Speaker 1: 0:03

this is an interview with peep magazine. We're here with none other than dj specific. Does anyone ever say specific? Yes, they do, they do.

Speaker 2: 0:16

I had a feeling they do and it's like you know, when people go pacific, yeah or yeah, they do, and it's one of those names that I took and then afterwards realised there were some flaws with it with people saying Pacific and also spelling it with a, c and Specific or with a Specific and Spific, and yeah, there's lots of variations. I've got a million flyers with different variations. Yeah, man.

Speaker 1: 0:42

No, we've been chatting off camera, yeah, variations, yeah, man. No, we've been chatting off camera, um, and we've got a lot of mutual passions graffiti, hip-hop, just the whole sphere of dancing, hip-hop graph. Where does all that come from? Because your love of hip hip-hop back in 1983, a love for graffiti, that was your passion. And then how has that transcended into you creating your own label okay, well, I suppose it was.

Speaker 2: 1:20

There was always goals. So as you move along in life, you're always looking at the, the next big challenge. So the first thing I wanted to do was you know, I was a, I was a b-boy first, so I just loved hip-hop from the off. So the visual backdrop of graffiti, um, the music, um, obviously the dancing, but then with the music, the scratching really really kind of was one of those things I I heard and I thought what is that? That's just like a different sound I've never heard before and I was really really drawn to it. So I suppose, um, yeah, from all the elements, right from the get-go, every one of them interests me because it was delivered in a, in like a big, in a package anyway. So it's just that whole visual aspect of, of the backdrop, the dancing, the music, that's what excited me to begin with wow, cool.

Speaker 1: 2:13

What does it mean to you to own your own work? Create your own work, edit and produce your own work yeah, absolutely what?

Speaker 2: 2:25

the making your own music, um, is an evolution of your kind of starting point. The first thing you want to do is, as a b-boy, is you want to go out to the dance floor and you want to. You want to battle somebody. So the first thing you want to do as a dj is see your name on a flyer, um, so then, when you start making music, the next thing you want to do is you want to see that music getting played somewhere.

Speaker 2: 2:48

Um, and, of course, being of that generation, my, my inspiration was always seeing music on vinyl, and that, to me, was always the kind of the penultimate that's, if you, if you had your music on vinyl, then you'd made it. So to me, that was always the goal, um, so I suppose I've always been very goal driven, especially within hip-hop culture, to, to, yeah, to get to those points. So, um, the natural progression was to also, apart from making my own music, is is to network and work with so many as many other people as possible, which then created a platform, which was the record label, which then enables me to do a lot more. So, yeah, it's, it's more about just taking things to the next level continually, um, and owning a label has given me the ability to be able to create a platform and do a multitude of different things in school were you encouraged to express yourself?

Speaker 1: 3:48

and then, but if not, which, I'm presuming?

Speaker 2: 4:08

not because I'm going to go against the grain, and school was a massive part of my creativity. My school, which was just on the outskirts of bristol um, they were they, they were piloting or trying some different ways to encourage kids to engage with learning. Um, so in music lessons and art lessons they try to allow the kids to um do the things that they enjoy doing so in music, my music teacher, instead of doing traditional music we would study records around the time, so records had scratching on it, records are rapping on it back then, yeah and um, we would then spend some of the lessons looking at that, exploring it. He was quite ahead of his time, that teacher, and then we would try, and we would try and write our own raps. Um, we would try and do little mixtapes and bits and pieces and we'd even have a go at scratching on his kind of turntable that he brought in, just to see if we could emulate what we were seeing. That was being created, that was all current. So he was quite ahead of his time, but it was um, it was encouraged from what I hear kind of in hindsight, it was encouraged that some of the more you know, the creative classes, were encouraged to explore what the kids were into.

Speaker 2: 5:25

So art as well was um. Kids were encouraged to practice their outlines for graffiti if they wanted to, if they wanted to draw a tree, they could, but it was if you wanted to do graffiti, you could as well. So it was like we want you to express yourself, we want you to draw, we want to mark you on your own, on your own merits, and, and that was the world I lived in Until the kind of tail end of my school and I moved down to Devon and that was a polar opposite. So, yeah, it was very regimented. These were the lessons, these were the classes, but I already had that seed, was already, you know, it was already starting to grow and I already had that creativity in me. So yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:02

Well, I'm really pleased to hear that already you know, already already started to grow and I already had that creativity in me.

