IAHH Catch up with U.K Hip Hop duo Krash X Elements in light of their Debut release ‘Astronauts and Crosses.’
What is it that brought you two together as a group?
Krash Williams: In 09 we linked up as part of a team and were the 2 main rappers doing music workshops in prisons. Literally I remember our 1st meeting, Elements was playing me some of his beats and spitting bars and then we started chatting about making a tune together to perform on tour. The tunes got better and so we just added mircowave foods, Logic Pro and late nights into the mix.
In your opinion what’s the biggest problem with the rap scene today?
Krash Williams: People don’t talk about bodies of work as much anymore. People read in lyrics because a lot of artist’s would rather vent on social media instead of making a song about what they really feel. At the same time a lot of up and coming artists including ourselves wouldn’t necessarily have a big platform to be heard so it’s a catch 22.
We love the artwork on your soon to be released EP “Astronauts and Crosses”, do you actually look like the carton depictions and the front cover?
Elements: To tell you the truth, I’m way shorter than Krash in real life, got me feeling like a giant on the cover tho!
Krash Williams: Yeah pretty much haha
What are your day jobs or are full time artists?
Elements: I work in mental health, before that I was working for a homelessness charity
Krash Williams: I work for ITV as a runner and occasional assistant editor.
As a group who are you main inspirations?
Krash Williams: You gotta rate Outkast for creating their own lane as duo and moulding the game. Andre 3000 is was one of the 1st people I ever heard as a sick emcee and dope singer too. Also Kano, Massive Attack, Kanye and J Dilla to name a few.
Elements: Yeah to add to that Yasiin bey, wretch 32, Kendrick Lamar
What have you learnt from delivering workshops throughout prisons in the UK?
Elements: People talk about things in lyrics they would never be prepared to speak on in conversation. Music, especially hip hop is so important because it gives people a platform to express themselves honestly and reflect on things. Music is so important for expressing yourself. The amount of talent out there is crazy but even regardless of your talent or how far you plan to take it writing lyrics can be like therapy. For some people it’s their only way to talk about their feelings and experiences in an honest way.
Krash Williams: There’s a lot of talent that is unheard due to life circumstances and a lot of the people we met had been in and out of prison due to a system that fails them. People that eventually ‘make it out’ of the system usually have to develop the drive to do so but must work 10x harder than most people out of prison but from tough backgrounds.
What’s your favourite food?
Elements: It’s got to be my wife’s curried chicken.
Krash Williams: It’s between curried goat with rice and peas and Chicken stew and Jollof rice for me…please don’t make me choose between the two LOL. Or if I wanna go completely left I would say cereal in general.
When did you first start producing music, and what prompted that?
Krash Williams: Elements produced the entire EP and I’ve produced a previous solo project so I’ll let him answer this one.
Elements: I started off making beats when I was like 16, I’d already been trying to Dj for a few months and I got really interested in how the music was made. I remember I looped the drums from don’t change your love by the five Stairsteps on a cracked version of cool edit pro and layered another loop on top. I can still remember the feeling. That break is mad famous and has been used on loads of classics but at the time I didn’t have a clue about all that. I was hooked from then. I’ve never got bored of it and I’m learning all the time.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Krash Williams: Hopefully having a 2 or more projects under our belts and a bunch of singles. A track record of consistency along with more people that are into what we do. It would be great to be able to properly eat off music too.
Elements: Raising a family and making music
Whens your next London gig?
Krash: Still in the pipeline so you’ll have to follow us at @krashxelements on insta to keep up to date.
I’d you could rewind the clock on the creation of your EP “Astronauts and Crosses”, is there anything you would of done differently?
Elements: Nah man, there was the time pressures of fitting it in between 9–5 and family life but that’s what makes the music real. Working on the Collab from different ends of the country has been mad but we know each other deeper than rap so the music is still authentic and we cut the vocals and wrote some of the verses in my home studio in Newcastle.
Krash Williams: I can’t pin point anything that I would want to do differently on this project because it was so organic and painfully honest to us, that to fine tune it any more would damage it…you gotta show the scars metaphorically speaking. However anything that we would want done differently will be on the next project for sure.
The 1st track off the EP of the same title, Astronauts and Crosses!
The EP will be available across all major platforms including Spotify, Apple music, iTunes, Deezer, Google play, Tidal etc.
Travel with us on social media:
@imkrashwilliams @elements1070
www.instagram.com/krashxelements
Adam KG
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