BLADE

Blade is rather ubiquitous these days. Together with fellow-collaborator-but-not-band-member Mark B, he's climbed Top of The Pops to 23, and gained the much-coveted support slot for the world's most infamous hip hop icon, Eminem on his UK tour. He's also (not with Mark B) the proud father of a hyperactive, badass, eight year old, Jordan. And he's renowned for hating the media. Like, really really loathing it. There's a tune, Sealed With A Diss, on the pair's EP that seethes with vitirolic anger waiting for them to trip up. It's a loud attack on the whole industry's fickle attitude towards his work. Consequently, though clearly far from the sins of the mainstream press Vanguard does, nonetheless, feel mildly intrepid about meeting this steaming badboy of UK hip hop. Crime by association and all that.

So, I'm ushered in to meet Blade by his tour manager, into the back of the tour bus which isn't really how you'd expect the inside of an upandcoming hip hop star's tour bus to be. It's clean, for a start. Walls all carpeted with lilac. And there are a million play station screens to contend with. No rizla in sight. Not even a beer.

I need a beer. Badly. I have no idea how I'm going to conduct this interview without, well, falling asleep, really. Quite frankly, I'm a bit of a mess.

So's Blade, apparently, he tells me, though one suspects he's just being nice. Even nicer when he produces a lovely, splendid, cold beer from the tour-bus fridge for me to drink.

Head in hand, not looking a mess, as such, but very relaxed, Blade lies horizontally on the back seats of the bus like some kind of kitsch, performing psychiatrist's patient. We chat about Sheffield for a bit. It's important to him - the first gig he did for four years was at Sheffield's hip-hop night Phonetics last September. 'It's been mad ever since', he says.

Vanguard: So you were in Cambridge yesterday?

Vanguard: Wicked. So how's the tour going then?

Blade:Well, it's only just started, really. We were in Cambridge yesterday doing a show and these boys - The Delegates of Culture - brought a camcorder and were like 'can you do that line for us, live?' and so we got the whole crew together and were like [lapses into indistinguishable hiphopism] and they were like 'wickeeeeed'. The only thing with all this University stuff is that it tends to be a little too student-centred. We would like to see other people at our shows, you know? That happened in Cambridge yesterday, we played Anglia Uni and it was just students. Which is great, but …

Vanguard: Yeah, it's very difficult for us unsightly locals to gain access to student gigs in Cambridge. Heathens, all of us. You met the Delegates (of Culture) there …

Blade:Yeah. The only reason why they knew about the gig was that two of their lot went to the University there, so they came along and were like 'no way, we could have got you 2000 people!' We were like, 'why didn't you?' We hung out with them all night. They're really cool guys. One of them basically gave us a lift around town and took us to record shops and it's just nice to know that other people still make time to so that kind of thing. They don't see us as bigger than we are. We're just artists at the same time. We might have a little bit more success than other people at the moment but we're still just artists struggling to make things better. It's important for us to make people realise that we're still in the same game. Course, when I've got my mansion and a bitch on each arm then people can go 'raaaaaaaa, he's changed'. But look at my trainers! They're wrecked, man.

Just because they've supported Eminem doesn't mean they've got the riches of him and even if they had it would be fully earned. The Blade story's a long one. He and Mark B met about ten years ago. A canny promoter at the time, Mark B bought a record off Blade by mail order and managed to get him to come down and do a show down where he was in Kingston. The rest is history. 'Basically we've been friends ever since. So, yeah, we actually got together to start making music about three or four years ago, now'.

Vanguard: I read recently there are Hello-style rumours flying about that you and Mark are going to split up. I take it this isn't true.

Blade:[Sighs as if for the fifty-millionth time] Basically what it is is that me and Mark are two solo entities. Any split really is just part of that. We're not like a typical group kind of thing, you know - four people in a group with their group playing. We are Mark B and Blade, just to show we are two separate entities. How can something split up if we have never been together? Really if there were any bad vibes I don't think we'd be here on a tour bus together. We're here, we're touring - nawhatamean? We hear all these rumours that we're splitting up and people are just making more of it than it actually is. Really, we aint splitting up. We're here on the tour bus, we play the playstation, he gets pissed out of his head and I make fun of him. [Laughs]

Vanguard: Sounds like a marriage made in heaven. I think people generally just want something to write about, don't they? The killer angle and all that.

