Roll Deep’s Dj Target is a busy man, producing, presenting, broadcasting, and Dj’ing it is a wonder he has time to fit in promotion for Aim High: The Revolution as well as managing his variable talents.

It says something about his generous personality that he is willing to open up the Roll Deep studio to Grimeforum at such short notice giving us a chance to catch up with him and get the lowdown on everything from Roll Deep’s next album, why Grime has enough coverage on 1xtra and why Aim High: The Revolution is the best in the series yet.

Fitting us in between a spot of lunch, it is little wonder Target has had to get used to multitasking with his hectic schedule and a willingness to turn his hand to new  things.  It is this willingness to take on new projects that has seen his profile go stratospheric in 2009, but we are here to talk about the Aim High series, one of the factors which originally alerted people to his skills as an individual.

What can people expect from the new Aim High?

It carries on where we left off, it’s been a couple of years but we’re just keeping that momentum of mine and Danny’s production, we feel like that has stepped up a level since the last Aim High.  We have been doing a lot of production work so just letting people hear that and getting as many of the current U.K artists on there that we have been working with, just getting it out there basically.  I think it is definitely the best Aim High so far without a doubt.

Why do you think it is the best one so far?

If you listen to Aim High one, two and three you can see the growth between each one and that the standards have risen. Where we have had a couple of years between each Aim High the growth is visible.  We have set up our own studio, we are working with more people, and I think that shows on the release.

Has having your own studio affected your skills, and your motivation?

Yeah definitely, before we were just making beats at home, and having to rent studios to record vocals. Time isn’t even on your side as you have to rush, and it’s always at other peoples leisure, so having this studio just makes us more at ease, we can turn up here anytime of the day or night, make a beat, record a song, it has definitely helped I would say. It has definitely helped with the creative aspect.

How long has Aim High: The Revolution taken, and how does that period compare with the previous Aim Highs?

This one has taken longer, even though we have got the studio, I think because we got the studio we haven’t had to rush anything and we have just been letting it come together naturally rather than saying we have got a month to make a CD.  Also where we are all working on other album and other projects as well, we haven’t been strictly focussing on Aim High. Still, 2 or 3 months ago, we said right let’s get this Aim High thing finished; get it wrapped up and then we started focussing on it. The tracks have been coming together most of this year.  There are 22 tracks, some of the tracks were made earlier on in the year, and quite a few of them were made in the last few weeks or the last month.  It is all fresh material, definitely, there is nothing old on there, you might have heard one or two tracks on my show or a couple of other Dj’s shows especially at the moment, were just getting it out there now but everything is fresh and sounding big,

Have you got any plans to release beats from the Aim High series or any plans to release an instrumental album?

You know what people keep saying that to me and Danny (Weed).  Quite a few people have said that. Even Terror Danjah the other day, I was talking to him, and he said you and Danny have got to bring out an instrumental CD. It’s not that we have never thought about it but, we have never been that kind of way inclined.  We don’t see ourselves as instrumental producers, like the Maniacs or the Terror Danjahs.

So what is the process behind making a beat, do you make a beat with an MC in the studio or do you make the beat with someone in mind or offer it around to people?

It is a bit of a mixture, most of the time I will make a beat, or Danny will make a beat or together or whatever, we’ll make the beat first. We might get an idea as were making it of what we want it to be, we might think that is for a singer or that is for a certain MC, as were making it.  Or there is another kind of process where we might be in the studio with MC’s at the time, and they will say let’s start a beat from scratch, I’ll start a beat, and as its going along they are getting an idea, and were bouncing along off each other.

What about the Alligator Riddim?

Danny had that beat and I remember he played it to me and I was like ‘yeah we should get an MC to do a freestyle or someone had done one, I can’t remember who did it first. A couple of the other MC’s were coming down who were working on that Aim High at the time and we were showing people beats from the CD and a lot of them were like ‘Ah I want to do something on that Alligator beat’ so in the end we actually turned it into an actual riddim, like a dancehall riddim, and just got 6 or 7 versions finished.

