Raw Roots - Rap News, Interviews & Reviews

Raze n Lava Flow

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Written by Tricksta

Breakdown who is involved in this act and what each member brings to the table?
We are a hip hop soul duo from Birmingham and Tamworth consisting of myself I provide the music, Lava provides the vocals, we both are active in pushing the product to radio, promoters, magazines a true 50/50 responsibility.

What record label are you on and who else is on the roster?
The album was released as a collaboration project between my Label R.B Records & Lavas Studio Vasuive, I handle the hip hop & Soul, Lava handles the left field stuff.

Are you still working with the Gnostix crew in Tamworth? Infact, are you still making Hip-Hop?
Artist wise we are working with Semantix Tha Sorcera, Lokjaw, Hidden, Akua Naru, Sonny Jim, DJ Cro, Kosyne, and many more. I still do allot of work with Semantix & Agent from Gnostix but don't get to see much of Reggie & Bigga,I'm still making hip hop tunes I've just done a track with a guy in New York called E Rich.

I must say I really enjoyed listening to 'It's Not Just About Roses'. It's a tight album. Your Hip-Hop influence can heard throughout. How would you describe the album?
I would say its a real chilled out album, its quite subtle, I still find it hard as to what category I would place it, if you took the singing off, you have an instrumental hip hop album, with Lavas singing it takes it somewhere else, which is probably somewhere between what Pete Rock does and Massive Attack on their first album.

Yeh I can hear drips of J Dilla, Little Brother and Jill Scott in there too!!!
Yeah big fan of all those people, Dilla & 9th where really big influences on what I'm doing, in both cases they kept my interest in hip hop going when it was flagging.

That's cool. Do you have a website?
We have our myspace page www.myspace.com/razeandlavaflo www.myspace.com/raze1974 www.myspace.com/lavaflo

How are you finding www.myspace.com?
It's been really good, I've hooked up with people I never have dreamed of working with like Keaton (DnB artist/Renegade hardware) Mc Search, made allot of links with MCs, producers, musicians through it, like Akua Naru, Blade, E Rich, MCK2, Prolific, White Lotus, plus Its a good way to get in contact with people you already know, however I think its important to get peoples real email addresses and phone numbers to make some real contact.

So what's next for you in the promotion of the album? Any gigs or radio?
We've been played on Galaxy, HHB radio has been pushing it hard, we've got a couple of gigs the Birmingham Art Festival Sept 9th , Bullet in Tamworth 27th July which has got Sonny Jim Kosyne, Deadline, Semantix & Lokjaw, DJ Cro & Brinna playing too, also sending the album out for people to remix.

Any plans to promote the music outside of the Midlands more?
Yeah definitely we're looking at getting gigs outside yeah, plus with the fact I'm working with allot of MCs from the States, Australia & New Zealand, that indirectly builds awareness too, We might put the album out to see what MC's do with it too (as an instrumental).

So what is the label's next release?
Semantix Tha Sorcera & Lokjaws "Dark Dark House and My album "Raze Presents the Worldwide Allstars" a compilation of tracks I have produced with M.Cs and singers from around the globe.

Superb. So is there anything else you'd like to add?
Just like to say thanks to everybody who has took the time out to listen to what myself and Lava Flo have got to say, especially when the market is more saturated than ever.

Thanks for giving up the time to do this interview.