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Mind Your Manners

Last year grime took over the UK: its indelible melodies and whimsical rapping were all over mainstream media. Rude Kid is one of the most renowned and ambitious producers on the scene, although he is hesitant to limit himself to grime. ‘I mix a lot of different sounds: dubstep, funky…I don’t know what I’d call it’. His tracks share an incredible sense of rhythm, with beats which scurry around the bassline, and a fearless use of samples from violins to maracas. Every instrumental features the words ‘are you ready?’. ‘It’s like my trademark – if I didn’t put that in, people wouldn’t know it was by me’.

The tracks are experimental in the best sense: ‘I try to make something that no-one’s made, to be different, because when you’re different people pay attention to you.’ Sometimes a distorted guitar chord replaces a bassline, other times the beat is built from a series of bleeps which sound like a checkout having an orgasm. Clearly, Rude Kid is fascinated by music: ‘I’ll listen to classical, just to hear how the strings are put together’.

He creates songs without a plan. ‘I just sit down and if I like the sound of the instrument, I will use that instrument and work around that. I’m on my own, in my room, and I try to do it to the best of my ability. I name the tunes by what’s around me – if I’ve got aftershave sitting on my desk, that’s the first thing I’ll look at when the beat’s done and I’ll just call it aftershave.’ But he claims that the name ‘Romford Ladies’ wasn’t inspired by the presence of several of Romford’s finest in his bedroom, but by the girls he’d see spilling out of clubs playing the familiar garage track samples.

He broke onto the scene with a track called U.F.O. ‘I used to get ignored a lot, but you have to keep your head down and work hard. I set myself a target, to get played on Logan Sama’s show. I made U.F.O. and that started getting played on Rinse FM. After Logan, people knew my name, and started asking for tunes’. That was three years ago. Now his tracks are on MTV adverts.,and even the latest version of DJ Hero.

With the heavy rotation his songs get on Rinse and at raves, you’d think he’d get sick of hearing them. “You know, I’ve heard them so many times on repeat. But, you know, as long as people like it, and play it, I’m happy.’

 

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