Shy FX - Heat Meets Fever 8th B-Day

Biography of Shy FX

Shy FX crashed the British pop charts in mid-1994 with 'Original Nuttah,' one of the most infectious ragga/jungle anthems of all time. Though the success proved a bit too much for him, he built his reputation back over the course of a few years and became one of jungle's most respected producers. Born in East London, Andre Williams debuted on S.O.U.R. Records (Sound of the Underground) with two 1994 singles, 'Gangsta Kid' and 'Sound of the Beast.' His third for the label, 'Original Nuttah,' perfectly epitomized jungle's growing ragga-ruffneck style, with a light-speed rhythm track and rude-boy scatting from UK Apachi. Almost immediately after its release, the single ignited dance clubs, flew out of the stores, and eventually made the British charts.

The quick success did little to endear Shy FX with the jungle underground, and his later pronouncements that he was the king of jungle didn't help either. Shy FX released just one more single for S.O.U.R., then virtually disappeared for several years after a major-label deal fell through. He finally emerged at the helm of his own label, Ebony, and with a growing list of tight singles like 'The Message' and 'Bambaataa,' kinetic jump-up fusions of ragga attitude and old-school hip-hop themes. Shy FX also set up another label, Ivory, to release steady rollers by the likes of the 45 Roller -- almost undoubtedly Shy himself despite protests to the contrary.

WHEN Shy FX & T-Power’s smash hit single ‘Shake Ur Body’ crash-landed in the national charts at Number Seven this Summer, it wasn’t just the biggest drum & bass hit ever...it was a significant moment for British urban music: the moment drum & bass found its way into the mainstream.

'This is definitely a good time for British urban music,' says T-Power – aka Marc Royal. 'We’ve always been looking towards America and had quite a few good ideas stolen from us, repackaged, and sold back to us. I see that changing now.'

'I want to make music that everyone can enjoy,' says Shy FX. 'I wanna make tunes that will absolutely smash up a drum & bass rave, but you can go to an alternative party and it will still stand out as a track on its own.' With this album, that’s exactly what they’ve done.

ALTHOUGH Set It Off is the debut album for the Shy FX & T-Power project, both have colourful histories on all edges of drum & bass and electronica. The pair first met when both were recording for pioneering early jungle / drum & bass label S.O.U.R. (Sound Of The Underground) Records. Shy FX - Andre Williams from Tottenham, North London - started at S.O.U.R. as a tape op on work experience. His first major single, ‘Original Nuttah’, a blizzard of breakbeats with a gravely, hyper-speed chat from MC UK Apache, became an early drum & bass hit.

Later he set up his own Ebony label for funkier, jazzier drum n’ bass releases. He experimented with r & b – even scoring a chart hit under an alias he won’t reveal. 'Putting the stuff that we learnt from drum & bass into r & b, it sounded like you were doing a Timbaland thing. It didn’t excite me,' he says. 'That was then I decided to bring the whole vibe back to drum & bass.’'

He started DJing, then compressed everything into a record called ‘Bambaataa’ which rewrote the rule book for drum & bass. Filled with the sounds of jungle animals and bursting with brassy funk, ‘Bambaataa’ and its remixes sold 75,000 copies.

Like Shy FX, T-Power, aka Marc Royal, started out in the hardcore rave scene. 'Watched the whole rave thing turn into jungle. Watched all the in-fighting, got fed up of that, moved on. Just wandered about, experimenting, trying different things, seeing where it would end up. It ended up back in drum & bass.'

Born and bred in Bow, East London, Marc Royal began recording as part of the Bass Selective crew at the point where hardcore techno began mutating into jungle. His single Horny Mutant Jazz – a modern drum & bass classic – combined fluttering breakbeat grooves with languid jazz licks. On his debut album ‘The Self-Evident Truth Of An Intuitive Mind’, he played with themes as diverse as the history of the world and the different hemispheres of the mind, while musically dabbling in anything from ambient to freeform jazz. It was a trailblazing record for the drum & bass of the time.

