Rude Kid: I won’t ever stop making grime

East London grime beast, Rude Kid, built a name as one of the cornerstone producers within the scene during its high-energy climax during the noughties. Still a well-respected identity, the Newham resident is now creeping into the mainstream. Here he talks about his new single, his trademark ‘Are You Ready’ stamp and his relationship with Skepta.

How did you originally get into music?

It was from school where I started using FL Studio and from there on, my friend at the time showed me a beat that he made. On FL there was a plugin that could play with voices and I was amazed. Then he gave me the program but he didn’t tell me how to use it, so I had to figure everything out myself. Around them times there weren’t really any YouTube tutorials or anything like that. From there on I just kept practicing and just fell in love with the program and making music. I still use it now to this day.

You use the ‘Are You Ready’ sample in all of your tracks but where did that come from?

Yeah, it’s become a trademark for me now. I basically found the sample randomly and started putting it into some of my tunes but also taking it out of some others. People then started asking me where the sample was and were saying that I needed it in there. There are some tunes that don’t even sound like I made them and you would never know unless it had that ‘Are You Ready’ in there.

You’ve been involved in the grime since the early days, but what was the biggest turning point for you?

I used to send DJs a load of tunes, but at the time I wasn’t ready for them to play it because it wasn’t as good. Then I made an EP including tunes like ‘Alien Skank’, ‘Sing For Me/The Best’, ‘UFO Mode’ and ‘Bandanas On’ and sent them over to some DJ Maximum from Boy Better Know. He started supporting them and then from there on people started playing the tunes. Going to my first rave and hearing my own tunes playing was a bit like ‘wow, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life’! From me being only 19 and hearing people in a club going mad about a tune I made in my bedroom is a real good feeling.

What ever happened to Alien Muzik?

Alien Muzik is still there but I made that team when we were all young and on radio. They’re all doing their own things now but everyone’s doing their own thing.

What’s your opinion on the state of the grime scene?

Grime has never died because there are a lot of genres that have come and gone, but grime never has completely. There have been so many people coming from the scene that have gone on to be successful and I won’t ever stop making grime anyways because I’m most comfortable with that.

Moving to the present, what was it that made you change your musical direction?

I’ve always worked with Skepta and he always calls me the ‘best producer’. He always come to my house and eats food, so me and him are friends anyways. With that tune, it wasn’t made to have a big video and for the mainstream; that tune was made in my room and just for me to play in the raves. I didn’t expect to be sitting in Sony and that’s why I think it was so natural. I made it in my room and showed it to the management – this, even before I had a deal with them- and they thought that this one was the winner. I phoned up Skepta and he jumped on it straight away.

Are there any more collaborations?

At the moment, I can’t really say anything but I’m always open to working with someone and have never put a block on someone. I like to work with different types of people. I would love to do something with a rock singer or something with an orchestra. There are a lot of things that I want to do so I just want to see how it goes.

What was the concept behind the video for the new single ‘Get Busy’?

At the start we got a lot of treatments and with this one we chose, it was just so different and it stood out to us. I didn’t want to do a cliché video with people just dancing in a rave and me behind the decks. The background for the video is that Skepta and me are in a lab with decks behind us where there’s a green liquid coming out of a Rude Kid vinyl. Me and Skepta are then getting bottles and bottling the green liquid as if we’re providing the energy for the crowd. Then a barmaid takes the drink and hands it to the crowd and they’re going mad with their glasses in the air. Towards the end, you see their faces and their eyes have gone green.

So what can people look forward to from you?

Just my new single ‘Get Busy’ which I hope will blow up and then working on a full scale project after that. I’ve been doing a load of shows recently and will be doing shows practically every week in the run up to the single release later on in July.

Rude Kid’s ‘Get Busy’ is released on July 29 and can be pre-ordered via iTunes

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