Category: Interview

Matt Horowitz catches up with B Dolan to talk about his new album, The Wound Is Not The Body, which came out in May, production, the impact of the death of Alias in 2018, and more. 

When did you start creating the songs that became The Wound Is Not The Body?

I actually started some of these beats and ideas in 2018, but the real writing didn’t properly begin until 2020. During the pandemic lockdown is when I started just clearing out all of the concepts and beats I’d been meaning to get to and seeing what could be made of them, at which point they started to really accumulate with no clear finish line in sight. Getting side-tracked from touring allowed me to really dig in without ever picking my head up for a while.

Who provided production work for The Wound Is Not The Body and how did you find/connect with them initially?

A few of the beats were mine;  “Ice Cream Wars” and “Turn A Mill” were two beats I’d produced that I knew I intended to work with. So, those were two of the first to get vocals. I also reached out to Widowmaker, at some point, and Small Professor as a fan of his work. Ant [from Atmosphere] I connected with on the road years ago and the songs we did together came out of a week I spent writing and working with him at his crib years back.

Is this one of your first times delving into production work for your own music?

Not at all haha. I’ve been making beats since 2000. I produced on my first album, The Failure, in 2008. My first proper Rap production credit is on my House of Bees, Vol. 2 mixtape; a song called “Tin Soldiers.” Then, I produced all of my 2016 album, Kill The Wolf, and songs on my House of Bees [Vol.] 3 tape. Then, I produced several songs for Epic Beard Men, including “Dumb A$$ Kids,” “Hedges,” “Foresight,” and “Take A Break.” Then, I produced a film soundtrack for the movie Vault… I’ve been doing some production work, Matt!

Who or what would you readily cite as some of your greatest sources of personal inspiration and influence while making The Wound Is Not The Body?

The poet Adrienne Maree Brown wrote a poem called What Is Unveiled? The Founding Wound, which is where the title is sampled from. Kayln Hefferman of Wheelchair Sports Camp sent me a book during my recovery from surgery that helped get me back to myself after a number of pretty fucked up changes to my life and body in 2020. My recovery from spine surgery and the people it brought me into contact with have been my primary source of personal inspiration and influence on this one. The work of care workers and healers has inspired me a lot.

What did your typical writing, recording, production, creation, etc. processes entail?

I got very into math while writing some of these songs. I, also, was spending a lot of time just DJ’ing records in my home studio and started to get much more focused on the arrangement of songs. A little bit of that provided some new structure to the way I was thinking about lyrics and songs, which has given me some fresh ways to approach things that felt really good. All of these songs started as demos in my home studio, then, got sent to DS3K, who handled mixing the album and has mixed most of my projects since 2012. On certain songs, I knew I’d need some additional players or vocals and all of that was sort of recorded piecemeal with different sessions musicians I know. All of it remote, which felt kind of incredible and was surprisingly fun.

What can you tell us about the music videos for and concepts behind “The Rock Cried Out” and “Fantasy Baseball?”

I was approached by Fable Studios after streaming the demo for “The Rock Cried Out” and they came with that idea ready to go. The process of photographing my head for a 3-D model was pretty intense and took a couple tries. I love how they brought it to life though. As for “Fantasy Baseball,” I’d been wanting to work with Rakugaki Animation Studio for years and approached them to do a couple animated projects. The idea of an illustrated baseball team with some of my favorite rappers and an arena full of fans who are missing the point… combined with, like, a devotees’ perspective, which is much more like the Doc Ellis L.S.D. trip baseball game… like, we’re not playing a game, we’re watching larger than life characters and stories play out and do incredible things… “Who gives a fuck what the score is?” That was the concept for that one.

How would you say your overall sound, musical style, approach, etc. has changed and evolved since your last proper solo album with 2015’s Kill The Wolf?

