54 Words Dr Khan
LOOP MASTERS
As major players on the UK hip hop circuit in their own rights, Asaviour and DJ IQ have joined forces to flex
their collective muscle on of the most forward thinking albums you are likely to hear all year. ‘The A Loop
Theory’ is a journey into the unknown with one foot planted firmly in the future, a hip hop record with serious
depth, both lyrically and musically. Knowledge went to investigate...
“Hip hop used to take in all these different genres establishing his own infamous weekly show on music I’m not necessarily mad into.’ I was like:
of music,” reminisces Asaviour, “but it’s become London pirate Itch FM. Having turned his hand ‘What?’ That frustrated me so much! I found it
a caricature of itself now. It’s like you can only to production duties in 2005 he, in the words of so motivational.”
use this sampler to make real hip hop or you can Asaviour: “became a sick producer at a freakishly
only use those drums off those types of records alarming speed.” “If no-one’s paying me a salary I’m going to
and that’s real hip hop. But it’s not. Real hip be doing whatever the fuck I want,” laughs IQ.
hop is a state of mind, it’s all in your approach. The smash hit collaboration with Jehst, ‘People “Straight up! That’s the beauty of releasing music
That was kind of the motivation for the album, I Under The Weather’ announced Asaviour to independently. We get to do what we want and
wanted it to be hip hop but I wanted to show that the hip hop public at large before his debut solo no-one’s going to tell us how to do it. It’s got to
we can fuck with every genre. That’s what hip hop outing ‘Savior Faire EP’ was released to great be rooted in something true. Just concentrate
is about, bringing every genre in and making it acclaim on Braintax’s Low Life Records. It was, on whether you feel it or not. A lot of people
feasible. And with the writing as well, I wanted to however, his ‘Money In The Bank’ remix featuring are scared to like certain music because they feel
write something with some kind of weight to it that Kyza and Yungun that really blew up big time and it’s not real or whatever. All you need to know
you can relate to.” Asaviour went on to release his debut album ‘The is whether the beat is kicking and if the MC’s
Borrowed Ladder’ back in 2006. Aside from two killing it!”
“To a point we’re kind of taking risks so other volumes of his ‘Play 2 Win’ mixtape series, all has
people don’t have to,” says IQ. “We’ve done been relatively quiet on the Asaviour front... until The fact is that ‘The A Loop Theory’ does more
something different. It’s still heavily rooted in now that is. than push boundaries. With a timeless, almost
hip hop, if you look at myself or Asaviour’s back otherworldly feel, the album draws inspiration
catalogues you know we’re straight up hip hop cats “One of the fundamental motivations behind from a myriad of different influences with detailed
but at the same time we want to push it forward. making ‘The A Loop Theory’ was boredom,” instrumentation flowing throughout. Asaviour
I’m into many other genres of music. Hip hop Asaviour reveals. “Pretty much anyone can come brings forth on a host of relevant subjects with his
samples from anything, that’s the beauty of it, up with a credible beat that you could bop your usual watertight flow, joined by the likes of Jehst,
it’s a just a real mesh of all styles. ‘The A Loop head to but that’s all I’m hearing. I read interviews Kashmere, Verb T, Dubbledge, Kyza and Sir
Theory’ pushes boundaries in the sense of what with artists and they’re blaming the industry or Smurf Lil’. ‘The A Loop Theory’ is quite simply
hip hop could be.” blaming the media and, yeah those things might next level shizzle. And then some.
be true, but they’re true for everyone else as well:
With years of experience in the game behind grime, garage, whatever. We’ve got a responsibility ‘The A Loop Theory’ is available from
them, these boys know their stuff. IQ was crowned to push it forward. I got inspiration from www.saving-grace.co.uk
Under 18s DMC Champion back in 2002 before another artist I was talking to who told me: ‘I’ve
going on to tour the world as Jehst’s DJ and got to accept that I’m going to have to rap over
www.kmag.co.uk
K54_Asaviour and IQ.indd 54 29/4/09 13:13:31
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