Smacktown -Q&A Interview
Tell us a little about yourself. Where you are from? How long have you been making Hip Hop?
I go by N3 (MC/Producer) and alongside my partner in crime Chico Cas (MC) we go by “SMACKTOWN”, Australia’s Heaviest Electronic Hip Hop duo.
What influences you in making Hip Hop?
An array of things influences our music and lyrics, going from our day-to-day life to the ever recurring worldwide issues and the obvious competitive nature of Hip Hop always wanting to spit to the same calibre or better as the MC’s we respect and/or look up to.
Hip hop itself is an influencing avenue where we can pour our heart and soul into a particular art and culture whilst aiming to make something timeless.
Describe your music, and what separates you from other MCs?
We view music as an art form, so we express it in a way that we feel best, rather than follow a certain structure, and its so diverse that people can’t relate us to one solid genre or group. Everyone has their own interpretation, our separation to the rest is we bring passion to the stage and to our artwork, something that many have forgotten down the years – we here to make real music with real lyrics for real people.
Who have you collaborated with? Who would you like to collab with in the near future?
On our latest release we have had the pleasure of collaborating with Funk Volume’s Jarren Benton & TeamBackPack’s cypher ripper Jeff Turner, which was amazing for us working with such high quality MC’s. Our dream collabo would be with the god technician Tech N9ne, but we all know to make dreams come true… it’ll take a lot work hard and dedication for a few more years before that is even possible. We can let you know in near future to keep you ears and eyes peeled as we few well-known underground MC’s in the works and on the list for upcoming projects.
Your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?
True Hip Hop is “Underground Hip Hop” because its uncensored, not conditioned for easy listening and radio, culture at it’s purest form – where an artist can create art and express himself (or herself) on a personal level, without creating fake persona that can relate to the common denominator.
Production wise, who are your influences? Who does your production?
N3: I do all our production and I have such a diverse taste of music that there is too many influences to pin-point one particular style of influence. Lately I have been listening to a lot of Wreckonize, productions on his latest album is amazing but seriously all music is my influence – be genre less and you will have no limits.
And who would you like to work with?
N3: I would like to work with Wreckonize, everything he does appeals to me to a whole new level. Straight up I’d just actually love to work with the whole Strange Music family, that would be a crazy experience – their work rate is so fast and with such high quality would learn so much. Oh and of course the old Dr Dre, his production is still categorized as one of the best in my books. I wouldn’t want to work with him now though, the tracks might never get released haha.
CHICO CAS: I would have to say Tech N9ne above all other artist. No only do I think he is the best rapper alive but every time I hear one of his songs or when he drops his newest tracks it always inspires me to step up my game.
Any current or future projects you are promoting?
Right now we just promoting our Powerless/ Chelsea grin EP while working on a few up coming video clips along with working on our labels next release by our brother artist Jinz Moss by working hard in the studio to get that out by end of May.
Can you give us a brief description of the creative process of Powerless / Chelsea Grin EP? Also/ what was the idea or concept description about your Album Art Cover.
Well the concepts and the ideas all came together with a comic we were going to release alongside the first four tracks we put together for this release which have a lot of highly politics subjects. The song “Chelsea Grin” being about giving world bankers a Chelsea Grin, because they’re powerless to money and greed inspired the cover artwork.
Where can we find your music and info?
You can find our info on;
facebook.com/smacktown
youtube.com/user/smackt0wn
soundcloud.com/smacktown
& all our latest music on iTunes, Beatport, Google store and all major digital distributors.
Any shout outs?
Shout out to all the One Mic Family, Poetry Runs Deep and all our fam, friends and supports who have and continue to push & help us grow.
Thanks for having us Underground Hip Hop Blog and keeping the Underground alive!
