Brewing honest hip-hop with UK rapper Gibbo
Growing up boom bap UK rapper Gibbo used to listen to the likes of Skinnyman, Task Force & Fallacy. He was too opinionated for his own good, which lead him to hip-hop. Now he’s released his EP “The Fresh Brew” which bares all truth and honesty with beats that will make you nod your head.
We chat to Gibbo about working 9-5 to support his music career, his favourite brew and what to expect from his latest EP. Margaret Tra writes.
You’ve just released ‘The Fresh Brew,’ a 6 track EP, tell us about that.
It's a 6 track EP, produced entirely by Stealf, with me on vocals. We wanted to keep things simple for my first De Facto release so we decided on a number of beats and then got to work on making them into full tracks. There's no real structure as such to the project, we were just aiming for some good quality boom bap hip-hop and hopefully that's what we've produced.
You recently dropped “Green Tea” could you tell us the story behind this track?
Unfortunately I'm one of those people that has to work a 9-5 in order to support this music. So I wanted to create a track that reflected my love of music but highlighted the sometimes mundane tasks that we have to carry out in order to be able to do so.
What is your favourite brew?
If we're talking about a standard ‘cuppa’ then I'd have to lean towards a cup of Yorkshire Tea, in terms of green tea though I'm more of a Twinings man.
You come from Aldershot in the UK, how did you start getting into rapping?
I'd been listening to the likes of Skinnyman, Task Force & Fallacy amongst others, for a number of years whilst at secondary school. Then one day during the summer of me leaving school I decided to start to pen verses, shockingly bad as they were I persevered and somehow ended up at this point. Via years of practicing at youth club sets and recording track after track at various studios, I think I am finally starting to become happy with the music I'm producing.
Who are you influences?
In terms of UK hip-hop, then the three acts just mentioned feature very prominently alongside those such as Jehst, Cappo & Verb T. I also take a lot of influence from artists of different genres such as Billy Bragg, Paul Weller, Asian Dub Foundation & Otis Redding to name a few.
You’re a wordsworth, when you write, what goes on in your head?
I tend not to think too much when I'm writing and just sort of let it happen. Usually starting with me listening to some beats throughout the week, and picking one and then deciding on a concept but after that point I tend to just have the beat on repeat and jot down ideas until it's done. I do prefer to write whole tunes in one 'sitting' as it were, as opposed to writing tracks in parts.
What’s the decision behind being Boom Bap rapper?
I'm far too lazy to learn how to play an instrument and I'm far too over opinionated for my own good, so there weren’t many other choices that would enable me to get my point heard!
What Stimulates Your Soul?
Music, good honest music.
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