But its uncompromising follow-up, ‘Waveform’, was, he says, 'an incredibly self-indulgent album.' He formed electronic act Chocolate Weasel and released a light-hearted album of electro noir called ‘Spaghettification’ on Ninja Tunes. His last T-Power album ‘Long Time Dead’, for the Botchit label, began to play with vocals and lighten up, again, musically.

'I’d come to the end of the road with all the experimenting,' says Marc. 'You end up starting to make stuff that’s clever and not for your original reasons – which for me were something I could vibe to and something I could dance to. I just wanted to strip everything back, get back to grooves. And it just happened at the same time Shy was doing this vocal drum & bass.'

WHEN Marc moved into Shy FX’s East London studio the pair found themselves naturally working together. Shy did a remix for all-girl group Truce who were recording in the same building. One of the band, Di, found herself drawn to the beats coming out of the pair’s studio. She ended up singing on ‘Shake Ur Body’.

Clearly ahead of its time, the track was around on the drum & bass circuit for six months before taking off and reaching the charts. Now the rest of the world is catching up with these two pioneers. Their fusion of vocals with drum & bass rhythms is perfect for a musical landscape tired of boys-only dub tracks and lightweight manufactured pop. Funky, bursting with vibes and shimmering with life and soul, their music sounds right here, right now.

'I’ve always felt the vocal side of things,' says Shy. Seven years ago, when drum & bass first felt the spotlight of media hype, a handful of vocal records came – and went. 'Now people have actually got their heads round it. Now the tracks sound actually like tunes rather than vocals flung on top of a rhythm track,' he adds.

'drum & bass just wasn’t ready the first time,' concludes Marc. It is now.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Shy+FX

MC Skibadee - Heat Meets Fever 8th B-Day

Biography of MC Skibadee

MC Skibadee may be the most innovative personality in drum and bass. This high energy mc is guaranteed to excite any audience. Skibadee began MCing in 1994, getting his break through Kool FM on a radio show he co-hosted with DJ Wildchild.

At the time there was nothing like him on the air and the phone's were ringing of the hook. By early 1995 Skibadee was featured regularly at events such as Thunder & Joy, Spirit of the Jungle and his regular spot on City Sound Radio.

It was not long after that Kool FM came his way and Skibadee began his fast rise to the top. By the end of 1995 Skibadee was resident for all Kool FM, Fever, T & J, Malachite, Electrybe, NJC, Designer label Ball and Innersense. Skibadee's time has come and he was more than just a household name.

Along with his partner, MC Dett, Skibadee launched a new project 2 x freestyle in lat e1997. The single and subsequent video was a success and after being accepted on M.T.V. and the box, it blew up to number 3 in the beat box chart for several weeks, which was amazing.

In 1999 Skibadee began to notch up the first of 3 the Knowledge Awards for best Mc Also three Accelerated culture awards which equates to 6 years in the number 1 spot... No MC has come close to achieving this accolade.

MC Shabba D - Heat Meets Fever 8th B-Day

Biography of MC Shabba D

MC Shabba is a name which has become legendary amongst the livelier, more dancefloor orientated D&B scene. From humble beginnings on the now defunct 'Rush FM' with DJ's such as Funky Flirt, Rusher and Red Ant alongside MC Shockin', 14 year old Shabba worked his way through the ranks, becoming increasingly popular with listeners throughout the years and moved on to play a part in the scene's progression through top station, Kool FM, and raves such as Jungle Splash and Jungle Fever.

Shabba is one of the scene's true veterans, best part of ten years in the business, and only now is he getting the recognition he fully deserves. I've been keen to interview him for a while as he is, in many peoples opinion, one of the greatest lyricists and entertainers the scene has to offer. I was speaking about him with a friend recently who commented 'He puts on a proper show. When you go out to see Shabba, it ain't just about the lyrics, it's the way he delivers and the way he hypes up the crowd'. I was inclined to agree.
Don't get me wrong, as far as the 'double time' MC's go, Skibadee's bad, IC3 has skills, Det has the voice, Fun's got a wicked original flow and of course there's the killer lyricist himself, Mr Fearless, but there's no one who quite has Shabba's raw energy. It's this rawness that got Shabba noticed by a larger record producer who had previously been involved with legendary punk band, 'The Sex Pistols', who Shabba's dad was coincidently road manager for!