The media attention that UK hip hop is currently generating is phenomenal when compared with how it rated just two years ago. Even the NME has leaped upon the Blighty wagon, recently making Rootsmanuva's appearance at Cambridge clubnight Rawganics its highlighted gig of the week. About time too. Hip hop has been making waves all over the UK for years, now. It's time for its comeuppance.

Vanguard: I've recently been writing on why UK hip hop was ignored for so long by the media. Have you got any ideas on that?

Blade:Yeah. I just think that when people don't understand something they find it hard to invest in it. It's like that … For example, you wouldn't see Man United invest in a player that had never been seen, or had been rarely seen. It's about risk, though. Man United have got the funds to occasionally take that risk. You know? But there's other clubs out there that can't afford to take that risk. That's the problem with the industry.

Vanguard: What, football?

Football? The problem with the music industry is football? If only I'd known that a month ago …

Blade:That kind of shit happens all the time. The industry waits for someone to make a name for themselves before they jump on the bandwagon and say, well, you know what, we'll take that. The difference now is that you've got A and R people now that used to be into hip hop and are still into hip hop, that grew into hip hop, that understand hip hop.

Vanguard: A new generation.

Blade:Yeah. It's a new generation. It's the same thing that happened to punk, indie - the people that used to listen to it are now in the positions that put them on the map. And that's basically what's happened with hip hop. That's what we're going to do. Everybody. Everybody in the UK. We're going to smash it.

Vanguard: Have you got any particular gripes with the media at all? Blade. Um. Nah. Not really. The thing is it's like yes I did have. Back in the old days I got a little bit of support, but I'm not a selfish guy and I couldn't understand why the whole scene itself wasn't getting the support. In the early days I got support from the hip hop magazines and there were only one or two kicking about. Then when I did my double album I got a little bit of support from NME, Melody Maker things like that. But then what was happening was that basically the support was coming because we were supporting rock bands and stuff like that on stage. But as time has gone on they're supporting us more. And, as I said, the kids that used to be into all this stuff are now the journalists who are writing about it. It's all good. My personal gripes with the industry faded out a very very long time ago. I don't really have any gripes with the industry. I don't really have any feelings toward the industry. I'm just here to make music and I neither hate them nor them. It's just basically I'm here to serve a purpose and they're here to serve a purpose … I have a little respect now, I mean, I understand why these people do what they do. They've got to sell magazines and stuff. Any gripes I had with them are because I was immature. I felt that because I made a record I deserved support and that's not the way it goes. You have to do a little bit more than just make a record to get support. So, I've grown up.

Vanguard: You talked about bitterness in the whole scene. Have you felt any negativity aimed toward yourself and Mark B more recently, since you've begun to do so well?

Blade:People seem to think that because we did a track with Feeder, or even just the fact that we were getting the recognition - we get played on Radio One and suddenly we're considered a sell out because we're not getting played by hip hop DJs we're getting played by Steve Lamaq. You know what? At the end of the day people can think what they want to think because I'm not making music for them I'm making music for myself. I don't have to answer to them in the same way that they don't have to answer to me by not buying my record.

Vanguard: The UK hip hop scene in still very much defined by its underground status in some quarters. Everyone's skint. Do you think this prevents growth?

Blade:Well, you know that's their decision. I don't know if you've heard the lyrics in Sealed With A Diss where I blatantly say all of that stuff. You know

[Blade randomly starts rapping into dictaphone]

just because we've made a record with Feeder you suddenly think that we've changed our whole format and I refuse to be your doormat to be stepped on to be left back, you're damn right it's a fact and I refuse to be held back. I wouldn't change a damn thing get it straight I'm a rap fiend. I was here before you were born when there wasn't even a rap scene. You wish me luck say that I should break a leg and finally I get the break and now it's all changed to I hope you break your neck

Nahwhatamean?

Vanguard: [Moving swiftly on] Ok. Rapping as poetry. When did you start rapping?

Blade: Well, I actually started writing poems when I was six. Then I heard rap and I was like [lapses into blatant Englishism] bloody hell I can do this. So I started rapping when I was twelve.

Vanguard: [As if counseling severely disturbed patient] Hmmm. You were twelve. What happened there? How did that happen?

