A different point-of View

At the young age of 7, Finnish MC View received a Illmatic CD from his father as a birthday gift and the rest is history. View’s style differs from other rappers due to his minimalist demeanour, punchy lines and low toned vocals. Reigning from Finland, View raps only in English and has taken the world by storm by his artistic and creative track Spill, which highlights to big issue with alcoholism in Finland. 

We chat to View ahead of his EP release ‘Avalon,’ how his track ‘Spill’ was inspired by local issues, and what album made him sell his soul to hip-hop. Margaret Tra writes.  

You're the 2nd Scandianvian hip-hop artist we have interviewed, how's hip-hop over there?

Finnish hip-hop is doing great and it`s alive, Although we don’t have a huge fan base for rappers who rap in english, I still think that we have a good hip-hop culture in Finland.

Tell us about Avalon your upcoming EP, will it all be in English or?

The whole Ep is in english. I’ve never made music in Finnish language. There will be six tracks and all of them have the same similarities than my two single releases Avalon and Spill. By similarities I mean minimalism and low toned vocals!

Your recent track Spill is amazing, tell us how it came about.

We were sitting in the studio with my producer and he played me this one sound he had found. After like five minutes while I was checking my Instagram feed the beat for the track was ready. Ever since I’ve been calling him wizard. Inspiration for the lyrics came when I visited my hometown and saw how many of my friends were having problems with alcohol and drugs and I decided to show my frustration through the lyrics by relating to those problems.

What other projects are you working on?

At the moment I don’t have any other music projects going on. All my concentration is on my upcoming EP Avalon but besides music I do voice-overs for TV and radio commercials. 

If you could mix two rappers to describe your style, who would it be and why?

Some say I remind Faithless, but in my opinion I consider myself more like mixed combination of rappers Mick Jenkinks and Pusha T, because my flow is really solid and kind of punchy.

What was the first rap song you listened to?

I cant remember what was the first rap song but my first rap album was Illmatic from Nas. I was seven years old and it was a birthday present from my father.

What made you first get into hip-hop?

I must say that after Illmatic I sold my soul to the hip-hop. It`s still one of my favourite albums. 

What stimulates your soul?

Good music, art and honesty.

Links:

Instagram: http://instagram.com/viewhki
Twitter: https://twitter.com/viewhki
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/viewmusic