On July 1, Ward 21 Music and Germaica Digital announced that Leander “Pionear” Topp will from now on serve as the world wide manager for Jamaican Dancehall group Ward 21.
Being a big fan of Ward 21 for a long time and being friends with Lanni from the years I spent in his hometown Leipzig, I did a little Q&A with him on his partnership with the Mad Family:
Please tell me a little bit about what happened at King Jammy’s 15 years ago, when you first met Ward 21 and started working together.
When I was living in Kingston between 1998 – 2000 I was introduced to the Kingston studio scene by my mentor the great Dean Fraser. The first “big man” Dean introduced me to was King Jammys. Back then I was producing a Riddim called “Final Judgement” and made Jammys listening it. He liked it and said that it needs some re-work and went with me from the office to the studio where this crew of krazy people was listening to some music that really hit me hard not only because it was played at an unbelieveable volume but also because it sounded different from what I ever heard coming out of Kingston before. It was this minimalistic Hip Hop flavoured feel and this “in your face” mix of the drums and the bass which immediately hammered the word “Future” into my brain.
Since it was also always my personal goal as a producer to do things that were never done before and to explore new grounds – and so this first meeting was one of my most important experiences during my Kingston time. Later all of us worked out the mentioned Riddim and it became the first Riddim ever produced by a German to be released on a major Jamaican label.
What have been your all-time favourite three Ward 21 tunes since then and why?
With about 70 shows played in 2011 and releases on Mad Decent, Mixpak, and Man Recordings amongst others, last year definitely was a good year for Schlachthofbronx. On March 30 now, they will drop their second LP on Disko B. Time for a little chat with Bavarian bassmusic bazis Jakob and Bene.
Please tell me: Out of the many – what were your favourite gigs in 2011?
Much too many to mention, but just to name a few: The whole Mexico tour, the warmup show at Notting Hill Carnival in London, the one at Montreal Karnival, and the one at Distortion Festival in Copenhagen were huge.
Did travelling so much in 2011 influence your sophomore album »Dirty Dancing«?
We get influenced a lot by the other producers/singers/musicians we meet. We love to discover new music and new influences. Having a tight travel schedule doesn’t always help though but we try our best to meet with ppl everywhere we go…
What do you especially like about the cities of Apizaco and Copenhagen – two cities after which you named tracks on the new LP?
It’s just cities we had a really good time in, so we went with these city’s names for the tracks. It’s also the cities in which we played these tracks first, so it fits quite well actually.
With Natalie Storm, Gnucci Banana and Warrior Queen on the album, you seem to have a weakness for female artists with slack lyrics, don’t you?
We like x-rated lyrics but when we picked the tracks for the album it was more a coincidence that some of it happend to be like that. We just selected the tracks we liked most and that had the best impact on the dancefloor when we played them in the club. Gnucci’s feature on the album isnt really slack though.
The feature on the album that I am looking forward to the most, is »Every Day Of The Week« with DJ Assault. Tell me a little about how that collaboration came about, please.
As you can probably tell, we’re huge fans of his music, so we just reached out and asked if he would be down to collaborate on a track. To be honest, we were a lil suprised ourselves that he just answered right away and was on board, because most of the times you have to speak to managers a lot before getting through to the artists. The Internet makes working with ppl abroad a lot easier nowadays.
For all Munich people: Will there be a release party for the album and – if that is the case – when will it take place where and which special guests can be expected?
There will be a release party in Munich at Rote Sonne, on March 16, and some other dates will follow soon also. But we won’t announce the special guests as that would take away the suprise…
Any other things you want to add?
We dont really like dirty dancing.
The movie.
Thanks!
Watch out for »Dirty Dancing« and make sure to grab the first double single of the upcoming album »Slowine / Dickie Riddim« which features Warrior Queen and will be available from February 10.
Since Thursday, the latest Fizzle Records release is available for purchase: The »Frische Küche« EP features Nini Martini and Lefti 1 Euro on the vocals and we sat with Fizzle to find out more about this project.
Fizzle – please tell me a little something about Nini Martini and Lefti 1 EUR, the latest artists to be released on your label.
Huhu! Nini Martini is a very talented artist out of my hometown who deals with pin up photographie as a model and photographer herself. She loves music and is the best »I know this sample from…« person I ever met. She joined the project for one hookline and then we decided to do an entire EP with her on the hooks. She will be dropping a relaxed dubstep version of »Fever« by Peggy Lee that is produced by Symbiz Sound soon. Check out her work on ninimartini.com and follow her on tumblr. It’s worth it!
Lefti 1 Euro is the realest rapper we have in our area, the thing he talks about, he did them. IIn our hometown everybody knows him and has a story to tell. He is an original. The thing I like most about him is his humor, he does his street thing but gives it a very own perspective that is just great! He also runs his own »Mobb« label where he does his thing. Their new homepage is up and running at www.mobbsport.de. Check it out. The good thing about him he is open for good music and a music lover, your average street rapper would not do songs like we did and sounds as good as Lefti. We have some more stuff coming with him, keep your ears open.
How did the collaboration with them come off?
I forced them to do it.
