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This month’s Who Are Ya is all about StayFresh. A grime and bassline loving ensemble based in the Midlands, Birmingham and Wolverhampton to be precise. JP caught up with the ring leaders Despa and Jamie Dread to talk grime, bassline and… Bone Thugs ‘N’ Harmony?
For those that don’t know, who is StayFresh ?
StayFresh is a collective of MCs, singers and producers based in the Midlands repping Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Managed by Ryan “Despa” Green and Jamie Dred, we have artists such as Casper, Deadly, J1, Macca, Menace Ivy, Movez, Natz, Pressure, Raider and Saf.One, and on the producer side of things we have Mental, Moky and S-X. Then we also have people we consider to be extended family such as Trilla Jermaine Trilloski, Apostle, the whole of the Revelations Camp and Stormer of the OG’z Collective.
Ok, so how did you guys get into music?
Despa: It’s something that just happens. You’re either a musical person or you’re not, it’s a calling and a definite passion of the soul. Both our parents were musical people; my mother would play reggae music from morning to night and my love for music just grew from there I guess. I got my first tape player and a McDonald’s bump bag around the same time and would roll with my tapes everywhere. Reggae/Ragga, early 90s dance, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, all sorts and then in early ‘96 hip hop took me. I got Bone Thugs ‘N’ Harmony’s, E.1999 Eternal album for Christmas in ‘95 and the song Tha Crossroads helped me through some hard times. The way that music could make you feel and how it could make other people feel, I just knew from there I wanted to make that, to be involved in any way I could.
Jamie Dread: My Father was heavily involved in the UK sound system scene and my mother was part of the Wolverhampton based reggae group Capital Letters, who were signed to the legendary Greensleeves label. So I regularly remember falling asleep in the midst of a blues, you could say I always had music in my dreams. [Laughs]
When it comes to grime music and the Midlands it’s been very up and down, especially when bassline took off. Now that everyone is back on grime do you think it’s going be a lasting relationship?
JD: Grime never left, there were a number of people that continued to represent on the grime front, but I guess when your top DJs and MCs move to another scene, a lot of other people will follow suit. The thing with grime in the Midlands is the lack of infrastructure and radio support for the sound. The possibility or lack thereof of making a living out of music you make, will definitely determine how focused you are on those endeavours. People get sidetracked with other things as they take music as just a hobby and something that shouldn’t be focused on.
Despa: Me and DJ Booski had a show, imaginatively titled, The Despa & Booski Show; we played grime all the time. In the Midlands it’s a little bit of a grime legend that we were banned from radio and somehow never managed to get back on a station through the controversy our show created. Things like that and pirate stations in our areas putting a blanket ban on grime whilst implementing a speed garage only music policy, definitely changed things. When your listeners are force fed a certain genre, then that’s what they come to expect. As the growth of the bassline scene happened, the raves came, the bookings came and the radio was supporting the music, so the PRS came and it kind of went like that really and everyone jumped on the new hype. A few people stayed true to the grime and a lot of other people got day jobs; myself included.
Interesting. So do you think bassline is dead?
JD: That isn’t our place to say, all I know is that despite the growth of the UK funky scene, when I go to a dance the girls and the guys are still bubbling to the bassline, so they must be doing something right. As a matter of fact I’m sure you were at Niche for the New Year’s Eve party JP? [Laugh] So you would probably be better set to answer that question.
Despa: I guess everything has its evolution stages; we will have to wait and see what the future holds for bassline. There a still a lot of talented and smart people in that scene and I’m sure they aren’t just going to let that die.
I was at Niche and it was immense, yes, but let’s get back to the grime [Laughs]. Being from Birmingham and Wolverhampton do you lot find it hard to get love from London and most importantly, do you care?
JD: Talent recognises talent and real recognises real, I think if you put yourself across in the right way then you can’t help but be recognised. I think in the past people were quick to buy US music and now that has very much changed to people looking inside our borders for their superstars, the success of artists such as Dizzee, Tinchy and Chipmunk verifies this. As attitudes continue to change, people from London will begin to look past the M25 for something fresh to listen to and this is already happening with the recognition of artists such as Badness, Lady Leshurr, Trilla and StayFresh artists.
Despa: Personally I have a love hate relationship with the idea of looking to get ‘love’ from London, I’m very much inclined to make sure we are loved in our region first and have our cities on lock before looking elsewhere for recognition. With that said though, there’s no harm in having your talent recognised by the taste makers and the movers and shakers and if they are in London then so be it. We’re definitely open to working with people and receiving support from anyone who respects what we are doing.
StayFresh is more than just a MC collective, it’s a production company also. Do you think you can compete with the competition out there with only acts from the Midlands on it?
JD: Visually, video production wise the things you would’ve seen from us come from two branches. StayFresh RawTV gives you an insight into the StayFresh label, taking the viewer behind the scenes of StayFresh the label with artist interviews, studio sessions and other StayFresh related activities. The other branch you may have seen is StayFresh TV which is a part of Despa’s be83 production company.
Despa: be83 is just me being creative full-stop, be it photography, music production, video production, creative writing. So we don’t see ourselves competing with those companies whatsoever as the business model for be83 is completely different. StayFresh TV was a way of gaining some brand recognition whilst we were developing our artists for this coming year, with that said though you will still see the StayFresh stamp on videos from events and artists we are feeling.
There has been a lot of this ‘Brum vs Wolves’ talk with a lot of MCs. Surely the two towns should be getting along together to make more of an impact…
Despa: StayFresh are a collective of artists from various areas of the Midlands, bringing together Birmingham and Wolverhampton talent under the same umbrella. We can’t say we’ve heard any of this ‘Brum vs Wolves’ talk and generally everyone networks together.
JD: We are definitely working hard to build a strong scene, as a unified kick on the door is much more effective than a little rat-a-tat-tat. On that basis you will see quite a few collaborations between StayFresh and artists from all parts of the Midlands. It’s definitely a key focus of ours for this year.
With that said, what plans do you guys have for 2010?
2009 for us was about building the brand and developing our artists and 2010 is about national recognition and continuing to release quality product. Look out for upcoming promo releases from all of our artists, in the next few months you’ll see S-X’ The Wooo E.P, J1’s Straight From The Mouth Vol. 2, Pressure’s Putting Them Under , Menace Ivy’s Public Enemies, Macca’s Keep Up Vol. 2 and Movez’ The Salesman. As well as the group projects, StayFresh Goes Rotten, which is the second instalment of our annual valentines release FreshLove. We will also be doing our Back 2 Basics mix set series, which will continue to feature the hardest MCs. We have more projects in the pipeline, but we don’t want to give too much away. Other things we think you should look out for outside of our camp are Trilla’s forthcoming CD, More Than Bassline, and any other releases coming out of the Revelations camp. Lady Leshurr’s mixtape, Unleeshur, and you should also look out for two upcoming artists from Birmingham called Romo and Dapz who we feel are definitely ones to watch. “Stars, Moon, Spaceship, gone.’’
