Paul: What part of London are you from? Could you describe it bit for people who don't know the city?

Chef: I’ve grown up and live in Norwood, Croydon. The same goes for Loefah and Mala. Mala and me went to the same primary at the end of my road. It’s funny looking back because when we were young youts kicking a football about in the playground we could have never expected things to turn out like this.

Croydon’s the biggest London borough population wise and the second biggest area wise. It's the most southern of all London boroughs. It’s got all of the best and worst bits about London and the world. It's like a big melting pot, you've got people from every corner of the globe so there's a lot of different backgrounds it’s rich in cultures, diverse in music, ethnicities, religions etc… little things that you take for granted living in London.

Skream, Benga, Hatcha, Hijak, Kromestar, Horsepower, Coki, Cyrus, Plastician, Artwork and Menta also live in Croydon. All the artists and DJ's being based in and around a town like Croydon defiantly helped pave the way for Dubstep, it wouldn't have come from a village in the Welsh Valleys now would it!

Can you tell us a little about your early days with Skream and Benga? How did Smooth Criminals come together and how have things evolved since then?

We all hooked up about 7 years ago when we were all in Secondary School. I kept hearing about this boy called Benga, stuff through the grapevine like, ‘’he’s quicker than EZ, 10 seconds of cueing and its in the mix, he doesn’t need headphones etc.’’ My friends would play his tunes at lunch time and mc over them, I used to say no way did a 13 year old make them tunes!! After hearing all this I thought I need to see what this Benga is saying....

A little while later my friend who was in another crew rung me up begging me to join them and be their DJ so they could clash this crew called Smooth Kriminals, that Benga was a DJ in and be like the top crew in Croydon. I declined and said no because your crew's shit!!!

At the time Benga, Skream and I all used to get our tunes down at Big Apple but didn’t talk to each other until Benga's brother Alphman stepped in. He recruited Skream and then by chance we all DJ’d at a Youth Centre in Addington, the party got shut down kinda early but me and Alphman got talking and decided to link up a little while later at another party. We all did a big set together; totally hyped it up and Alphman asked me to join Smooth Kriminals. At first I didn’t say yes because I’d always been an independent person and could see how being in a crew can hold you back at the time but it was all good and I was the last DJ after Skream to join the crew. At the time we used to DJ everything, Garage, Darker Garage, Jungle. DnB, Hip Hop RnB, proper house party DJ's. At the time Benga and Skream had the production bug and started to carve out a sound for themselves... Dubstep before it was called Dubstep. I was making beats as well but I never knew when to say to myself that's it, the tune's finished and I’m still the same now. We'd talk on the phone and give each other tips.

We don’t really use the name Smooth Criminals really no more, but none of us has left, it’s a part of our history that made us like Big Apple.

Benga's got a CD now called Newstep and Skream’s got his album out now which everybody needs in their lives. All I’m saying is watch out for Benga and Skream in 2007, loads more material cooking now... the saga continues.

Were you the first DJ to drop 'Request Line'?

Yes I was, I hold that tune close to my heart. Skream wasn't even really fussed about Request line at first because he's like a factory when it comes to making tunes and Request Line's like a drop in the bath tub compared to what he can make..

It was the last quarter of 2004 and I was with Skream literally every day in 2004/5 because I was living up the road, if we weren’t together he'd be running up a fat phone bill playing loads of different loops and stuff down the phone to me and I’d give him my honest opinion. The routine was I’d wake up in the morning go check Skream, he’d cook a fat breakfast (Skream’s a better cook, much less Chef than me), then we’d get stoned and make beats that we never finish properly. I was there when he made most of the tracks on the album so to see the finished product out in the shops and then be working at Transition when it got mastered is really nice. I’d be like the guinea pig that he would test his tunes out on while he was still making them. At the time I was one of only a handful of DJ's playing Dubstep on Rinse, in fact around the world!!! I really liked what MC Beezy was coming with so I'd have him on my show regular bussing up the mic and I'd mix up the Grime with the Dubstep doing as many cover shows as possible...

One day I was sitting in Skreamz with Max, R.I.P, while Skream was working on some different sounding shit and I said to him why don’t you make some slightly grimier sounding stuff, just throw the odd gunshot sample in there (laughs) and it would be just as good as any grime producer if you tried, he weren’t too keen on the idea but the same night I got a call on my phone. It was Skream and he played me "Request Line" down the phone, I was like heeeaaaavy. I said to him there and then on the phone that this tune will be the tune that gets you out there and recognised, I’ll never forget that moment and neither will he, I even said to the girl that I was linking at the time to remember this tune because it's going to be big.

