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The InCrowd Sit Down with XP

Annelle

By Annelle

Annelle

26 Apr 2016

The InCrowd sat down with Grime Mc XP for an in-depth interview about his upcoming mixtape, Eskimo Dance and much more.

Who is XP?

“XP is a grime MC, I’m originally from Manchester but I’ve come to London to make it happen, and yeah I make music I think its cool.”

 How long have you been rapping and when did you start?

“I started in 2003-2004, I originally started Dj’ing when I was about 11-12, I was dj’ing grime music, Eskimo, white labels and all of that. From there started doing youth club sets and stuff, and then started to blossom from there. Started looking at other MC’s and thought I could do that, so yeah here I am.”

Growing up in Manchester what influenced you to do grime music?

“My family used to make music, DJ and stuff. A lot of my friends used to DJ before that, like Jungle, Trigger etc. Everyone in my school used to spray bars and it was all clashing in the playground, doing youth club sets. Blossoming on from then, its life experience in general, looking around surroundings & yeah just daily life!”

 Who is your favourite grime artist past & present?

“I’d probably have to say Kano, because he made himself relevant now with his new stuff. No ones been able to do it back then and reinvent themselves, big up Kano!”

We know that you went on tour with President T, how was that?

“It was mad, It was mad!! Me and Prez have got mutual friends from Manchester and he was in a crew called Darkside crew, way back from like early 2000’s and he must have heard me on lord of the mics and the very same day he must have phoned me up and said come we make a tune, yeah so that happened and everything after that was organic, and you could sort of hear that in the music itself. Don’t sound like we forced the collaboration, a lot of people I can hear that it that’s it’s done in two separate places and sent via email etc. The tour was mad, shutdown every city Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and its still going to this day, still do shows together, we was in Bristol the other day, and Eskimo dance is coming soon too.”

Was that your first tour?

“Yeah officially, I would say yes, I’ve got friends in Manchester who used to bring me to places, but this is the first one where I’ve got booked at every single place.”

 What was the inspiration behind the Mental video ft President T?

“All very spontaneous really, Nathanial Media is the one behind a lot of Prez’ stuff, just recently shot another video produced by Jammin’, with the new single.

He just makes it look sick and he was really good, trying to keep it urban but not too hood,”

As mentioned, what’s the reason behind releasing your new single “Tumbledryer” a day before the Eskimo Dance?

“Its all sort of came together at this time, it’s my birthday on Friday and I’m doing a show on that day in Manchester with a lot of old school people from my area. So yeah everything just fell in place around this time. Going be ready on Friday then Eskimo to follow on Saturday.”

 Who are you excited to see on the Eskimo dance line up?

“I’m excited in general because I grew up listening to a lot of people on the line up. But if I was to choose I would definitely say Wiley, but with Eskimo dance you never know, everyone turns up anyway. I done the one in Bristol and everyone was there Chip, Skepta its crazy man, looking forward to it.”

We’ve seen that grime legends such as Skepta & JME have recognized you and your music via social media, what does that mean for you?

“Nah that’s sick! Its all good, that really helped that tune get half the numbers that it go to be honest, but yeah definitely big shout to them two, they’re legends!”

So know we quickly want to talk about you & AK’s relationship, did you know each other prior to the music?

“Yeah me & AK are really good friends, we both weren’t really into music at first, then we linked back up, sort of coincided that he wanted to get back into music properly. He’s dropping his mixtape soon, called 10/10, you can follow him @akmoney says”

 We saw your back to back freestyle on Rinse FM, delivery was crazy,

“Yeah, because we know each other it’s sort of a competitive kind of thing, like I don’t wanna mess up, so you keep each other on your toes”

 So as you’ve mentioned, your EP is about to drop, what can we expect from the EP and let us know the reason behind the title name.

“The name comes from, originally I was a DJ and my DJ name was Express and delivery stems from there. It’s a 140 bpm type EP music but I wouldn’t necessarily categorize it as grime CD, because I think I speak on things that not necessarily a grime artist will talk about. Produced by the likes Levels and many more, I would like to think I’m doing something different. A lot of melodies on there, yeah different styles of music, don’t just want to make one sort of thing and everyone I’ve shown the CD too have told me they’ve not got the same favourite tune, so I think that’s a good sign.’

 So now rounding up, where do you see yourself in the next 2-3 years time?

“By that time, musically I would love to have done an album that can stand up with these home sweet homes and top CD’s out of this country and bridge the gap for others to listen to it , but yeah who knows I don’t even know what I’m going to have for dinner mate, but yeah all I know is I want to do music!”

 Before we go, we would just like to know is there anyone you’d wish to collaborate with?

“I would like to do some acoustic stuff and would love to work with songwriters because I can spit bars I can make grime music, but you know who I’d love to work with? That Shakka guy, I think he’s sick, people like that, Ed Sheeran I would love to work with him too, he can spit bars too.”

 So is there anything else to expect from you, any future projects in the pipeline?

“I’ve got my crew & Burst Gang, were making a CD, and going to start working on that ASAP. But yeah just releasing more singles, and just vibes!”

 

Check out XP’s mixtape on iTunes below:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/delivery-ep/id1106510697

 

 

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