MJ Gets to Know Cuban Pete, England’s Famed Emcee of 30 Years @c75Designs

By MJ Savino • On Interviews , , , , , , , ,

MJ here, your favor­ite Hip Hop Blog­ger! Tonight we will get to know England’s well-known and estab­lished record­ing artist, Cuban Pete. First and fore­most, thank you for con­nect­ing with me and tak­ing time out of the stu­dio for this inter­view.  Before we begin, I must share that in terms of travel I live through the artists that I inter­view.  With that being said, tell me what life is really like in Eng­land! I want to know sim­il­ar­it­ies, and dif­fer­ences of course with life­styles and the music scene. I’m also curi­ous what it was like for you grow­ing up in Eng­land.  Did you fas­cin­ate about the states, like most of us here fas­cin­ate about oth­er countries?

CP: England’s dif­fer­ent. It’s not as extreme as Amer­ica. There’s always sim­il­ar­it­ies though. I feel things are becom­ing more “in your face” as people and soci­ety changes. A lot of kids are crazy con­fid­ent now because of this whole, every­one is a celebrity cul­ture we’re in.  People aren’t scared to make money by being stu­pid. They think all press is good press.

I can only talk about myself.  I did always look up to Amer­ica as the birth­place of Hip Hop, even though there is a great respect for the cul­ture over here from most fans. When I star­ted rhym­ing myself I was already involved long enough to know bet­ter than to try and copy the accent of it all. That’s been out­lawed in the UK for years now! Although you still get the odd rap­per, and more main­stream influ­enced who you would swear is from Atlanta but is actu­ally from Sun­der­land.  The ones caught up in the “stuntin and frontin” lifestyle.

A word to the US though; don’t listen to West­wood rid­ing the grime wave to stay “rel­ev­ant”. UK Hip Hop has been strong and unique for years before grime hit. Shouts to Hijack, Blade, Katch 22, Sil­ver Bul­let, Gun­shot, MC Mello, Icepick, Lon­don Posse, Mud Fam, Task Force, and many oth­ers for pav­ing the way and car­ry­ing on tradition.

MJ:  It is refresh­ing to learn that you are part of the emcee crew, a true Mas­ter of Cere­mony.  You take pride in cre­at­ing music that gives pur­pose, and mean­ing.  Why is that key for you?  I mean there are end­less rap­pers who simply cre­ate music to make a quick, catchy hit.  What sep­ar­ates you from that lane?

CP: When I was grow­ing up it was about tal­ent and skills and for most heads those are the real mark­ers MCs are judged by. These “mumble­sexu­als” today can’t com­pare. When they decide they are fed up of being wack and try and step up their game lyr­ic­ally their fans will feel like idi­ots for lik­ing their wack stuff.

We all like hav­ing hits, and get­ting that recog­ni­tion. To appeal to the mass pub­lic can mean a dilu­tion. I think that’s changed some­what. It’s not so much a dilu­tion of the music these days, though obvi­ously jump­ing on the latest trend helps, but it’s also a dilu­tion of your­self. Doing any­thing and everything to stay “rel­ev­ant”. It’s about find­ing a bal­ance and being true to yourself.

MJ: Although you are “Old School” in a sense with your music, you do exude levels of unique­ness and ori­gin­al­ity so you are not boxed in or labeled as only cre­at­ing one type of sound or style.  So besides cap­tur­ing the essence of true Hip Hop, what else does your music offer to listen­ers? What can they expect from you as a record­ing artist?

CP: I say I’m Old School because I’ve been into this industry for around 30 years. I grew through the Golden Era and I have that invent­ive­ness and ori­gin­al­ity inside of me. But I’m still fairly new as a ser­i­ous record­ing artist. I’m work­ing with sev­er­al pro­du­cers on dif­fer­ent pro­jects that I want to have dif­fer­ent feels. I want to cre­ate music that people recog­nize through the sat­ur­a­tion of the market.

MJ:  You men­tion that style is essen­tial!  Elab­or­ate on that.

CP: I’m an artist. That trans­lates through the visu­al and the audio. As an artist, an ori­gin­al artist, you have to have style. Style that people recog­nize as you. It’s not about fit­ting in its about stand­ing out.

MJ:  Talk about the fans and appre­ci­ation for music.  I know the Hip Hop scene and cul­ture over­seas is incred­ible and intense!

CP: Any artists from the US who has trav­elled over­seas will tell you how the love for the cul­ture is great­er over here. The appre­ci­ation is great. The music really brings people togeth­er. Most of the back­bit­ing is just between the artists. Obvi­ously there’s people who’ll love a Lady Leshurr but not know who Craig G is but that’s par for the course. Not every­one who raps knows their his­tory but a lot of fans do. Don’t piss off a UK rap fan though (or even a UK rap­per) because you’ll be dead to them from that point on.