It’s changed a lot like my approach to life has changed. I was reckless when I was younger and trying to move as much energy as possible. In the course of doing that, I might’ve been doing too much, at times, and wasting energy or muddying the water for myself. With age, I think you slow down a little, but learn to move more energy with a focused, mindful effort. I’m always trying to improve and reduce things to their essence when it comes to my process of doing things. I used to only rap densely until I started listening more to production. I used to only produce densely until I started listening more to the mix. So, I’m always in a process of refining and sharpening what I do, which, sometimes, means doing less. A lot of the process with these songs was about tearing down and building back up.

What prompted you to trim the album down from 27 tracks on the tour-exclusive version of The Wound Is Not The Body from 2023, to the final 9-track album version?

I’ve given the folks who came back first and strongest since the pandemic an early peak at the whole collection of songs, but, ultimately, we decided that 27 songs was going to be far too many to focus on and great songs were going to get lost in the sauce, if we just let them all go at once. The decision was made to split it into two albums. This one I privately kind of think of as “the pre-op.” The one that will follow it contains a lot of the heavier and darker stuff that got written during that time.

How did you go about recruiting Symphonic Distribution and Speech Development Records/The Orchard to co-release The Wound Is Not The Body in the US and UK, respectively?

I’ve never tried self-releasing a record at this level, but the new realities of indie music sort of dictated I had better learn. Patreon and Bandcamp with their crowd-funding functions, also, opened my eyes to a lot of what is possible, if you’re willing to interact directly with the folks who care the most about what you’re doing. Scroobius Pip released my last record in 2016 and put me in touch with The Orchard, via his label, Speech Development. Patreon and Kickstarter allowed me to press my own records and merch without taking advances from a label. There’s a learning curve to distributing your own music, but the benefits of retaining ownership and control over what I’m making is the most important thing, at this point.

Who designed the image seen across the album cover for The Wound Is Not The Body, what’s the significance behind it, and what is its relation to the themes heard across the album itself?

Janine Shroff did the design. She’s an incredible painter, designer and illustrator, who I was introduced to via a mutual friend. I sent her an image taken by the plastic surgeon a week after my surgery, which was my first look at my back once the bandages came off. The original photo is pretty damn gory. Most of the nurses in the hospital told me they’d never seen a cervical spine scar that big.  When we started working on the cover, I talked to Janine about a time I was on mushrooms under a big decaying tree after Alias died. I was looking at this big Goth tree and thinking it was like a cathedral, and about how Bren (Brendon Whitney/Alias) would’ve dug it and it was sad that it was dead. And, suddenly, I locked in to all these ants that were moving in and out of this dead tree and realized this whole structure was brimming with life as it was being torn down and turned into new things. From there, the idea developed of this wound that’s regenerating and growing things, even though it’s green and infected and open.

When can we expect a follow-up to Epic Beard Men’s 2019 album, This Was Supposed to Be Fun?

Probably never, would be my guess haha. Never say never, but this feels like an OK time to say it. There’s certain indie rap team-ups that are like that, though. I think, at the time, we both knew those albums and tours were for posterity… for the sake of all the people who said we should do it, we did it. Those records exist as a marker of that time and, really, our whole time together. It was a detour for both of us though and life has gotten even less personally and financially conducive to detours like that in the time that’s passed. We’re both in very different phases of life and business these days with plenty of solo work to get to.

What do you have planned next to share with the world?

A ton more music. My schedule will determine whether the rest of these songs come out later this year or in the first quarter of next year. Right now, I’m writing to beats Alias had sent me before he passed for a follow-up to Fallen House, Sunken City (2010) we’d been planning. I’ve got some exciting tour plans for the year, as well, including tours with some great openers and presentations I’ve never tried. People can sign up for Patreon to hear and see work in-progress, as always, or hit the email list at IAmBDolan.com for tour announcements and release news. Thanks for the interview!

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The Wound Is Not The Body is out now – get it here. Follow B Dolan on X, Instagram and Spotify. 

