Recently, Usman hooked up one of the best MC's on the desi scene going by the name E=MC. Normally I'd start the interview with a sort of an intro question, asking the interviewees to tell us a bit about themselves, in your case I don't feel I need to. For those 2 or 3 people out there reading this who have never heard of you, lets just get the usual questions out of the way!
Usman: I can't begin until I ask you about your name; I've wanted to ask you this for a while now. Up until recently, my msn name was E=MC2, by the way I started using this long before you come along. So tell me honestly, you copied me didn't you? If not, how did you decide on that?
E=MC: Yes my man Usman your an icon to follow an inspiration definitely LOL! Honestly man da name E=MC has a story behind it when I first started rhyming da name was narkotic lol believe it or not! Then I realised thinking hey yo I don't do drugs yet I'm portraying an image, which has no value to it! Then my brain eventually kicked in and the name emakulate came up my boy dj triple xxx named me he's like you spittin flows is just emakulate! Then it was like I am the mic controlla so it was emakulate equals mic controlla and everyone was like seeeeeeeeen E=MC Da Lyrical Einstein devine till the end of time spittin murderous verbulous rhymes thought I'd throw that in there hahahaha!
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Usman: We all know superman doesn't fight crime all the time and has a normal job which he does as his alter-ego. Is Mr E=MC part of the music industry as a career or do you do something else?
E=MC: Bro what can I say its been a life long dream to work in the industry, I was always into bhangra music playing old school tapes and using my house hold stereo with the ghetto vinyl player as a turntable, funny as it was I used to jam to Death Jamm 1 and 2 and pretend I was a DJ and spit kris kross rhymes you don't know! Its just a blessing to even be where I am today in the Asian industry and to have my crew RDB supporting me and teaching me day by day I've come to start producing and laying down some phat beats and rhymes. As for this being a career hopefully E=MC will be a household name both in the Asian industry and the mainstream. My parents have helped me educate myself in a degree |
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| in graphic design so nuff respect for them if music doesn't go my way I got a backup something all of us need! |
Usman: You seem to work almost exclusively with RDB, not surprisingly, as you have both enjoyed success with this 'collaboration'. Would or you consider working with any other producers?
E=MC: Nuff respect to everyone whose producing and doing there thing honestly if there is one thing I am that is loyal and thankful. To UntouchablesUK and RDB! We all tryin to hustle and we live thru this struggle! I love my crew RDB they like my older brothers my mate Manj what can I say I owe everything to the man he's my mentor in production and has always given me good advice on life itself, and the way to lead it big ups to my bhabi nindz and my man double SS! Sorry getting off topic but yeah honestly I don't see myself working with any other producers at this point in my career I'm producing myself and I have still have a lot to prove to the people in this world who doubt E=MC. Untouchables.UK what can I say! My man Tony has a vision for all of his artists to see them succeed within due time E=MC will prevail!
Usman: One of my biggest complaints with music producers is their persistence with feeling the necessity of randomly placing MC'ing into songs, in a feeble attempt to modernise them. Obviously in some cases it's not possible, but I believe the correct use of MC'ing involves relevance to the Punjabi lyrics, would you agree?
E=MC: Now were getting to stuff I want to talk about you read my mind LOL! Honestly if producers think they can take these young "so called overnight wanna be MC's" and get them to do stuff like hiddles biddles and riddles and go soni this soni that bla bla this bla bla that then they are mistaken! That's not modernising the track its just plain and simply making it a load of crap! I don't agree with half the MC's in the U.K. and the people who think that what they are doing is MC'ing. But what the record labels and producers say is who cares its what sells and we make money its not all about money but that's why in the UK album sales are down no one is taking risks and trying new styles of rhyming and music everyone is still hooked on garage! If you think about it I'm a hip hop mc when I did desi fly chick if you listened to what I say it all had a story line, what was it: simple "I need a desi fly chick to ride with me chillin in my coupe pumpin RDB!" my rhymes were on a level where people could understand what I was saying! Every track you will here from E=MC its no gibberish and its not repeated over and over it tries to relate to the song. One of the reasons why I did HIMAT it related to the lyrics of HARJOG SINGH! If there is one thing I want people in the U.K. to do is when you hear my tracks listen to what I say it's that simple!
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Usman: I believe the major asset of your talent is the strength and clarity of your voice and so you could easily bring out material of your own. I understand you have an album of your own in the pipeline with a possible release into the American mainstream. Could you shed some light on this?
