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Born in the early seventies at the time of eastern spiritual revolution, disco dancing, funkadelic music and colour TV! Being the youngest in the family, and raised by my father, my curiosity with life often tested his patience! Early years were spent having ACE fun with friends climbing trees, spa’ing, making go-carts and river jumping; watching TV favourites like Battle of the Planets, Why Don’t You, Grange Hill, Scooby Doo, Mr Ben and Ludvick just to name a few. Had a great laugh in the evening watching classics like The A-Team, Benny Hill and Kenny Everett, I blame programs like these for shaping and moulding my sometimes odd sense of humour LOL!Growing up in the eighties was a learning curve, Margaret Thature and the “Yuppie†culture was taking it’s toll and commercial music such as Duran Duran, Adam Ant and Dexi’s Midnight Runners was cool for some of my school buddies, but I wasn’t feelin’ that vibe. The UK franchise record shops at the time, namely, Our Price, didn’t have the underground licks, so any serious tunage was taken from older kids who would go to London to get the dopes mix tape from Kiss or Capital pirate radio stations. Back then these tapes was currency, especially when you had a fresh recording on a TDK Metal tape! My big sister and her mates helped fix me up with dope music, plus give me the musical assets needed to trade more mix tapes with other peers outside of school. Massive musical influences in my childhood came from my dad who blasted tunes at home and in the car from Marvin Gaye to Sugar Hill Gang plus a whole heap of serious Reggae from artists like Culture, Prince Far I and Linton Kwesi Johnson. This set my brother on a deep path of serious Dubb music addiction, which compounded more Dubb classics like King Tubby and Scientist deep within my grey matter. It was Hip-Hop, however, that set me on my own path of music preference and philosophical food for thought; it was the music of choice for many young frustrated kids eager for a new sound. This spurred a cultural change all over Europe and US of kids spinning on their backs, dubbin’ tags on walls, spittin’ dope rhymes on the mic, with all these skills wrapped up in gangs or “crewsâ€, ready to battle other rival “crews†with Hip-Hop cannon fodder!
“Hip-Hop saved us†was a phrase my good friend, came out with on a social night out. What he meant by that was, lyrically, Hip-Hop gave us the foundations for street knowledge. We learnt from older, wiser rappers, and this “schooled us†to drugs and hustlers etc. Listening to rappers waxing lyrical about the hard life on the streets made their lyrics hardcore and very philosophical. This helped lead me on the start of my own spiritual journey …