Big Up The North!!! I caught up with the young Manchester emcee and spoken word poet Jay Chambers.
Miss R: Moment of Silence' is due for release in August. What was your inspiration behind this EP?
My inspiration behind moment of silence is the competitiveness in Hip Hop, I feel like in hiphop you've always gotta be reinventing yourself in terms of flow and lyricism, as if you keep the same style your viewed as complacent or not fully about the craft. With that being said another part of this then becomes speculation as there's a massive amount of speculation within our small scene so I feel with 'Moment of Silence' I will have said everything that needs to be said so all the critique & all the speculation will be silenced.
Another bit of inspiration for 'Moment of Silence' was stress after I put my last mixtape out I began going through some issues in my personal life, which resulted in massive writers block, this went on for months and when I finally began writing again at first the songs I made I didn't even have ambitions to make them into a project it just was kind of like a release, but then the project kinda started forming on its own. I remember having a conversation with Aaron Roberts about all this stuff and he said something with the phrase "moment of silence" in it and it just kind of stuck.
Miss R: You teamed up with Olivia Louise for the 2nd single 'Us Against The World' how did this collaboration come about?
I've wanted to work with Olivia ever since I first heard her perform at 'All about Good Music'. I mentioned this to Aaron from 'All About Good Music' (he had already heard the demo of us against the world at this time), it was him who suggested Olivia for the chorus as at the time we had loads of different mixes but none of quite caught the vibe the way I wanted it to , so I reached out and she nailed it and the rest is history.
Miss R: How would you describe your style?
My style I'd say is honest. I just write about life. The highs , the lows, the struggles , the politics. I try to touch upon everything really, though with that being said there still is a heavy conscious element too, so if I had to label it I'd say conscious honesty.
Miss R: When did you first start rapping?
My first rap I wrote at like age 12 messing around to the instrumental of 'More Money More Problems' by Biggie Smalls, back when the single cd's always had instrumentals on (laugh) , even though at the time I was more about my drumming and working with bands I still maintained my rapping and then it was at age 20 when I properly decided that this was something I wanted to do (I'm 24 now)
Miss R: How have you found promoting your music and getting gigs etc?
Promoting music and getting gigs for hip hop music is quite hard in Manchester. I feel as a lot of nights/companies are either loosely related to artists or owned by artists so sometimes unless you're close to the said artist you don't really get your chance to show n prove.
However, there are some good nights that help a lot of artists like 'All About Good Music' do a lot here in Manchester, also 'I luv live' have been good supporters of what I do too. I think it's easier to get shows outside of Manchester which is sad as there is an abundance of talent here and there is an even bigger abundance of urban music artists here. But I feel it won't really change unless we come together and build our own scene.
We need to control our scene up here the way the artists in London control there's, that way we wouldn't have to migrate south to get heard.
Miss R: Which artist/producers would you like to work with in the future?
Artist wise I would love to work with the broke n English ,I'd also like to work with TJ lyrics . Production wise id love to work with Konny Kon (from broke n English & Children of Zeus), I would also like to work with Turkish from the d Cypha movement.
Miss R: Do you make your own beats? if not, Is this something you would like to do?
I didn't make my own beats for moment of silence however I had a part in choosing samples guiding the construction of the beats with my producer nsane (@nsaneproductions), however I've started dabbling with production on some new stuff, started laying down some live drums which is a lot of fun.
Miss R: Being from Manchester, do you feel that Hip Hop artist up north get less exposure than those who are from the south..eg London?
Yeah massively I feel that even though we've got a big scene it's always the same one or two artists that get picked up for everything. That isn't a diss and I'm not trying to take away anything from their talent but I feel like a lot of stations just don't really do their research or keep up with our scene, so they keep helping the same artists rather than looking out for new ones.
That being said we don't really help ourselves as we run to London for everything instead of trying to build our own independent thing here, it's kind of like a never ending catch 22.
Miss R: What other interest do you have outside of music?
I read a lot, I also do spoken word poetry (which you'll hear a lot more of on moment of silence). I'm also interested in film and music videos, so I have a big hand in guiding how my videos are put together and stylised.
Miss R: Are there anyone in the Manchester music scene I should be looking out for?
There's a ton of people, here are just a few off the top
Danebuca, Ethrilla, Rzo, Twofourkay, TJ lyrics, Wordz of Wisdom , Lois Davina , Rielle, Black Josh , Just Liam, Children of Zeus,
Miss R: Thank You Jay..Much Love!
https://twitter.com/jaycmcr
https://soundcloud.com/jaycmcr