E=MC: Word gets around quick doesn't it well yeah my talent does lie in my clarity and in my punch line rhymes! As for me bringin out my own material its in the works now E=MC with the help of |
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my crew RDB is in production to release the first ever Asian hip hop MC solo album I'm also in the works on my own album for the Asian industry! What you can expect is whatever you expect! LOL yeah that's twisted I like to throw people off sometimes but yeah the album will be called "CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT?" "Usman is thinking what the hell is up with this boys brain" But seriously bro why give it a name like DARK and DEADLY or THE CLASH whatever other silly names that people have used. I'm for the people like I know what I have put into my work and my album you know, so instead of me naming it ill let people judge for themselves cuz even if I did name it they would end up saying oh its alright oh its crap or oh its wicked you know so ill just let people call it what they want! |
Usman: At the moment you are working on other people's tracks, but how much input do you have in the production of the tracks you feature in?
E=MC: Well yeah I'm working on other people's tracks and the amount of input I have with RDB is never limited in terms of my MC'ing I have total control over what I types of flows and styles I wanna do. We all understand as a staff record label and as a crew that everyone has there own ideas and opinions not always are they agreed upon but then again that's why E=MC is here hahaha to spice things up a bit! But yeah in terms of the production end I don't give too much input Manj, Kuly and Surj got it covered and I think they got it boxed off on there end! On my end I'm always looking for input and usually it's a quick call to Manj and him going 'yes young arcid what can I do for you now'! He gets annoyed but he puts up with me! So thanks Bruv LOL!
Usman: As we are currently seeing, everything Asian seems to be the flavour of the month, what are you personally doing to capitalise on this? What do you think the industry should be doing as a whole?
E=MC: Honestly I'm not too pleased with how everyone in the industry is running to the mainstream and just abusing the rich sounds of the Asian industry! For starters if you ain't getting no 6 figure salary contract you need to keep your ish in your studios cuz I can tell you straight what the mainstream labels will do is go oh why thank you we will take that oh yeah we like that tumbi beat we will take that as well and use it rinse it and then be like thank you very much have a nice day! Me personally I'm a fan of all types of music I'm not looking to be a producer whose gonna just use this whole Indian vibe to get my name out there I'm using different techniques I mean if Dr Dre and the Neptunes Kanye West DJ Premier Swiss Beats can go and make millions without the Asian flavour then what's stopping me you know so I will use the Asian influence in my tunes not in every single one and I'm not here to rinse it! As a whole the industry should now look towards new types of music we need to stop putting out just any old album with one good single on it just so people will buy the album. If were just putting out crap then people will be prone to turning towards other genres of music! Me personally I think people need to realise where they are setting there standards for music I mean especially in the MC'ing department I mean to me the MC's in the Asian industry who are doing the gibberish rhyming that makes no sense and every 5 seconds going Boo selector and yelling danger danger as if there's a bomb in the area about to go off I'm sorry to say this but you ain't mc's! People need to stop downloading and the shopkeepers need to stop pirating! I think its time we respected the artists who do this full time and depend on album sales it's there bread and butter. If we stick together and diversify meaning other record label artists working with other producers it would make things more interesting and a lot more vibin its like you scratch my back I'll scratch yours! It's all about networking about time we as Asians started doing a lot more of it!
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Usman: Metz & Trix have recently made some comments about RDB and Untouchables. Do you have anything to say in reply to them?
E=MC: As for Metz & Trix it's funny how they badmouth Untouchables and RDB when they know without them being there they wouldn't even have an album out! Everyone wants to make money and be famous; it's funny how people take all of it for granted. They aren't even MC's in my opinion using the same lyrics over and over again I wouldn't mind getting them both up on stage and battling it would be my pleasure! They say they paved the way for everyone else hahahahha thats funny ish! I was rhyming and doin it underground back from 93 just wasn't given the opportunities they were to shine but, RDB and |
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| UntouchablesUK thats our camp and we tight, we got the game on lock trust it! |
Usman: Apart from your own album, what other projects are you working on? Is their anything your particularly excited about?
E=MC: I'm currently working on Danger 3; I got a track that's gonna hit people hard especially some so called Mc's hahahahahaha that's the beauty of being a battle cat as for there names well let me see I could tell you or everyone can go buy the album! That's what I'm really excited about. My Website is in the works so give it a few weeks its in construction, it's going to be heavy you can check out for release dates gigs and what's goin on with the RDB camp and me!
Usman: Do you have anything else to say to the thousands of desitunes4u fans?
E=MC: I just want to big up Usman and desitunes4u for giving me the opportunity to let people know more about E=MC and what my future plans are. To all my fans one love nuff respect thanks for the support! Oh yeah and to all the haters and doubters its all good, I'm still doing my thing!
That concludes the interview, firstly a big thanks to E=MC for taking some time out to do the interview. He's set to make history with his mainsteam debut so make sure you watch out for that!
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