The next Sunday I played it on Rinse, a few weeks later Maximum from Roll Deep Crew texted me from his mums phone saying pull up this tunes heavy so I knew it was the one to cross borders in the right way. I was trying to bridge the gap between Grime and Dubstep because to me Dubstep and Grime are like distant cousins, if you like Grime you might like Dubstep as well and vice versa, it could only help both scenes and no one else really did that then apart from Plastician. Roll Deep Crew did the show before me on Rinse and no doubt they’ve got the biggest grime following so I’d play grime that I liked at the beginning of my show to ease the grime heads in and then roll out dubs for the last hour or so to show them what Dubstep is about, Bass. I knew that one awkward tune at the beginning of my show could make the grime heads lock off. I had to draw them into Dubstep slowly. I got a lot of people that used to text me on the saying stuff like ''I thought Dubstep was crap devil music until I heard your show'' so I knew something was working.

What has the last year or so been like for you? Dubstep seems to be growing by the minute since in the wake of 'Request Line' and then the Breezeblock special. Have you had a chance travel a bit and play in new places?

Yeah I’ve had loads more Dubstep bookings over the last year, I’ve been playing everywhere from North London to Leeds, Bristol to Brixton, Belgium to Denmark, Manchester to Copenhagen etc. I’ve got a few more international bookings lined up this year to countries I haven’t to been to before. It's been cool to get out there and rep Dubstep, for me its more than a hobby or a living it’s my life. When I’m not doing a radio show or DJing… you can catch me Mondays to Fridays at Transition Mastering Studios, which has been at the core of the Dubstep sound since day one when Hatcha cut his first dub. All the original Dubstep family get their dubs and releases mastered and cut here so it's nice to be in the middle of it all. I've been learning to become a Mastering Engineer for about 6 months now but it's not an easy road believe. I remember when I first started working here I thought I knew it all but Jason soon put me in the right size boots and showed me how very little I really knew! L.D's been like been like a brother and Jason a Father, I’m really chuffed to be working under their wing. It's a real honour, I've never learnt so much; everyday I’m learning something new.

I can't call it work really because it's nothing like digging holes or driving a bus for a living as J would say. I'm literally around my first love, music all day long, the only way I can explain is.. It’s like a crack addict being around crack all day!!!

What kinds of responses to the music are you getting from people outside of London and outside of the UK?

Whenever I play out of the UK or London there has always been a very good response, more so than when I DJ up the road from my house. I think it's because overseas and out of town they don’t take the music for granted as much as we do in the UK. The UK in general is spoilt for choice with music.

I get emails everyday from people abroad saying they love the music, they cant wait to hear it loud and feel the bass etc, thing is it don’t surprise me because I always said there must be similar minded people like us that would get the same feel for it like we do. For me it’s all about heavyweight bass, big tunes and good vibes.

Bass and music in general speaks every language and from what I've seen in my 22 years on this earth there isn't nothing else like music in the world at breaking barriers and bringing people together no matter the skin colour, cultural background, job, wealth etc

Could you tell us a bit about your history on the pirates? Were you on many stations before making it on to Rinse? Do you have any good stories about odd experiences/dodgy situations? I know not every station is as 'professional' as Rinse.

Yeah Rinse is the one, we're on 7 days a week, 24/7 live to the whole universe via http://www.rinse.fm. I’ve been doing pirates since I was 14. I remember some stations where we would be broadcasting from some dodgy dudes living room with his kid running about or some dirty crack heads kitchen, an industrial freezer, behind a barber shop, a rat infested warehouse and even a small metal container used to transport a car. Literally anything/anywhere we could put two decks, a mixer and link box so we could get on the airwaves would do. I’ve been on a lot of the big ''South London'' pirates over the years like Delight FM, Taste FM, Supreme FM, Horra Fm, Rise FM, and Rise 2g etc. Them days I was very young to be on airwaves and it weren’t easy at all to get on much less a show, you had to be very good, like really put the practice hours in unlike now where you get stations that will take anyone on as long as they’ve got a tenner for subs which has brought the benchmark down and made it a less unique. Back in the day I’d be down Big Apple every other day or bunking school to skank a train across London to make sure I picked up the freshest Test Presses. That's what made you stand out them days, having the tunes first, getting on mailing lists etc so you're the only DJ in your area with that tune on 12” so you’d buss up the house party or youth centre. It weren’t about dub plates at the time like now.

I still buy records but not Dubstep; I’ve usually cut the big tunes to dub before anyone’s heard them, months before a release is even thought about. The stuff I buy now is what I’ve always bought apart from the DnB and Garage. I still buy Hip Hop, House, Reggae, Bashment and search for old gems that I missed out on or abstract stuff that I’ve found while digging through crates and crates at bargain back street record shops saying to myself I might sample that one day…


You always sound like you're having such a good time on radio. I like tuning in to the stream as much for the chatter as for the tunes. It's definitely one of the most entertaining shows on the air right now. So I'm wondering, if it was you and N-Type, back 2 back, dub for dub, joke for joke, who would win and why?