On Aim High 2 there is Scorpion Riddim as well?

I did Scorpion Riddim and that had that same sort of feel to it.  A lot of the MC’s wanted to jump on that so we just thought let’s just get a few of them and showcase different people over that same beat and when that worked well we did it again with Alligator Riddim and we have done it a little bit with the Activity beat that Danny made this time, probably twenty MC’s have done it and we put a few of them on Aim High: The Revolution.  We didn’t want to rinse it by including too many.

Are there any plans to do anything with the unused Activity freestyles in the future?

We are thinking of maybe bringing out a bonus CD or maybe a free download of the Activity freestyles, all of them, because there is a lot of them that aren’t on Aim High that are good as well and deserve to be released. It is not like we have not used them because they weren’t good, we just didn’t want to rinse out the CD with the same beat. But we are definitely thinking of maybe doing a free download or something like that with the other Activity freestyles.

Where do you think Roll Deep fit between Grime and the mainstream?

It is mad because obviously we were the earliest Grime collective and Wiley and the rest of the guys, we helped set up the whole Grime thing. We did our mainstream thing and I think we were the first people to go down that road of doing mainstream sounding songs coming from a Grime background. Nowadays it is the normal thing to do.  Everyone is doing it so I think we feel comfortable going to the studio and making a Grime track, we feel comfortable going to the studio and making a poppy track and it is just getting that balance.  We are definitely a Grime act but we have been known to do commercial stuff and we have got some mainstream fans so its inbetween. It’s just about making it relevant for 2010.  That’s what we are doing for the new album.

Where do you think Grime fits into the mainstream scene generally? Artists like Tinchy Stryder, Dizzee Rascal, Chipmunk, Wiley and Skepta.

This is sort of around the time when, in America, Rap music suddenly just became the Pop music.  There was a stage when Rap was underground, everyone was doing mixtapes and some people were earning money but no one was really having massive hits and now I think this is happening in England where the Grime artists have evolved and the music has grown and artists have grown and the music has changed.  I think that’s helping a lot of people to get mainstream success, and when you see other people doing it, it makes the new MC’s want to jump on board and do it so I think this is our version of Hip Hop in the UK.

Even though there are a lot of British rappers who would say ‘we’ve got our Hip Hop’ and ‘Grimes not Hip Hop’, I think the whole UK culture and lifestyle that Grime brings is original and authentic. It has taken a while and a lot of people say you have to leave your roots to have any success but Dizzee is doing big Pop songs and on his album there is Grime too.  Tinchy is the same, it gives you a vehicle to go to those people and say ‘look I have this to offer but I have this as well’ and play them a dark Grime beat and it will work because they have heard you doing stuff that they are familiar with.  I’m all for it if artists want to do that. Everyone is making music they really like so that’s the main thing.

Did you ever see grime coming to this stage, back in the day when you started out in your bedroom making beats?

Not at the time, we would have liked to, we were hoping it was going to happen.  I didn’t visualise a day this soon where so many artists, like every week are having chart success. It’s like who is number one this week – Chipmunk, who is number one next week – Tinchy, who is number one this week – Dizzee.  It’s all our artists so it’s mad how it’s going, but I’m glad to see it definitely.

Where do you see grime in five years time, do you think it is going to continue as it is or get bigger and bigger?

I think it is just going to keep getting bigger and bigger.  There is loads of new talent coming through, you got new MC’s all the time you got new producers, and the actual industry and the mainstream are starting to pay attention to it, so I think it’s going to just keep growing for the time being.

Coming on from that do you think at some point 1xtra’s going to have a specific grime show like Logan Sama has on kiss?

I doubt they will have just a Grime show to be honest.  Logan’s show is a grime show but you won’t hear him playing most of the stuff that’s going into the charts from the Grime scene.  He is more for the Grime sound, he keeps it much more to the grass roots, whereas 1xtra has got Cameo, Dj Q, Ras Kwame and a few other Dj’s, and I play stuff.  I don’t think they need to get an actual Grime show, I think it’s covered enough on the station. I know they are looking at maybe a Dubstep show or something that is not really covered as much but I think there is the fair share of Grime on there.

