Jon Phonics Interview

To tell us about his upcoming release on YnR and to tell me what I have been missing in UK Hip Hop for the past several years Jon Phonics has agreed to be subject to one of our little interviews. Check one of my album highlights, Rabbit Jab,  at the bottom of the post.

Firstly tell us a little bit about yourself

I’m Jon Phonics aka Ill Clinton aka Hal 9000 aka Arthur Phonzarelli. Since 2005 I been making beats and I got anything you need; heaters, gases, tazers, space zappers, clawdusters any of that shit.

You have a new release, Half Past Calm 2, coming out on YnR and featuring a lot of guests. How was it putting together an album with such a varied cast of MC’s?

Making the album was a very natural process. After the release of the first one I pretty much jumped straight into recording new shit, after I was about 8 tracks deep, I wasn’t feeling much of it and felt that they weren’t exactly ‘songs’, more just rapping on beats. I went back and listened to a lot of shit that inspired me to make Hip Hop in the first place and came to the conclusion that a lot of my favourite albums were made off the cuff and in a sort of hap hazard environment, with this in mind I went about persuading most of the MC’s I was close with to spend some time with me building from scratch on the spot in the studio. I defnitely think you can hear this more in the end results.

You use a pretty nice mix of samples on your latest release. Where’s your favourite spot for digging and what is the record purchase you most remember? Mine was finding The Other Side Of Abbey Road by George Benson, it was a record I never thought I would find on vinyl within my record shopping routine, although it’s not massively rare or valuable, just special.

Dope, I have to say Wes Montgomery’s cover of The Beatles’ ‘A day in the life’ was one of my favourite joints when I first started digging, and still is.

I have a favourite spot to dig but i’m gonna keep it on some Marley Marl an not tell y’all, sorry!

The record purchase that stands out in my mind was on a Bank Holiday there was a market at the Tate Modern, and I happened to be there on the off chance, I saw a record stall and they had tons of DOPE breaks for a pound and they clearly just didn’t know what they were holding. I copped ‘Astra’ by Asia, which I had wanted for a minute and hadn’t ever seen. When I got on the bus I instantly took it out the sleeve only to find it wasn’t in there an it was Elton John instead. I found it a few weeks later for a few pounds more.

UK hip hop has always had a place in my heart all the way back to Overlord X, Gunshot and Hijack, but it was the late 90s where (for me) the UK scene really developed its own, less derivative sound and really stood on it’s own two feet. Over the last 5 years I have probably been a bit dismissive of what’s going on. What have I been missing?

I guess over the past few years the UK have been finding their feet again, we have acts such as Triple Darkness & Obba Supa who have really hit that sound I think alot of the cats in the late 90′s were gunning for on the head, Micall Parknsun’s last record totally upped the levels for a lot of Rappers out here, with some crazy production values, in my opinion it offered a sound the UK had never brought before and I think it was well received which gives us confidence to go further.

Also, I’m affiliated with a group of Producers called Louis Den, who I think have been pushing the boundaries of traditional Hip Hop production in the country. Having a platform like that to put your ideas out on is dope and I would say we’re only just realizing how far it reaches.  I also think listeners have opened there minds a bit more and are ready to see there’s more to hip hop from our country than Tetley tea raps and white guys in fubu.

Hip-Hop as a genre now means a lot of things to a lot of people and guys like Hudson Mohawke, Flying Lotus and Mike Slott are really pushing what can be done within that framework. What do you think of those guys and their output into the world of electronic glitch-hop or whatever it is people want to call it these days?

Yeah i’m a huge fan of all of those guys, I make a lot more instrumental stuff these days and have been pushing myself to work more out of the boundaries of traditional hip hop. I have never been strictly a hip hop fan, growing up in the UK I would put on the radio before school and hear Luniz ‘i got 5 on it’ right before ‘Peaches’ by Presidents Of The United States right before ‘Start the dance’ by the Prodigy, so I think a lot of my generation are just fans of music as opposed to one specific genre and I think that’s why a guy like Hud Mo is so hard to pigeon hole becuase it really is a mish mash of influences.

On the flip side to that we have a lot of UK MC’s like Plan B, Professor Green and Example happily going commercial. I don’t know about you but it makes my skin crawl a bit, especially that Professor Green tune.

I think it’s cool for them that are getting that love, but i would never go out of my way to achieve commercial success.

Which producers have inspired you most?

The list really is huge but today I am saying Rick James, Axelrod, James Poyser and always the people and things around me.

Which MC would you most like to hear spit over one of your beats?

Sean Price & DOOM

Any final words?

Half Past Calm 2 is out now on YNR featuring Jehst, M9, Obba Supa & way more. Thankyou inaudibleanswer, thanks to the reader and if anyone can get chocolope or hawaiian haze in south London – holla at me!

http://www.inaudibleanswer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/13-rabbit-jab-feat-masikah.mp3

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