Interview With JUICE ALEEM (@AleemSaRaSun) !

Q. You have been in the Hip Hop industry for quite a long time, how has your style evolved or changed since you star­ted?

I’ve been involved in Hip Hop in some form or oth­er since being a natty headed youth and will con­tin­ue to do so. As far as the industry built around the move­ment… I’ve hardly been there and what that industry does has very little effect on what I do. As for me on a per­son­al level, I’m striv­ing for per­fec­tion and learn­ing to live in the moments get­ting there.

Q. When it comes to writ­ing new mater­i­al, what is the pro­cess for you? Where do you get your lyr­ic­al inspir­a­tion from?

Inspir­a­tion comes from all around. Some­times it’s what my senses report back to me from what I’ve seen, heard, read, tasted or felt. Some­times it’s the mind and I relate to my high­er and lower selves. Some­times I’m just inspired by weak artists and weak art.

Q. What are your thoughts on the cur­rent state of Hip Hop? Are there any artists you are really feel­ing?

There’s a lot of artists I’m feel­ing at the moment apart from the upcom­ing Spin­ning Com­pass roster from RTKal to Triple Dark­ness to staH­Hr and it’s real inter­est­ing see­ing Jur­as­sic 5 get back togeth­er.  I really feel there’s a great power in being able to con­sol­id­ate what it is you do and build a power base from that. As far as the cur­rent state it’s rare any­body even hears or knows what the state of Hip Hop is because it’s become so divorced from itself and its com­pon­ents. Cats are still B‑boying to Apache but nev­er Break­ers in Space. Man wanna sit around nod­ding their heads to noth­ing past 1993 and all of these ele­ments hardly ever meet any­more so the cur­rent state can only be me.  The cur­rent state is the places where new/old/future/art/dance/DJing and style do meet.  Those are the artists I listen to and check for. Any­one doing that is Live.  Any­thing oth­er than that flux of the move­ment is death. We have to study the legends, hone our craft, serve time and keep it mov­ing. Respect your own legend and allow it to move to where it needs to go.

Q. How import­ant is it for you to integ­rate your views on soci­et­al issues and cur­rent affairs into your music?

It’s very import­ant to be able to do that.  It’s a must.  It’s also a must that people under­stand when you don’t do put all your eggs in one bas­ket.  Life is not one thing and I have too many parts to place the whole of me in a four minute song.

Q. What books and films have influ­enced you?

So many I’m gonna just drop a few on you.  Cheikh Anta Diop’s, Afric­an Ori­gin of Civil­iz­a­tion: Myth or Real­ity was a very big insight in being able to actu­ally explain what it is you’re say­ing in a sci­entif­ic man­ner. He and Ivan Van Ser­tima were sum of the first people I had read who dealt with Afric­an his­tory without a lot of hyper­bole and simply presen­ted facts as they found them.  Also being such a multi-skilled geni­us inspired my awe.  The ori­gin­al Zu War­ri­ors has had me look­ing at the world of mor­tals in a very dif­fer­ent way.  Think­ing that at any point a per­son you meet could be a high­er being.

Q. Are you involved in any pro­jects out­side of music?

My chil­dren are an amaz­ing pro­ject I’ve been involved with.  Very time con­sum­ing but more than worth it. I’m part-time involved with sev­er­al dif­fer­ent organ­isa­tions bring­ing music, arts, cre­ativ­ity and lit­er­acy skills to young people.  it’s been great doing that most recently with Mike Ladd in the Par­is sub­urbs.  Also in the last few years, I’ve been doing a few short films, voice overs for anim­a­tions, video games and such. Things like Kid Acne’s “Zebra­face” for Chan­nel 4 and “The Fitz Cay­man Exper­i­ment”. I starred in a film by Great Coat Films called “The Fitz Cay­man Exper­i­ment” which was pretty cool as I got to play a sci­ent­ist, which is like play­ing myself, which is easy. And makes a change from my usu­al cast­ing…

Q. Tell us a bit about your new single ‘MoorK­aBa Light­Bikes’

What you’re hear­ing when you listen is the sound of angels on bikes made of light. Listen deep enough you can get one of these bikes your­self.  It’s pro­duced by roots Manuva with a vid by Ben Lister who did Rock My Holo­gram too and lyr­ic­ally it’s about mov­ing in and out of dark­ness as the light.  It’s out right now and is backed up by a tune called Anu­Mal which you gotta blast out your biggest speak­ers to fully feel what it is. They’re both on iTunes and all that digi malarky.

Q. You have exper­i­ment with dif­fer­ently styles on the pro­duc­tion of the track and the remixes. How did they turn out?

I am the exper­i­ment and have always used dif­fer­ent ways of get­ting my sounds out there. Black­itude always comes cor­rect but Kashmere’s ver­sion of Moork­aBa is a mon­ster on its own.  A totally dif­fer­ent spe­cies.  That’s what the remix is all about. Hip Hop for me is how I view the world so people may say the music sounds like this or that and they may be right, but it’s still Hip Hop.  It’s still the same move­ment no mat­ter the tempo or if it’s sampled or played, still the same way of being and still the same way of change.

Q. Are you plan­ning on releas­ing an album/ mix­tape in the near future? What can we expect to hear on it?

Voodu StarChild is the full pro­ject.  Expect to hear your­self being coated in the dark­ness and the only way out is to escape into your­self.  You gonna hear the cross­roads between ritu­al and pure math.  Some of the best pro­du­cers out there and me chant­ing on top of it all.  It’s gonna be good!

Rishma Dhali­w­al

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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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