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Feb
15
2004
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Pay As You Go Crew Part 1 |
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Saturday, 14 February 2004 |
UKMusic's Missc interviews the Pay As U Go Cartel :
Q. How long have you being doing this? I remember one of the most memorable pirate shows I've heard was you guys on Rinse FM, Christmas Eve '96...
Maxwell D: [Laughs] A lot of people don't realize we've been around for time. When I got on Kool FM it was so cool. We were so lean on that show you're talking about. I was about 16! Bare drinking. Pirate radio stations were like in your bedrooms! But they've lost a lot of that now. The massive used to pay attention then ‘cause there was nothing to do - no videos, no computers. But now, the people they were listening to are in the charts and on TV! Pirates have lost their edge. If you were on a pirate, it use to mean that you were doing well. Now well...
Q. Initially, there were two crews - but you came together in 1999. Why was that?
Plague: We were all so keen, pushing the same tunes but on different shows. We were all good friends who went out and it seemed pointless them being there and us being here when we could be together fighting for the same thing.
Major Ace: I was in both crews and they stemmed from the same manor.
Target: We had a lot of fans so we thought let's join.
Q. Why did you decide to keep Pay As U Go as the name?
Plague: It was just really catchy and I think at the time they had a bigger fan base. Once you get one you can't really lose one.
Q. Can you clear it up - are you a crew or a cartel and what's the difference?
Plague: We're a Cartel. Cartel means all the best things individually coming together to become one and make the best thing. It's the greatest thing - nothing can be better than that, which is why we aren't a crew. Crew's get stigma. People they think they're out robbing, mugging. Other people think that crews are just DJs and MCs. But a crew can mean anything. It doesn't mean because you have a crew attached to your name that bad things will follow. It's a stigma. I think the government need to pick up on it, instead of blaming a form of music for trouble. Look at the whole picture - why are there guns in these areas? Why are there troubles in this spot? You can't look at the Garage scene and blame it on the music. It's a cheap way out and we're not taking it.
Q. Now that you're crossing over into the mainstream do you think it will change the sound of your music?
Plague: Our music comes from within us so we're not going to change for anyone else. We're going to produce what we like producing. I think it will touch people in a lot of areas because we are quite diverse - we do R&B, soul and rap as well.
Genius: Nah, not really. Our sound is our sound that's why we are where we are. Like "Champagne Dance" is a soft, happy song. "Know We" is rough - it's street. We just make what we feel. We wanted to make "Champagne Dance" a happy tune, but, if you listen to the lyrics, they are still hard. We weren't thinking of the charts when we started making music. Mans were DJing and we were playing other peoples tunes so we thought, "Let's do some." It's progressed to this.
Q. Do you think you'll be accused of selling out because you're aiming for chart success?
Target: If anyone says that, they are just hating.
Major Ace: I think you'll find this is the most commercial track we've done.
Target: We made this tune for that purpose. We were coming from a harder tip, but we knew if we were going to break through we had to do this and come with a lighter edge. That's why we got Dom P's sweet vocals on the track.
Q. Because there are nine of you how does it work in the studio?
Genius: Well there are three producers: me, Target and Wiley. A majority of the time, Target and I work together cause we work well together. Then other times, it's all of us or me and Wiley. It depends who's there at the time. Then the MCs hear it, like it and lay some lyrics. "Champagne Dance" was made in one night.
Q. Maxwell D, you have experienced the fame already. Are you surprised at how successful you have been?
Maxwell D: To me, we haven't had success yet. I think on a bigger scale - like overseas. To me, we're getting somewhere - we've come from nothing to something and we want to progress with it.
Q. You guys have a lot of people out there who don't like you. How do you cope with it?
Dom P: That's going to come with anything you do. When people do well, they always get haters. Me personally, I don't give a $$$$ what they say or think about me because I'm doing what I do and I enjoy it.
Genius: There is jealousy everywhere when you do well, but you have to get on.
Q. Do you ever fear for your safety at these events?
Target: Yeah, I do.
Major Ace: But we've never had any troubles.
Genius: We don't go with an attitude to cause trouble. We go, do our set and entertain people. That's what we're about. We love entertaining people. Our lyrics aren't aimed at the crowd, so there's no reason for them to trouble us. We are talking about how we have lived our lives.
Q. Would you compare yourselves to So Solid or The Heartless Crew?
Dom P: They're So Solid, they're Heartless. We do our own thing. We have individual sounds - you only need to look at the MC's. Production-wise also. We never thought, "OK, we're going to imitate" and do what we're doing. We've all been doing our own thing.
Maxwell D: So Solid are So Solid they're from South London and are good at what they do. We're from East London. We've been underground for a longtime and it's time for us to come through.
Major Ace: We're nothing like them. If you want to be narrow-minded then you can just say, "Well, they're all Garage crews."
Target: If you had to compare, I guess we're more like So Solid than The Heartless Crew.
Q. Do you guys have a major beef with the Heartless Crew?
Major Ace: Yeah, we have.
Target: It's never kicked off.
Genius: It's a bit of a sticky one...
Major Ace: You were talking about playa hating earlier. That's all it is. They playa hate So Solid and Pay As U Go because they don't want any other crew to come through.
Target: We get on with So Solid, so if anyone should have been showing rivalry it should have been them - not the Heartless Crew.
Maxwell D: But it's the same with anything - you can't get on with everyone.
Q. Did you laugh then when you heard the rumours that Heartless Crew wouldn't play any events with you?
Genius: Did they say that? I didn't know. I just know we do our own thing. We get on with people in the scene like Viper, Juiceman, United Grooves. But there are others, who I'm not going to mention, who we don't get on with. Two-faced people, man, but you get that whatever job you are doing.
Target: Yeah.
Major Ace: They can't beat us. Lyrically content all the time.
Maxwell D: That's their business - I don't really care. We're on a different mode. It's not worth looking at other people asking do they like us or don't they. We're doing our thing. They're doing theirs. Good luck to everybody.
Q. What are your feelings about the Garage scene at the moment then? Is the trouble as prevalent as the media make it sound?
Plague: You will be lucky to have seen a gun. Most people have never seen a gun in a club. I've never been in a rave where it's gone off, so maybe I'm fortunate - touch wood - but I've heard stories; just word of mouth. Issue's get hyped like wrestling. The story line is whatever you want it to be. One week Rock is on top of the world, the next week he's not - but that doesn't stop you liking him.
Maxwell D: Security needs to tighten up, or people will walk in the odd rave with a gun. They're blaming it on the crews, but we ain't security. There are good people and bad people. You can't blame us for the bad people turning up at clubs and starting trouble ‘cause you get that everywhere you go - the streets, the ghetto - that's what it's all about. That's where we're from. The streets are the streets - it's always been that way, but people never looked at the streets before or paid much attention to it. But now, ‘cause kids from the ghetto are crossing in to the media world, they are saying they know gangtas etc. But that's where we're from. No one cared before and now we have something positive to get us out of all of that. But people try and use our background to bring us down.
Genius: Trying to blame it on the crews is ridiculous. [They say] if we say violent lyrics people are going to kill each other, but that's like saying if people go to the cinema and see a violent film all those viewers are going to kill each other...
The second installment of the Pay As U Go interview follows next week with discussion of racism in music, country and western and the future of UKG.
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