The J5 crew have recently dropped a new album, ‘Feedback’. It’s the fourth for this straight up hip hop group. Zaakir, aka Soup, one of the outfit’s four MCs, takes time out with Benjamin Chinnock ahead of their forthcoming sets at the Good Vibrations Festival, and admits that touring this one has been the hardest.
Why’s it been the hardest? Soup puts this down to changes not only in technology and the way that people consume music, but also changes within the group. For those that don’t know, Cut Chemist – one of the key players, not only in production but in their live show – left the group prior to making ‘Feedback’. But Soup, who on the day of the interview had just spoken to Chemist, admits, “there is no bad blood, he just wanted to do his own thing. He had an opportunity and he took it. I don’t see anything wrong with that. They say if opportunity knocks you have to answer, and if an opportunity like that had come for me I properly would have had to sit down and think about it too.” Soup revealed that replacing Cut Chemist upon his departure was never on the cards. “If someone leaves, they just leave, we don’t replace them. It’s not a revolving door.” Soup also admits that Numark has had to bear the brunt of Cut Chemist leaving, as it’s now up to him to hold down the live show musically.
J5 see that although hip hop is in a great place financially at the moment – with hip hop stars owning NBA teams, record labels, movie production companies, shoe companies and clothing labels – they don’t see this having a positive effect on hip hop’s creativity. “It’s the worst it’s been creatively, it’s almost like hip hop has just started, it’s brand new that’s how simple it’s got.” When asked exactly where J5 fit in on the scheme of things in hip hop, Soup’s response is somewhat philosophical. “If it’s hip hop we fit into, we are hip hop. If you know hip hop, than it wouldn’t be an argument. We always have people that say you are ‘back packers’, you guys are trap rappers you guys are cocaine gangsters…” asserting with force, “WE DO HIP HOP!”
So the question must be asked, what exactly is hip hop? “Hip hop is what is was when it started. Hip hop is what is was when you heard Grand Master Cas, Melle Mel, Grand Master Flash, Rakim, Kool J, Run DMC. That’s what hip hop is to me. Or Public Enemy, when it was about knowing who you are and upholding… being responsible and being creative. Nobody sounded the same, that’s what hip hop is to me. I don’t know what it is now because everybody’s got their own interpretation and it’s terrible. I think it’s wack that people do that now, because now everybody wants to hold it and own it. You can’t do that, let it be hip hop and you give your version. You live over here and you do your thing, but don’t try and come and try and change the whole foundation. I think that’s really corny; people don’t even respect the godfathers of it.”
Unfortunately, Soup believes that this behaviour is something unique to hip hop. “You will never get any young rock dude to come out and say anything terrible about the Rolling Stones, you will never get any young rock dude to say Led Zeppelin was terrible. But you get a lot of young rappers that come out and you ask them about Melle Mel and they’re like, ‘that’s old’. That man was a forefather and we wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for him doing what he did and paving the way. We wouldn’t be here without the Kool Hercs and Bambaataas, and you can’t give them any respect or a thankyou?”
J5 started back in 94, and Soup believes that while a lot of people say they would be ‘dead or in jail if it wasn’t for hip hop’, it isn’t true for him. He had a father that would, in Soup’s own words, “Put a foot in my arse if I hadn’t done something with my life.” Before J5, Soup worked at record labels, including Lyall Records, where he was instrumental in getting Mob Deep signed to the label. “I worked the first Wu Tang album ‘36 Chambers’, I worked over at Interscope when Death Row was really popping, so I got to see Snoop and Dre and all them do their thing. But I really wanted to act; I was always trying to act and audition for stuff before I picked up a mic. That’s what I thought I was going to do, be an actor, but music comes into the place. Opportunity knocked and I had to answer.”
Jurassic 5 touch down this month, appearing at the Good Vibrations Festival nationally and their own solo sideshows:
Feb 9 – Adelaide Thebarton Theater
Feb 10 – Melbourne, Good Vibrations Festival
Feb 11 – Gold Coast, Good Vibrations Festival
Feb 14 – Hobart, City Hall
Feb 17 – Sydney, Good Vibrations Festival
Feb 18 – Perth, Good Vibrations Festival
Numark will also be doing his own DJ side dates, so if you’d like to see him spinning get along to:
Feb 10 – Melbourne, The Espy
Feb 17 – Sydney, Candy’s Apartment
Feb 18 – Perth, International Arts Festival
