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Issue 95

Monthly newspaper and online publication targeting 18 to 35 year olds. The ultimate guide to the hottest parties, going out and having fun. Music, fashion, film, travel, festivals, technology, comedy, and parties! London, Barcelona, Miami and Ibiza.

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Tell us a little bit about how music was introduced to you as a child? OK. Growing up around my dad, Tendai Charles, he listened to a lot of reggae artists from Jamaica and stuff and had a lot of music in the house. He had his groups and bands and he'd go to all the festivals. What era was that? We're talking early 90s. So your pops was hitting up fes- tivals in the early 90s? Imagine on my dad's 60th birth- day, not too long ago, Glaston- bury sent him a live performance of him in 1991. Oh my god. That was crazy, 'cos I'd done it not too long ago - and now look at your old man doing it in 1991. So this was already written for you... It was. It was like he done it and now I'm doing it and you know, it just gets handed down. Wicked. So we can see that you've been busy grinding in the studio of late, what do you do that gets you into that zone? I don't like feeling under pressure, like you've got a certain amount of hours or a certain amount of days or weeks to just finish this. I just like to be in a space where I'm literally having fun and then everything's just falling into place organically, and like you could start off with something as little as melody. Getting the sync for it, getting the flow for it and then kind of just picturing the beat in your head, from the kick to the snare to the 808s and just lay- ing it like that, creating it in your head. Knowing what it's gonna sound like, and then just actually laying it down. Just getting it and vibesing it out there. Nice. Naturally. And I like to have a couple different vibes and shit. I like to have a couple of friends around, I like to have a couple of ladies about, especially if you're making love songs. You like to feel different vibes. I wanna see how someone looks when I play a song. So, with your latest release, 'Hop On', how did you end up work- ing with the immensely talented Stefflon Don? We've heard about her, we see that she's coming up right now. Can you tell us a little bit about what attracted you to work with her as an artist? I met Stef through my manager probably about a year ago now and she was just cool, she was like one of the mandem, she was so down to earth and more than that, she could actually sing, she's like an ill spitter. I just took a liking to that. When I came up with the 'Hop On' thing originally, I thought we need some different juice on this. She's got a certain vibe about her, the way she flows, a foxy style. I thought this is a kind of 90s record, I just wanna try her out on it. I hit her up and I was like 'yo, come to the studio'. She came down and we just got into the zone. We all know that Swiss Beats is a notable fan of your work and that you've actually now recently worked with him. How did that link up come about? That link up came about in 2013. I was doing some work with Louis Hamilton. We were flying to New York on a jet and I spoke to Swiss the whole flight. It's me him and Louis, and Hamilton's gone to sleep so we carried on talking to each other. And from that, we just took a liking to a each other. When he came to London, he'd hit me and when I went to New York, I'd hit him. It wasn't even about music, it was just about, like a friendship. And when he actually did say, 'what kind of music do you play, what you doing?' and I played him the music and he was like 'let me deal with this project. Let me executive produce it, who do you want me to speak to? Let me just do that.' Excellent. So you got someone big behind you, that's massive. So nowadays do you think that America accepts and under- stands urban culture in the UK a little bit more than before? Yeah it's getting there. It's getting a lot better in the last couple of years. Where we're at now it's about that 90s thing, even for people who don't even know about the 90s. You've got 16 and 17 year olds who weren't there and they're doing this 90s thing and it's cool but you need the authentic thing. I suppose it just shows how influential the whole vibe of that era was. Listen, there's nothing like that era. If you could get that back, like musically, and even just the value of the music, of people appreci- ating it, it would be crazy. Don't forget 90s was like all requests, you'd have to ring up. You'd have to wait for your record, you couldn't just go on Youtube and wear it out. You appreciate it more. You'd have to wait for the 3 digit number and wait for the track. The anticipation was crazy. It was just a more genuine buzz, the vibe was more exciting. Mak- ing music is too easy now. You've got rappers that didn't like music that sing now. It's just crazy, so you know. INTERVIEW ANGEL ISSUE 95 / 20016 33 HIP HOP & RNB "I'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR 16 YEARS NOW BUT THAT TIME REALLY CAME IN 2009." We caught up with Reprezent Radio host and presenter Scully. Ever informed on grassroots culture he told us which artists we had to watch out for and what 2017 had in store Roshan Ram | Guestlist follow @thisisangel

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