'I got hooked up through my Dad with this guy in 1995 who flew me over to LA to feature on an album with 3-2-1 Zilch, a punk rock band. People really liked the track, and have been asking about me quite a lot'. However an unfortunate incident occurred in which the bands lead singer committed suicide half-way through the recording of their next album. At this point, Shabba got a call from the bands management , who flew him over to LA to record 5 tracks for their next album. 'The band have got other artists featuring on there. Senn Dog from Cypress Hill, Lil Kim and Keith from The Prodigy to name a few. It's something different for me. I can't be MC-ing until I'm 50. I see this as a way of breaking into the music scene as a whole. We just been to Japan for a promotional tour over there. We were number one in the national charts over there. It's punk music but I do definitely bring in a jungle flavour to the whole thing, I've had to adapt my style and it's turned out well'. It's projects like this that will get Shabba recognised as more than just a Jungle MC.

As well as pursuing other directions Shabba still loves what he calls 'The Jungle' and he hopes to use his position to help push the scene as a whole as well as his own D&B MC-ing career. 'The Jungle is were I come from. I love it and will keep MC-ing in it for a very long time! I'm hopefully going to get a lump sum of money from all this band stuff, which I want to put back into Jungle. I'm hopefully going to record a couple of tracks with Brockie and Shy FX, as well as a couple of projects with some other guys. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket this year. I want to spread myself around and see what happens. I want to get myself sorted properly, more interviews, get myself known more across the board. I'm also probably going to be featuring on Skibadee's 'Platinum Performers' project, which look like its going to be big. I gotta think of my career as an MC. Do I just want to be in the Jungle or do I want to do other things as well. The Jungle's locked down quite tightly and it's hard to get any further or bigger than I am now.

As far as MC-ing in the UK, I've got on a lot of raves I didn't think I'd get on, I'm doing all the big raves and 'nuff other 'tings as well, but there's still a lot of people trying to lock down the scene for themselves. We need more unity in the scene, not people dissing each other all the time. Before a lot of DJ's were funny about having certain MC's on their set, but it's getting better. One of the reasons I'm doing this band thing is for recognition. The whole band thing is going to shock a few people who doubted my ability. Internationally, things are blowing up D&B wise. I've smashed Canada, been there 12 times in the past 2 years, going back there in May - it's crazy over there! People were asking me to sign their bodies! I went to the USA for the first time last year in Minnesota, where they want me back again in May. I just come back from Arizona, an outdoor rave in the desert which was crazy! Wherever I go I know I'll be back. The Drum 'n' Bass Arena poll proves that I've got a huge fan base, not just in the UK, but abroad. I came a close third to GQ and Skibadee. It ain't just about one MC, it's about all the MC's bringing something different, it can't all be about one man, and that applies to the scene as a whole. You need Skibadee, you need Shabba, You need Det. I just want to know I can go to a rave and mash up the dance!' Shabba continues, talking about how the scene is going musically and which producers he rates. 'It's alright man. The music's going good, I like the way it's going, it's good for man like me, it's flowing. Swift, Brockie & Shy FX. Krust and them to a certain extent, definitely Andy C. All them mans running!'

Shabba is one of the top lyricists in the D&B scene. Some may criticise his style, but as they say, 'The Proof is in the pudding'. You put Shabba in any D&B rave anywhere in the world and I doubt you will find anywhere he couldn't energise the crowd, no matter how tired they are! If you haven't ever seen the man's 'crowd control' skills in full flow, then you should definitely check him out asap. They also say 'Imitation is flattery'. There are hundreds of 'Shabba copycats' all over, but there ain't nothing like the real thing. He's a proper junglist and no matter what he's doing musically, rest assured his heart will be in 'The Jungle.'