Procryptix feature - Published in Undercover Magazine, 2005

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Pioneering duo Sparkii and Naba, aka Procryptix, have been around too long to make a fast exit. An integral part of the ever growing London hiphop scene for near enough 20 years in many shapes and forms, including production and lyrics on enough classics to make your head spin as well as being a key part of the Battle Scars and Lyricist Lounge club nights, they are still one of the more unknown elements of the UK’s hiphop history. Yet this hasn’t stopped them from doing their thing and regularly releasing EPs that have kept their legendary status alive, even if it’s been under the radar. As their new EP hits the streets this autumn, Undercover decided to take a trip to Brick Lane and find out what they’ve been up to.

Best place to start would be what you’ve been up to since your last release?
Sparkii: Since ‘Break in a 950’s Shadow’ we’ve concentrated on getting out and about and expanding our family. We’ve linked up with some cats out in Holland and France, we’ve done shows in Japan, Taiwan, and a few low key festivals. The rest of the time has been spent recording the new album, preparing the videos…
Naba: A hell of a lot of orchestrating things to make sure they fall into place later on. Since we started the ball rolling, whether it be as Procryptix or what we were doing in the clubs with Lyricist Lounge and Battle Scars, we’ve spent a lot of time making sure everything is planned so that it all goes well for us. We’d be doing stuff and then there was something else needed in the chain to move along so instead of working from month to month, we took a huge chunk of time out and got everything sorted and formulated. We’ve also got a lot of material to drop, potentially even another EP as we’re now affiliated with a crew out in the Tri States.
S: It’s a project called Animal Tag Team, ATT.
N: we’ll probably end up dropping that sometime.
S: We’ve recorded a mini album under that name with the crew and we’ve done some filming for that project too. It’s been quite a mad task because at the same time we had publishing to get in hand as we left Buff Recordings, which was a label we kind of helped co-found. At the same time we officially parted from Battle Scars too. I’m still involved to a degree, from time to time behind the scenes. We’ve spent a lot of time making sure we get our label set up properly and it’s not just a label in name, it’s a label with a stable. I’ve trained a few producers with that in mind. It’s been a growing up time, it’s been about thinking ahead…
N: Hence the name of the EP, Heavy Moves.

So the label you’re now releasing this EP on, what it’s called?
N: Crowd Pleaser Records.
S: It’s named after a track on our first EP.

Would you say your sound has matured since your last release?
N: Our sound has always been what we’ve used on a regular basis; we call it thinking man’s hiphop. It’s never been the genre as far as what’s current you know? I know it’s kind of a cliché but phonetically we’ve always tried to do our own thing.
S: We try to follow the music and where it takes us. At the end of the day I can’t say the material as such has matured. In this EP, other than two cuts, most of the songs were written and demo-ed when we released our last EP. So I’d say the real preoccupation in maturing our material has been the sound quality. It was on me to get my studio up and get the best sound quality I could out of it, which took some time. I’m glad I did it though because we’ve put 11 tracks on this EP, and we want to give people value for money and at the same time avoid people complaining about the sound quality.

You can never please everybody can you?
S: Yeah, it’s been about the right balance between all types of trade offs. And we had to have the right quality that I was happy with as a producer. Nabs did his work a while back so in that sense if people are feeling it now then we can say ‘we’re a little bit ahead of time’ or just the fact that we ignore time. We can come and go as we please and we try to make timeless material. Which was the same thing with the last EP, it was done a year and a half before it came out.
N: This time we’ve tried to be a bit more orchestrated about what we put together because it’s like a football team and tracks are players, you’ve got to know who’s the right player for the right time, where everyone’s place is. The more you’ve got the harder it is to let go.
S: It’s also been about broadening our horizons. I don’t want to get all arty on this but I deal with a lot of music. I’ve worked with different orchestras over the last years and it’s helped broaden my musical conceptions and how I approach music as a producer and a musician. Same for Naba, he’s been exploring different realms of lyricism, languages and styles and we like to experiment and reflect that in our work.

Have some of those influences and new horizons come from your touring as well?
S: yeah but also from sessioning, I do a lot of session work and a lot of workshop leading. I really enjoy playing live. I’m one of the unofficial pioneers as far as playing live on stage with samplers, hardware and computers and not just pressing play. So you do that for 5-6 years on the road and it means you’re equipped to do anything.

And have you got any guests on the EP then?
N: We’ve got Riddla on there.
S: A guy called Bastaard, who’s originally from the Verbalists. Amadeus from the ATT crew is on there as well.
S: We’ve rotated a few DJs too, namely Pogo, Bizniss and Random. As far as lyricists we did some stuff with an up and coming singer called Ivy, who’s Cash Money’s sister. To be honest we’re pretty organic in our work, it’s who can chill with that we work with. The music comes out of the chilling. If we don’t connect with people on an everyday level, then the chances of going in the studio and doing something are very low.

