Hip hop MC and producer Jehst talks to Ras Kwame about the London scene, garage MCs and the inspiration behind his lyrics
Jehst on moving to London
"London has made my music accessible. This is where things is happening... There's much more opportunity for jumping up on open mics, jumping up on pirates, harrassing independent labels, harrassing producers. Definitely being in London has allowed me to work with a lot of people - like Lewis Parker... "
Jehst on Garage MCs "We're not living in The Bronx in 1979 anymore... I'm a hip hop purist - but that's me. " There's a lot of room for garage man to come through and smash it... As long as people are spitting from the heart and they've got some soul, that's all that matters."
Jehst on studio gear
"I love doing production as well as rhyming... For a long while my weapons of choice have been two (Akai S-) 950s linked up through an old school Atari Cubase. Right now I'm starting to get into using an (Akai) MPC-60 linked up to a 950, so that's gonna be the new combo for the future... for me that's new!"
Jehst on inspiration "I've been listening to hip hop for a long time so I'm not somebody who categorises my hip hop."
"There's no room for division, there's no room to pigeon hole this music. That's only going to disempower us as musicians, as creative indiviuals. I might be listening to some jigged out Jay-Z club smash, I might then be listening to Cannibal Ox on some grimy introspective tip... or I might not wanna even hear no hip hop... I try to keep myself open to be influenced by whatever..."
