Future musics

8sixteen32: Grime Time

i'm in birmingham, uk at the moment on the second week of rehearsals for the 8sixteen32 theatre show which i'm musical director for. the show is a 4 man cast (grime MCs from the decypher collective: Deci4Life, R.Tillery, LCB and evoke) with director leo kay steering the ship. behind the scenes are artistic director charlie dark and writer/artist polarbear.

aside from a little bit of theatre in high school and the legends of the underground project (which was more a dance show than theatre) i havent done a lot of theatre work, especially not in this capacity, as MD. it's been a great experience already - seeing the show come together bit by bit, watching leo leading the cast through simple yet powerful exercises covering improv, trust, physicality of stage... everything contributing to the growing whole. the MCs are super talented, with great energy and great natural ability and it's their story that the show is based on (with a little fictional this n that as well) - their journey collectively as a crew and individually not only as MCs but as young men balancing real life issues, whether it be homelife or gun crime with their music and beatmaking.

i didnt know what to expect going into the show, other than that charlie dark had asked me to get involved and after our african beats tour earlier this year (or was it last year already ?!) he knows what i'm about. since that time i've had more contact with dubstep and grime than before and found elements and tracks that i like more and more, so this has been a great oppportunity to develop that more. dark, twisted and gritty beats. it's mad doing it back to back with rob van den wouw's album project in holland - from jazz to grime. lol. the cast have been really open to what i've been bringing to the show and altho it's more dialogue and circumstance driven than music-driven, we've got some magic moments coming together. it's dope hearing the bars - not many UK MCs have really blown me away but all these guys have so much character, individuality and are blatantly UK MCs doing a UK thing, not trying to cop a stateside flex or anything.

the show will be on at the birmingham repertory theatre for 4 nights only nov 5/6/7/8. i think the capacity of the room we're doing is about 150 a show. this has been a long time in the making - 2 years since the collective started developing the project - if you are in the area, do come and check it :)

once we're all done, there's plans for some MdCL/decypher collaborations and releases... keep your eyes and ears out. the theme song for the show is 'You Don't Know' and it's the main joint that deci4life and i have collaborated on - D had a demo of the beat and i gave it some production... the tune is CARNAGE. haha.