Ruff Sqwad interview

Blackdown

nexKeysound
"Wiley’s first solo outing sounded a lot like it was produced with a Fisher Price ‘My First Album’ Kit."

come on now, this statement is catagorically wrong now isnt it?
 

Jezmi

Olli Oliver Steichelsmein
Ruff Sqwad said:
"There was one guy in a suit from Amsterdam and he was right at the front shouting BRAP! BRAP! BRAP! - Big up that guy man, he’s a true supporter."

That was me :eek: :) :D :cool:
 
C

captain easychord

Guest
Blackdown said:
"Wiley’s first solo outing sounded a lot like it was produced with a Fisher Price ‘My First Album’ Kit."

come on now, this statement is catagorically wrong now isnt it?

for real
 

milkandhoney

Well-known member
R:I think it would make more sense to sign to an independent; they have a better understanding of grime. Roll Deep and Kano both did well, but look at Roll Deep now, they didn’t get dropped but their deal’s over! We’d prefer a production or solo deal. It really only makes sense for pop acts to sign to majors; they have the sales to back it up. Our music is quite hard, so maybe people can’t instantly relate to us like they do with the pop acts.

deep.
 
S

simon silverdollar

Guest
milkandhoney said:

yeah they really seem to know what they're doing.

i heard they got a manager for the first time the other week as well, so it's all looking pretyy good for them i think.
 
good on them...

I don't know where they think their gonna get a production deal from though...do they know what that is? independent is the only way forward. It's a blessing in disguise. Major's don't wanna hand out deals unless you compromise DO IT YOURSELF....for flips sack man. This youth black music scene in this country has the chance to not make the same mistakes as the US (i.e letting major's RUN the whole black music scene) by forming strong independents. There is actually no excuses that I wanna hear.
 

killuridols

Change the game
Blackdown said:
"Wiley’s first solo outing sounded a lot like it was produced with a Fisher Price ‘My First Album’ Kit."

come on now, this statement is catagorically wrong now isnt it?

Hmm. Went back and had a listen to the album just to make sure - and yep it is a piece of poorly executed poop. Eskimo and ice rink snippets with no vocals? Ridiculous.
‘What do you call it’ showed that Wiley could be energetic, creative and most importantly exciting. I’m sure you’ll agree that the album was a huge, if not monstrous let down. If not, its just my opinion really innit?
Shame I wasn’t a journo at the time: I paid £12 for it and I’ll never get that money back. Bastards.
 
D

droid

Guest
killuridols said:
Hmm. Went back and had a listen to the album just to make sure - and yep it is a piece of poorly executed poop. Eskimo and ice rink snippets with no vocals? Ridiculous.
‘What do you call it’ showed that Wiley could be energetic, creative and most importantly exciting. I’m sure you’ll agree that the album was a huge, if not monstrous let down. If not, its just my opinion really innit?

'What do you call it?' has exactly the same production sound as every other tune on that LP - why is that tune 'energetic, creative and most importantly exciting' and everything else on the LP 'poorly executed poop'? You're contradicting yourself.

IMO the Wiley album is quality. Id love an all instrumental version. Ice Rink and Eskimo are killer tunes.
 

killuridols

Change the game
droid said:
'What do you call it?' has exactly the same production sound as every other tune on that LP - why is that tune 'energetic, creative and most importantly exciting' and everything else on the LP 'poorly executed poop'? You're contradicting yourself.

IMO the Wiley album is quality. Id love an all instrumental version. Ice Rink and Eskimo are killer tunes.

