Theophilus London is a hard cat to pin down. Just when you think you have him figured out, he'll split your wig with something rising deep out of left field. With no official albums released and a hype hurricane whirring around him incessantly, Theophilus has been around the globe and back - and blazing through the blogosphere all the while - with only two mixtapes to his name. He's a widespread embodiment of the internet age - proof of just how far one can get with sheer vision and determination.
On their two red hot mixtapes ('JAM!' and 'This Charming Mixtape'), IDM beatmaker and righteous producer Machinedrum (aka Travis Stewart, Syndrone, Tstewart, Neonblack) and Theophilus paired up to create mixtapes that are packed with as much artistry, imagination and love as any album release. Bringing back the thoughtfulness and brilliance that mixtapes used to have back in the day, Machinedrum's beat concoctions are matched impeccably with Theophilus' unique flow - which sits somewhere between a myriad of different styles...sometimes seeping into profound lyrics filled with introspection, and other times word-hopping randomly through stream-of-consciousness freestyles.
As his fabric debut with the Fool's Gold fam creeps up, check out his new video for 'Humdrum Town' here...reminds us of many late nights spent drunkenly clinging onto a karaoke mic (shudder).
Before he lands in the town of his given birth name tomorrow, we stopped in with Theophilus London to find out more...
How did you get into rapping?
All my cousins…we got to church on Sundays and before church, they’d like be singing all these Biggie Smalls lyrics and 2Pac lyrics - and I had no idea! I grew up listening to soul artists, my mom had me listening to soul. But then my cousins all listened to hip hop so I wanted to fit in. So I forced myself to learn a Biggie Smalls lyric. I loved hip hop,the energy of it – I just thought, ‘ I want to feel this.’ I just learned my first hip hop lyric – and that was late in the game, learning Biggie’s record was late for hip hop. So I first got into rap and then I started trying myself, putting words together and seeing if it fits or what mood I could get out of it.
Did you take it pretty seriously from the get-go?
I started taking it to school and battling other kids. Everyday I was trying to showcase my talent, whatever it was – show and tell, whatever. I’d just always be like, ‘Yo, check this rhyme I wrote five minutes ago!' and have somebody beatbox and all that. I just got addicted to it, just writing everyday, writing down all my experiences and making them rhyme and presenting them to people. And eventually people said I should take it more serious, and it started to get more serious to me.
You were called Theolonius Kapps before you settled into your real name…what’s the meaning behind that?
Theolonius Kapps, taking Thelonious from Thelonious Monk the jazz musician. And Kapps was this nickname I got from the street because people said I was captivating.
With such a magnificent birth name, why didn’t you use that?
I got teased all time time growing up, I didn’t get some girlfriends because of this name. I started going by Theo and kids found out what it was. But it became cool to me later – I thought, ‘I want to make this a powerful name, I want to be the most talked about person with the Theophilus name.' I’m beating all the other Theophilus’, the Bible guys, on Google!
How did you meet Machinedrum? You two seem like kindred spirits…
Yeah, a friend introduced us, some dude in the industry, and we started working together ever since and making beautiful stuff together. It’s a great force, I love working with him, he’s a great guy. Before I met Machinedrum, I was looking to go in that direction; it was the start of the new direction I wanted to go. When I got on the phone with him…he was always into a lot of other stuff, so the direction that we’re doing – that was his first time even dipping into that as well. It was a first for both of us in terms of the sound. We spoke about it and he was like, ‘That’s what I wanted to do!' so we just did it, this project, and it turned out amazing.
Tell us about ‘JAM!’…
The mixtape was my idea. Me and Machinedrum were slowly just working on the album, and I wanted to take a break from the album. I was tired of working and working and not being in contact with people, and people knowing about thing or relating to people. That’s also what drives me as an artist – the fact that I have fans and supporters that can relate to me – and their love. So I thought we should create a mixtape and I wanted to call it Jam because I was thinking “Join A monumental Movement!”- I was all into that stuff. I thought we should put all our favourite songs from past times. I would die to live in the 70s, or grow up in the disco era. If I could choose an era to grow up in, I would be 22 in the disco era. That’d be bad. So yeah, we wanted to do that and put the mixtape together, we did it on no budget. We moved in together and did it in our closet, created it together. It was so undeniable.
And how did the idea for a second mixtape come out of that?
After that, I just took a deep breath and I thought, ‘You know what? I want to do this again!” But I wanted to do the second one more official, and that’s when I came up with This Charming Mixtape. I had more influences to work off of…
Why mixtapes?
Mixtapes are a fun collaborative thing, a promotional item…it’s all about collaboration. When a mixtape came out back in the day, all the songs mixed into eachother, it was a long tape of just mixes and really cool jams, and that’s what I wanted to bring back. Even in hip hop, people would drop mixtapes and their mixtapes would be like albums.
Have you had any response from the people whose songs are featured on the mixtapes?
These people that are on the tracks are not even pissed at me! They’re like, 'Thank you!' instead of 'Yo, I’m suing you!' So now we can make this record with all of our idols and people we really wanted to work with, it’s amazing what you can connect. It’s a great story - I’m so happy and appreciative of what went down so far.
I know a lot of people struggle to categorise your music, which is a good thing…but how would you describe it yourself?
It’s hard to say because a real true artist changes their sound from time to time – it evolves. So my sound is just gonna keep evolving; in the past I was big influenced by hip hop. Dance music, electronic music – love it. Berlin techo, Detroit techno – big fan. I aspire to make all that kind of music. I guess there is a post-punk influence – you can say whatever you want on the record and feel however you want to feel, and you’re not settling for the music standard. A lot of my songs too are very pop driven, they have a pop format in the way I write them. So it’s all genres – hip hop, dance music, soul, punk, it’s huge.
What's it like in Brooklyn?
Brooklyn has definitely defined me. Right now, Brooklyn is just so innovative. You walk outside and the people are up now, it’s just so forward-moving and forward-thinking. The energy’s in Brooklyn. And the people I meet, the experiences – that stuff drives me. I love Brooklyn. I’m sure there’s a place like that everywhere in the world, where it’s that place that drives you. Brooklyn’s like my office, it’s a workplace. It’s a great place to be.
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