Antix makes mashups and remixes and is based in Falkirk in Scotland. His
remixes get regular spin by DJ Muggs and on NYS radio, he also releases stuff through the Crooklyn Clan's website.
He has won a bunch of, like, mashup competitions and stuff (including one on something called MTV) and he even made a special mashup for this very blog. I asked him a few questions about stuff and whatever and he was all like, answering and stuff.
EB: you seem to get more love over in the states, why do you think this is?
Antix – I'd say it's mostly to do with the intake of hip hop music in America. Fair enough, the UK is starting to build itself up and is progressing nicely with artists / lyricists like Akala, Sway and Lady Sovereign but generally speaking, the UK isn't even in the same league when it comes to playing the game. Unfortunately a lot of it is to do with the money the artist's labels have behind them, yet again, we're not even in the same league here. The promotion the same music gets at each side of the Atlantic is totally different as well. We get a single playing for a couple of months on MTV here, whereas in the states those same artists are on the news, doing radio & TV talk shows and meeting fans every day. So like anything, the music has much more of an impact when its constantly being rubbed into the public's face. It boils down to the artists / listeners over there doing my promotion for me. There's just more of a market in the states so people such as radio DJ's are more prone to playing material that they just know is good, material that they haven't panicked about whether or not its considered OK to play since its made by wee Antix from Scotland, ya know?
EB: Would you say that Grime and Dubstep are the Uk's equivilant to the Hip Hop scene in America? Certainly Lady Sovereign and Sway come from that background as do Wiley and Dizzee and these artists are generally more accepted as homegrown talent.
Antix - Not exactly. I'd say Hip Hop, just like any style, has mothered a lot of smaller, more locally produced variations, but I wouldn't class any of them as equivalents. Its like a spider-graph with Hip Hip placed firmly in the middle. The aim of the game for a lot of people is to find a new sound, or something that they can market as their own which means each week there's some new label or artist trying to advertise themselves as having created the next hot sound. Truth of the matter is, the general creation of “artists” these days is pathetic. There's no sound on the planet that hasn't been heard already so people are clutching at straws trying to find something to market....since that's more or less all it is now to most.
EB: Last question, you and i are driving home after a gig out of town, it was a pretty classy affair with free buckfast and miniture mince and mealie pie canapes. So we are in a dialogue about whether the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album sounds better on vinyl compared to cd or not and you don't notice that a man has stepped in front of the car. Unable to react quick enough, you mow him down and when we go back to see if he is okay we realise that he was killed by the impact. It is about now that i recognise him as my baby mother's new man, who i was videotaped making death threats to after he voiced his opinion that i should pay some child support. I am not really keen on hanging at the scene any more and want to leave and just pretend it never happened, what would you do?
Antix – Giles, I sincerely hope this is a rhetorical question and you're not looking for the perfect way to murder the Ex's new partner. I think torching the car would be the best solution, with every possible character witness for the prosecution stuffed inside somehow. No case, no charges. We continue drinking and they all lived happily ever after.
Shop Boys vs Who Made Who - Satisfaction (Antix Masup)This was made on request especially for us, how cool is that?
Akon vs Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe & Chingy - Smack That Shorty (Antix Remix)Queen vs R. Kelly Ft. The Game - Playaz Only Bites The Dust (Antix Remix) Antix has a EP coming out soon called '6 of the best' which has one side dedicated to club remixes and the other to more dangerous remixes. He is also starting a night in Falkirk to try to blur the lines between hip hop and dance music. We will be watching him.
Check his
Myspace or
one of his
two websites for more on Antix.