Speaker 1: 6:05

So, yeah, well, I'm really pleased to hear that, because I don't hear that that often. No, how, how important is it to, as an art, as an artist, as a DJ, how important is it to receive encouragement, receive praise, like even at your stage now? How important is that for maybe someone you don't even know or maybe someone you look up to? Yeah, how important is that encouragement to hear from somebody?

Speaker 2: 6:38

I think it would be daft to say that people don't enjoy encouragement. I think you enjoy encouragement and praise at whatever level you are. So, yeah, if somebody, if one of my peers, comes up to me and said I respect what you do, and I can think of a few occasions where people have, I can think of when I went to London and we were stood doing a show for the Zooli Nation and one of the guys from Hard Noise grabbed the mic and said to the crowd these guys here are the future of UK hip-hop. And to me at that point I was like that's the biggest endorsement that you could wish for, was like that's the biggest endorsement that you know you could wish for.

Speaker 2: 7:17

Um, so it was yeah, I'm, you know, I'm always. I'm always about encouraging other people, but also happily take encouragement as well. You don't necessarily go out to seek a pat on the back, um, because I'm quite comfortable myself in terms of what I'm doing and how I'm doing it, uh, but it's always nice for somebody to go. Do you know what? I had a really good night tonight.

Speaker 1: 7:33

Or yeah, I really like that record. Wow, cool man. It's getting hot in here, but I'm not taking off all me clothes. It's a song, isn't it? I think it's a song somewhere.

Speaker 2: 7:48

I'm not gonna. Is this the way this interview is going? Is it how?

Speaker 1: 7:53

far can we About? Do you want?

Speaker 2: 7:57

me to follow suit. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1: 8:01

It's not that kind of channel, taking graph out the equation, taking b-boying um hip-hop music. Is there any particular thing or person that has gave you encouragement and you have took massive inspiration from?

Speaker 2: 8:25

yeah, absolutely, um, but not just in every field of sport and art, really. So I'm a massive fan of skateboarding, I'm a massive fan of BMXing, I'm a massive fan of football, you know, even watching Novak Djokovic today playing tennis, I look at people that are driven and are elite in their field and I always try to take a little bit from each one of them just to see how they operate, see how they function and think well, is there something you know? It doesn't matter what background they're from. Is there something that we, you know, you, can take from that that will help you in your journey?

Speaker 1: 9:06

so yeah, absolutely, absolutely what has been some of your biggest challenges in your career and how have you overcame them?

Speaker 2: 9:24

I suppose the biggest challenge in my career being into hip-hop was the fact that we moved to devon as a family. Um, so when my parents shifted me from bristol and I'm not saying bristol's the epicenter, but there was a lot going on in bristol- there was a.

Speaker 2: 9:46

There was there was a lot going on in bristol and that's kind of made me who I was. But then I moved to Devon and for a minute I thought to myself this is going to be awkward to carry on trying to do some of the things I was really into doing. But what I found out quite quickly was there was a real hardcore group of people and they had to try even harder, um, because of where they were from, to achieve the things they wanted to achieve. And I actually believe that people, that who live in the cities and have the opportunities given to them um take it for granted sometimes where people who live um, you know, in the rural areas that don't have the access, that they will try even harder to study the art and to do the best thing they can within that, because they just, yeah, it's harder. So therefore you've got to try harder, yeah, yeah, cool.

Speaker 2: 10:49

In fact, my friend Adam Project projects here we used to write lots of music with. He's wrote, uh, quite a few books, um called from the sticks, which basically investigates um hip-hop culture within the kind of the little towns and suburbs all around the uk and how there are a lot of people that have come to prominence from those areas because they literally had to. You know, they had nothing else to do, so they grafted, yeah, so it's an interesting topic.