Maybe we were looking for different things from that album. At the time I saw Wiley as one of the best spitters in the scene and was expecting the album to at least be on par with, if not better than ‘boy in the corner’. I didn’t want an album of good instrumentals, I wanted good songs. Granted ‘Ice rink’ and ‘eskimo’ are killer, but what if dizzee had put a 44 second snippet of I luv U with no vocals on his debut? It wouldn’t make sense.
I don’t think the rest of the album worked as well as What do you call it’ - same sound or not. As for my contradictions : The Smiths and Blondie always had the same sound, but are all their songs as good as ‘There is a light that never..’ or ‘Heart of Glass’. Don’t think so…
 

petergunn

plywood violin
killuridols said:
Maybe we were looking for different things from that album. At the time I saw Wiley as one of the best spitters in the scene and was expecting the album to at least be on par with, if not better than ‘boy in the corner’. I didn’t want an album of good instrumentals, I wanted good songs. Granted ‘Ice rink’ and ‘eskimo’ are killer, but what if dizzee had put a 44 second snippet of I luv U with no vocals on his debut? It wouldn’t make sense.
I don’t think the rest of the album worked as well as What do you call it’ - same sound or not. As for my contradictions : The Smiths and Blondie always had the same sound, but are all their songs as good as ‘There is a light that never..’ or ‘Heart of Glass’. Don’t think so…

hmmm, that's not a bad point... i think Treddin' On Thin Ice is a great record, but it sounds like a second LP, not a first LP... Wiley kinda chickened out by not recording vocal versions of all his classic white labels... if had done that, the album would have been a stone classic... i myself really like Wiley's mellower more introspective songs like Pick Yourself Up, but there were a few too many of those on the LP that weren't that great ("going mad")... i think Wiley heard Boy in Da Corner and focused more on the confessional songs like Sittin' Here, as opposed to the fiercer stuff like Stop Dat and Hold Yr Mouth...
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
its encouraging that ruff sqwad are talking about going independent but theyre not the grime crew to be saying that. when they actually release their album (preferably a good GRIME one) instead of just talking about what theyre gonna do and how and why in interviews, ill pay more attention.
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
killuridols said:
Hmm. Went back and had a listen to the album just to make sure - and yep it is a piece of poorly executed poop. Eskimo and ice rink snippets with no vocals? Ridiculous.
‘What do you call it’ showed that Wiley could be energetic, creative and most importantly exciting. I’m sure you’ll agree that the album was a huge, if not monstrous let down. If not, its just my opinion really innit?
Shame I wasn’t a journo at the time: I paid £12 for it and I’ll never get that money back. Bastards.

no i still think you're talking ish. granted it's not as good as Boy In Da Corner, few things are, but saying it was a monstrous let down is a complete overstatement. And saying Eskimo and Ice Rink vocal would have made the whole thing better doesnt make your argument seem very strong.
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
Blackdown said:
no i still think you're talking ish. granted it's not as good as Boy In Da Corner, few things are, but saying it was a monstrous let down is a complete overstatement. And saying Eskimo and Ice Rink vocal would have made the whole thing better doesnt make your argument seem very strong.

Don't you think that eskimoand ice rink vocals would have made the album better? I know I do.
 
D

droid

Guest
Well I was taking issue with this:

"Wiley’s first solo outing sounded a lot like it was produced with a Fisher Price ‘My First Album’ Kit."

Which seemed to be a blanket criticism of Wileys production on the LP, and therefore inconsistent with singling out one or two tunes as being good whilst condemning the rest.

I assume the lack of the Ice rink and Eskimo vocals was an attempt to make it more of an 'album' instead of just a collection of singles... still a big mistake (as I assume they were recorded before the LP as released), but its still a quality record. Not as good as BITC - but great in a low key kinda way...

If 'Treddin...' comes across as a 2nd LP instead of a 1st - whats 'In At The Deep End' then? a 5th? :D
 
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Blackdown

nexKeysound
Melchior said:
Don't you think that eskimoand ice rink vocals would have made the album better? I know I do.

yes obviously it would have - and at the time wiley's then-A&R wanted them on there - but it didn't happen.

my point is there's some great material on that album, and two extra tracks wouldnt have turned it from the worst fisher price LP to better than boy in da corner.

not that there's been many LPs from grime artists, but Treddin' is probably the third best grime LP after Dizzee's two. That is if you discount mixtapes, which given they're increasingly becoming the 'indie albums' for the scene, we probably shouldn't.
 
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