What are Roll Deep up to next?

Street Anthems is out on October 26^th, which a collection of all the biggest tunes we have had, from the very beginning, the likes of Eskimo to Roll Deep Regular to Terrible all the way through to Wen Im Ere. Basically twenty tracks of pure classics on there.  We thought we would bring that out towards the end of this year to remind people what Roll Deep was about and what Roll Deep is about and get the name familiar again. A lot of Roll Deep guys have been working on solo stuff, the name Roll Deep as a group has not faded off, but tailed off a bit so were bringing that CD out in the interim while we’re working on a new album now for next year.

What is everyone up to individually?

All the MC’s are working on this Roll Deep project, and at the same time everyone is trying to do their own individual thing as well.  I think everyone having their individual albums and CDs out makes the unit stronger as well. So that is what we’re doing. Between now and next year were working on all that stuff more or less nearly all the MCs are working on solo stuff as well

So there is a lot more stuff to come next year?

The next year is going to be raining Roll Deep CDs. It’s about time.

What producers do you look up to personally? What producers do you to emulate, do you respect?

I rate a few of the American ones, people like Pharrell and Timbaland and Dre. But in the UK we grew up on Jungle and Garage, so people like Shy FX and Roni Size. Those kind of producers made us realise in the UK that we can actually do stuff.  You look at Americans and it is like they are a million miles away, it feels like how do we ever get into that?  When we saw Shy FX and Roni Size, even people like Wookie, just some of the UK producers who were smashing it that made us want to go and make tracks. I definitely respect all those guys.

After doing so much yourself, Dj’ing, Producing, Presenting, Broadcasting, you’ve got albums coming out, mixtapes coming out, what else do you want to achieve?

I don’t know just keep it moving, keep growing I suppose. Taking on new opportunities and keep getting the music out there as far as possible and making my show as big as I can, try and keep making stuff better and take on new stuff as well if that is even possible.

World domination?

(LAUGHS) Yeah I know everyone says it but that is what we are trying to do, just push it and take it as far as we can.

What music other than Grime influences you?

I listen to a bit of everything. I just drove here listening to Imogen Heap. So that shows you the spectrum. It could be anything from Pop to Grime stuff, to Funky House to Rap and Hip Hop to Classical, Ska, drawing influences everywhere.  We have all grown up listening to all sorts of music.

What tunes or artists are you listening to currently?

Right now, I have been listening to the Aim High CD obviously. The new Jay-Z album, and just all the current artists that are doing something and there are so many. Like Chipmunk, Tinchy, Wiley, there is so many people, Giggs too.  Because I am on the radio I get to hear so much music. I am just listening to everything that is good at the minute and there is a lot of it, so that is a good thing I suppose.

Is there anyone you want to collaborate with that you haven’t worked with?

I’ve worked with probably most of the Grime scene, there is still a few I would like to work with.  I am going to be doing something with Tinie Tempah soon. He just got his album deal and we are going to be working. I am going to get Giggs in soon and probably some other people out of the box who you wouldn’t expect. People from other scenes, sometimes you get people down to the studio who you wouldn’t expect us to work with. Mad guitarists, or working with a band called Stereo Juggernaut, they make a type of music that is nothing like Grime but when we come together it is like a mad concoction. Or we’ll get someone down like Toddla T. His production is totally different to what we do and when we come together we just make something almost brand new. I just prefer to get people in and work with people who are totally different to what we are already doing.

With that I sensed I had taken up enough of Target’s time already, Breeze, Wiley and Danny Weed had arrived in the studio and there were bangers of the future waiting to be made.

Written by Michael Wade – (Twitter: mkwdjournalism)

Roll Deep – Street Anthems is out now at HMV – Go buy it!

Aim High: The Revolution is released today at HMV – Go buy that!

Dj Target is on 1xtra every Friday night 7-10pm.  You can also follow him on twitter: http://twitter.com/DJTarget