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So Solid Interview (Courtesy Of World pop)
No, we couldn't get all 30 of them in one place but we spoke to six members of the So Solid Crew and they spilt the beans on what it is to be one of the most in-demand crews in music at the moment ...
On female fans, fame and 21 Seconds going to No 1
worldpop: Guys, What's the strangest thing a female fan has ever done or said to you?
Harvey: Lots of things. The famous one that you hear now, 'You're buff!' That's the one I heard. 'You're buff!' But the things I've heard, you couldn't say on camera because it is messy.
Asher D: I'll tell you what gets on my nerves? Girls phoning. They get your number from somewhere, I don't know where. They don't say nothing but they talk like they've known me for years! 'Hello Asher, you don't me but...' You get what I'm saying? And what you're just meant to talk to them like you know them? That's nuts.
Harvey: So if any of you are watching that ring up our phones, stop! Please!
worldpop: What's the best part of fame?
Asher D: Are we famous? The more people tell you you're famous you're just going to get big headed and go off the wall, I've seen it. We're just chillin', we do what we do, we know we're good at what we do but we're just doing what we do. If people want to tell us we're good then we don't really take that on yet.
worldpop: What if 21 seconds comes out and goes to No 1 in the national charts?
Asher D: Ain't no different. Famous is the Spice Girls, famous is Michael Jackson, you know what I mean? When we get to them scales I'll say, 'Boy! I'm famous now.' Right now I'm working hard and I'm struggling still. I'm not famous. How am I gonna go out into the world and think I'm famous?
Harvey: Live off one track? I want people to know this: we're not thinking of 21 Seconds just being a No 1 hit, we're thinking way after that.
On being role models, the concept of 21 Seconds and Oxide & Neutrino
worldpop: How seriously do you guys take the fact that you've got a lot of young fans out there and you're going to be seen as role models to the majority of them?
Harvey: That's our biggest market, the kids and that and they're going to buy our singles and albums at the end of the day. Obviously you have to be like a role model to the kids at the end of the day because what you do they will copy, just like you used to copy certain stars when you were young.
Lisa Mafia: But there's certain things you just don't do in certain places.
worldpop: Tell me about your new single 21 Seconds and the concept behind it.
G-Man: The concept behind it is that everyone's got 21 Seconds to say what they've got to say. And the other concept is to let everyone shine off of this record to let everyone know that it's not just one or two faces behind So Solid.
worldpop: Who really ripped it on the verse, who's got the best verse?
G-Man: Me.
Harvey: What's good is because there's so many of us, the competition is within ourselves. Like, we have a laugh about it. Me, personally, I kinda like Asha's lyric, I like Romeo's. I have a few favourites - I just change by the month. I might get fed up of one and like another one, innit, but that's what keeps the enjoyment in there, do you know what I mean? Cos that's me anyway, so that is the best. It's good, man, you know what I mean?
worldpop: UK garage is growing internationally at the moment with people like Craig David on one side and Oxide and Neutrino on the other. Where do you guys see yourselves?
Asher D: Oxide and Neutrino are So Solid.
Harvey: They're part of us so don't even compare us with them. Don't do that.
Being in the public eye and taking over Ibiza and Ayia Napa
worldpop: What is the hardest thing about being in the public eye?
Lisa Mafia: Criticism, no not even criticism because you can take that over your head. The hardest thing ...
Asher D: Jealously.
Lisa Mafia: Jealously yeah, cos you're trying to please everybody and people always wanna knock you back. Someone always wants to knock you back or not help you when you need their help or whatever. That's why we got each other.
Face: Even though they still like it, they still knock us back.
Harvey: If you listen to a lot of our lyrics that's what we're trying to do to, it's like we're trying to put a message across - we are telling a story. But when you get to a certain level you usually lose certain things. Like walking down my high street now, everyone knows my face, I have to get used to it, but I wouldn't have got into it if I didn't know these things were going to happen. But, yeah, the main thing I hate and most of us hate is jealousy and hatred just because of music, it's ridiculous.
worldpop: So have a lot of the people that you've grown up with seen your success and are sort of hating on you now?
G-Man: No, it's not the people that we grew up with. It's the people that we don't know.
worldpop: You guys have played Ibiza and Ayia Napa, which do you prefer and why?
G-Man: Napa, even though I ain' t been there!
Harvey: I've been to Ayia Napa. Napa to me is definitely good. Do you know what I mean you don't get no sleep in Napa. The vibes there are brilliant because that's where the garage scene is. But with Ibiza you got a mixture, haven't you? You got the garage scene and the dance music and all that kind of thing. But Ayia Napa is definitely yeah, the No 1 place for everyone to go and have a good time. And yeah it's fun, but Ibiza's more relaxing.
worldpop: Tell me your favourite Ibiza memory.
Face: The beach everything, everything, us, So Solid. Like we had people chasing us around non-stop for the whole holiday. Like that's it, everything, everything, the people, everything is just on top.
worldpop: So what makes Napa a much greater place than Ibiza?
Harvey: It's the hype, innit?
Lisa Mafia: So Solid made Ayia Napa better anyway. So Solid made it from last year. It was just blowing up from last year now this year's just totally huge out there.