What is the »Frische Küche« EP all about?
A kitchen, casinos and a big necklace.
Besides the original version of the title track »Frische Küche«, there is also a Reggae remix of the same tune on the EP. If Nini Martini and Lefti 1 EUR were Jamaican Reggae or Dancehall artists – who would they be?
No idea, really and truly, no idea at all. (I thought about it for 2 days)
Why?
They are originals.
What’s coming up next for Fizzle?
An EP with Brooklyn rapper BRNGTN. Crazy. Check out his tunes with Half Pint – he is the perfect match for my beats with reggae samples. We have a joint called »Brownsville« with a hook by Notorious B.I.G. … Ok, I’ve sampled the hook . . . Ok. But it’s crazy. It’s like the perfect match, he likes my beats and I feel his rap. We are trying to finish it till August and drop an mixtape with some more BRNGTN tunes before to introduce him to the Europe.
After that I will do an EP with Skarra Mucci, we did some tunes before and everything went very well, so we doing more. Simple. Capleton has a SoulForce beat, I want to do something special for Ronny Trettmann and come back hard with some original Fizzle remixes.
Besides that I’m doing some Moombahton stuff with Rae Rae Collective and Lieders of the New School – we just finished a track with Prince Zimboo called »Ultimate Love« with the Lieders. Heh!
Terry Lynn announces her long awaited return via the dubsteppy new single »Fire« which will be released in early June.
Upfront, we took the chance to get to know what has happened since the release of her last album »Kingstonlogic 2.0«, how touring with Tricky was like and what her goals with her new LP are.
Terry, it has been quite a while since your last album, Kingstonlogic 2.0. Can you briefly let us know what you have been up to since its release?
Since the release of 2.0, it’s been countless touring everywhere across Europe, once across America, and in between time I’ve been here in Kingston writing, then recording new material around tour dates.
What was it like to tour the UK with Tricky?
Ha! well, kinda crazy but a wonderful experience. he’s an iconic character and it was inspiring to tour with him. we were all living on a tour bus and I’ve now certainly learned a few tricks about being on the road…
How did the collaboration originally come about?
In London, I was on the street in front of the studio, I’d arrived before him and was outside catching some air. All of a sudden this guy approached me quick from across the road when I wasn’t looking, I didn’t recognise him, and thought some crazy dude was trying to grab me hollering Terry! Terry! ha…him frighten me so I hollered at him in the street “Yo! Don’t touch me man!” – he hollered back “Bloodclaat Terry a Tricky man, a me!!” -we had a good laugh from it. Cool dude, a family dat.
So will there also be Tricky-produced tracks on your upcoming album?
Yes. The particular track we did that day was IN THIS TIME.
(A snip of that track sneaked into a TV show already:)
Talking about the new album, I would like to look back at the reactions that followed your last LP: I was quite astonished by how much press coverage you got for Kingstonlogic 2.0, even from magazines like Vogue etc. and I imagine that it could turn out really hard to follow up to that success. What are your personal goals with the new album?
I’m really grateful for all the media coverage that came, and my various teams behind the scenes that made it all happen -who I gotta say big respect to. My goal is that I wanna transcend my current environment and evolve. If my last album captured a sense of the wider world around me and the issues that affected my world, my city or my community, with this one I’m trying to balance those issues by also looking in the mirror, instead of constantly pointing outward.
The first single release taken from the new LP, Fire, is produced by High Rankin and therefore, of course, sounds very UKish. Does that reflect the soundscape of the entire album?
High Rankin is the man, but no. The song wasn’t written with the ukish in mind.
Will there be any Jamaican productions on the album, too?
Not at this point.
Anything else to add?
Chicken & Rice Jamaican Spice.
And for the record:
Red Stripe or Heineken?
Mama’s Carrot Juice.
Beenie Man or Bounty Killer?
Major Mackerel.
Bicycle, Benz or Bimma?
MINI Countryman.
Gleaner or Observer?
Star.
Mountains or beach?
The World.
Thanks, Terry! Really looking forward to hear more of that new material!
Next week will see Schlachthofbronx taking over Diplo’s Mad Decent records when they release their »Nasty Bass« EP on February 15th. The EP will feature four bass-heavy tracks. In a little Skype Stammtisch talk, Jakob from Schlachthofbronx gave us a short statement to each of them:
Nasty Bass feat. Spoek Mathambo & Bigspace
A tune we did a while ago with South African madmen Spoek & Bigspace. Lots of twisted lyrics on this one. My favourite quote: »Bavarian bulldogs in the place, make the girls scream with that nasty bass.«
Impler feat. Spoek Mathambo
The name is actually a tribute to our neighborhood. The tune itself was made when we tried out a new live vocal effect in the studio, with Benedikt speaking hyped »ohs« into the mic…
The Bassdrum feat. Timberlee
We always wanted to make a track with Timberlee and it finally worked out. Also, we always wanted to make a track with a lil pause just before the drop, and it finally worked out, too!!!
Chambacu
This is an old classic Cumbia tune which we basically made into what we like to play out live. It’s funny to see that most girls love the track because of the vocal part, whilst most male party hardest to the airhorn thing.
