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Staying Sharp: Elijah In Conversation With JME

JME’s a bonafide grime pioneer. The Hackney born, Tottenham bred emcee and producer founded the Boy Better Know label alongside his brother Skepta in the early 00s and since then, alongside a character like Wiley, he’s epitomized the movement and become one of the scene’s most consistent performers. Uniquely British, endlessly insightful and incredibly funny, JME’s lyrical content has consistently undermined the wider misconceptions about the aggression and tension within grime music. There’s very little point in us actually struggling to describe him any further when the man himself can tell you everything you’d ever really need to know about him better than we ever could, in just over 3 minutes… As such a pronounced figurehead for the music, it’s obvious, even at a base level that JME’s had a massive influence on what the Butterz label do – an incredibly vocal supporter of grime Butterz co-owner, Elijah, has said as much elsewhere before. So the fact that JME’s joining the Butterz gang to perform live when they return to our Room Two here in Farringdon on the 1st November is understandably a pretty big deal – for them and for us. In anticipation we asked Elijah if he’d like to interview JME on our behalf. Something he did pretty candidly. Safe. Elijah: When you first started releasing music, the primary format was vinyl for DJs to play on the radio, then you moved on to CD for the Boy Better Know series of mixtapes and now your music usually always accompanied with a video and digital download. Do you think this has affected the way you work? For instance when writing a song like 'If You Don't Know,' are you already thinking about the visuals for it? JME: Erm... yes and no, because to be fair, when I was in school and I was watching things like Dragon Ball Z, mixed with seeing mad events happening on the high road on my walk home, all my lyrics, no matter how humorous or violent, had a picture to go with it in my head. If I could, I would have had even crazier visuals back then, it’s just that I'm able to do it now. But I do understand what you mean, as the way music is received today is very different, so now I do see it as more important to give a visual with the song. it helps give the song a concrete vibe that songs didn't really need before as the way music was received was different, all songs used to have 'that feeling' because they were harder to get. Now it’s too easy. I definitely haven't taken it into account/changed the way I WRITE the music though. That’s stayed the same. You have, quite famously, never signed a record deal and have never seemed like you needed one, but what would you say are the main challenges for someone in music going on their own? You opened up a bit about it on your latest track 'Integrity' The main main main challenges are self-belief. And knowing what you are actually doing. When clouded with all this madness called the 'industry,' staying true to what you actually loved in the first place, that’s the hardest thing. Way too many factors get involved, and before you know it you end up compromising and doing some type of crap that you never dreamed you'd be doing and then you say to yourself, 'don't worry, to grow, you must change, you must conform to move forward' all that malarkey. That’s rubbish. Do what you love. Do not change for anybody. It's so clear in hindsight but at the time, all these people, all this money, all this rubbish. Music should be above it all! You are a pirate radio veteran and were on stations nearly every week until quite recently. With all those hours of practice it made you and the rest of the crew really sharp live. How do you maintain that now even though shows have moved into the concert style performance? Radio was where I expressed myself as I grew in the scene and I think after about 8 or 9 years on radio and being in studios, you learn how to project your voice sonically on stage/in the booth wherever. Plus you get to directly interact with your audience - no middle man, no money, no rubbish. You can’t put a price on that. Staying sharp now is just a case of utilizing all that we have learnt. It doesn't stop. I spit bars in my car all day; I recite my tracks from beginning to end in the shower before I record them. It doesn't stop. I've seen you live over the years in several different situations, from basement clubs in Shoreditch to concert venues like The Astoria, but seeing Boy Better Know at Wembley last year was incredible. What have been your favourite shows over the years? I always say the Wembley show was the highlight of my performing career, that was emotional. Other than that I’d say, the Wiley tour I did alongside Skepta that was a real eye opener to what the future can hold for us as UK musicians. You are going through a prolific collaborating stage in your career. You have worked with Ed Sheeran, Krept & Konan, Giggs, Newham Generals, Kozzie, Joe Grind and a ton more in the past couple of years. Who else do you want to work with? I saw you saluting James Blake on twitter; I think that would be a great track. After the infamous set with Joker and Swindle back in February that would be an amazing link up too. There’s never been anybody I ‘want to work with’ all the above collaborations you mentioned came about because of one song that we thought would fit. If anybody ever gets that one song that just works, I’ll be there. James Blake is a magician, I’m late on his music, but it is controlling me right now. I never just 'collaborate' when there’s somebody I like, there has to be that one track. Until then I just vibes… On the contrary you haven't produced as much as you did in the earlier stages of your career. Now with the War Dubs and ‘Integrity,’ JME the producer is back. Is this going to be a permanent thing now? Definitely. While I play the next generations consoles and eat falafel, I won’t have as much time to write lyrics, so I’ll probably perform more and just lay ideas down on my mac. Now I have Fruity Loops on the mac - the best DAW in my opinion - I’ll definitely lay a few more beats down. Onto the show at fabric which I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. The last time we did a show ‘96 Fuckries’ had just come out and you performed it in the crowd. You have quite a back catalogue now, how are we going to condense all your favourite material into one set? It would be pretty cool to do a couple of tracks from each of the classic CDs (!) alongside the new bits like ‘Work’, ‘Integrity’ and ‘If You Don’t Know’. A lot of the younger fans wouldn't have had the chance to see you do early material like ‘Awoh’, ‘Deadout’, ‘Food’, ‘P’, ‘Over Me’ and countless others the first time round… I never know what I'm going to do at a show, I always just prepare moments before. I’ll bring a few give aways to this show and I will definitely do those classics - I don't think there'll ever be a day when my show doesn't have my classics in it. They made me. When I said the hardest challenge is self-belief, this is one of my key factors in keeping that belief, performing my old material to remind myself, no matter what track is banging now, remembering why I'm here, and what I love doing.
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