DJ wise he’s probably the most like me in the way we mix, the variety of styles and varied selection, he's one of my favourite DJ's after myself if I’m honest. N-Type is a DJ I like to listen to because of the high levels I’ve set myself over the years it's hard for me to listen to a mediocre ''DJ'' struggle to mix or not play their tunes right. Its like a Chef going to a restaurant and eating food that doesn’t make the grade compared to the high standards he’s set himself.

For me DJing is a an art, I love it blending the basslines and making two tunes become one. When I was out raving paying £20 to get into raves back in the day it was all about who’s the tightest mixer, draws the best selection and has GOOD fresh tunes that your still humming on the night bus home, DJ’s like Randall…

I love being able to have two tunes synched, mixing with no touching of the platter or fader because it’s easy to cut and chop to disguise a dodgy mix, but it’s not easy to leave the fader bang in the middle the whole time without hearing clangs or buddha fingers.

Dub for Dub, N-Type and me both play most of the big tunes first. Being involved with Dubstep from day one and working at Transition means I get to hear loads of tracks really early, sometimes minutes after they’ve been made and usually get first pick of the litter!! Joke for joke he’d have the edge, he’s honestly got to be one of the funniest geezers I know ever, he just speaks his mind and doesn't care about sounding silly over the radio to entertain the listeners. He's always been a great host and DJ since the Delight Fm days.

A few months back, you mentioned that you might be setting up a download service, selling new unreleased tracks by Skream and Benga. People really seem to be into the idea, partly, I think, because not everyone's a DJ buying vinyl (especially from overseas), but also because a lot of DJs using CD-Rs now. Is this project still in the works or is it on hold at the moment? Is Darkside involved as well?

The project’s currently on hold at the moment, Darkside is still putting the final touches to the website now. I just need to find a quick and reliable way of audio marking tracks so if they’re leaked onto Limewire or Kazza for example I’ve got a way of finding out who leaked it because it isn’t fair someone buying a tune and then the next day somebody is making it available for free. I'll let you know first once I’ve decided what I’m going to do, but right now I’m concentrating on getting out more quality vinyl into the shops quicker instead of tunes sitting on dub for a year, it’s also about getting tunes out that haven’t been battered too hard, so there’s a few surprises for the listeners. With Ringo Records and my new label Sub Freaqz the aim is to put out some top quality vinyl and show the whole spectrum of Dubstep.

Which tracks and which producers are you really feeling right now? Are there new faces about who we should be keeping an eye on?

Track wise I’m feeling…

Skream - Losing Control
Benga - Assumptions Remix
Coki - Bloodthirst
Loefah - It’s Yourz
Mala - Sinners Remix
L.D - Swing Dat Skirt

Every track is different.

Producers to keep a lookout for are ConQuest, Heny G and Silkie, they’re part of Anti Social Ents, ConQuest produced Hard Food and Mirage, which are out now,
Also keep your ears peeled for L.D who's a Mastering Engineer and my right hand at Transition, he’s got a tune out now called Clock Watching on Ringo Records 003 on the flip of Skreamz Assumptions Remix. L.D's deep, he coming from a more live organic musical angle which is a breathe of fresh air when your hearing so much synthetic quantized music. The studio we share is just full of his guitars and other instruments, Jason's got a vault of old analogue gear in there like compressors, Synths, EQs etc that we cant wait to get our hands on and manipulate. Watch out for L.Ds Assumption remix that I’ve been battering and Shake Dat Skirt.

Watch out for Mr P. Saddam, Kutz, Decoy, Reptile, Pun, 4n 4mat aka Clue Kid and Cotti, I brought them in at the same time as Kromestar and last but not least Hijak, he's got some real different flavours floating about on dub and due for release.

How do you think the next year or two will unfold for dubstep?

I’m not sure; we all just take each day as it comes. Nothing’s been planned as such; it’s just been natural progression. Two years ago we didn’t know what to expect now and we couldn't have asked for it to be much better really. We were just making music that we loved and it's just really nice to know now that we aren’t the only ones feeling the bass, working hard for nothing and that people from all around the world appreciate it too. For a while three years ago it all seemed like a lost cause, we could count everyone who was doing DUBSTEP on one hand but we were just happy chugging along doing what we liked and that’s all that matters.

You'll be hearing a lot more music in general, more albums, more vinyl and more raves but for real undiluted Dubstep though it's all about DMZ, Dubstep in its rawest form, no other rave will ever test!!!