see the judges thinking they won it, but then harry and akcent from jump off interviened and pushed it to overtime... then the judges talk amongst themselves and mazzi says punchlines and all the judges go crazy like they said the NY team won it and it was just a bit crazy from there... that's why eurgh went a bit loopy lol

On another point, what was the 'Mickey Negro' thing all about, and how did the hate come about?

Boy! I didn't even have a problem with the guy. I battled him on the street and took probably the biggest W i have against someone. Then Jump off organized a stage event and he beat me... fair play... I even spoke to him after. But then he released this blog and i saw him gassing about me.. So i figured street battle, stage battle is 1-1... next stage is song.... i did a lil thing over that ether beat and never heard anything

Will we see anymore battles from Arkaic after all of this?

Well i'm battling thesaurus on april 12th.... should be an interesting one.... can't see that I'd enter WRC anymore though

Well, moving on from battling (finally haha) The Arkaizen is the Mixtape you chose to bring out (if i'm correct, if not.. correct me haha), did dropping this turn you from that aggressive battler type into more of an artist if you will?

Music is my first love... I wrote songs before I battled. It was a good CD for learning the process. I have 2 mixtapes sheduled for this year so you should be hearing alot more new shit

Do you see yourself in the future to bring out even better material for say, an album?

The albums nearly done now and it's a different kettle of fish.... Got a lil something for everyone on there

Who were your influences and who got you 'listening' to say the least and made you want to get into music?

Biggie Smalls!! Pretty much just after he died, that was my era... the late 90's to early 00's... Biggie Life After Death, Murda Muzik by Mobb Deep... that was my sort of hiphop and what I grew up on.

If you could work with one artist in the world right now for a one off song, who would you choose and why?

I like what the slaughter house are doing now... I get amped watchin their videos where they're all jammin n writin bars n shit cus that's what i do. They are familiar with the process.

Who would you class as the 'worlds most talented rapper' at the moment? (if it is different from the one above)

Kanye West probably.... he's being diverse as possible.... he just loves music and he does the whole shit himself from the beats to raps even to singing... I know it's got all that autotune on it but he aint a singer and that piece of technology allows him to express himself... fairplay

Well thanks for the time Arkaic, last but not least, how can people hear/buy your mixtape, and is there anywhere we can listen to your music?

You can go on the myspace, i'm not too active on there which is myspace.com/arkizzzy... twitter.com/MrArk or search Arkaic in facebook n support the cause... hold it down. Mixtapes available from jumpoff.tv

Much respect, and we are hoping good things for you in the future.