Matt Horowitz has been a hip-hop fan ever since he first heard Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) back in the mid-90’s, which positively or negatively changed his life ever since, depending on who you ask. He single-handedly runs online music publication The Witzard, and has been fortunate enough to interview Eothen ‘Egon’ Alapatt, Guilty Simpson, Ice-T and Mr. X, Dan Ubick, Career Crooks’ Zilla Rocca & Small Professor, Cut Chemist, and J-Zone, amongst countless others. He enjoys writing about and listening to hip-hop, Punk/Hardcore, and Indie Rock on vinyl with his lovely wife, while drinking craft beer, red wine, or iced coffee. To paraphrase both Darko The Super and the Beastie Boys: “Already Dead fans, they want more of this… I’m a Witzard like my man Matt Horowitz!”. Follow Matt here.

Beneficence is back with a new album, Summer Night Sessions, alongside production duo Jazz Spastiks. We spoke to him about the making of the project, Ill Adrenaline Records, and more.

We’ve been fans of your music for years, and also that of the Jazz Spastiks. How did you guys connect for Summer Night Sessions?

I’d worked with Jazz Spastiks on a song called “Smooth Hardcore” in 2016. Their smooth sound is a great fit for my vocals. When we first started recording for Summer Night Sessions it was supposed to be a two-song single. Then an EP, and now finally an album. So it all came out amazing! A lot of the songs were written during the pandemic. I wanted to create something inspirational for these unsure times.

The album has an amazing feature list. Did it take long to pull all of these collaborations together?

It took two years to finish the songs with features. My label partner/manager put together a list of possible features for this album and we made it happen.

One feature that stands is Doodlebug on “Wicked & Wild”. Having a member of Digable Planets on the album is pretty special. Did you already have a relationship with him, or is this more of a bucket list collaboration?

Digable Planets is no doubt one of the greatest groups of all times. So having a collaboration with Doodlebug is very dope! My manager connected with him first then I actually met him at a Digable Planets show and chopped it up with him. He’s a very good dude, very personable as was the whole group.

What is it about the production style of Jazz Spastiks that appealed to you, and did they make the instrumentals specifically for this project?

Jazz itself is very intricate and always attracted me. When I listened to the production before writing I heard more and more nuisances placed in the music that I loved. Jazz Spastiks production brought the best out of my lyrics and it fit great with the scheme of the album.

Ill Adrenaline Records has been running now for 13 years, and has a pretty deep catalog. How hard is it to keep a label like this afloat in 2023, and since the whole landscape of music has changed so much in the last two decades?

It’s very difficult to keep anything running with that kind of longevity. Life happens, things change but we love this music and carry on tradition. We realize music changes but the foundation remains the same. We embrace the culture and still put out great music with integrity.

What’s up next for you once Summer Night Sessions is out there?

I’m currently in the middle of another album. I’ve recorded about four songs so far including the main single. We have other acts in the process of being released. I’m also working on a follow up to my memoir. I just enjoy writing. We also have a list of very dope unreleased material from a range of dope artists  so stay tuned!

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Summer Night Sessions is out now. Stream and purchase here, and get physical copies from Fatbeats, HHV, or the Ill Adrenaline Records site. Follow Beneficence on X, Instagram and Spotify. 

Curly Castro is a rap artist associated with the art of unapologetic penmanship. From his work with ShrapKnel and Wrecking Crew, as well as his own acclaimed body of solo material, Castro is a force to be reckoned with, both in the studio and on stage. GingerSlim caught up with him to discuss all things music, including his partnership with PremRock, his roots and his views on hip-hop as a force for education.

Thank you for joining me. I know it’s been a long time coming so I’m glad we’re finally getting it done. How’s everything going with you? How’s the year treating you so far?

