Styly Cee is something of a hiphop jack of all trades, but seems to be mastering a few of them at the moment...

He first came to prominence as one half of turn of the century rap and production duo Lost Island, releasing a succession of EP's and Debut LP on Son Records in 200?.

Since then he has become a respected producer and the man behind a number of successful releases for rappers such as Cappo, Scorzayzee and C-Mone. He also has a close working relationship with UK rap parody Pitman. Ya get me?

He didn't want to talk about the rapping miner from Coalville in this interview, although we did get the chance to meet the man himself later on...

So how long have you been going for as Styly Cee now? Where did it all start out..?

"I've been around for 18 years. I got the name in my school days at Oldham and White school in Beeston. I can't even remember how I got it. I'm that old!! It sounds almost cheesy these days, but I've had it that long that I don't want to change it."

"I started out as a dancer. I did the bodypopping but was pretty crap at breaking. I could do a few bits, but as for a crash windmill on my head, forget about it! Then the DJing came after. My sister had some portable decks, one of those little sets with speakers in a suitcase. I nicked that, cut a slipmat out of my old school trousers and scratched my dad's labi siffre record to bits. It was mashed!"

Who were the people you grew up listening to back then?

"A big one for me is Jazzy Jeff. For me, as a scratch DJ, him and Cash Money are where it's at. Even now, I saw him last year at Rock City and thought he was wicked! I was really pissed, but I loved it at the same time. I was a bit taken aback when I saw Grandmaster Flash tho, the legend himself playing Hotstepper and all that sort of things. You still got to give him your respect tho. I think he knows he's the man nomatter what!"

Tell us about the old days with old Nottingham pirate radio station Heatwave... How long did you do your show for?

"I was at Heatwave for five years altogether. It almost seems now that those were the good old days! At that time we didn't have Cable TV channels brainwashing the kids. Westwood was on pirate radio and there was no 1xtra, so the pirate scene fed everything in Nottingham. Heatwave was mainly a reggae station. Before I arrived, there were already a lot of hiphop DJ's there such as DJ Shabbazz, Mixy P and One Step.

"In those days, despite it being a pirate, I still had to edit out all the bad language as best as I could. The argument was that it was a community station and that children did listen in. I used to do a show on Saturday afternoons and if the odd one did slip through I'd get a phonecall straight away."

"I haven't got that many tapes of old shows, but I've bumped into people that have and it's mad to listen back to when we were playing Lords of the Underground and Common tracks for the first time. It's good to think we were encouraging hiphop at the time. Nowadays I'm more like a grumpy old man who rants on about how good it was in the old days..."

How does it feel looking back upon the Lost Island Days?

"Funnily enough I played the Lost Island album the other day, after not listening to it for at least a year. Not for any reason, but I don't listen to my own music much anyway. We didn't have major success, but at the time we were putting out some quality hiphop and the only thing that snagged us was the American accent. Back then it was still acceptable, but now you can't get away with rapping full-on American."

"We eventually did the album. It came out. It went okay. We didn't really sell many of them, but we got good reviews. I think afterwards Frisco got bored of it and we ended up like a bickering husband and wife. We were always a little like that anyway, which was what made it work at the beginning. We only see each other occasionally these days, but I'd be up for doing a track with him again..."

It's a bit different from nowadays where people rap in thick Nottingham accents...

"Nowadays in the UK scene you can see distinct differences between regional styles in accents. You get loads of people copying London accents when they're not even from London. People think that's a definitive British style, but that's not what its about either."

What are you working on at the moment

"A few things. Some more secret that others. I've done a track for C-Mone. That was on my last 12". I've got some beats in the bag ready to roll I really want her to do well. She's been around a bit with the Outdaville crew and now she's breaking out on her own. At the minute female emcees are coming into their own. Estelle's doing well and she could follow on from that success."

What are you doing for Christmas? What will Santa be bringing Styly?

"I'll be doing the same thing everyone does really. I'll be sitting back and relaxing with family. Hopefully I'll get some good games, sit and play them and drink. I've got all the consoles. At the minute I'm big into Burn Out 3!

What are your thoughts on the current Notts hiphop scene?

"As the old bastard of Nottingham hiphop I would say that Nottingham is better now than it ever has been in terms of the products that are coming out. There have been people involved with or releasing music here for years. They've all been tapping away at the rock, but no-one has really smashed it yet. It's closer than ever tho..."

"Even this year some of the best records I've heard full stop are from Nottingham. It's not just bias either, as I'm naturally a really critical person.

Cappo's Spaz The World album has got to be in the Top 3 albums of last year. I still think that record has been slept on a little bit by some people. It's different to his Get-Out stuff because Zero Theory comes at it from a more leftfield angle. They're both valid because Cappo can drop it at both ends."

"Also the recent Resilience release on Main Rock was really good. I'm glad that he's come out and shown that he can produce for himself as well as anyone. Some of his beats are as good as some top American producers. The Lee Ramsay track was the best I've heard in years."

"Tempa has done well on that show on Channel Four. I saw an episode, where they went to New York. The programme looked a bit shit to me, but I think she can see that and is using it to get exposure for herself and her music. Good luck to her!"

"I recorded a couple of tracks with Scorzayzee just before he went away. A lot of people have been tricked into thinking he's come back, but he hasn't... yet. It was recorded a long time ago and is called Want What's Yours. A lot of people have responded to it because it's different from everything that's out there and showcases influences from the early 90's. It's not really to be played in a club, but is for people who like listening to hiphop at home.

"Great Britain is an amazing track. I blast it out on my Xbox when I'm playing Burn Out 3. I'm not sure how you would go about following it up tho. What else is there left he can possibly say? He's covered everything from his whole personal opinion in one track..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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