Bold Individuals That Challenges Hip-hop'crisy En Style: j*9 interviews D-Sew

It is cold, its January and I am running five minutes late to meet D-Sew a female rapper from East London. It was a huge pleasure to meet her and have chat about her music, influences and plans for the future. Our conversation started out on a positive note - as we were both wearing matching checkered shirts. Check the interview below.

J*9: How were you exposed to music?
D-Sew: My first tape was Michael Jackson ‘Bad’; I have been influenced by the Bollywood scene, Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran. Also my Sister in the late 80’s early 90’s was into Bobby Brown, Prince & Cookie Crew so I became exposed to the soulful side of music. When I was young I was in a group with my cousin and we used to do showcases for our family. She used to do the dancing and I took more control in the singing

J*9: How did you first start writing?
D-Sew: I was 11 and my first song was a love song. I was just writing about my feelings at the time. I liked this guy and he just overlooked me, it really hurt my feelings and so I thought I need to write this down.

J*9: When did you start spitting?
D-Sew: When I was like 16or 17 and I used to write poetry. During this time I started listening to Rinse and Kool fm when drum & bass was at its peak in the mid 90’s with DJs like Micky Finn, IC3. I started to construct my words in more of a rhyme and I used to pretend that I was actually emeceeing on the radio.

J*9: When was your first performance?
D-Sew: It was at school assembly and I did an acapella of Mariah Carey ‘Hero’ with two other girls from my music class. I felt like that I had a voice from that age. My first ‘proper’ performance was at the HQ in Brixton. I hadn’t performed in years and I felt like I blossomed and people around me were encouraging to do my thing.

J*9: How you talk and emcee you sound like two different people.
D-Sew: When you listen to Grime and Drum and Bass you are hearing these fast spitters and I grew up on that. I grew up listening to Wiley, Dirty Goods and Neeko they are not soft rappers they are in your face and that is how I evolved with my style.

J*9: How did you get involved with the People’s Army?
D-Sew: It was the launch of the very first People’s Army event in January 2008. I loved their revolutionary ideas, the beliefs and causes, standing up for justice. It was through word of mouth and got to meet Logic and Lowkey [Members of People’s Army]. I was really feeling the movement and thought I will back it.

J*9: Are you affiliated with any other collectives?
D-Sew: Black Piranhas are a collective of very diverse musicians of producers, rappers, singers. It’s just us coming to together making tracks. I like them for different reasons it is more musical love.

J*9: How do you get our name out there?
D-Sew: I am trying to kick down doors; the [music] label industry is closed. We are not being heard enough and you have to do it yourself nowadays; creating your own empire and put your music out there. So I do my podcast and invite everyone in and play everyone else’s music. I also network a lot by going to events and building up contacts.

J*9: Hip-hop that people are listening, buying and seeing is really materialistic and shallow, as a conscious rapper how do you feel?
D-Sew: What like 50 Cent?

J*9: Yea, for example.
D-Sew: Putting the materialistic video’s, the bling and all the rest aside when it comes to 50 cent, I think he is still an iconic role model to a lot of people in the sense that he has a business head on him & a great focus. He came through & up going through extreme experiences in life and where he is now well I commend him for it in that perspective.

J*9: My problem is that he doesn’t live that lifestyle anymore so why are you still talking about it?
D-Sew: I think 50 cent still raps about his past experiences merged into his current lifestyle because may be he just can’t let go of his past. Why he gets so much attention is because he knows how to make money. He uses that as his focus and talks about the rougher side of life. He’s always been about the money and that comes across in his music relating to his current lifestyle and how he was hustling back in the day. I think that is the key relation in his music and why he often brings up his past.

J*9: What rappers do you listen too?
D-Sew: Mos Def, he breaks it down. I love him because I feel he is true to hip-hop. J Dilla I love his productions and that is how I got into making beats.