2014 has been a landmark year for East London MC Ghetts. With his album Rebel With A Cause gaining critical acclaim and hitting #23 in the UK albums chart and having been nominated for a string of MOBO Awards, Matt Tarr caught up with the man himself to talk about his upcoming tour, how fatherhood has changed his outlook on music and what is missing from grime that could take it to the next level…
MT: With the album coming out, the MOBO nominations and the upcoming tour, 2014 has been a good year for you.
Ghetts: It has been a good year. On paper, if someone was to look at the accolades and what I’ve achieved, it’s been my best year and people may say “it’s been the best year of his career”.
MT: In terms of the album, do you feel it marks your biggest and best output so far?
Ghetts: The best, I’d say that’s objective, so people may have different opinions. But it’s definitely my biggest in terms of where it has taken me and how it has been received.
MT: With the album came the release of your very own app. Has that played a big part in you being able to keep in touch with fans and keep them updated with your music?
Ghetts: Yeah cos that came from me just basically bumping into people and them saying to me “Ghetts what’s going on with the music, we ain’t heard from you in a while?” when I may have just released something the day before. So I thought “where are they looking?”, cos the kind of music that we make is not gonna be thrown in your face and I understand that as you’ve got older you’re probably not that into going on sites or waiting around for Logan to come on at 1am, so I just thought that it’d be nice when people ask me for me to say “You got an iPhone? You got a Blackberry? Download this app and everything I do will come up on here and you’ll be notified”.
MT: With regards to the tour, you’ve got a huge list of support acts who are going to be joining you. Is that something that you had always planned to do?
Ghetts: It’s so easy to make mistakes being in the position that I am, like basing your tour around you when you know what you would like to see if you were a fan and there’s not enough of that. So I’m kinda using my tour to do what I would wanna see if I was a fan. I’d wanna see people running out and that constant excitement of someone you wouldn’t expect coming out and just shutting it down. So I wanted really to make it less about me. Even on the tour, I was gonna use it to promote the album and I thought “you know what, the album has promoted the tour and if I was a Ghetts fan for however many years, what would I wanna see when I go to the tour? Performing fourteen tunes off the album might be good, but is that really gonna make me come back?” And I thought I’d wanna see ‘Don’t Phone Me’ and Griminal come out and I’d wanna see me do ‘Sing For Me’” cos I’ve never really done a tour before, so that chance had been missed. I could easily just think that that was back then but I thought “nah I’m gonna do this” and I spoke to everyone and everyone said they were up for it and wanted to shut it down. The way I want it filmed visually as well, when people watch it I wanna give them that feeling that they’ve been missing. So yeah we’re going for it!
MT: It looks like it’s gonna be a really huge event. And I can see what you’re saying about artists not necessarily thinking about the shows from a fan perspective.
Ghetts: You know what, it’s easy because say I’ve got the MOBOs performance and really I’m meant to be promoting the singles, but you know when you’re a fan and you didn’t know the business too well and then you’re watching TV and thinking “nah but why didn’t he do this though”. Really the fan’s right because why didn’t you do that as that would be talked about ten years from now? So that’s what I try and do sometimes, just think from a fan perspective and also do the business side of things cos that’s very important, but I wanna keep it exciting.
MT: Whilst 2014 has seen the album and will shortly see the tour, it has also seen you begin working with independent label Disrupt. How has working alongside the guys at Disrupt helped shape you and push your career forward?
Ghetts: It’s sick man because I’m a firm believer that everyone’s route is not the same. So my route and the way I am as a person, at this point, is probably not for the major labels. I’m very, very hands on and Disrupt allow me the freedom to be like that and to have a say in what single we do next and because I’ve been alone for so long in my career, it would be hard for me to just sit back and they allow me that freedom. I’m really thankful for that cos they believe in my crazy ideas. We argue like any other team but we come to a conclusion that everyone in the room is happy with, which is important. So I’m happy.
MT: In terms of your entire musical career so far, have you got a track that you feel best represents you as an artist, as Ghetts, as Ghetto, as Justin?
Ghetts: I’d say ‘The Cypher’ which shows the different styles created by different times in my career. You’ve got that Ghetto, very much raw and uncut and then you’ve got Ghetts, much more skilful and then Justin is more like me spitting from a positive place and is more my natural tone. So yeah I’d say ‘The Cypher’.
MT: Over the years you’ve worked with a number of artists but your team is The Movement. Are we going to see anything from all of the members of The Movement together on one project?
Ghetts: I hope so. With The Movement it’s frustrating cos we’re in a team full of strikers and that’s not necessarily always best to take a team forward. So it’s frustrating that when one of us has got time the other hasn’t and so on. We meet up and we talk about it and throw ideas around and we do a tune once a year. But I sit here and I think what that could be and then I drop my ego and I make the phone calls. It’s funny you should ask that question because yesterday I said to Mercston “Fam, I think we’re the best in the world!” and he was laughing and I said “ I honestly think that when we’re in a room together it’s crazy and I think we’re wasting opportunities as each day goes by and I don’t wanna look back in ten years when we can’t do anything with it and think, we should of, as I’ll have that as a regret, so I’d rather we all speak now and all air out everything and come together and try and do something together, even if it’s just one more project”. But these are ideas and nothing ever comes of them.
MT: With all of you having individual successes, I can understand how it might be difficult, especially with finding the time to put something together, but on the other hand, it would be epic!
