Tipped by Mike Skinner, signed by Gilles Peterson and attracting comparisons to Tricky and Gil Scott Heron, Ghostpoet – aka Obaro Ejimiwe – delivers slow-mo raps over brittle, submerged beats.
Bella Todd catches him in the middle of a band food fight ahead of his gig on the Red Bull stage at Camden Crawl on Saturday.
Although you recorded your debut album, Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam, while at university in Coventry, you were born and have now returned to London. So we’re guessing you’re no stranger to the Camden Crawl?
Actually I’ve never been to Camden Crawl, so it will be a great occasion for me and my merry men! I work with a live guitarist and drummer and we like to bend the sound and make things different every time.
You’ve just come off tour with Metronomy. Does that mean you missed the Masterchef final on Wednesday night? We’re know you’re a fan from your track, Longing for the Night…
Please don't tell me who won! I'll try to get it on BBC iPlayer, I do like a bit of Masterchef.
Your raps are full of these random references to Weetabix, chocolate cake… Is food a theme hitherto underrepresented by the world’s MCs?
I'm a fan of food. It's one of my... vices. Food is important in my life. MF DOOM, though, he's also a foody MC I’m sure. His first album was called Mm... food!
Something else that pervades your music is this atmosphere of urban anxiety. Do you think that’s particularly relevant to your generation?
I'm not a representative of my generation. This particular time in history is an almighty struggle as we come out of, or in to, a recession. But my music isn't about this particular space and time. I'm trying to bring out in my music is the everyday struggles that people go through all the time, the ups and downs of living.
'This time in history is an almighty struggle as we come out of, or in to, a recession'
If you had to soundtrack a film, which would you choose?
Oldboy, because it is a bit of a messed up story – a lot of ups and downs, a lot of emotion, and that's what my music's about.
You got your musical education in the wee small hours...
I was obsessed with music from quite an early age and my parents didn't quite approve of that so it was listening to pirate radio and Kiss quietly under my pillow just to get the later tunes.
Does that explain why your music has this muffled, lethargic quality?
Possibly. I did like with pirate radio how you couldn't always get the good signal. It was always a bit static in there, never completely perfect. I like sounds that are a bit tarnished.
What equipment do you use now?
I use Reason and an audio keyboard. No hardware or sampler, just basic bog-standard stuff. I recorded the album in my spare bedroom in my house in Cov, where I could get a bit of piece and turn the light out and... discover!
Some of our favourite bits on the album are where you’re not even speaking, just kind of… croaking
Ha! I was just trying to experiment with different vocal styles. I like rapping but I want to try and experiment as much with the vocal as the music.
'I like rapping but I want to try and experiment with the vocal'
How do you get a croak like that? Tricky had to smoke a shit load of weed...
I don't and didn't. Late nights and early mornings can have the same effect.
Did rapping come naturally to you?
When I was trying to write lyrics back in the day I didn't think of singing. Rap was just the first vocal I could understand and get with. Then I got into grime MCing at uni. And now from track to track I think: I don't need to rap, I don't need to sing, I can do whatever the line seems to need at the time. I think one of the things I'm trying to do is to tell the stories of people who might not be able to tell them themselves.
What elements of grime have you carried into Ghostpoet, and which aspects of the scene were you quite happy to ditch?
I still love grime, it's not something I've left behind. I like the DIY ethic of grime and, lyrically, the Britishness of it. Not that I agree with a lot of what's said in grime. I think it's quite destructive, which I guess matches the sounds. But I wanted to keep it UK, to make music that people I walk past in the street everyday will understand.
Mike Skinner of The Streets spoke out for you early on. What have you learnt from him?
He showed me you could talk about everyday things and not be ashamed of it. And he was definitely an inspiration for keeping trying… Sorry, my drummer just threw an apple at my tour manager's head. This is what happens on tour, it's all anarchy. We've got loads of fruit and someone's gonna get hurt by one of these apples and it ain't gonna be healthy. Now I dropped my Thermos! I bought it the morning of us going on tour with Metronomy and now it's covered in dents like an old warhead. It was honey and lemon inside it but I graduated to tea. Now it's empty and battered and bruised and a good representation of the state we're in. Maybe I should throw it into the crowd at Camden Crawl…
© Ghostpoet
Obaro Ejimiwe’s Life In Music
The first music I remember being aware of was... my mum's C&W and reggae records, and my dad's African music.
The first instrument I picked up was... a recorder in school. I played Three Blind Mice but tried to make my own version called Four Blind Mice. My teacher made me stick to the original.
The first artist I tried to emulate was... BIG. When I was younger I was into the whole American thing.
The first gig I went to was… some indie night in Coventry. I didn't really go to gigs until I started doing them myself and realised how important they are.
My musical epiphany was… when I was in the grime collective and we'd just play tracks out to people, and seeing the reactions people had to certain tunes. It made me realise just how powerful music could be in what it did to people.
The worst gig I’ve ever played was… in Camden, when I'd just started and was using bits of backing track. The laptop just died completely and it was a very uncomfortable 15 minutes. But it was good that it happened ‘cos it really forced me to think about how I do things live and get me to where I am now.
The one album I couldn’t live without is… The Hour of Bewilderbeast by Badly Drawn Boy. It was the first album I bought and musically I’m still trying to create something as fluid and interesting. That's the album for me.
My karaoke track of choice would be… that song that goes ‘WAR! Huh! What is it good for?’ [Edwin Starr]. I can just about remember my own lyrics, so at least I'd have a chance with that.
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