I am Hip Hop returns with another fantastic and insightful interview as Seth Pereira gets the chance to put some questions to London Based rapper Consensus. We talk everything from his proudest achievements musically to the discussing his latest project The Contract in depth. Make sure you have a listen to Consensus after learning a little bit more about what makes him tick!
You’ve performed in a wide range of different locales. Was there a particular favourite place you’ve performed at and why?
Hmmm that’s really tough! To be honest its got to be a tie between Prague and Geneva! Since both are countries where English isn’t their first language, but they can still appreciate so readily the stage presence and energy its just an amazing experience. I’m certainly humbled to be put on most stages though as long as the crowd has a good energy to vibe off. With out a doubt also, nuff love for the home town London too!
For people that don’t know you’re the Founder of A/V revolution media platform, Can you tell us abit about some of the work that you guys do? How important are these platforms to artists trying to make headway in the music industry?
A/V Revolution is basically my attempt at building platform to promote similar artists to myself and create some alternative content from the mainstream rhetoric that we’re generally fed on a regular basis. When i say similar I’m really just referring to how things like, an ‘out of the box’ approach, informative, or underground kind of vibe. Personally i stay away from politics but the platform is there for artist to speak and educate their fans and readers about them, their music and touch on normal relatable subjects, so often this might have a political narrative too. Really we’re just trying to make a space that means media isn’t always seen in one way. I’ve been working on a few webtech tools to help artist promote their music too, we have those for artist to access free or purchase!
Lets mix the popular stuff with the stuff which can help us through life too! Music and visuals are a powerful tool! Audio Visual Revolution!
You refer to yourself as a “philosophical” rapper rather than a political one. Is there anyone else out there that inspires you to write music in this vein?
To put it simply, music is a good therapy for me. It just helps me come to terms with the shaping of reality as i grow and gain experience in life. So at the times i take to reflect and understand what’s going on it helps to consolidate the information and moods in music.
I just spend a lot of time thinking about everyone, everything, and how things might turn out. Life. The world. The universe. How can we/should we change them? Morals are a super interesting topic for me atm. I think the lyrics in the the song ‘The Briefcase’ accurately describe where I’m at right now might better than a few sentences here.. or i could go on for days!
Do you feel that we are going to see a return of lyricism in the mainstream with the likes of Cole and Kendrick doing so well commercially? Is this a sign of a paradigm shift?
Do you want the honest answer or the optimistic one? lol I do hope that we’ll see a new type of artistry emerge after people have just over saturated the market with their “McDonalds music” but in truth I do see that society doesn’t allow for people to easily make time to be healthy, self reflecting, self actuating, progressive human beings. So when you put conscious music + lyricism in the mix.. it becomes a chore to digest it rather than songs like Actavis (Migos + Soulja boy) where the simple rhetoric is there and it often doesn’t even matter about the words or the content.. the musical element might win over lyrics. Especially artists like Kendrick are doing so many things in a song most people will not appreciate it unless they were to really break it down. Like he’s not the best lyricist but is an awesome hip hop song writer. His approach to tracks is definitely worthy of scholarly study in my opinion, but not everyone is trying to be smart. Sadly smart doesn’t always make you rich quick and easy money everyone wants.. smartness (lyricism) doesn’t seem like an appealing trait at the moment. When we need to be smarter as a society we’ll be ready for it. Even me.. i love lyricism, but I’m not always trying to hear it.. only like 75% of the time with rappers lol, but if the music is sonically good too then I’m sold!
As a ‘lyrical rapper too its a balance between find something worth saying and having people want to listen. Especially in live music, its a tough one for sure! But we are in the information age. and people are processing more and more info each day, when we’ve used up all the basic stuff..enter lyricism!
What can you tell the people about your latest offering The Contract? What can fans expect to hear?
Ok, so what can i say about the contract? Basically the idea is put forward pretty well in the in the lyrics of the first track ‘The Briefcase’. The EP explores the idea of a contract being signed and the things one might have to do fulfil their end of the deal. The contract for me explores ideas of freedom, and society and a general struggle we might have to go through with the 2. The sample style is very kind of oldskool crime movie themed. We wanted cinematic and vivid. The beats + production was all curtsey of PhybaOptikz of Crate Divizion. You guys definitely need to check him out, his production and rap style is awesome and real unique! Really glad to be building with Crate Divizion too there workrate is immense!
For someone who has only been doing music since 2011 you have an impressive resume. What is your proudest achievement to date and why?
Yeah I mean , I’ve been writing from way before that under a different alias but I only really took things seriously in 2011. With out a doubt the proudest achievement has been the collaboration project I’m doing with the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in Switzerland aka CERN! It will be rap influenced, musical interpretation of the science going on there! Hopefully it will be a good step in bridging the gap between art and science (education), hopefully it will be well received!
What does the future hold for Consensus? What’s coming up on the horizon?
Man, its better if i just list the things coming up because sometimes it changes so much I forget! That’s just the way it goes sometimes. But from of Feb 2016 we’ll have #TheContract tour in NY/Canada with myself and PhybaOptikz, after the CERN project should also be complete. I’m putting out a self-produced mixtape soon too called ConCensored. There a are a few international collaboration in the works with peeps in Geneva, Prague and Italy, some live band stuff and grime… Just trying to build really. But I’m grateful for what the universe throws my way so we’ll see!
S/O to A/V Revolution, worldWideconnects, Crate Divizion, Higher Learning, EoW, FWD360, Resistance Recordings, IAmHiphopMagazine, Art@CMS, Bass Drop Crew, The Greys and all others I’m building with or who are showing support! Peace and love!
Seth Pereira
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