You’ve heard the Name, now Check the Game.
North London’s Finest!!!
The name is ‘Oranje’, lyricist, songwriter and a mentor.
In 2001 UK Garage was at it’s peak, I was presented with the idea of being part of a crew and I decided that perhaps that it would be an opportunity for progression.
Subsequently, the crew Venom was born and things began to happen. Appearing regularly on various pirate radio stations including Heat FM & Extreme FM, and in magazines Venom quickly became well known.
A testament to how popular Venom actually is the fact that my phone line was cut off by the police because of the barrage of missed calls I was receiving (F**K DA POLICE), they figured that my the phone had to have been used in conjunction with a pirate radio station(& SUM OTHER SH*T).
Shortly after forming, Venom released a Jacking beats CD which was not only a turning point for us as a unit, but also other MC’s. We used the CD as a platform to show that Venom were not trying to prove a point about how ‘bad’ we were (YEP!). We used the CD to show off our raw talent. Other MCs had to re-evaluate their skills! (YA DUN KNOW).
Always entrepreneurial we printed our logo on everything from T-shirts to thongs for girls (GRIND), and we sold them, we saw it as a way promote ourselves whilst making some extra money.
In 2005 I decided to shoot my own video for a track that I had recorded by myself, titled “I’m Madâ€. I was asked by MTV if they could be present at the video shoot to record some footage for their television show ‘Hip Hop Candy’. This lead to some of the behind-the-scenes footage of my video shoot was featured on the MTV show. The “I’m Mad†video enjoyed a successful run as part of the Channel U play list for 6 months.
The track “I’m Mad†enjoyed success of it’s own as it was selected to appear on the Garage anthems 2005 compilation.
Since then I have been taking to the stage to do as many live performances as possible (PAY ME), some of my biggest performances include being a supporting act for G-Unit’s Lloyd Banks at the Kentish Town Forum, and the official Olympic bid celebration in Stratford where I performed in front of thousands.
To date my solo Mix Tape 'Sweet But Sour 1.0' has sold 3,000 copies (REEEEEEEAL!!!). As well as showing my versatility as an artist, the Mix Tape also shows that my music is somewhat unclassifiable. 'Sweet But Sour 1.0' is Grime, Hip-Hop, commercial & underground. I am influenced by so many different genres, and it shows in my music. My advice to those who are listening to Oranje for the first time is to EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED!!!
My future endeavours include starting a record label with other like-minded artists under the name of VMP or Venom Empire.
Contact: www.myspace.com/madoranje
[email protected]