Things are okay. With my condition, the winter’s not the best time for me. Also, with my hip and all the metal I’ve got in there, winters are tough. Let’s just say that. But it’s manageable. We’ve had a weird one over here, because it’s been up and down, not even consistently cold. But nothing to complain about really, just weather shit.

I know a lot of us are still feeling the aftershocks from the last ShrapKnel album, which somehow seemed to level up on the previous projects. Is that a conscious effort by you guys to reach new heights with each release or is it something that’s happened organically as you’ve progressed?

I mean it’s a little of both. There’s some organic augmentation going on there, but there’s definitely a deliberate goal of mine and Prem’s to write better, to reach new heights. We also share a label with the greatest duo out now, so… I always bring them up because I need people to understand that they set a good pace. It’s about the company you keep. So once we started aligning ourselves with sharper swordsmen, we wrote better. We can’t come half-stepping; it’s not really a game. Some people are kinda like jolly with rhyming, having a good time. I’m not having a good time, I’m here to chop your head off. I’ll talk to the severed head and we’ll have a good time after the battle. But yeah also a little organic. Working with Prem so close, that’s increased my writing tenfold cos he’s incredible. That’s the basis I start with when I describe my partner: he’s incredible. So just to keep step with him, made me up what I was doing. It just had to happen, or else ShrapKnel wouldn’t be what it is.

You and Prem had known each other a long time before ShrapKnel came into existence, so how did the group form? Was there any significance to the timing?

Well it’s interesting, the irony, because me and Prem had been working on music together for like 10 years. So when people go and dig, find a song on his project that I’m on, or find him on one of mine, they’ll find little nuggets of our collaborations. But ShrapKnel was a wholly different thing in the sense that we tell people that it was the great idea that we never had. When we told people, like I was thinking of doing a project with Prem, everyone we told just thought it made so much sense. So it was right there in front of us but we were sitting there thinking some people would be quizzical and would want to hear it before making their mind up. But even when we were in our infantile stages, everybody was excited. And of course, we also have a very deep performance history too. We balanced each other very well on stage. Before we officially committed to our collaboration, I would help him out on shows and he would do the same for me. Then when we officially put it down, that’s our live element. You’ll see him do solo things, you’ll see me do solo things, but when you see us live together it’ll be in the form of ShrapKnel.

I’m always intrigued by the blend of camaraderie and friendly competition in some rap duos. Do you think that’s played a part in ShrapKnel’s chemistry?

I will say we’re both very prideful and we forge our blades with the hottest fires. But I don’t know if we’re trying to one-up each other. I think we’re trying to one-up everybody. I definitely think it’s more unified, like we’re gonna smash them on this track. And I don’t ever have to worry. If we’re writing a song, I don’t ever have to worry about Prem’s part. Which is a luxury you might not have in certain duos; some people will feel like they have to do all the lifting, or they have to occupy this element within the duo. With Prem, I’m worry free. I know when I pass him that baton, this song is going to go nuclear. Or when he starts a song, it’s already a smash. So it’s definitely more a sense of calm and confidence in our abilities, than us competing with each other on a song. More so I’m just trying to keep up with the god, you know what I mean?

I know last year was a success for you musically, but it was also tough for you on a personal level. Did you ever find it difficult to maintain a positive attitude towards your creativity while you were dealing with everything else?

