Fliptrix - Tracking Back Interview

Ahead of his 8th solo album, ‘Light Work’, we take it back with the founder of High Focus Records, one quarter of The Four Owls, ‘Big Owl’ himself – Fliptrix.

 We talk all from discovering heavy Metal and Punk to finding Hip Hop, the influence of his Dad and the first time he rapped on stage.

1.    What is your earliest memory of music as a child?

When I grew up, my best mate lived next door to me, this guy Joe who was the same age as me and he had an older brother that was a couple years older and you know what it’s like when you’re a kid; you see what the older brothers are into.

I remember going round to his house and he actually had some heavy metal tapes, some band called Megadeth. We were so young and were like that’s well cool! I remember the images on the cover, they were all illustrated drawings and pictures and you know how with Death Metal, they go really in.

I also used to do long car journeys with my parents so probably listening to some random old band like R.E.M. or something like that in the car.

2.    What music were your parents/guardians into? What was played around the house growing up? 

Quite an eclectic mix. My Dad was in a band when he was younger and he was quite into Rock music, listening to a lot of Jazz, Blues, Soul music, a bit of Reggae so quite a wide variety of music from different countries, quite an eclectic soundscape. Him being into music definitely encouraged me to take it as a path.

3.    Did you have any tapes or records bought for you? 

My auntie actually bought me and my brother a 7” vinyl each. I think I got Michael Jackson and my brother got a Kylie Minogue 7”, he got parred!

Then obviously we took them to my Dad’s turntable and tried to do a bit of scratching even though it was a 7” and a turntable that shouldn’t be used for scratching.

4.    What was the first record/tape/CD you bought for yourself? It can be a single or album. 

One of my earliest Hip Hop albums I bought for myself was Fugees – The Score, that was a big one for me.

I also remember walking into ‘Our Price’ in Brixton and hearing My Name Is by Eminem on the system, never hearing him before and being like oh my God, who is this guy! I remember buying that CD and the second track on that was Guilty Conscience.

They really hooked me in early and that’s another big memory of mine, walking into ‘Our Price’ in Brixton, that’s a fond memory.

5.    What music were you into in the early days at school?

I listened to a little bit of Punk music but as soon as I found out about Hip Hop, I went fully into Hip Hop because I just related to it a lot more and just enjoyed it a lot more.

Then I got quite into Drum and Bass, I remember cycling to school and with all the One Nation Drum and Bass tape packs with MCs like Skibba and Shabba. They inspired me a lot with their flows, they used to get me pretty hyped on the way to and from school. It was all live sets so there was quite a lot of energy on them.

6.    As a teenager did this change?

I got real heavy into UK Hip Hop and the whole Low Life era, so I used to listen to a lot of that but I also did a lot of raving in my younger days, I used to go to a lot of Drum and Bass raves. I remember when Dubstep first came out as well, there was some club called Plastic People, it’s gone now.

I remember going there when Dubstep was just created and you were allowed to blaze zoots down there. I remember going down there and just hearing it and being like “what is this music?!”. I think JME even came through and spat some bars, it was proper underground.

So I did get into Dubstep for a while when there was a few good people, before it got taken over and really commercialised and just like blew up and died. There was Caspa and Rusko, Skream and Benga. I always loved my Reggae and Dub as well, I think my taste widened and I enjoyed a lot of live music but my main love was always Hip Hop.

7.    Did you play an instrument at school and can you still play it?

I played the guitar and learnt the piano a little bit as well. I can remember a few bits on the guitar but I don’t keep up with them anymore, but I would like to. I’ve been looking at these things called tongue drums and hang drums, they’re really sick, I’m quite interested in getting one of them, they just make such amazing sounds.

8.    Give us a fond memory of one track at high school/college. Any house parties, road trips, holidays…

Biggie – Party and Bullshit. It just gets me gassed! It takes me back to them early days and parties, it’s just got such a sort of upbeat and fast feel factor.

9.    What was your first experience of rap music? How did it make you feel?

It was that Fugees – The Score album but one of the biggest influences for me was also ‘Speakers Corner’ (event) in Brixton, which DJ Snuff used to run with some other people. I used to love that, I went to every single one and it’s just the networking, the people, that’s the first place I ever rapped on stage.

I remember I did some open mic competition quite early on in my career and I won the competition and won some studio time to record. Those early days in Brixton, ‘Speakers Corner’ did a lot to inspire and it had legends like Chester P and Skinnyman come down and perform so that’s some pf my earliest and fondest memories of participating in Hip Hop.

10. What is the first rap music video you can remember? 

It’s got to be one of the early Wu-Tang videos, one with the bees and all the massive skyscrapers. If we’re talking a UK Hip Hop one then probably Skinnyman – Council Estate of Mind, pretty sure that was on Channel U back in the day.

11. What gave you the confidence to start to write bars yourself?

It was hearing people like Skinnyman and Jehst, Task Force and Klashnekoff, I was like wow, people from my country, that live near to me are making this music and talking about loads of stuff that I can relate to and that inspired me loads.

I also had a friend who’s rapper name then was ‘G Skills’! He started writing lyrics and then it made me start. He was like, “we should write some lyrics, I’ve got some instrumentals” that were just downloaded off Napster and I remember going round to his house after school and we’d put on a beat, we’d written some lyrics on the bus and just recorded it on some shabby computer microphone and that’s kind of where it all began. We formed a little crew called Alphabet Bandits and just dropped a limited run of like 20 CDs that we just shot to our mates.

All of my mates that I grew up with, there must have been like 15 of us that linked up every weekend and every single one of us would freestyle, like real freestyle, the original meaning of it. We used to put on DJ Premier beats and just freestyle for hours, That carried on for like five years and then slowly less people were rapping but I carried on and here I am today.

12. Would you say your sound today carries influences from your childhood?

Definitely, like I was saying about the Drum and Bass flows or even Grime. On my album, you’ll still hear influences from that. Even from the live sets, I really like to bring that energy and bring the energy from all the people I saw when I was at those raves. It’s definitely played a part in making my sound what it is today.

13. Do you have any idols in music?

The funny thing is, they change through time. When I was like 15-16, people I idolised in Rap was like Chester P, Jehst, Skinnyman, Farma G, Klashnekoff, guys like that. I used to look up to them so much and now I’ve worked with all of my idols, collaborating with pretty much every single one of them. As you get older, you become friends with them but I still have so much respect for those guys, they laid the foundations.

That’s what each generation does, they lay the foundations and it makes it easier for the next generation to come through off the back of what they’ve built so I hope High Focus can build a new platform for UK Hip Hop and Hip Hop in general so new generations can come in and enjoy the fanbases that we’ve helped cultivate over the years as well.

14. Finally, what is your guilty pleasure today in modern music?

I like a little bit of Garage on a Friday, nothing I’d feel guilty about!

Listen to more from this interview with Fliptrix on the Wordplay Podcast. He shares even more about his Mum’s entrepreneurial spirit, raising his profile at South London house parties and how both new fatherhood and personal loss has shaped his forthcoming album, ‘Light Work’ – out in October 2020.

Words - Tarek Chaudhury