Blade:Basically I heard some music that I thought was original. I liked it. Some of the stuff like Ah Ha was allright but I found it too tame for me. NahwhatImean? I just needed something with a bit more vibe. And then things like Malcom Maclaren and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and all that came along. I was like 'raaaaaaaa, this is it'. Totally blown away by the film Wild Style, and all the breakdancing that was going on at the time.

Vanguard: What are your roots?

Blade:Jackson Five. Cos they were kids doing their own thing. They were wicked. I went to Boarding School so was forced to listen to a lot of classical music, too. Ammadeus. Elgar. That kind of thing. It shows more in my solo stuff. I really like Verlioz, actually.

Vanguard: [Revealing true philistine nature] Who?

Blade:You don't know who that is? Raaaaa. You don't know your classical.

Vanguard: Sorry.

Blade:Thing is, I got to a point with even pop where I worked out the difference between something being shit and just not being into it. Just cos you're not into it, it doesn't mean that it's shit - so, nothing's shit. Not even Kylie Minogue. [Pause] No, I take that back. Kylie is shit.

Vanguard: I quite like Kylie, actually.

It would appear that Kylie is something of a moot point with Blade. And Madonna, though the Queen of Pop comes up trumps over the Aussie wench who is, apparently, just trying to be Madonna, anyway. Kylie is the worst kind of artist. A synthetic, superficial, commercial product of the industry whose continued fame prevents real talent from getting a chance. Kylie is wrong. Evil. Should be avoided at all costs.

Vanguard: What about Jason?

Blade:We did a show with him the other day! You think I'm joking I got the posters to prove it.

Vanguard: What? How?

Blade:I don't know. We didn't know about it til the morning.

Vanguard: Did you talk to him?

Blade:Nah. We said hello, then ran off to get some lucozade. Fast as our legs would carry us.

However, Blade would like to make it clear that he does not want his public to think he's egotistical, despite hating Kylie and having no time of the day for Jason. He does not think he is better than them, just is not into superficial things. For example, he himself is passionate about rock, his dalliance with Feeder a true reflection of this passion, not, as some might think, a reflection of an innately superficial, cynical nature. He's just someone who makes music. Hip hop is merely his forte. And he'll do it with frigging Marilyn Manson if he has to. Blade is, most definitely, for real.

Vanguard: Has Eminem helped hip hop?

Blade:Too right he has. You cannot put the man down. Anyone who does I think just wants to be him. You know, winging about homophobia or whatever. They're just jealous. He is such a talent. How can there be a crossover in the scene if artists don't encourage it?

Vanguard: His mum wasn't too happy though was she?

Blade:That's family shit. Not my business. None of this is, but I just think you can tell when something is superficial or not.

Vanguard: Do you believe in world peace?

Blade:Yes I do. But it's a pity that the governments don't.

Vanguard: Do you want to relate that to anything in particular?

Blade:Ever since I was born, looking back into the history of man there have always been wars and it's sad, you know. We all bleed the same blood and yet we can't get along. It's a sad state of affairs. When I was young I used to think why can't the rich help the poor but it aint like that. The richer will always want to get richer and the poor carry on not getting the right education. I hope it does happen one day, though and if Nostradamus is right then it will happen in 2027. The end of the world as we know it and the beginning of the new.

Vanguard: [As if suddenly realised] Not that long really is it?

Blade:No not really. But yeah I do believe in world peace. Like I said I wish there were some people who put aside monetary gain and material things. If they did that, there would be room for these things. I think also a lot of the people in power on ego trips - we're stronger than you and we're going to prove it. Whatever. I don't like getting invloved in politics, though. I'd rather watch the Simpsons.

Vanguard: Most people would. And to finish off, any female emcees you want to big-up?

Blade:I don't really listen to a lot of female emcees because I don't get the opportunity to. I know there's a lot bubbling on the underground. You got the likes of Wildflower, Temper, Estelle, Lyric Elle, Heebedee who's wicked, and she can sing, too. There's a lot of stuff bubbling waiting to explode. The one I want to see more of is Estelle cos she's always smiling! Estelle - you are always smiling! Yeah, she's wicked. The first time I heard of Wildflower and Temper they were on a small five minute documentary based in Nottingham and it was like 'raaaaaaaaaaaaaa!' You know it was a shock, you know. I'm a bit of a recluse so I don't check the scene much. But yeah, let's just hope there's more!

Vanguard: And the future?