Vertakill – Q&A Interview

Tell us a little about yourself. Where you are from? How long have you been making Hip Hop?

I grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. I started making tracks around 15 years ago with the producer of Brain Surgery, Skilogram. When we weren’t working on tracks we were kicking freestyles, from there I got into the local freestyle battle scene and did my thing there for a bit, did quite well but I got tired of shitting on people who I didn’t know. I quit battling after a couple of years and worked hard on my pen game until I started to make tracks that I’d want to hear.

What influences you in making Hip Hop?

I’m influenced by everyday life and the mish mash of obscure media that my brain has been soaking in. I watch weird movies, weird documentaries and read weird comic books then my mind swirls all that shit up and mixes it in with my past experiences then I spew out a verse. If I’m happy with the spew then I keep it in a jar and throw it on a beat that’s worthy.

Describe your music, and what separates you from other MCs?

My sound is dark and grimey with a bit of humour, which is a weird mixture now that I think about it. Oh shit what am I doing making dark, grimey, humorous music? I’ve made a huge mistake.

Who have you collaborated with? Who would you like to collab with in the near future?

I only really work with my long-time friends and crew members. Skilogram, Shystiey-B, SD and Murma. I have no real desire to collaborate with other rappers. Not even heroes of mine. I’m fine with just enjoying their music.

Your definition of “Underground Hip Hop”?

Music without boundaries. No one can tell you what to rap about. Underground Hiphop is music made to please, impress and express yourself. Making the music that you want to hear. The mainstream makes music that the majority wants to hear. They specifically try to tick all the boxes with what’s popular with the major buying market. That’s not music, that’s a product and I always find myself scratching my head over why people actually listen to that soulless garbage. That’s like eating fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. What are you doing?

Production wise, who are your influences? Who does your production?

Skilogram does all the production on Brain Surgery. He’s got a wide range of influences. Rza, Dr Dre, Prince Paul, DJ Premier, Ant Banks, Farma G. He listens to a lot of reggae records too, but you won’t often here its influence in his beats.

And who would you like to work with?

Just my mates. I like 90’s style beats. I like MPC’s and SP1200s. New School beats sound like wannabe slowed down techno turds to me. I feel like the new style stuff comes and goes but the classic boom bap style perseveres. Are we all laughing at auto tune yet? Or is that just some of us.

Any current or future projects you are promoting?

Just promoting the Brain Surgery album at the moment. Skilogram’s going to be dropping something soon too. I’ve got a whole host of tracks written for my next project but that’ll have to wait for the moment. Another Roach Scholars album maybe?

Can you give us a brief description of the creative process of Brain Surgery? Also/ tell us a little bit about the concept and idea behind your Album Cover Art.

I’m always writing tracks and verses. Brain Surgery was a slow accumulation of material over the course of four or so years. I was working on bits and pieces and concepts before me and Skilogram dropped the Roach Scholars album back in 2009. Skilogram let me have the pick of the litter when it came to his beats. We ended up getting hammered on vodka every Friday then putting together and recording a track or two in our home studio. Once I had an album worth of tracks I was happy with I decided that I wasn’t happy with the home studio quality of the vocals so I hit up a studio over the course of two weeks and re-recorded all the tracks while I was less hammered.

The album art work is inspired by Terrence Mckenna’s “Stoned Ape” Theory of evolution. Basically the idea is that humans evolved from apes with the help of magic mushrooms or psilocybin mushrooms. That the evolution of the animal mind and human ideas was due to primitive versions of human beings having psychedelic experiences. To me though, It’s just a reminder that we are all just domesticated animals with wild imaginations. That’s pretty much where art comes from, our imaginations, and my music and album is no different. The idea of Brain Surgery is dissecting all the different ideas and styles from my brain and putting them on display in the form of music for anyone who’s interested.

Where can we find your music and info?

Check out Vertakill.com. If you want to buy or listen to the album I recommend https://vertakill.bandcamp.com/ that way heads can get the digital booklet and the lyrics. Otherwise Amazon, Spotify etc. It should be up on ITunes too, seems to be some sort of delay at the moment, I would call Steve Jobs but he’s dead.

Any Shout Outs?

Shout outs to Jackie Chan. Acts, does his own stunts and often times writes the stories. Project A, get on it.