I first seen Pimp Tea (hip hop canada!) when I seen the video for “Super Dude” and I likes it with all my raisins, so I asked them what they have eaten today.
How are you, and what meals have you eaten today?
Good for a monday. Started it off with an orange, glass of OJ and two slices of gluten free cinnamon raisin toast.
Raisin Toast! I love using raisin instead of reason.
Lots of raisins to like Pimp Tea
Can you tell us the raisin you got into music growing up and what your “journey” has been?
My elementary music teacher had me demonstrate to the class how not to play the recorder. That scarred me, so I never ended up learning how to play an instrument. I still loved music. In 96 or so, I discovered rap music on my own. None of my friends were into it, so it wasn’t like I was jumping on a bandwagon… It was the music meant for me. Since then it’s been a crazy adventure. A chemistry rap song, cover bands, music videos, a rivalry with ed the sock, an east coast music award, hot tub appearances, 3 albums, a 12″ vinyl record, a 100-day cross canada tour, sponsorship from nelly’s pimp juice and so much more…
Can you tell me about the Candian rap scene? I have a friend from toronto but she is an idiot…(like a total spastic)
I love the canadian rap scene. It’s a struggle for all artists, but we’re seeing some artists start to make it. I love the scene so much that I do an all canadian rap compilation every year and put it out for free. www.brockwayent.com
What was the best thing about 2009? ( I personally enjoyed soup)
After 10 years with roommates, I was finally able to afford a place all my own! Runner ups:
- first ever trip to UK
- guacamole recipe a friend brought back from chile
- sushi in vancouver
- seeing the red sox play at camden yards (baltimore)
- east coast music fest in newfoundland with moose meat steak & mackarel.
What do want 2010 to bring? I want muscles.
A new music video. It’s been 5+ years since the last (shake ya caboose)
Say I’m trying to impress a girl over the internet by sending her links to youtube videos, but oh no! Iva accidently copied and pasted the double anal gangbang porn link! What do I do?
Don’t do anything. Wait and see if she’s into it… If she’s not, then
(a) claim your friend/dad/brother was on your computer again.
(b) claim your roommate has a serious man crush on you, and tries to sabotage any interaction you have with girls
(c) claim the feds are spying on you and infected your computer with a porn virus again.
I just sent it again by accident. Fuck. Thanks Pimp Tea!
What is your favorite snes/nes game? (or mega drive if you were into that….)
Lach: I really liked a game called “alex kidd in miracle world” it ruled! he had a big fist and you could punch stuff and ride on a bike. But that was master system so not sure if it counts.
I had that too! You could play rock paper sissors and stuff! I like your new album, do you? (Actually i really fucking like it) Did you learn any life changing lessons while recording it?
Lach: Thanks! im rather partial to it, it taught me that all the people of the world are equal and that discriminating against people based on their race or sexuality was morally reprehensible, joe will tell you i was pretty racist homophobe before we started making this album
If you don’t already know how good Kidda is, you are a moron. But don’t worry, I can help educate your sorry excuse for a brain.
How did you get into music ( and what noise makes you bite your bottom lip?)
Olivia Newton John, Wings, Michael Jackson, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, The Clash, Stone Roses, A Tribe Called Quest, Big Audio Dynamite, Gangstarr, Wu Tang…that’s the boring bit out of the way. Hip hop made music accessible to ungifted ingrates like me who had neither the time nor the energy to sit and learn chords, bands didn’t really exist in Middlesbrough in the 80’s so the idea of pinching bits of other peoples records and sellotaping them together appealed immediately. I started making loops on this shitty Casio keyboard of my brothers’ – it had 4 seconds of 8-bit sample time and was previously used to fart into cos it was fucking hilarious. I fannied around putting tapes of loops together before upgrading to a sampler with 10 seconds, then an Akai s900, which I loved an wish I’d never got rid of (this guy wanted to swap it for a bag of weed, but I don’t smoke – makes me mad paranoid – I got £50 for it). Put a little single out with a couple of mates and got a computer, made some more beats with that and put out some stuff on Puma Strut – a mates hip hop label in Brighton, before doing 2 EP’s with Catskills then Going Up for Skint.
Strings and reversed guitar solos make me cry.
Who is the coolest person you’ve worked with so far? Who would you like to work with?
Most of the folks I’ve worked with have been easy to work with Gary Lightbody, Blak Twang, Lomax, Laura Vane…all of them peachy. Psycho Les communicated through hellafunny monosyllabic emails that would just say ‘yeah’ or ‘check it’. I guess my main man is Lee Baker who co-produces everything with me, I’ve known him for 20 years and it’s only in the last few years that we’ve got together to work on something. It’s all about trust and there’s always a buzz in the studio and that’s pretty cool (whatever the fuck ‘cool’ means)
I’m stuck for people to work with at the moment, I trust little of what comes out of people’s mouths nowadays and finding any truth in these emperor’s new clothes is nigh on impossible through the smoke and mirrors of marketing bullshit. There’s no one out there that really gets me going at the moment and just I’m happy to push myself on this record with the relatively unknown talent that’s in and around Brighton. I’m battening down the hatches on this record for now.
