Issue 024
April 2007
Broke‘n’£nglish are one of the biggest things in UK hip hop right now. With an album due out on the 5th March, it looks like the Manchester-based trio are on the verge of making it big. The group consists of DRS, Strategy and DJ Konny Kon, three local lads who have headlined a packed out Earl’s Court in London and supported the likes of Public Enemy and Xzibit – before even having a record out!
DRS makes it over to the States a few times a year in his other ‘day job’ as a drum and bass MC. He tours regularly with the likes of Calibre, a huge name in the DnB scene right now, and takes full advantage of the opportunity to spread the Broke‘n’£nglish word while he is over there. Fighters Only’s John O’Regan caught up with DRS on a typically rainy Manchester afternoon to find out what’s going on with the group and why he likes watching people in cages punch each other in the face.
Let’s start at the beginning. How did Broke‘n’£nglish come together?
Me and Strategy had come across each other before on the local hip hop circuit, but the night me and Strategy met properly, I was in the middle of a scrap! There was this night I was performing at and one MC didn’t want to give up the microphone, so we ended up having a few words… Strategy was also on the bill that night and me and him just seemed to be on the same sort of level. We were both into the freestyling thing, a pretty rare thing in Manchester at the time, so we started collaborating a bit. I was doing a show on a pirate station at the time as well, so I invited Strategy on there with me and we were getting a great reaction from the listeners, which in turn helped us build up a bigger live following. We met Konny through the same station and then it all just sort of came together from there.
I first came across you lot a couple of years back, but it seems like you’ve been getting somewhere since then…
Yeah we’ve been chipping away and things have been going really well for us, although it’s been a lot of hard work. So far we’ve had a couple of EP’s out and a mix tape that did pretty well. Our current single, Tryin’, is getting plenty of play on BBC Radio 1Xtra and elsewhere, so it’s looking all right at the moment.
I actually thought you’d had more releases than that; you’ve got a high profile in the scene…
It’s because we’ve made such a good name for ourselves as a live act. After me and Strategy linked up back in about 2002, we just went round getting on the mic wherever we could and really got our act down. Promoters know if they book us they are going to get a quality live act and the crowds know it too.
You’ve supported some pretty big names as well, right?
Before we even had a record out, we had supported some of the biggest names in the business. We’ve opened for the likes of Mobb Deep, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Dilated Peoples, Xzibit…
So what did the Americans think of your material then? I know some people consider UK hip hop to be no more than an imitation of its American counterpart.
They liked it; we’ve had a lot of positive feedback from America. A lot of them say our stuff reminds them of the older stuff, the early days of hip hop, because we don’t give it all this ‘gangster’ shit. I mean, there’s a place for everything, it works for the dance floor or whatever but most of what you will hear on the radio now is just commercial rubbish.
Tell us about the new album…
The release is scheduled for March 5th. This is the big one for us, this is the release that will firmly establish us as serious artists. Hopefully off the back of this, we’ll be able to take a step up and make people really sit up and take notice. You know, so far everything we have done, we have done ourselves. We’ve financed our own productions, set up our own label, everything. We’ve never had a big backer behind us, or a major label or anything.
So you’re a bit of an MMA fan I hear?
Yeah I like watching all fight sports man. I boxed for years when I was younger so I still follow that, but MMA is a different thing altogether. Those guys are real gladiators aren’t they?
Any favourite fighters?
From the old school, Tank Abbot. He was just something else, he would step off a barstool and into the arena. I like the guys who go in there to have a stand-up war as well and no one did that better than Abbot. From the current generation, I’d say Mirko Cro Cop. It’s a shame he left PRIDE without seeing if he could avenge that loss to Fedor, but its going to be interesting to see what he does in the UFC. I think he will demolish it, he will waste everyone. I hope he does anyway!
The new Broke‘n’£nglish album Subject2Status is scheduled for release on March 5th. For more information on the group, album or tour dates, check out estaterecordings.com or www.myspace.com/brokenenglishestate
