Category Archives: musicians

a british seaside town, with it’s squally winters and hectic summers, it’s aging permanent population and little to interest the young, could be seen as a dubious place for a multi-disciplined rapper to emerge. out of an unlikely northern town though, digga jefferson price emerged carving an uncommon path in hip hop. as an extension of the small, underground, local skate scene in the 90′s and the equally small, underground, local music scene, digga chose what, at the time, was still a little-understood genre in popular culture.

digga is not solely a rapper though. a few years ago, i played a fundraising gig with digga on the bill. he played a ben fold’s inspired set on the piano and joined us to play on a couple of acoustic folk songs, far from hip hop. at the other end of the scale, digga is a beast in freestyle, aggressive battle rapping, competing regularly in national battles. digga has found that creativity can come from varied places, allowing his influences and output to reflect this. you’ll struggle to meet a more honest, interesting person to talk to, with so much to say and so much interesting stuff going on, hence i had to get him to do one of these interviews. i’ve filled this with links and videos and i recommend you go through and check them all out.

over to digga…

before i knew you, i knew you made music, that’s over 10 years ago. why and how did you start?

well, i started making music at school, not in the format i do now, it was like punky stuff. i played bass and around the time nothing else was happening in scarborough apart from a load of talentless teens playing in shit bands, i was one of them. then i started djing hip hop in bars around town, then i started rapping around 17. i was always into writing and rap seemed a pretty good idea because i loved the music and culture, the skateboarding, the scene, so i began recording, thus the rest is history.

you’re influences are varied and eclectic, who have been your biggest influences and how have these influences changed over the years?

i guess the biggest influence i have is scarborough really. you can only write about your experiences and surroundings and they have usually reflected back to the town i’m from. i have travelled though, don’t get me wrong, i’m not some kind of backward country boy, i’ve spent time in many other places but always returned to ‘boro. musically, good hip hop has always influenced me, elliott smith, tom waits and the films of the coen brothers. i guess as i’ve got older my tastes have refined somewhat, back when i was younger, i used to be a pretty hard-headed hip hop kid and every other type of music was crap but now i listen to the lot, anything, enya is dope too.

Jefferson Price X Tranzformer – Relevance from Sam Howle on Vimeo.

you’ve recently been doing a lot of battle raps, how did that come about?

well i battled a lot when i was about 18 but the battle scene back then was always london based, 4 hours away from me so i just left it. then don’t flop started and i joined at the start of the year after many months of trying. the league is so full with loads of mc’s who want to be apart of it so you kind of have to get in line. it’s good promotion and it’s a good laugh.

what do you feel like when battle rapping, do you have to psyche yourself up before hand?

while i’m battling i think of nothing at all. i can never remember what the person i’m battling is saying to me, i just black out. the only psyching up i do is punching dead meat, running up stairs, eating raw eggs and nutting walls for hours on end. other than that, no psyching.

is battle rapping as hostile as it can sometimes look? are there any limits or is it really no-holds-barred?

it is hostile yeah, during the battle and beforehand sometimes. but generally it’s actually a really friendly league here in the u.k, i know some of the u.s leagues are a little more angry but here is quite cool, which is good for me because i’m a quiet killer, i hate pre-battle shit talking, i just wanna go in there, beat you and shake your hand. as for limits, technically, no, but from a moral standpoint i personally wouldn’t talk peoples children in a distasteful way, i don’t think you should talk about people who can’t defend themselves, if that makes any sense.

what do you consider the best line you’ve ever written?

tough one, i don’t know to be honest. probably something that i haven’t recorded yet. i’ll get back to you.

are you working on anything at the moment that you’re excited about? future projects?

yes! i have an ep dropping october 2011 which is produced by brown bag allstars’ tranzformer and others and features bbas and truth. then i am releasing a 4 part ep in which i will remix four of my favourite artists. more to be revealed. until then check diggajeffersonprice.com for battles and other music.

how did your connections with new york come about?

long time ago, about ’03, i met a talented young man called j57 who is a producer and mc. we started collaborating on various projects and became good friends. he’s a really really sick producer and could burn anyone on a mic too. his group, brown bag allstars are also some talented cats – google ‘em. other ny shouts go to pr dean, tableek, dj concept, famoso, eddie p and jesse and the rest of the old long island crew.

Digital Society (J57 ft. Jefferson Price) from Nicolas Heller on Vimeo.

are there any particular themes that run through your music? why do you think that is?

i tend to write a lot about relationships with other people, whether it be love or hate. i have an obsession with how people react to various actions, mindsets etc. i find it fascinating, human nature as a whole on a social level, that tends to be my running theme.

how would you describe the music industry right now? are these positive or negative times for music?

i think for the independent artist it’s half and half. with a addition of the internet you have more power in what you wish to do. it’s certainly easier. but on the flip side there isn’t any quality control, you got any old tool rapping and getting thousands of downloads. it’s a double edged sword. in my opinion, you dont understand being a truly independent until you’ve put your own money into vinyl, cds etc and pushed it yourself. it’s one thing uploading your music to bandcamp and letting your little finger tips hustle it, it’s another taking 100 cds to a battle and trying to sell ‘em, that’s truly independent.

as for just the general state of music, it’s really quite poor. popular music is now in a horrible place. music isn’t sold on albums really any more, just singles, so artists are becoming disposable. one hit, your done, goodbye. record labels don’t press anything up anymore hardly so they are just big management houses for big artists. there’s no idols, no lennons, no zappas, no dylans, no one rebelling against government, no one talking candidly, nothing. just music to supply the clubs with. look underground.

any words of wisdom for the fans?

never move in with a girl (jk) don’t eat yellow or brown snow, always check my battles and music out and you won’t go far wrong in life.

links

check out digga on his website diggajeffersonprice.com, his always entertaining twitter, plus all these other places: soundcloud, bandcamp, youtube, tumblr and facebook.