DJ B: Give us a sneak peek, who would you like to work with that you haven't yet?
DJ Rap: We're orchestrating the book for the new album and there will hopefully be tracks with Ferry Corsten, Adam Freeland, Bad Boy Bill, Steve Smooth and Jay Flores. DJ Irene and I are working on a track together as well.
DJ B: Oh, nice.
DJ Rap: You know, a lot of DJs are doing different stuff now. That's the vibe, people are doing something different. It's not going to be just remixes on an album, it's going to be full songs with musicians, guitars and basses and all that stuff. But like people pushing their talents in a different way in the studio with me, and that's what I like to do, I like bring something new out, because I think that's how it gets exciting in the studio.
DJ B: Well, that's one of the nice things about being a musician is that once you've achieved a little bit of notoriety, then you get to start working with the people that you admire and people that hopefully admire you.
DJ Rap: I think I already achieved that notoriety from doing that anyway. The one thing I really hate is when people tell me I should just play one type of music or I should just do one type of thing. When I die, on my gravestone, it's going to say that I pushed that envelope because that's the thing that I'm more interested in anything else is breaking people's perceptions. I just did this whole Playstation Tour and I played house and I got a little stick from it which is fine. I can handle a lot more stick than what I get. But the people that I met and the audiences that I grabbed made it all worthwhile, and it was fabulous. People really enjoy it, as long as you're playing from the heart people enjoy it. I never got into this business just to play drum and bass, I never got into this business just to be a DJ, I got into this business because I love music. When I started DJing, back in 1988, it was house that I was playing and there wasn't even drum and bass. It was house, then it was hardcore and then this new sound stared to come about and I got into it. I put out probably fifty records before drum and bass was ever even conceived. It was conceived because people were open mined and constantly pushing the boundaries. I think one of the problems today is that it sounds very much the same, it hasn't really changed much in a long period of time. When I try to do things different with that, I do get a lot to stick, so I therefore stepped outside the scene looking for something fresh and looking for something to keep me passionate about it.
DJ B: You sound like you like to be challenged.
DJ Rap: Absolutely I do and that's what keeps me breathing. Someone came up to me the other day and they asked if I was going to play drum and bass tonight? I said no, I know you want to hear that but actually I'm playing house tonight. This is a house crowd and you're the only drum and bass person here. I have a conversation with people because if I want to see an artist and they play something different I can understand how that can irk people. So I asked, do you eat the same meal every day? And they said no. Do you have sex in the same position every day? They said no, and I said exactly. Then here's my last question to you, where the hell are you when I am playing drum and bass because this scene is shrinking on its arse? So where are you all?
DJ B: Where are your friends?
DJ Rap: All you people that are complaining, go and support the scene because it's in trouble right now. It's in trouble and we need people to go out there and support it. When you move over to house or trance or any of these, these scenes are flourishing and doing really, really well. I need to be where the crowd's at, so it's something that I feel very passionate about. I love drum and bass and I'm very passionate about it, but I am tired of the politics, I always have been and I've always tried to do something different. It seems that the crowds are shrinking for this music. I feel that if I get an opportunity to be on the radio or an interview to say something, I say if you really love this music, people should support it before it disappears completely.
DJ B: Well, it's like any other genre of music, I'm sure, that it will wax and wane as people's tastes change, it's like you said…
DJ Rap: There's waxing and waning and there's…