I fucking love this tune.
What is your favorite t-shirt (and if that t-shirt was a person, what would its name be?)
My Fat Lip T-Shirt (see attached). He was in The Pharcyde before going off to do his own thing and I’ve had it for about 4 years. I got it online from the states and when it turned up it smelled of jossticks.
Originally black, it’s just dark grey now, the decal is cracked and is fraying round the neck, it’s too small for me and you can see my tits through it, my girl hates it for that but I think it only makes it look better. It’s got the Delicious Vinyl Logo on the back and like everyone’s favourite t-shirt, the day feels better wearing it. I like to think that middle class liberals with their heads full of Birkenstocks, Pilates and Actimel chew over what it means and whether it makes me racist or not. Bellends.
I’m not one for giving inanimate objects names.
Can you teach us a new swear word? (Like Man-tard)
Buttmudd.
Do you have any noises that you don’t like?
My daughter howling about something pointless like how there’s no more Rice Krispies comes close to fingernails down a blackboard and just polystyrene in general. Oh, and the fucking seagulls (see below)
Have you ever spilled anything and thought “I need to be more careful”?
I worked on a live broadcast for ‘Going Live’ in about ’97 with Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, tarting up this kids bedroom in a couple of hours. I spilt a tin of blue paint on the carpet and when I told the director she said “fuck ‘em, stick that rug over it, they’re getting five grands worth of bedroom for fuck all”. The lesson being, if you’re going to spill anything, it’s fine as long as there’s a rug to cover it. In short – don’t get caught.
What is some music we might not expect Kidda to listen to?
I dunno what you’d expect me to listen to anyhow?…plus, I seldom ‘listen’ to stuff and just ‘hear’ it on telly and that. Girls Aloud and Pussycat Dolls always deliver a good tune, Britney lost it for a while but returned to form…phew. Pop’s good like that, multi-hooks and great production. Fuck all this esoteric Mercury Awards shite. Yeah, dead clever but where’s the tunes? Don’t play for the cunts in the corner.
What are your top songs right now?
Right now my head is full of my own record and I’ve not given myself much time to pull it from my own arse to hear anything that really sticks. So right now, it goes like this :-
Kidda – Together Again/I’m Down/Don’t Give Up, Sunshine.
The Clash – 1977.
Fake Blood – Fix Your Accent EP.
Another tune that literally makes me wet.
What is your favorite facial expression when you are enjoying music? Can you describe it?
I bite my bottom lip which ain’t great, so I’m working on a look that says ‘indifferent’ like those dickhead presenters on Channel 4.
What is a good drink to drink if I’m feeling hung over?
You get hangovers?
Do you like Back to the future? If so, which one is your favorite?
It’s OK, but I guess the subtext of Marty’s mam wanting to fuck him in the second one is pretty fun.
What is your favorite thing to do, outside of music?
Extreme Ceramics and dressing badgers in victorian costume before setting them back into the wild, they’re scratchy little fuckers but it really scares the shit out of the poachers.
Do you prefer cats or dogs and why?
Neither. Cute parasites at best and the notion of gourmet pet food makes me want to chew my arm down to a bloodied nub.
Do you prefer Tea or coffee and why?
Coffee, it’s become a necessary requirement of a morning, my constitution is big enough to handle a strong cafetierre everyday but have to cap it by midday or I get a bit ‘vigilante’. I find the ‘Skinny caramel frappaccino’ culture fucking abhorrent; the amount of choice people in the western world believe they deserve makes me want to honk. You won’t catch me in Starbucks talking yoga moves
What can we expect from you in the next 12 months?
New album, more remixes, more djing and, if I can actually make some money out of this joke of a career, take it on the road as a live thing. If not, just more frustration, grief and bile.
What is your opinion on seagulls?
They can eat my shorts. Living in Brighton you quickly learn it’s a ‘them and us’ situation. The fuckers are so pumped up on the stuff they pull out of bins, it’s driven them insane and desperate. I’m sick of getting shat on, sick of the noise they make on the roof at 4 in the morning and while I’d love to subscribe to the notion of ‘all species being able to adapt and live together with a mutual respect’, it seems like a pretty one way street. Pass the javelin and let’s have a seagull kebab.
Joe Crogan loves Prince Zimboo, I listened to him on Major Lazers album and was like “Who is this cool cat?” and what is this awesome phrase “HEH!” I asked Prince Zimboo some questions. (BTW he is fucking amazing!)
