Zone Magazine Issue 011 - Paul Oakenfold

azza's ragga stack
Vibes on toppa Vibes
Greetings friends. I recently heard rumours that Manchester's finest live Hip Hop crew: ''The Mouse Outfit'' were bound for the
Emerald Isle, I wanted to get in touch with their head honcho Chini to get the low down. As someone who used to live in Manchester I
know first hand about the strength of Hip Hop culture and scene up there and I wanted to talk to Chini about the fact that Manchester
seem to be taking over the UK these days and the Mice are sitting right up at the top. Read more plus my top ten for this month below.
Thanks for reading and feel free to get in touch if you have something I should see, read or here.
Top Ten
01) Chainska Brassika Ft. Tippa irie ''Just Love''
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjWXiClE1YA
Big London Collab here, I love the way this tune flips.
02) Kybaka Vs. Pyramid
http://reggaelizeit.com/videos/kabaka-pyramid-kabakavs-pyramid-video/
MADD!! Love this video and 90s style Ragga/HipHop -
classic vibes!
03) Raging Fyah ''Raggamuffin''
https://soundcloud.com/raging-fyahcloud/raging-fyahraggamuffin-everlasting-2016#t=0:00
This is so good taken from their album ''everlasting''
expect to hear this in every Reggae dance.
04) Blend Mishkin Ft. Skarra Mucci ''Come
Original'' (Vibration Lab remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhQyAR5c3hs
Bubbling Digital Dancehall version of Blend Mishkin and
Skarra Mucci.
05) Parly B ''Duppy'' (Prod Fleck)
https://soundcloud.com/scotchbonnetrecords/parly-bduppy-ft-fleck
Big production from Athens' rude boy; Fleck. Parly
delivers the goods vocal wise as per usual.
06) Mathman & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble ''Where i'm
From''
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw-sWGxqJD0
Big and classic Hiphop vibes from Dublin to USA as
Mathman links with the lads from Hypnotic Brass
ensemble.
07) Dutty Moonshine ''
https://www.facebook.com/duttymoonshine/
videos/10154451099504419/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
08) Rony Blue ''I'm So Sorry'' (potential Badboy Remix)
http://www.junodownload.com/products/rony-blue-imso-sorry/3160600-02/?track_number=2
Massive remix from one of the best Jungle/DnB
producers in the game at the moment.
09) R.I.P. Remix DJ Supreme Ft. durrty Goodz, MyDiggi,
Curoc, Ramson, Badbones, Stylewarz & Devastate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
time_continue=95&v=DMD6rONIjGE
BIG. Quick rolling drum breaks, Tight rhymes and sick
scratching.
10) ''Back To Life'' (Scrimshire waaaait for it edit)
https://scrimshire.bandcamp.com/track/back-to-lifescrimshire-waaaaaaait-for-it-edit
Do as the man says and... waaaait for it. You wont be
disappointed.
Your brand new album is a 13 track
remix LP. Can you tell us what kind of
styles we can expect from this and
how you picked and sourced the
producers to remix the originals?
The styles range from jazzy hiphop
through to drum and bass, ska, dub and
bass music. It's quite a diverse collection,
with faster club orientated tracks and
more traditional hiphop that fans of the
originals might like. The main influences
are jazz and reggae with soul, funk and
electronic elements. Some of the remixes
have retained many of the instrumental
parts and some have created an entirely
new track around the original vocals.
Chini, Defty and Pitch selected the
producers to be involved.
Most of the remixers have some
connection to us though the Manchester
music scene or have worked with one of
the MCs on other projects. There are
loads of artists in Manchester that we
wanted to work with so we contacted a
few and they all agreed to get involved.
Dub Phizix had worked with Fox and
Sparkz before and they are both featured
heavily on this album. Tall Black Guy and
Mungos' Hi-Fi we’ve never met before but
were just big fans. For some of the
producers we had a particular track in
34 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE
mind for them to remix but for others we
let them choose. We’re hoping to work on
stuff with many of them again in the
future too.
You have a a large and wide crew,
how does this work for your busy
touring schedule? Do you need to
work a trimmed down road form and
then a family outing in Manchester /
UK kind of thing or is it an all or
nothing scenario when it comes to
booking the Mouse Outfit for
festivals, club shows?
All the vocalists we work with are also
busy artists in their own right, either
doing solo gigs or as part of other crews,
so it’s very rare that we can get the full
team together. Dr Syntax and Sparkz are
on pretty much every show, but
sometimes the stars align… or the money
is right… and we can bring a few more
rappers to the gigs. In Manchester I think
the most we’ve had on stage at once is
about 13…
You guys seem to press vinyl for each
release. How important is it to have a
physical product to accompany the
standard digital releases these days.
It’s no secret that vinyl has made a bit
of a comeback. We recently did a tour of
the Netherlands and sold out of vinyl
without really shifting many CDs. Maybe
that will change again in the future, but
every musician will tell you it’s a pretty
special moment when they get the first
test pressings of something they’re
working on, particularly if you grew up
buying vinyl like most of us did.
You have many features on the new
album. A lot with local MC's: Fox,
Black Josh, Sparkz Ect. Is this a
family only ethos or are there MC's /
Rappers in the UK and beyond you'd
like to collab with?
The main reason we work with local
MCs is because it’s easier to get a vibe
going with friends in the studio rather
than putting a track together over the
internet with someone who lives at the
other end of the country. It’s also easier
for us to keep an ear to the ground in
Manchester and meet talented rappers or
singers that haven’t quite forged a solo
career for themselves yet. We will be
working with some well known rappers on
the next album but we can’t give that
information away yet. I can say that there
will be some female vocals on future
tracks.