INTERVIEW WITH CHIU (@chiudat)!

Q. Tell us about Chiu. Where are you from and what inspired you to become an artist?

I was born and bred in North West Lon­don. My pas­sion for music has been with me since I was a kid. I did­n’t really think of being an artist initially…I saw it as a release to express my (gen­er­ally!) neg­at­ive emo­tions and past exper­i­ences. When I saw people could relate to what I rapped about I guess, that was strong motiv­at­or to pur­sue music.

Q. You come across as a con­scious rap­per, which rap­pers would you say inspire your style of rapping/performing?

I wouldn’t say everything I write is con­scious (I came from The Jump Off!) but that has def­in­itely caught peoples’ atten­tion.  I liked dif­fer­ent rap­pers for dif­fer­ent moods, energy and bars I could relate/fantasize to… Kool G Rap for his story raps, Big L for his swag and deliv­ery, Com­mon and De La Soul for their hon­esty and Brit­ish rap­pers- Supa T (Sun­drag­on), Chester n Jeh­st.

Q. As well as a rap­per, you also are a comedi­an. Com­edy is a good way of address­ing ser­i­ous issues in a light hearted man­ner, is this some­thing you hope to do?

I’d say I’m more of a joker than a comedi­an! But yeah, humour is how I end up deal­ing with the crap that can come your way in life. I’m glad people can laugh at my bars, I don’t take myself that ser­i­ously.

Q. In Amer­ica, there is a lot of talk about the Hip-Hop scene chan­ging, a lot of people see it as the South are rising while the East rap­pers are get­ting worse. Is there any­thing sim­il­ar in the UK? Is there a cer­tain area tak­ing over or are the UK catch­ing the US hip-hop scene?

This may sound like a cop-out but I’m hon­estly not bothered where artists are from. If I like their music, I like their music! I’d say that the Yanks are still ahead of us but the Brits def­in­itely have more oppor­tun­it­ies to be seen as hip hop artists.

Q. You are the win­ner of the ‘Streets Of Peace 2013’. What was it like sup­port­ing Akala?

It was an immense exper­i­ence! I didn’t think I’d get that far in the artist com­pet­i­tion let alone win it! And it was an amaz­ing oppor­tun­ity to sup­port such a respec­ted and cred­ible artist like Akala.

Q. Tell us about your latest track “Vibe Away” ILu­vLive Acous­tic?

Vibe Away is a track which was pro­duced by my boy, Jimmy Logic. The vid we shot for ilu­vlive was an acous­tic ver­sion of it but wait til you hear the ori­gin­al beat- Jimmy killed it! It’s for a chance to per­form on an, ‘ilu­vlive’ stage which would be wicked if we do! The song is to remind me not to stress so much with what’s going on in my life. Cer­tain things are just out of hands and I need to let go…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J-zpk8WDCY[/youtube]

Q. What’s in store for you? EP? Live per­form­ances?  Fea­tures?

I’ve got a 5–6 track com­ing out in April, called, ‘Chiu’s Day’. This is a labour of pained love! It feels like it has­taken ages to put togeth­er but I can finally see­ing it hap­pen! It’s pro­duced by Jimmy Logic with a couple tracks from Amour and fea­tur­ing Tom Kane and Stub­born. Show-wise, I’m co-run­ning a night with Jimmy Logic, ‘Note­worthy Open Mic’, Pub On The Park, Hack­ney every weds. We nor­mally get involved at the end for a lil impromptu jam! More shows with Jimmy and I will be hap­pen­ing when we’re pro­mot­ing our ep.

Q. Which 5 artist dead or alive would you love to work with? And why?

Top of my head,  Big Daddy Kane, James Brown, Lynn Collins, Nina Simone and Don­ald Byrd. They were all massive influ­ences in my life.

Q. How import­ant is it for you to give back to your com­munity? What pro­jects are you work­ing on out­side of music?

It’s not a ques­tion of giv­ing back for me it’s being able to help oth­ers if you’re in a pos­i­tion to do so. I would love to get back to youth work when I’ve got my music out. My own path has had me focus­sing on my own growth and devel­op­ment to bet­ter help oth­ers in the future…I hope!

Q. What does 2014 look like for Chiu?

Hon­estly, I feel 2014 will be a good year for me. And it’s rare I’m this pos­it­ive about the unknown! I guess I’m just ready for the ups and downs I may face. It’s star­ted off well and if everything falls into place at the right time then I pre­dict that I’ll have my own Lear jet by Septem­ber!

For more info on Chiu click here.

@Aaron3000_

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Aaron3000

Digit­al Mar­ket­ing and You­Tube chan­nel man­ager who loves that good hip-hop.

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