Speaker 2: 11:23

Yeah, man Cool, yeah, yeah, so would you agree that there was a definite transition to being a dj and then being a dj artist. Um, I always felt that when djs became really popular and I remember hearing on the radio that DJs were going to be the next big musicians so I already had that in my mind, that DJs were the next big thing in music. They were going to, they were going to steer how music was going to go, and that absolutely did happen in the 90s, no question about it. Um, so for me as a DJ, I was, as in being a turntablist, um, I'm always it's not about just playing the songs, about kind of hijacking the song and making it your own. Um, so I suppose you know, right from the get go, it was all about well, I'm not really, I do like this song, but I'm going to do it my own way. So that's kind of the foundations to producing your own music. Music, anyway, I think you kind of like well, you know, I want my own thing really.

Speaker 1: 12:36

So could you talk to us about b-line recordings? Is it b-line recordings or recording b-line recordings? Yeah, yeah as I'm. I'm quite interested how does someone, how does someone create a label? And then another thing what I've always wanted to ask a dj is I speak to to djs and people who make music. You make a tune and then they've always got things on different labels and that, to me is is kind of a branding faux pas yeah, absolutely because you want to create your brand, you create your name.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Yeah, you do five tunes. Yeah, it's on my brand, some it's on b-line recordings. And then what I've, what I've, I've chatted to and what I've spoke with is like oh right, I heard your tune the other day. Oh yeah, that's on a different label, all right. So I'm confused now because I thought that was your label. Yeah, yeah, it's still my label. Could you? Could you maybe clear that up for me and some of the people who are watching this?

Speaker 2: 13:39

yeah, absolutely. I mean the thing about beeline as a record label. The first and foremost, it was about to create a platform for people, creative people that wanted to put music out, and there's so many good people in the uk that just didn't have a an outlet for it. Um, you know including myself, though, so you know that I was doing things before, but I wanted to create a platform that worked for people that kind of were into the same sort of things that I was, which was basically, you know, hip-hop, music done in a particular way, released on vinyl. So that was the key, the key elements, and then you start looking at the overall. Um, you know the history of hip-hop and, and and how I like it look how I like it.

Speaker 2: 14:20

And you look back to record labels like def, jam and how they were in the kind of late 80s, early 90s. They had very, very specific branding. Their label was the same every single time. Their albums looked the same, they're the same. So you knew when you bought a record from that label, it would be of a particular quality, and what I wanted to do was emulate that in the current time. Um, so, yeah, every record would would have the same label, um, artwork was always top notch.

Speaker 2: 14:52

I mean the artwork and and everything around it was always of the utmost importance.

Speaker 2: 14:57

And I've got to say, if I can, I'll say big shouts to john dyer, who's a newcastle hometown hero on the art front. Um, who's who's helped create a lot of things over the way and over over the time and he's done a lot of the album covers, um, as well as a lot of the designs, um, and also a guy called matty tibble as well. He used to put a lot of work in on design front but there was always a very, very clear kind of view of what it needed to look like. And I've also wanted to create a platform that, when people knew that a record was coming out on that label, it was going to be of a particular quality or a particular style. So that, going back to the old days where you, if a record came out on a label, you knew that it was worth a punt, even if you hadn't heard it. That's what I wanted to try and create, which I believe didn't doesn't really exist as much anymore I'm wondering.

Speaker 1: 15:53

I'm wondering why doesn't that not uh exist now? Because you want to create continuity yeah within your brand, within your artistic space, um, but I, I think, I think you're doing that, aren't you? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 16:06

absolutely, yeah, I think. I do think lots of other people do do that. So if you look at high focus, I mean you know what you're going to get with a high focus record same with blah records, um. So I think there are other people that are following the same format, um, but I think at the time when we first kicked off, there wasn't a lot around, so it was nice to establish something that was you know, of that vein that we all grew up on, which was know you bought it on a record with a label and you trusted the label, just like you trusted a DJ on the radio.

Speaker 1: 16:37

It. Just it remains as when I was back at university in the lecture room, etc. No, if you're watching, uh, he stood up in in front of the class and he went hands up. Anybody who's bought an album because they love the front cover, and I was the only one who put the hand up. Nobody put the hand up. I mean, can you remember those days? I've got a great story with that.

