photo courtesy of http://www.myspace.com/riddimkilla

Last ‘08, Efnik had the awesome privilege to talk to the UK’s “Godfather of Hip Hop” Rodney P, along with the legendary street artist Dj Skitz. Rodney P was a member of the 80s crew London Posse, who pioneered UK hip hop when they started rapping in their own accents, as oppose to the American accent, which was the norm back in the day.

Also known as da riddim killa, Rodney’s songs have a reggae vibe to them and are dub-heavy, being influenced by all the reggae and calypso their household listened to growing up as a second-generation West-Indian immigrant. Apart from his music, Rodney P was also a radio talk show host for five years at BBC 1Xtra, and led him to work on several radio documentaries including one about the aftermath of South Africa’s Apartheid, and on Sierra Leone.

Rodney P and DJ Skitz sat with an audience at Galatos and discussed cultural diversity, how mainstream Hip Hop is on life support and the only thing that could save it is underground Hip Hop, and (hardcore) life on the streets. They answered questions from the audience for 3 hours while the beer and wine flowed.

Here’s an excerpt of Rodney’s answers to Efnik’s questions. Shot!

What role do you think does diversity and Transculturism play in your music?

It plays a big role because, it’s life innit, I think the future of the planet is diversity–that’s the future of the planet. It’s unavoidable, no matter what obstacles I put in front of, you know, people getting together and mixin’…that’s what’s gonna
happen. You can’t be afraid to embrace, you know, the next man, you can’t be afraid to embrace him…you’re just cutting off yourself from the rest of the world. So you know, I mean, I have a son, my heritage is african and west indian, I was born in England, my son’s mother is, her parents, one’s from Yemen, one’s from Pakistan, their family moved to Afghanistan, and we have a son together. My son is a very diverse young man! He’s from around the world, I have to be able to embrace that and…the inevitable outcome is, a unified people and a diverse people all across the planet.

Can you talk about your experience being welcomed in New Zealand–the Powhiri, the Maori welcome?

The Powhiri was something special for me. Like I said I’ve been here before… this time, it’s been a totally different experience. You know, and I feel, I got a better understanding of the struggle that has been in here, I was explained to, about the land
we was on, and how sacred it was, and how much blood has been spilled for that land, and then to be welcomed into that place and the way we was, yeah it was special.

Lastly, are there any other New Zealand artist you’d like to collaborate with, ‘coz you collaborated with P-Money before..

…yeah, I also collaborated with the roots band Rhombus as well, when we was in Wellington. I mean for me it’s all about vibes, there’s a few people I know I’m gonna meet while I’m here. It’s just vibes. If we meet and it’s vibes and we vibes and the music sounds good, I have got no problem w/ collaboratin’ , I just, my only rule is that I need to like it when we’re finished with it. I don’t really care what name you call it–hip hop, rock orpop or garage or whatever you wanna call it. Just make it good.