Well normally when people get a cancer diagnosis, or anytime you’re facing your mortality, there are certain ways you can go. But I never felt – and people know that I’m a spiritual person – I never felt the spectre of a black cloud over me, that’s just not the feeling I had. I was talking with doctors, going through treatments, but that energy was just not with me. So it was more a case of me getting myself physically able to return to full capacity. And that was always a big worry for me. I’m sitting there in recovery, supposed to be focused on getting well and I’m sitting there thinking about owing people feature verses, or I’m holding up the tour with Prem [laughs]. This is how I’m thinking, I’m stupid. And so last year was definitely a battle of wills in terms of just wanting to get back to a level where I could still perform and do projects. That definitely wasn’t rushed. I was down, I had to relearn to walk and things of that nature – I’ve said this story a couple of times – so that definitely put everything on the back-burner. I actually wrote and recorded some stuff while I was in recovery, which was real cathartic. I recorded a verse for Rich Jones, shout out to him. That Blankets verse, I was in a wheelchair when I did that! And so again, I’m supposed to be recovering but I found an outlet cos there was this music therapy cat that was at the rehabilitation centre. But then I was worrying about recording my verses sitting down, how would it affect my diaphragm. Not thinking about how I’m going to be in a wheelchair for a while, just deal with it. Me, I’m thinking will the verse be different? So it was just a matter of me getting back to some type of functionality, where I could still contribute to the culture. That was my main thing. And I didn’t know if it was going to happen again, so I’m glad that it has.

Well I think we all are, man, so that’s really good to hear. And on the flipside of that, do you feel like the experience has brought anything new to your creative vision, like a different perspective?

Oh, I mean of course! When you almost die, as clichéd as it is, there’s now a lack of insignificance in my life. Everything is important. I don’t want to get all poetic, but a ladybug on a windowsill is important, watching the rain is important, spending time with my girl is important; everything has value now. Talking to my mother consistently, talking to my friends consistently, things aren’t as frivolous. When you don’t think about your mortality, you’re happy, you’re carefree. I’m 20, I’m 30, I’m going to be around until I’m 70-80… But when you face it and it’s right there in front of you, you realise you don’t have as much time as you thought you had on this planet and so I can’t just be carefree and let the time loose. I have to use the time in a valuable way. So it definitely makes you more aware of the time you had left, that perhaps you’re closer to the end than you are to the beginning. It’s not as open-ended as you thought it was, so it brings everything into focus a lot more.

Yeah, I’ve never dealt with anything like that in terms of my physical health, but definitely with my mental health. I was heavily into drugs when I was younger, I spent a good portion of my life not caring about myself, and it wasn’t until I reached 40 that I had some sort of enlightenment and awakening.

Oh well that’s a great age.

Yeah exactly. Life began again at 40 for me and so now I’m becoming a father, I’ve met the woman I’ve fallen in love with, everything is coming together. So I understand that feeling very well.

Yeah and I know you went through that experience, but I know there’s probably a part of you that felt like you might have lost some years, or you could have been a little more productive.

Oh yeah definitely.

But hindsight is 20/20 and so that’s why I don’t want to look back like that no more. You just want to value what you’ve got and give your energy into that. And I feel like that productivity, it won’t leave you wanting for nothing. If you just live with your life ahead of you and start focusing on the fact that everything has a certain importance, you won’t feel like you didn’t get to do something. You’ll feel fulfilled.

Yeah, because that plays into the whole idea of letting go of things you can’t control. You can’t control the past, so why worry about it?

Right! And things can change, anything can happen. Like with this hip hop shit, it’s taken me to territories I would’ve never been to, so anything is head of you. I might go overseas this year; anything is ahead of you. The possibilities are endless so don’t focus on the past and think about the things you might have missed out on. Do it now! I met this one guy who didn’t start being a photographer until he was in his late 50’s and he had already done two other careers before that. Now he’s a worldclass photographer at 64. You can always start your cycle whenever you want to, just go out there and try it.

Yeah it’s a beautiful thing. Now I want to go back to the early days because I’m always interested in finding out about an artist’s roots. So I was wondering what sort of musical influences you were exposed to as a child?

I mean I grew up in New York, so hip hop was like oxygen; it was everywhere. It was on the trains, it was on the buildings, it was coming out of boom boxes, coming out of first floor windows. People was beatboxing on the corner… so because I came up in the mecca, I had early Tribe, Nas, Wu-Tang. That was in the 90’s, but even in the 80’s I caught wind of late Public Enemy, NWA… so hip hop was always the pulse. I listened to hip hop and reggae growing up, period. I grew up in a West Indian family, so it was either reggae playing in the house, some oldies, or I was in my room playing hip hop.