On setting the record straight - So Solid Crew, not a UK Wu-Tang Clan
worldpop: So tell me about the So Solid Crew.
Harvey: Well, the name explains it all, innit. So Solid. Basically, most of us we've all grown up together as like one big family, so we're so solid, we're like a unit. It ain't just a manufactured thing. This is like we've all grown up together been through certain life experiences and the name explains it all, so solid, just solid as a rock.
worldpop: You've already been described as like a young version of a UK Wu-Tang Clan, how do you feel about that comparison?
Lisa Mafia: We're not the Wu-Tang Clan we're the So Solid Crew, it's completely different. I don't know Wu-Tang. How many people are in Wu-Tang?
Kaish: I heard there's a lot, like, over a hundred.
Lisa Mafia: Over a hundred people? So we're like a small minority compared to them but we're completely different, different sound, different everything.
G-Man: We're just doing our thing innit so peoples out there, they're just giving us names.
Lisa Mafia: We're not a clan. We're a crew.
G-Man: Yeah, we're just So Solid Crew and that's it. It's not Wu-Tang or whatever. It's nice, it's nice but we're not them, we're So Solid.
Harvey: It's good to be compared to them you know what I mean, because they're good. They even inspired me when I was younger and all of that but we don't want to be known as that. As we said they're a clan, we're a crew.
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Mis-Teeq Interview (Courtesy Of World Pop)
With two Top 10 hits under their belts and the comparisons to Destiny's Child flowing, Mis-Teeq are hot property in the UK. Here, Su Elise, Sabrina and Alesha talk about their new album Lickin' On Both Sides and why they respect the Popstars rejects, Liberty.
The new single and album and why mum's the word.
worldpop: Tell us about the new single One Night Stand. Is it about you?
Sabrina: One Night Stand's not about us... Well, it is about us actually! We co-wrote it with Stargate. Basically it's a good feeling track. You finish work on a Friday, you get ready to go out with your girlies. You go to a club, you get down on the dancefloor, you might see a guy that you like and you might flirt with him. You might dance with him, but at the end of the day you go home on your own
Su Elise: And that is what we say in our lyrics if you listen carefully.
worldpop: Do your friends and family vet your boyfriends?
Alesha: No, our parents brought us up to pick somebody with respect.
Sabrina: I don't go out with a man if he hasn't got any respect for his mother because then there's no way he's going to have any respect for me.
Su Elise: I think you have to get your parents' approval and their support otherwise it can make your relationship very difficult.
Alesha: If your parents have a problem with your boyfriend then there's obviously something wrong with him. I know that my mum's open minded and friendly and generally likes people. So if she didn't like him, then I'd know something's wrong.
Sabrina: Parents can always detect this kind of thing. I don't know how, but they know.
worldpop: Tell us about your debut album, Lickin' On Both Sides. What can we expect?
Sabrina: Our debut album has got elements of things that we grew up around. We've all got a strong reggae influence because our parents are from Jamaica and our mums used to listen to a lot of Motown. Then as teenagers we were more into Salt 'n' Pepa, TLC and hip hop like Kris Kross, who Su and I were big fans of. We've just taken elements of all of those and added them together to create our own sound, so it's something that comes very naturally to us.
worldpop: Are you fed up of being called the UK's version of Destiny's Child?
Su Elise: I don't know how we could be fed up. It's such a huge compliment. Destiny's Child are international superstars. We've got their album and we listen to it in the tour van, we look up to them and we respect them.
Alesha: The one thing I must say is that the musical styles are so different. I understand that it's three girls. But our music is so different compared to the American R&B. The comparison is more a visual thing for me.
Su Elise: I think it's amazing that people think that we could actually reach that stage.
Sabrina: I see it as a positive thing because it's very rare that English artists get compared to the Americans.
worldpop: Were you shocked with the relatively quick success you've had?
Alesha: Well for us it wasn't quick. For the general public it may have seemed quick but we were actually working on the project for quite a while. For us, everything has happened at the right pace. It's just been natural.
worldpop: Do you think that UK garage is supported enough by the record industry?
Alesha: Since Artful Dodger and the Craig David's have come through you find so many record companies, from majors to little independents, picking up on anything. They'll go to an underground club and they'll hear a track. If it's blowing up on the underground, they'll sign the act. Every record company wants a bit of it.
Sabrina: But sometimes they pick it up because it's in. It doesn't have to be a very good song, there just has to be a gimmick behind it. Also because garage is British, I think they're starting to embrace other British music more. British music is starting to be embraced by its own people which hasn't happened for a long time.
worldpop: Oxide and Neutrino recently criticised pop groups like Liberty for using the UK garage sound. What do you think of Liberty?
Alesha: I don't think they can have a go at them because that's what they want to do and who is anyone to step in front of them?
Su Elise: There's enough space for everybody. There are so many different types of market and audience and you have to try to cater for everybody. If they have an audience, well then that's good for them.
Sabrina: At the end of the day, it's different strokes for different folks.
Alesha: And they've done very well to go in at No 5 considering that ever since Popstars they've been called Flopstars. Now I don't think that charting in at No 5 is being a Flopstar.
Darkness Entertainment | Dark Productions |
|Rumble Records | Step 2 It Promotions |
|Deeper Under Bookings |
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