Deeper Than Grime: Wizzy Wow Interview

“Forget about violence I’d rather be cool…” Producer/MC ‘Mr Wizzy, Wizzy Wow’ took a break from his busy schedule to tell me all about his documentary, his inspiration behind the title of his recent mixtape ‘Noir Clouds’ and what two artists in the UK music scene he considers to be somewhat mentors for him. He also ends this interview with some motivating words that would keep anyone’s spirits alive…

As a child what could you see yourself doing when you were older? Did you always want to go down the music route?

It’s funny you said that because yesterday I was with the family and I was watching me being a kid. I was about 6 years old and I was just watching the footage thinking did I know I was going to do music? But no at that time I was just an active kid, I did love dancing a lot and I was actually good at it but I wasn’t really into anything else when I was younger.

–          What stage in your life would you say you got into producing?

I use to live in Luton in the year 2000 or year 2001, how it came across was I use to listen to a lot of old school Garage DJ Luck and Mc Neat and me and my friend had a tape recorder where we use to mess around with the instrumentals on that. Then ‘So Solid – 21 Seconds’ came out and we were just like, ‘This is what we need to do’. Before I left Luton my friend Jack gave me ‘Fruity Loops’ and I went home and worked on that and I was very interested in working with ‘Fruity Loops’ so I thought let me just take it seriously.

–          How would you say your ability to MC came around then?

Spitting was before, like I said with the DJ Luck and MC Neat example we use to spit over the instrumentals about anything that had happened from school. So what I would say is that the old school Garage got me into the whole MCing aspect of my life.

Who would you say has been your role model or mentor?

Whenever I’ve got spare time and I know that Wretch 32 or Scorcher are free I do give them a call and we’ll be on the phone for hours just talking about the game and the changes. Obviously both of them are more experienced than me so they will guide me and show me right from wrong. So I would say Wretch 32 and Scorcher are definitely like my mentors.

Out of the two, Ambition or Talent what matters to you the most for success?

Well, you have to be ambitious because there are a lot of people out there who have talent but they’re not ambitious so they don’t follow through with their music. Ambition is like an engine it just keeps on going, you may have to stop off once in a while and get it serviced but you’ll always keep moving along. Talent is just the car without the engine – it just fails to work.

What don’t you own that you would love to possess at this moment in time?

A big studio, in a big house.

Could you tell us about your biggest expense or extravagance that you have?

My engine – my brain I would say. The mentality I own because without the mentality I’ve got there would be no Wizzy Wow really.

In your opinion what would you say was the difference between a mixtape and an actual album?

Let’s just say the album is the big test and the mixtapes are the revision classes. You practice, practice, practice, that’s what it’s made for to prepare yourself as its the build up to the album – The real thing.

Tell us about your career progression right from your 1^st mixtape down to your most recent?

I’ve got all my mixtapes on my Mac so I do go back and listen to it and think how I can improve. I think I’ve improved a lot in terms of beats, as whilst I was listening to my first mixtape – ‘Dr Wizzy Love, part 1’ everything was good but it wasn’t really structured or it wasn’t really mixed down properly. The delivery was not on point either; as much as it is now with my mixtapes and I would also say I wasn’t really creative enough then but there has definetly been a huge progression process throughout my career.

Give us a briefing about why you decided to release an ‘Insight to the Life’ documentary?

Everywhere I went people would always ask me, what have you been up to and I would have to repeat myself over and over again. Also my old friends that I haven’t seen for ages thought I was lying when I said I was busy because that’s what everyone usually uses as an excuse. So the other day me and my friend Ralphy Nick the video director, suggested we do a little insight into Wizzy Wow and I was definitely up for it especially as I don’t like repeating myself everywhere I go; so having a visual was the perfect idea as it is better for them to see it rather than hearing it from me.

–          Are you planning on releasing a sequel or is it a one off?

Yeah, there will be plenty more parts I’m recording every month in fact.

What other current projects are you working on besides the documentary?

I’m really lacking on videos so the other day I had a little meeting with my video production guys and just let them know that we need to go in with that side of things – so there will be plenty more visuals out soon. Quite a few people vocal my stuff so I think I’m going to take more control with that and let people know that if they are going to take my instrumentals it will have to be for a serious purpose like a big single otherwise we can just shoot a video for it.

What is your greatest achievement in life so far?

When I started I had nothing, now I have fans and supporters so just achieving that means a lot to me; just to know that you’ve got support and fans out there that are helping you out with your music that’s a great achievement for me – it’s a great feeling. Like I could be so pissed off then I could wake up to a lot of @’s on twitter from people quoting my lyrics from songs and it would just cheer me right up.

Tell us what ‘Noir Clouds’ is about?

‘Noir’ stands for black in French, it’s like where I’m from North London, Tottenham the clouds are dark, there is a lot going on. You saw the riots the other day, the looting, the stabbings, police officers shooting people – there’s just a lot going on. I actually decided to name my mixtape ‘Noir Clouds’ before the actual shooting of ‘Mark Duggan’, I just sat at home one day and looked out the window, I looked at the sky and it was dark, I just thought there’s a constant dark cloud over my city. I decided to put that into my music hence where the meaning for the mixtape came from.

On a ‘Madness Scale’ – with sadness being a 1 and madness being a 10 where would you say your life is at so far?

I would put my life next to madness on the scale, like I don’t have millions or thousands and thousands of pounds but there are a lot of great things going on around me. If you’re sad that means there’s something wrong and if there’s something wrong then you’re upset and something negative is going on; so I’m a positive dude.

Lastly tell your fans where they will be able to catch you in the following weeks/months?

Right now I have been dipping in and out of different events, I have recently done a track with Chipmunk which is entitled ‘High Court Hi’ so he could be performing that and I could just phone him up and be like ‘yeah Chip I want to come through’ or Wretch 32 still performs ‘Be Cool’ so on his tour I can just dip in and out of that, I might be everywhere so the only place to really find out where I will be is to catch me on twitter @WizzyWow and I will let everyone know where I will be performing.

Any last words……

Put god first, be positive, words are just words don’t let it affect you, don’t let any negativity bring you down, if it does just try and bring the positive vibes back up. Keep going, everything is a test to see if you’re strong enough, so if things seem hard you got to go through it. Be ambitious, achieve and believe.

After the success of his most recent Baileys & Passport mixtape, UK underground artist and producer Wizzy Wow’s new Mixtape ‘Mc Lovin’. Wizzy wow is sure to make a huge noise with this easy listening, top quality mixtape. A free 6 track giveaway, we see features from fellow North London grime star Scorcher and a few other including London Ivy.

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