|
FEATURED
ARTIST
(Young Fathers)
Scotland's favourite hip-hop trio Young Fathers
are far more well-mannered in their overtures to the
honeys than a lot of other rappers. "If you
would like to have one of our children, please contact
us," they solicit demurely on their MySpace
blog. These talented 20-year-olds first converged at
an under-18s hip-hop night in the original Bongo
Club. "I loved it, the grunginess, the sweaty
walls, the atmosphere, the excitement. You'd struggle
to find that nowadays," says Massaquoi, an alleged
insomniac who was born in Liberia. Completing the Young
Fathers line up is Graham Hastings, aka G, a lifelong
Edinburgh native and Kayus Bankole, aka KS, who was
born in Scotland but lived away for periods in Nigeria
and then Washington DC, before returning to Scotland
in his mid-teens. They honed their rapping skills in
open mic slots and came together with a shared desire
to write songs rather than just rap over beats, creating
their first tracks using cheap music software and a
microphone from Argos. "Hip-hop in Scotland is
really dark," says Hastings. "I don't know
if it reflects the weather. The scene we came through
is really underground. I think there's this attitude
of 'we'll keep it to ourselves, cos it's ours' and you
play music to your mates. We've never had that attitude.
I don't even see us as a hip-hop band. Really we're
just pop boys. We grew up with pop music, so that always
makes sense to us when we're writing tunes. I think
pop's really going to come back like how it was in the
Eighties." "In a recession, pop makes everybody
happy," says Massaquoi. "You want to listen
to good tunes." Why not let Young Fathers be your
main providers? Get a copy of the Automatic
EP over at itunes.
|