And obviously that comes through in your music heavily.

I’m a Foundational Hip Hop American, FHAA, that’s what I would say.

And so, was it always going to be rap for you, or were there any other creative avenues that you were exploring when you were younger?

I didn’t actually rap when I was younger. I was a writer – I wrote poems, I wrote stories, so I had a gift of writing, but I didn’t want to rap. And it wasn’t in me as a teenager either, I wasn’t like a breakdancer or anything like that. It’s just the culture was all around me, so when I got to college, my dream, as far as music goes, was I wanted to be hype man. I wanted to be Flavor Flav, I wanted to be Freaky Tah, I wanted to be that guy. I felt like I could help your stage out, I could do all the extra jumping… like the way the S1Ws were, that was a big influence on me… that’s all I wanted to do. So when rap groups started emerging around me in college, I just said I’d be their hype man, lemme just get a copy of the lyrics. Then eventually I started writing because I was just around other likeminded cats and I remember that my writing was almost as good as the others in the group, so then I said okay, I’ll be a fully-fledged MC. I had a wack, really weird name back then.

So how old were you at that point?

I was like 19, 20. So I’ve been rapping over 20 years now. But like I said, I knew cats that was rapping in high school, they were all adept at it by like 17, so I was a bit later. But it was a good time because it was the mid-90’s, hip hop was cracking off. It’s funny when I think about it now, because this was right before every commercial started being hip hop, maybe a McDonald’s commercial or something like that. But right after ‘95, everything started being hip hop, it’s right when the virus took over.

I think it’s fair to say that you’ve always strived to educate as much as entertain with your music, as we saw with the Little Robert Hutton album for example. Do you think music can be a legitimate force for change in that respect? Are listeners still engaging with the material on that level?

I think people say they don’t, but it’s still resistance music. When I got into it, it was the 80’s. Self Destruction was out, there was a certain element about how baseheads was bad, crack was bad. So I always feel like I got very much educated by the music. I listened to KRS One, I listened to Public Enemy, I listened to Paris. So a lot of the names and dates and issues, I would learn from rap music. And it was just natural, because I was listening to the music so much, that I would just take the lessons and let them guide me. Even if you move forward to Ras Kass, Nature of the Threat was educational for me. I went a looked up everything he talked about. And I think that’s still there. It’s always going to be there. Thos alternate forms of learning. You don’t always want a teacher droning at you, you don’t always want to watch an instructional video, some cats learn from hip hop. I think that element will always be in there, so that’s why I drop a gem in there. I’ll drop a black icon in there, because I felt like that was my job. I brought it to the forefront with Little Robert Hutton, but pretty much all my material has that element of rebel in there. And that’s just how I feel, you know. I’ve got the blood of the Black Panthers in me, I feel like I’m a resistance spirit… you know I don’t want to go to jail or anything crazy, but I use my music in that way when I can. Because I also know people don’t want to be overblown with it, they don’t like it preachy, but they will take an anthem, so you can slide things in. It’s a good Trojan horse to get people to understand systems and movements and methods, so that’s why I use it when I can.

And that’s really good, but I guess on the other side of that, the protest energy is still within the music but it’s whether the people are listening. The way music is consumed nowadays is a lot more throwaway than it used to be.

Oh yeah, it’s a lot more disposable than it used to be and there’s no way to predict what could be a hit, but you’ve just gotta keep plugging away. And now we have a new phase. Like before we had ringtones, that was like a small portion of the song and now we have TikTok, which is an even shorter portion of the song. There’s many TikToks that I see are very popular, I go Shazam the song and I find out that’s just the bridge or whatever. But I think there’s no formula that’s really exact, just do it. You might have a hook that gets popular, you might have a celebrity that goes on Jimmy Fallon and says a few of your words and that’s how you get popular, who knows? I know when they made Hip Hop, Dead Prez wasn’t shooting for any popularity with that song; they didn’t want to be popular at all with any of their tracks. I feel like the formula is malleable so always shoot your shot. If you make protest music, shoot your shot. Keep shooting your shot and you might get the platform you’re surprised that you have. Especially with social media, everybody has their own mini platform. Social media makes it so your corner of the internet can be important.