I was speaking to Ty last year who was quite verbal in saying it’s not about UK hiphop, it’s about hiphop in general. It’s getting to a point where UK hiphop is really trying to come out of this branded stigma and I was curious to see if you even considered that phenomenon at all?
S: In some ways I wish more British groups thought like us in the sense that if hiphop just stayed in its area code we would have never heard it! You got to be proactive. And in all honesty it’s not about name recognition in our town for us. Especially when it’s one of the smallest markets out of them all.
N: If you think about the undercurrent of what is supposedly hiphop, like bboying, well you don’t talk about it in terms of UK bboying, US bboying etc… It’s just bboying in the same way it’s just hiphop. It grates the back of my fucking brain having to hear people put these two letters in front of it. I’m not ashamed of the two letters; it’s just a local. It’s not about locations because when you put the letters in front of it, it doesn’t make it good!

The whole UK hiphop thing seems to play for and against the music and culture at the same time.
N: a lot of it is marketing at the end of the day. It’s a PR game, and it’s not a surprise now because hiphop is the biggest selling music medium. But when I started spitting we couldn’t even get a club to play the record. It was not important where you were then; the situation was the same for everyone. It was about doing it, getting down and connecting.
S: I’ve been making hits for two decades now in this country, representing it internationally and in a way people need to pay respect and learn their history! We’ve done a lot of work for the scene in this country, yet we’re still being left out in ways… Lyrical, was part of our unit, Jonzie D who ran with him, our unit, Enforcers, our unit, No Parking MCs and Cutmaster Swift our unit, Trouble, our unit, London Posse, our unit. Ty and Blak Twang out of our unit. All these were people we helped and advised and brought through.
N: Floetry too.
S: Floetry got their deal from a show our unit put on. The amount of people who got light from Battle Scars and Lyricist Lounge is quite large. We’re not necessarily always at the front, doing interviews and trying to get props for the clubs, because we’re providing clubs and venues with nights to let this scene flourish. Even when you’re not seeing me I’m meeting managers, funders, and I’m promoting British hiphop to make sure that certain things can continue to function. I think that in a sense people need to respect British hiphop and what’s come before them and get out there and continue to help it flourish. The point being get out! Back to the football, the defence doesn’t stay behind! That’s what certain people need to do instead of trying to be king of the mini jungle.

And can you tell us a bit more about Battle Scars and Lyricist Lounge and how you were involved?
S: Battle Scars, the title of it comes from one of the songs on our first EP. And it was referring to being here for a long time, still going and having the scars to prove it. That’s what the concept was about. And full credit to Lawyer, who was always into the live aspect of MCing, it was his idea to take the concept of the track and make a club night out of it. And we went in with him and it was wicked. One of the first ones we did was at Dingwalls, and this guy called Warren Justice won it, but to be honest he got burnt by a guy called Grimlock, who’s now putting tracks out.
N: But when he got roasted by Grim he used the greatest street initiative, he ripped something Grim was wearing and the crowd found it hilarious and he won it on that moment. But you’ve got to remember Battle Scars was never meant to be a straight MC battle. It was meant to incorporate MCs, singers, poets, funny motherfuckers, it was never meant to be just about rappers. It was about lyricism.
S: microphone combat if you will.

I would have thought that Lyricist Lounge was more about that then Battle Scars.
N: The lounge was a chance to shine; Battle Scars was a chance to take some scalps.
S: and there was also a twist. In the first round you had to perform your own track. So if you got ousted with your own track you had to go back to the drawing board and come up with something better, which some people did. I think it was a great idea to do it like that but with the whole new 8 Mile phenomenon it’s morphed into a straight up MC battle which is kind of sad in some ways. I spoke with Lawyer and he’s still up for it but there aren’t enough people with the skills required entering. And the Lyricist Lounge even though it had the name of lyricist, it was also a chance for musicians to come and jam with our house band, in a friendly atmosphere, which was cool to see in hiphop. It was a breath of fresh air at the time. I miss that vibe to be honest. There was another battle called King of the Ring that was wicked too.
N: that was funny. They’d have a MC battle in a boxing ring.
S: one year this guy came up with seconds and he had his mates rubbing his shoulders in the corner and everything. People were trading blows on stage lyrically and it was wicked. There was a whole drama to it, like cabaret, that people used to love. And it’s funny because hiphop has a lot of testosterone in it, a lot of ego, and so things like this remind us we need jokes and humour as well.

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written by Laurent