Speaker 2: 16:59

Um so I always used to. Exeter didn't have many record shops at all. Um, it had a little handful and um, hmv, which is one in every town, was a bit of a go-to in exeter because it was one of the ones that had most records. So I was armed with I don't know 15, 20 pounds to buy myself a new album. I went down there and I couldn't find anything at all and I was flicking through, flicking through, and I found this album called red man. What the what the album, which is his first album.

Speaker 2: 17:34

I looked at it and I thought red man red man doesn't mean anything to me, but but it's probably raga because he's called red man and there was lots of. There was a lot ninja man and yellow man. There's lots of that. I thought I quite like raga, ragga, it's on Def Jam, I'm going to buy it. I got home and I put on time for some action and I literally ran downstairs, grabbed the phone, phoned up my friend and said I'm coming round, I'm coming round, you need to hear this. So it was one of those moments where I was like completely on a whim of the, the cover and what I thought it might be, and then it turned out to be even better, so yeah, wow, cool man, that's a good story.

Speaker 1: 18:11

Yeah, I also forgot to mention why we're here is the bridge hip-hop yeah, for lost arts um a homage to turntabl graffiti, hip-hop breaking. What does it mean to be here in Newcastle for the Bridge 4? Talk, not in depth, but can you talk about the call and what it means to come here and represent yourself?

Speaker 2: 18:42

Yeah, absolutely. Newcastle I've come to probably once or twice a year every year for the last five years, normally off the back of Mr Sandy Duff. You know, putting on events, doing bits and pieces seems to be one of those hubs where hip-hop is a strong community here, um, so I've had the opportunities to come here and it's always great to be back and I know what I love about it the most is that you know the sandy and all the guys here. They, they are treating it as an opportunity to push the culture back out to the community and to people that might not have seen it, and just keep that culture moving forward. Um, or visible, um, where other places it's becoming less visible. I want to say so I think newcastle should hold its head up high in terms of kind of representing hip-hop and, uh, and the culture of it. Yeah, absolutely, it's a pleasure, it's an honor and, um, yeah, really privileged to be here, wow, brilliant.

Speaker 1: 19:54

Last couple of questions yeah, because I am taking up quite a lot of your time. That's all right. Um, you carry on. I think the kids coming up now want to get into DJing, want to do this and that. Whatever they want to do artistically, how important is it to keep telling kids to be positive and keep the positive affirmations? I think no one really talks about this much within creativity, because if you're not feeling positive, if you're feeling down, if you're feeling a bit depressed about this, that and the other, my girlfriend's left is this I haven't got much money, bloody well, you can go on, and then you can't be creative, you know, because you're feeling down. Um, how important is it, and have you got any tricks or tips to tell people coming up to keep positive? And then it has a knock-on effect the more positive you're thinking, the better your work becomes. Yeah, absolutely. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2: 21:04

yeah, it does. It does make sense, um, and it's a really, really interesting thing. Um, first and foremost, hip-hop comes with. There's nothing, you don't need anything for it, right? So that was the thing that really drew me in back in the day. I didn't need my parents to give me anything, um, I could just go out and I could just get involved and I could just do it. So I didn't need to be a part of a club.

Speaker 2: 21:30

There's a group of people that you know that you'd go there, you'd meet your friends, they would encourage you or they would rip you, and I think actually sometimes there's in today's society we're a little bit too much pat on the back where we need to be a little bit more honest, and I think what you need is positive role models that can encourage people and steer them in the right direction, but also not be over the top in terms of saying yes, yes, yes, you're brilliant, you're brilliant, you're brilliant, but try and say, yes, you could try to pursue, you could try this, you could try that this would help you, and try and be a bit more um, encouraging in a way that's actually going to push them forward. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's for me, um, all the opportunities are out there for people. It's about finding good people that you can relate to. That they will, you know. It's always to be honest.

Speaker 2: 22:40

I think it's always been the same. I think it's always been about associating yourself with people that inspire you and encourage you. And I think it's always been about associating yourself with people that inspire you and encourage you. And I think it's important, if you're one of those people that does like to inspire and encourage people, that you actually do do that. So when you see something that's been good, you say to them I really like that, that was really good. And I think we don't do that as much in society nowadays as maybe we once did, or sometimes we do it too much. That makes sense that people in those positions might do it too much. That's quite a deep conversation.

