REC (pronounced Arr-Ee-Cee) is one of the new wave of promising Grime MC’s. Also a dab-hand at producing, I caught up with him to talk about his brand new EP, his experiences within the Grime scene plus a brand new label set to light up the scene..

It’s been a while since we’ve spoke, where have you been and what have you been up too ?

Rah, well I’ve been working on making the EP as good as possible, while appearing on Urban FM and UKFlow.TV and stuff just putting in the work behind the scenes really.

Before we start talking about the new EP, lets talk about Press Play. It came out earlier on in the year, what was the listeners reaction like ?

You know what, it was very positive. Most people told me it was a solid release and the good thing is most people didn’t feel that I was over-shadowed by any of the features on the collabs so that’s good, although I only made about 50 copies for sale to see the reaction it sold out twice in Uptown Records so yeah that’s positive !

Having your CD sell out once must feel good..let alone TWICE..?

Yeah I know, to be honest I thought “I’m an unknown MC it’s going to be very slow sales wise”, but when Aza T phoned me giving me updates saying “How I’m actually helping the store as well as myself”, that gave me a sense of achievement still.

It’s a big look. So right now you’ve just brought out The Nearly There EP 2, what can people expect to hear on that ?

Yeah like on the EP it’s just me me me, I sound like no one else it’s all me, my flow, my concepts. How I think, and I think it’s also good music there’s a couple of tracks that people will call commercial but I feel that I make music I like and sometimes the beat may not seem grimey. But I’m still spraying in a grimey way.

Do you think people will be able to see an improved MC if they were to listen to Volume 1 and/or Press Play and then the new material ?

For definite, this isn’t an excuse but I finished recording Press Play in February hence the level of spitting on there was a little old, but since my ‘Merciless Special’ I’ve found myself and a unique flow so in all of my tracks you will recognize an improvement.

Is the EP mainly made up of your own productions, we heard a few on your CD, how is prodcuing going for you ?

On the EP I produced the intro and one other track still, both quite solid. And to be honest I’m a lazy producer, I produce when I want really like I’ll make a beat one day then not touch FruityLoops for another month but I’ve got a few beats about I will drop a free release for them in the next few weeks or so..

So you could say that MC’ing takes priority for your future plans then ?

You know what, I’m not one of these MC’s doing it for money ’cause honestly grime is dead for you if you want that, I do it for fun, I ain’t going to lie sometimes I feel like I should have more recognition and it makes me not want to do this but I enjoy writing, I enjoy spitting I will never stop so you may hear less or more of me who knows.

So if you’re not gonna try and make money from grime, which is fair enough, could we hear you going for the top 40 anytime soon ?

To be honest I want to get in the scene first, and then worry about even being able to chart, at the end of the day we do Grime but we all listen and like different genres too hence we may feel to make it big and if it’s a hit it’s a hit. What I will say is I would rather we get to the point where we can make a Grime hit and even be in the top 100 in the next few years.

So what will we actually hear next from you ? A new CD ? Are there plans for one yet..?

Erm I’m just looking to do the free stuff for now cause to be honest who am I to charge people for my music yet I make money in other ways ? For the time being I’m working on another free EP and a promo as we speak and I have made tracks that are CD quality but IF a CD comes from me next year, it will be in the last quarter of the year.

I understand that..you’ve been making music for a hot minute now, what has your general experience been like ?

Yeah on a serious level 3-4 years but in general 6 years. Erm there has definitely been a change in the scene and it’s appeal. I feel that especially for emerging MC’s, 2006-2007 was the best year to come through, it’s a little more tough now. Also in terms of the music obviously the beats have elevated in terms of levels so the structure of tunes are a little more professional but I guess if the scene changes you gotta change with it we can’t just spray repeat 8 bars for years on end.

A bit of a cliche question then, but in 5 years time, where can you see yourself ?

I see myself involved in music in some way or form, hopefully with use of the mic and not the mixer or programs, and also I’m in uni so hopefully I will have a degree, gotta have a back up plan man it’s a must !

Tell me about the new label your with, RS Digital…

Yeah I was waiting for this. RS Digital is an independent label ran by emerging studio engineer Rampage Studios, it’s basically Myself and Maxsta as artists, Nana Rogues (Producer), Jermain Craig (Photographer & Designer) and Ashleigh Jade (Photographer). It’s positive because it’s bringing all of our abilities together whist not being a crew but still working together, watch out for our official website launching on the 1st of Jan 2010 !!

That sounds very promising, how did you guys all first get together then ?

Indeed man, I would say Rampage ’cause he was central obviously it’s his label but he’s the route of it we all knew who each other were but not on a level where we were a team or anything so it’s good to work with people I ain’t really worked with before.

What can we expect from you guys, CD’s, Merchandise..?

Well the website as I said earlier so you will find everything to do with us on there. Maxsta has his long awaited CD out soon, I’ve got a bag of free stuff and hopefully my CD later on. I’m not too sure if we are going to do T-Shirts for sale but we will definitely have T-shirts repping the label so yeah man it’s looking quite promising let’s hope the promise turns into longevity !

Well good luck with that, on a quick note, you told me before that Scorcher was a personal influence of yours, what do you make of his new album ?

Yeah man he’s big, erm you know what I don’t think it’s the best album we’ve heard come from our scene this year. I think that award goes to Will but I can see the approach Scorcher was taking ’cause in his last few relases he started to take a more versatile approach hence why we hear the more UK hip-hop-ish album but he did rep hard with the Grime tunes he put on there so props to him for that. The thing that’s sad is that because of the structure of the music industry in the UK he can’t release his full energy like them ‘No Base’ kind of tunes ’cause the response will be negative but there you go..

Listeners opinion I guess..well always good talking to you anything else you would like to get across ?

You know me mate, just large up RS Digital, Southstars Ent and a big Shout to my brother Clixx, darg from early. Also Download Nearly There EP 2 now and last but not least: Don’t talk on Twitter mate this is grime do it on a dub you know who you are mic war I’m here all day.

You can check out REC on Twitter / Myspace / Facebook / Youtube

DOWNLOAD REC’S NEARLY THERE EP 2 RIGHT NOW IT’S A LOT.

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