Music
Giggs’ RBMA conversation: 5 things we learned
The Landlord sits on the couch with journalist Hattie Collins – watch it and read the highlights.
Last Friday, RBMA brought Leeds to a standstill with an intimate and insightful conversation with the one and only Giggs – the UK rap giant who helped catapult the genre to dizzying heights from the underground of London suburbs to fine art establishments like the Tate and the Barbican.
In conjunction with the spellbinding exhibition An Eye On Grime, curated by renowned photographer Olivia Rose and author and host of the evening Hattie Collins, the Peckham rapper sat down to talk about his way up, the importance of family and following your dreams.
Watch the lecture below, then scroll down to check out some of the highlights.
1 h
A Conversation With Giggs
An in-depth filmed interview with the Landlord, UK rap trailblazer Giggs.
1. It’s important to remember your roots
Nathaniel Thompson is one of the hardest emcees to come out of Britain period. His lyrical content has been criticised by some but there’s no denying he’s got talent. He discussed how his upbringing and social environment shaped his sound:
“I was born in an estate in Peckham called Gloucester Grove. It was cool, but it was an old-school hood – like a proper community. Everyone looking out for everyone. Things have changed nowadays, it got a bit more nuts, the gang thing got out of control with like the guns coming in and all that."
My mum was cool, she used to bust out bare music
"I was the eldest of a big family but my mum was cool, she used to bust out bare music. Most of the hard tunes I know are from my mum, NWA, MTV Raps and all that. She was always working though – hardly ever at home, always earning.”
2. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree
Going on social media, Giggs seems like one hell of a loving dad. His eldest son, now 14, has grown up in a completely different society to Giggs – but the attitude and charisma are still there, as the main man explains:
“My son is cool, he’s humble. Obviously I had him young, he’s been there through the build-up of everything so he’s like my manager. He’s on me, like if I’ve got a show and I’m on my way to it and he’ll be like ‘What’s the capacity?’"
My son has been there through the build-up of everything so he’s like my manager
“One time I did a show and the promoter was wack, it was kinda dead. So I sent a video to my agent like what the fuck’s going on and then I sent it to the little man and he was like ‘What’s going on, he needs to be sacked!’. He’s on sacking breddahs. I don’t know what he’s gonna do when he’s older but its gonna be serious!”
Giggs
© Steve Stills/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Giggs once used a ghostwriter
Giggs hit the airwaves around 2007 but before that few people knew he did a few tunes whilst still in school. He reveals he even had a ghostwriter for his lyrics. We all start somewhere right?
“I did a little tune in secondary school – it was wack still, don’t look for it! The only person who could put it online is some breddah called Quincy, who’s on the tune, so if you put that out bruv, man’s on you! We done some competition and my mum even wrote the lyrics. It was hard though. It went, ‘Yo it’s me, the one JSD, rocking and shocking in the place to be’. She was flexing for me though init. We won the competition anyway and ended up recording some seven-inch ting, but it was proper wack. I didn’t even know what I was saying, imagine that now.”
4. It took him a while to find his calling
Giggs was a troubled youth, in and out of jail for various gun-related crimes as well as his affiliation with the notorious Peckham Boys Gang. It took his passion for music to take over the tendencies that got him in trouble. But grime wasn’t the rapper’s first love:
"I didn’t even listen to grime. I was listening to 50 [Cent], D-Block and that. Grime wasn’t really man’s thing. We respected it but it was more rap and that. Before I went jail I used to spit over garage beats – way back in 2002, that’s when Dizzee came about. Before they even said Roll Deep with Wiley and I thought: 'Rah these man go hard still!' Dizzee was like proper lyrics, this breddah was proper mad."
Grime wasn’t man’s thing. We respected it but it was more rap and that
"Remember Freeway who used to write for Jay-Z? Well, Dizzee was the English Freeway but he’s got the punchlines like Cassidy. Me, when I love music I just want everyone else to hear it, that’s how I am, so I used to show everyone in the hood. Then there was this hard Deja set tape with Wiley, Dizzee, Flow Dan and NASTY Crew. This one tape used to circulate around the whole hood. Then I thought: ‘Rah, I could do that’."
Giggs takes a seat
© Steve Stills/Red Bull Content Pool
5. Good things happen when you follow your dreams
Self-belief and preservation are the two key components in achieving success and when asked what advice he’d give to people who wanted to replicate the success stories of recent times, Giggs opened up in a rather touching and wholeheartedly honest fashion:
"You just gotta follow your dreams, wherever your heart is, whatever you want to do you just gotta do that. For me, I was gangbanger, drug dealer, I weren’t doing shit and I thought I was a piece of shit that no one would give a fuck about. But then I just carried on doing my thing and it just happened because that’s what I love doing."
For me there’s nothing better than going studio and making a banger
"Money is not important to me. Before money, I was making CDs for myself – I was just thinking I love making this music and then the money came after. Whatever you love, do it – then the money is a bonus. For me there’s nothing better than going studio and making a banger."
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