MJ: Can you tell us what’s hot right now with Cuban Pete?  Also what can we look for­ward to in the new year?

CP: I’m work­ing on my pro­mo­tion more, to get my work out there. I’ve just star­ted a new web­site, www.nomadsstreetteam.com, with anoth­er tal­en­ted artist on the FNBG Records roster called Just Write. Were try­ing to make it the next thisis50!  And I’ve still got my www.c75live.com site of course.

I’m going to keep the singles and videos com­ing as well as my “Renais­sance Man” mix­tape, fol­lowed by my “Cap­it­al C Cap­it­al P” album, and my col­lab­or­a­tion album “When War­ri­ors Come Out to Plaaaaayyy”.

I also have the “Live Test’ ep with OneMike (T.E.S.T Squad), an as yet untitled pro­ject with NY pro­du­cer B.Dvine www.bdvinemusic.com. I have sev­er­al Gor­illa Army pro­jects and a joint album with the head of the army D.Original Mr.Blue www.hoodiswatching.com. Also in the works is an album called “A War Goin On Out­side” with DJ WIZ (Wu Coali­tion DJ). That should keep me busy…

I design cloth­ing and mer­chand­ise for Krumbsnatcha’s label Mind Power Enter­tain­ment at www.mindpowerwear.bigcartel.com, and Gor­illa Army at www.gorillagearshop.bigcartel.com. I’ll be put­ting togeth­er some­thing with OneMike called Kings Ransom. Me and Mike have been work­ing togeth­er for a while now. He’s part of my C75 Live Crew and I’m part of his T.E.S.T. Squad.

I also have my hands full with my design work doing art cov­ers, fly­ers, etc.

MJ:  Lyr­ics or beats? As an artist do you have the opin­ion that one out­weighs the other?

CP: You can use either to make a dope track but the best tracks use both. But I came in the game lov­ing lyr­ics and word­play, which is why I emcee instead of mak­ing beats I guess.  Although I’d love an MPC.

MJ:  Let’s talk col­lab­or­a­tions.  Who is on your list to share the stage or stu­dio time with?

CP: Tragedy Khadafi is a pos­sib­il­ity right now. Red­man and Meth­od Man would be a dream. I don’t really think about it like that though. Most of my col­lab­or­a­tions have come about through talk­ing and vibing, or a trade of skills like art­work for a verse. It’s been a mutu­al organ­ic thing, as opposed to me pur­su­ing or out­right pay­ing someone.

MJ:  You have worked with many major artists, some of my top favor­ites such as Pace­won, Blaq Poet, and Krumb­snatcha!  Did they share any words of wis­dom, or drop any jew­els on becom­ing suc­cess­ful in the music industry?

CP: Those guys have done it all so yeah I pick up things, like I do from most people I work with. But the main thing I get from col­lab­or­a­tions is that feel­ing of com­pet­i­tion. Prov­ing I can hang or be bet­ter than who I’m on the track with. My col­lab­or­a­tion album will be crazy!

MJ:  Let’s play the 3 game so read­ers can get to know you a little bet­ter.  Who is in your top 3 per­son­al playl­ist? What 3 places would you like to tour? Who are 3 influ­ences, per­son­ally and musically?

CP:  3?   I had an 160GB IPod and filled it! My favor­ite album ever is “ill­mat­ic”. I have a best of M.O.P. I put togeth­er, and a best col­lab­or­a­tion ever playl­ist. I can’t get it down to 3 artists, you’re crazy, lol!

Tour­ing would be Amer­ica, Brazil, and… I’ve heard Ger­many is live out there with the fans.

Per­son­al influ­ences come and go. Her­oes are human and let you down.  Music­ally though I’d say Red­man, Wu-Tang as a col­lect­ive, and the third is prob­ably a D.I.T.C. or B.C.C. type col­lect­ive. Only three is hard after 30 years.

MJ: As we wrap up, is there any­thing else you would like the world to know about yourself?

CP:  I’m here to cut through the bullsh*t! You might not hear about me every day on these Hip Hop gos­sip sites but I will still be here in front or behind the scenes mak­ing moves. The race is not a sprint, the game is long.

MJ: Thank you again for tak­ing time out for MJ! I wish you much con­tin­ued suc­cess, salute!

Fol­low MJ @MJsHipHopConnex
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MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blog­ger, Pub­li­cist, Book­ing Agent, Act­iv­ist, but fan first and fore­most. “Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture”!

About MJ Savino

MJ is Hip Hop Blogger, Publicist, Booking Agent, Activist, but fan first and foremost. "Hip Hop saved my life, it is only right I give back to the culture"!