Speaker 1: 23:17

Yeah, I mean it could go on and on yeah, yeah, but it's um.

Speaker 2: 23:22

I think you know hip-hop culture was born out of um, you know, a street level where you kind of had to fight your own grounds, and you had to. When I say fight, I mean you had to stand up for yourself and you had to. You had to learn things and bring it back to the table and, um, you know, be strong enough to be able to show it. Um, and I think that more people need to know that it's okay to express yourself, it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to go back to the drawing board.

Speaker 1: 23:55

Just tailing off from that. You've just jogged me memory. Rick Rubin was talking quite recently about you keep doing art, you're doing artistic things, but don't think, after 10 years, 20 years, I've made it because you're pursuing the journey, you're living the journey and then live in the journey of being creative, of creating things yeah don't say when I've done this, I've made it because you never make it. If you know what I mean yeah, absolutely you, um, I think.

Speaker 2: 24:34

Yeah, I don't know what making it is, to be honest, because most people would define making it as a financial, a number, um, or a lifestyle off the back of what you've done.

Speaker 2: 24:47

But actually, other people's making it might be the fact that you know their parents are proud of them, or the fact that they've had an opportunity to do something with somebody they admired, and that person they admired said well done. You don't know, that was great. So there's lots of levels of in my mind of of making it um, and sometimes I think you need to know in your head what those things might be, because if you're chasing a dream that's not a reality, um, it possibly never will happen, but I think you should have your goals, I think you should focus on your goals and I think you should try and achieve your goals. And once you've achieved your goals, if there's more goals to pursue, then you know, go out there and pursue them. But in terms of making it, I think once you've, once you've achieved your goals and you're happy in your art and what you've done, then that's good enough can you tell us about what you're doing now as 2024, july 2024?

Speaker 1: 25:56

what's? What's the big things you've got cooking on in in your head at the moment?

Speaker 2: 26:00

okay, um. So label wise, I'm working on another. It's either a mini LP or it's an EP or it's a full LP. So I'm doing that. I've also got another label EP which is in the works, which is again it's one of those things I always used to love doing it's just putting out a record that's features all the people in our scene that are who I get on with and are producing good, good, good music. So I'm looking forward to doing that. That's pretty much done.

Speaker 2: 26:39

Um, there's a couple of seven inches uh, one that's already out, one that's already back but isn't out yet. Uh, by a chap called doozer, and there's uh whirlwind d's got another seven inch coming out. So it's already back but isn't out yet. Uh, by a chap called doozer, and there's uh whirlwind d's got another seven inch coming out. So there's lots going on. Label wise, um, I'm djing a lot. Um, I've got lots of um big support slots this year. Um, you know capadonna I'm doing the capadonna tour, black sheep and lots of other bits and pieces, so there's always plenty, plenty going on. Of course, then the bridge four as well, which is, um, yeah, lots of opportunities dj, specific, specific, you did that on purpose.

Speaker 1: 27:24

It's been absolutely great to chat to you, mate. Thank you, and I've got a couple of things coming your way. Tomorrow I'm going to give you a t-shirt which I've asked for yeah, and I'm going to give you the latest peep magazine, which you know who's in that magazine, so I'm looking forward to reading that and uh, you're a big fan because you're up and down the country and you see, you see the tag um and if you see him, if you see him, just give him a little pat on the back, from me for sure yeah say, say you know.

Speaker 2: 27:50

I mean you know your hard work's not in vain. I mean, there are people that see it. So you might not think so, but people do. People do know we're talking.

Speaker 1: 27:58

We're talking about the uh the graffiti writer can we say yeah sicker legend sicker legend of the road. So I've just done a me. The latest peep magazine is all about him. It's the whole magazine is, uh, an editorial about his life, how he started, why he got into it, um, the trials and tribulations of all the scrapes. He's got into some of the stuff he doesn't want to talk about, some of the stuff he's quite open about and um, and it's all coming to you tomorrow, paul, looking forward to it mate.

Speaker 1: 28:32

It's been really nice chatting to you and I really appreciate the time and um and I'm gonna tag you when this is out, cool thank you, cheers bro, thank you.