I guess we want people to enjoy the music, whether they’re “UK hip hop” fans or fans of music in general, including hip hop.
I caught up with UK Hip Hop outfit, Delusionists, to discuss the release of their new album “Prolusion Plus”, their love of hip hop and DBF’s prediction that “Banjop” (Banjo Hip Hop) is the sound of the future.
Delusionists – first and foremost; where did the name come from…?
Ben Black: It’s pretty much the best one out of a long list of shit ones we’ve thought of.
DBF: We did have some pretty ridiculous names back in the day, thankfully none of them stuck.
Ben Black: Yeah, it’s a bit of a piss take really. We used to feel a bit different to the rest of the Hip Hop universe, mainly because DBF and I were brought up in a small town in the middle of nowhere and Pickens came from… er…
Slim Pickens: …somewhere equally as uncredible. An unamed place between Guildford and Leatherhead…
Ben Black: …so we felt a bit like outsiders or outcasts from the Hip Hop world. Unfortunately Outsidaz and Outkast were already taken so we had to think of a different name. It basically came from us deluding ourselves into thinking we could become a respectable Hip Hop act, despite not having the “right” background, clothes, accents…
Lyrics – do these come from personal experiences as a youngster, or as you have got older?
Ben Black: Bit of both really. The stuff about girls and work – like Game of Soldiers – obviously comes from our experiences as grown-ups, but personally I still feel like a child pretending to be an adult, so a lot of our points of reference hark back to our childhood. Just off the top of my head we’ve got lyrics about Street Fighter, He-Man, Mario… even the sound of 12 Letters – that shit sounds like an old video game!
DBF: I think the thing is we try and put our personalities across in the lyrics so when you hear a line and think “ha ha that’s some silly shit” it basically reflects our attitude to most things.
Ben Black: In fact, I think a lot of our stuff reflects that awkward period in your twenties when you realise you’re gonna have to grow up and start raising some kids, even though you’d really like to sit around playing video games and eating biscuits all day.
As an artist; what is your message? Who is your music talking to and what do you want to achieve through making Music?
Ben Black: These are some good questions! What the hell is our message?
Slim Pickens: I don’t think there’s a concious effort to send out a specific message. I would say that, so far, it’s more concept-driven than a majority of hip hop acts in the UK are capable of. Nature’s Way, Digital Connects…
Ben Black: The Evil, Who’s That…
Slim Pickens: … they all have strong concepts, which shows Ben’s song-writing ability. I guess we want people to enjoy the music, whether they’re “UK hip hop” fans or fans of music in general, including hip hop.
DBF: I think the message is that there’s other people out there like you. You know, you love rap but don’t really fit in but that’s ok because neither do we, but we love rap too.
What producers have you been working with on this release and how much did you self-produce ?
Slim Pickens: We got big boy producers Kelakovski (Eat Good Records) and Jon Phonics (YNR Productions) on board as we heard certain beats we thought would work. Tom Caruana (Tea Sea Records) came through with the Supa Lyrical remix, which I think is wicked. He turned it around so quickly! I was impressed with his approachability (all via email, mind) and it was good to hear he’s a fan of what we’re doing. Plus Ed Strong from The IRS did a remix, which instantly multiplies the value of the CD as The IRS recently disbanded. We hope that we’ll be considered big boy by association with these guys. We’re not just deluding ourselves, we’re trying to delude you too.
Ben handled most everything else. Those that have been following us will know many of the tracks on the CD, though they’ve been mixed and mastered now, so sound a lot better. Mr Black is a great producer – he stopped making beats for 3 months, went on his new MPC last Sunday and made something better than anything I’ve done since his jog wheel broke… I think you’ll be seeing his name on other people’s work in the future.
Oh, and I pleaded and pleaded for The Movement to be on there, and eventually Ben and D gave in to my demands. I can be pretty persuasive. Plus it’s a nice track.
The music you make tells me that you listen to a very similar style of Hip-Hop to myself. Have you been influenced more by US artists/UK artists or a mixture of the two?
Ben Black: It’s a mixture but I can’t lie, US Hip Hop has been a much bigger influence on me personally. I didn’t really take UK Hip Hop seriously until my mate gave me a Minidisc of Run Come Save Me, so I was kinda late to the party. Having said that, once I heard guys like Braintax and Jehst doing their thing I started to think “you know what, these guys don’t sound that different to me… maybe I could have a go at this”. So you can blame them. But yeah, in terms of production, flow and even our mentality I think the US has been a bigger influence.
Slim Pickens: I listen to more US hip hop than UK, so it’s fair to say that’s a bigger influence. Hearing UK acts made me think that I could have some involvement in the music as I was previously unaware hip hop existed over here. It made it less exotic, for better or worse. I used to love UK hip hop for that familiarity when I first discovered it. These days I can find that grating and there are a select few artists whose music is worth parting money for, in my opinion. Word to Delusionists.
After a lot of backing from various Hip-Hop sites in the past year or so; what can we expect from you in 2010?
DBF: Primarily the focus is on performing live as much as we can and promoting the album. Although Ben is playing with his new MPC now and subsequently may dissapear into his room for 6 months.
Ben Black: Yep, I’m just gonna have a biiiiiiiig wank. We’ve got one or two other projects that will be out within the year, and apart from that?
Slim Pickens: Your guess is as good as ours. We’ll knock on doors, pester, hopefully work with people we respect, maybe throw a couple curveballs and just try and push for gigs. Promoters hit us up at mail@delusionists.co.uk.
We’re hungry to perform and flog our product at your gig!
Finally: the future of Hip-Hop is…?
Ben Black: I think it’s gonna soften up even more. You’re gonna get rappers talking about how they’re struggling to lose weight for the summer or how they feel guilty because they don’t talk to their Mum enough. And we’re gonna be there spearheading that movement.
Slim Pickens: Delusionists are soft body. I actually think people worry too much about the future of hip hop and whether it’s dead/alive. That rubbish Nas album was probably the most influential in the genre’s history just because it made hip hop neurotic and self-doubting. It’s funny – it went from playground bully to looking in the mirror and saying, “At least you still think I’m beautiful.” Fix up.
Ben Black: Hang on, did you just slag off Illmatic?
Slim Pickens: Nooo, the Hip Hop Is Dead album. Everyone started worrying after that.
Ben Black: Oh yeah, okay. You should probably be more specific when talking about shit Nas albums.
DBF: …But listen! The future is safe! Hip hop will always be here. You may see more obscure spin offs in the future like ‘banjop’ which will basically be someone rapping over a banjo. I also feel that you’ll see more rappers from professional backgrounds like lawyers, bankers and Dr’s. Just a hunch.
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