Ghetts: And you’re absolutely right because that’s what we have to look at, the epic. I always feel like people try and do things that are epic when it’s the last hand they can play and it’s never the right time. Whilst we’ve still got a few hands to play of our own we should do it whilst people actually appreciate it. It’s like the Kano x Ghetts project, that’s something I wanna do as well. There’s just so many things man; I wanna get Ruff Sqwad back together even though I’ve got nothing to do with them, I just wanna get them back together, it’s crazy.
MT: It’s not only music that’s been a big part of your life over the last few years as you’ve also become a father. How has that changed the way you write and your whole outlook on making music?
Ghetts: It’s affected it because you get people saying I’m not as hard as I was and they’re right, I’m not as hard as I was; more skilful, maybe; a better artist, maybe, but there’s hardly a sign of what might have drawn people to me in the earlier stages of my career. Obviously you get ‘Gas Mark 9’ and a few oneaways but when I’m writing stuff like that I feel guilty, if I’m being totally honest, because I’m not as active as I was when I was young, not even as active, I’m not active. So when I write, even though I’ve got to write to say certain things because I’ve done certain things, I feel like it’s not a reflection of what’s going on now, but then I do it because I also appreciate the fact that when someone is listening to me they’re looking for that, so I don’t leave it out of the album even though the album might not be centered around it. But I also feel guilty because in this current world right now, I care about where my daughter is gonna be growing up and how she grows up and so I feel very guilty. People can probably hear that from when I talk and from some of the music on my album, so it has affected my writing a lot. It’s weird because I love hearing the hard stuff and I love writing it but at the same time I’ve got this little girl that I wanna be a role model for, so I doubt I’m ever gonna be as hard as I was before.
MT: You’ve got a mixtape coming out at the end of the year, tell us a bit about that?
Ghetts: Yeah, Momentum 2. I didn’t collab much with people on the other record so there were artists that I was feeling that I’ve never collabed with and artists that I do collab with but I never collabed with on the album. People like hearing us together and I kinda just wanted to give the people that, so it’s not so much me it’s more like a coming together with people. I’ve got HitmanHyper on a tune and I’ve never been able to get him on a tune but every time I listen to Spyro’s show he’s got a tune on there that makes me go sick. So he came down to the studio with me the other day and did something crazy. Obviously me and Devlin haven’t worked together for a little while so we’ve been doing a lot of work recently and I’ve got him going mad on a track. Plus there will be a Movement track on there!
MT: On Rebel With A Cause, the instrumentation that you used wasn’t as traditionally ‘grime’ as your music has been in the past and there were a lot more guitars etc.
Ghetts: I wanted to learn and I’ve got this hunger to learn. I feel like although we love the traditional sound of grime, the reason why grime has never really evolved is because we’ve been scared of the evolution and we haven’t embraced what it might sound like if someone adds a real instrument. With grime being one of the youngest genres in the world, how do we know what it sounds like? Imagine if hip hop just stayed how it started. We’re lazy when it comes to grime and we think it’s ok to do what we were doing ten years ago. Although I get the nostalgia tunes, I go to Rapid’s and say “Raps, you see what trumpets you’re using, can I get real trumpets in to do that sound?” because I believe in music. You know what, I listen to Michael Jackson Thriller and I think “f*cking hell bruv, to this day it’s one of the best mixes I’ve heard and look when that was done!”. With all this technology now it’s still not helping anyone compete with that. It made me realise that the team that he was working with were a team of very serious musicians and people that were taking pride in something sounding amazing. It’s the product of people not being lazy and trying new things. It’s weird because people look at me as an MC and that I am, but if they could see me in the studio, I’m not, because I just start doing loads. Someone doesn’t play me a track and I spit on it and the track goes out, it’s just not happening. I sit there and work out the structure, I might change the BPM by two slightly, I might want something added or something taken out and I basically executively produce my own tunes. One day there’s gonna be someone that’s gonna bring something new to grime and they’re gonna be sick! I can’t wait til that day comes. When someone brings something to the table and we think “why didn’t we do that?”, I’m gonna embrace him or her with open arms.
MT: Are there any newer artists you’ve seen who that make you think “he/she is gonna go on and do big things”?
Ghetts: I dunno man because new artists, no disrespect to them, I like a lot of them but…character; character is lacking. You know like Kano was the ladies man and Titch was the greazy guy and Doogz was the Jamaican, there were so many characters that united the listener because the listener may not like Titch but they might like Kano and this was based on character. So when I look at the new generation, although I hear talent, I’m looking for character and I see one character in most which is worrying for me. I like the fact that music should unite people from all walks of life, I love that. But because we’re going through the phase of it being one sort of thing, it’s just one type of fan. I’m being honest here and they might not like me for it, but I worry when I look at some of these grime raves on YouTube and I see no ladies in there, I worry about that, doesn’t anyone else worry about that? And that’s because it’s becoming one type of MC. Where’s the guy that doesn’t wanna bang or shot but he’s just a galis or something? I know there’s one out there but he’s afraid to be himself cos it’s not gonna work at this time which is worrying. I believe each and every one of these kids has character, so just be yourself. Manga is doing something at the moment that I really like and I’ve not seen people going mad, but I can see, I’ve got eyes and ears and what he’s doing is special at the moment. I’ve listened to the CDs and taken in the visuals and I even liked the skits. It’s deeper and I really like what he’s doing so big up Manga.
With his tour taking place this week and the Momentum 2 mixtape set for release on Monday 17th November 2014, Ghetts is set to end 2014 on a high. Having had such a great year, can he reach even higher heights in 2015? Watch this space! Make sure you follow Ghetts on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on all the latest tour information and news and download Ghetts’ app on the App Store here.
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Matt Tarr
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