| A genuine article: DJ Format |
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| "UK hip hop has been waiting for the media to catch up, for the fashion trend to come our way" |
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“When you’re growing up in Southampton and are into your hip hop, you get used to working hard to find the music you love. It nurtures the nerd in you. Which helps when you’re making hip hop and you start digging away to find the ideal sample.” And so we discover the secret of how to make music as good as DJ Format – grow up in a really uncool town.
Like far too many of the key names in UK hip hop, DJ Format might not be as familiar to you as the superstars of the American branch of the same genre, but that’s only because of the whims of an illogical music industry and a random music press. Format’s 2003 album 'Music For The Mature B-Boy' was one of my favourite hip hop releases of recent years, and I don’t just mean UK hip hop releases (as Format himself likes to stress, “I don’t make UK hip hop, I just make hip hop”). And his new album, ‘If You Can't Join 'em... Beat 'em’, released earlier this month, is, if anything, even better.
“The UK hip hop scene’s problem hasn’t been lack of quality,” Format says as we go over familiar territory – the struggle for UK hip hop artists to win mainstream attention despite the rise and rise of the genre at large. “The problem has been a lack of exposure. We’ve been waiting for the media to catch up, for the fashion trend to come our way.” But, like his counterparts in the UK hip hop scene, Format seems increasingly optimistic. “The media do seem to be picking up on it, and people like Roots Manuva and Rodney P are finally getting the attention they deserve. People are getting used to hearing British accents rapping over the beats, and that’s a good thing. The next challenge will be spreading that out beyond the capital. People are getting used to hearing London accents in hip hop. Goldielookinchain get away with Welsh accents because it’s tongue in cheek, but as UK hip hop acts begin to get more noticed I think rappers with regional accents – the Bristol accent say – will still struggle to gain credibility.”
But enough of the rise of UK hip hop and the new challenges facing the genre, let’s pretend everyone out there is familiar with DJ Format’s fine beats, and get back to basics. Where did it all begin? “I discovered hip hop back in the mid-to-late eighties when I was still at school. That’s when the hard work began – it was easy to get the latest Run DMC and Beastie Boys records, but you had to try harder to get your hands on some of the more underground stuff coming out of America. After I left school I got myself some turn tables and started playing with tracks and samples and scratching and stuff.”
Through that passion Format soon became what is known in the trade as a ‘bedroom DJ’. His interest wasn’t in the then emerging phenomenon of the superstar DJ, rather in the buzz of digging out classic or forgotten tracks, playing with the decks and creating something new. Format was, basically, a natural hip hop producer in the making and, fortunately for us, a chance meeting let him take those skills out of the bedroom and into the wider world.
“I very rarely DJed in clubs, it was something I did more for myself. But one of my mates introduced me to Mick ‘Blue Eyes’, one of the rappers in [UK hip hop group] Suspekt. They had just lost their producer and needed someone to come on board and put some music to the raps they had already written. So I accepted the challenge and started doing some proper hip hop production. Mick was in touch with Dave Paul from Bomb Records in the US and heard he was working on a second volume of a compilation called ‘Return Of The DJ’ and was looking for tracks. So I did him ‘Vinyl Overdose' which he included under the DJ Format name, and things kind of moved on from there.”
Further proving that when something is meant to happen coincidences will make themselves occur accordingly, DJ Format first came into contact with his record label through another unconventional route. He got a ‘pay the bills’ job driving the tour bus for the legendary Jurassic 5 who at the time were working with Pias Recordings. Connections were made, conversations had, and DJ Format found himself with a deal with Pias’ then new Genuine imprint, and facing the task of creating his debut album. And so work began on 'Music For The Mature B-Boy'.
With no ambitions to rap himself DJ Format became particularly known for his instrumental tracks, though some of the highlights of both the first and the new album are his collaborations with MCs like Abdominal, D-Sisive and Jurassic 5's Chali 2Na and Akil. “I was lucky to stumble across Abdominal and D-Sisive because we just clicked early on. You know we could try and get bigger name MCs for the album, but these guys just sound right, they suit my kind of music. When I first start working on a track I’ll normally know which of the guys is right, and when it’s right you should go with it.”
The very real talents of Abdominal and D-Sisive will be on show as DJ Format tours the UK to promote the new album. Ironically, because Format is the producer and DJ, even though his name dominates the poster for the live show and shifts most of the tickets, it is his MC collaborators who take centre stage and stand in the limelight. Does that bother Format? “God know. I like to keep myself to myself. I mean, I do really enjoy the live shows when I’m out there, you get a really good buzz knowing you are putting on an entertaining hip hop show. But if I had my way I wouldn’t be there on stage – I’m much happier producing records. In fact I’m happiest when I’m in a record shop, flicking through a crate of vinyl looking for samples and beats. You need to do the live thing – it’s part of the package – but I’m quite happy being hidden in the shadows behind the MCs.”
So come to think of it, perhaps it’s just as well the top guard of UK hip hop don’t enjoy (or perhaps that should be suffer) the super star status of their American counterparts. I really don’t think DJ Format would enjoy it. His ambition, after all, is suitably modest – “I want enough people to buy this album so I can make another one”. So, let’s keep Format and his fantastic new album a little secret between me, you and the genuine fans who are busy digging their way through the hip hop box at their local record shop in some uncool provincial town. Those of us who know a good thing when we see it.
Some DJ Format plugging:
DJ Format's 'If You Can't Join Em ... Beat Em' was released on 18 Apr 2005 on Pias.
chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - published apr 2005