Yeah and staying with that point there, from the outside looking in it feels like it’s a good time to be an independent artist. You can use platforms like Bandcamp to sell your music and you don’t even really need a label, I mean they can help but they’re definitely not essential. Is that accurate to how you see it from the inside as an independent artist?

The label is not as necessary as it used to be. If you can get a situation that’s beneficial for you, then you go for it. That’s what I say nowadays. You can wait for a situation that benefits you, you don’t have to just throw your hat in the ring. There was a time when to get your music on the radio, or to put it out there, you had to be part of a label. So when that was the game, you played that game. Now the game is different. Labels need us, the artists, to keep their things going. So you make that situation beneficial to yourself. If it works well to do a certain project with a certain label, then so be it, but just take it one project at a time. You don’t need to be locked in. I always follow the DOOM standard. People thought he was jumping around from place to place, but if you look, he had deals with like 10 different labels. That means 10 different revenue streams, that means 10 different sets of royalties. That’s a great model. You don’t have to be locked in, unless it’s beneficial. We do Wrecking Crew business, that’s kind of our own imprint. But then ShrapKnel works best on Backwoodz, Zilla works really well on Chong Wizard Records, Small Pro works well on Coalmine Records… I think you have to spread your tentacles that way, it’s important. Because then you have multiple factions working in you favour. When I did my research about labels, you would be surprised about how many rappers had their projects shelved. Their stuff just disappeared in the sense that no one could hear it, it would never get released. How many hours they worked on it goes for nothing and that’s a horrible situation. I couldn’t imagine having music that I didn’t have control over. So make sure you have a good grasp of your situation.

I know we touched on it earlier, but you’ve always been loyal to your roots by melding reggae and dub into your rap, especially on the Tosh album. Do you think you could ever go the whole way to making a whole dub project or something along those lines?

Oh no way! I’m not like Snoop Lion out here. [laughs]. That part of my music is really sacred to me and I always wonder if I’m doing a good job, am I representing my folks right? You know, I’m pretty Yankee, so is my accent okay, do I sound right? It’s important to me, so I just try to dabble, do little splashes of it… but also, I’m Bajan and a lot of people think it’s Jamaica or bust, like that’s the only island we got out there, so I don’t want to be mistaken for doing the Jamaican thing. So, I guess I grew up with it, I tap into it if I need a rhythm or melody; I just try to pay homage the best I can without sounding foolish.

We’ve got an artist over here, Roots Manuva, and for his second album, Run Come Save Me, he did a whole reworked version called Dub Come Save Me. He brought in a load of dub producers and reworked every track on the album and it came out really well. So don’t give up on the idea [laughs].

Okay, I can do that! I can do a dub version of a record.

Yeah, you keep the lyrics the same and just rework the beat. I know Prem has been to the UK a few times to perform, but have you ever made the journey?

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Stream and buy Curly Castro’s solo albums on Bandcamp and Spotify here and here, and ShrapKnel’s music here and here. Follow Curly Castro on Twitter and Instagram. 

Gingerslim has been a hip-hop fan since 1994 and has written for various blogs and websites since around 2006. During that time he has contributed to The Wire, style43, Think Zebra, Headsknow, Front Magazine and more. His main interests in rap are UK hip-hop and the underground movement in America, with a focus on Rhymesayers Entertainment and the once mighty Def Jux label. He lives in Bristol and has a beard. All other details are sketchy at best. Read his own hip-hop blog and follow him here.