(Eladio) Welcome to www.hiphopdinromania.org . Thanks for accepting this.
Eladio You might have some fans up here in Romania but for the others, who is Ugly Tony?
(Ugly Tony) I'm a French beatmaker. I started to make beats in 2006. I released my first album entitled "At Nightfall" in 2011. Now it has been 2 years that I am a part of a label/crew named Sick Digger.
Eladio Tell me more about Sick Digger.
(Ugly Tony) My homie Sick Digger decided to create his own label few years ago. He built a team with some talented French beatmakers as Al'Tarba, I.N.C.H., Junior Makhno, MistaMaff, Fonka, Ganjak + one of the best DJ’s in France, DJ Nix'On. Every member of the team have some personals projects in the making for this label. And it's interesting because every member has his own musical signature. Sick Digger also manage a crazy project called "Sickness", produced by this team, including some heavy collaborations from the US essentially, but also the UK. I will shut the names now, but you can count like 60 different appearances for this album.
Eladio You told me about first album. Can you tell me more about the production, the features and story behind that?
(Ugly Tony) At the beginning, I didn't have any concept, I was just excited to build a project with some artists that I was listening to and other MCs that I have discovered "digging" on Myspace. So I started to make beats for this project and record a few tracks with MCs from the US. I didn't know where I was going. I remember the first track I recorded, it was with The AbSoulJah, a rapper from Queens, NY, the track was called "In Between The Lines". Then I contacted other rappers on Myspace : Copywrite, Pumpkinhead (Brooklyn Academy), King Magnetic (AOTP), L.E.G.A.C.Y. (Justus League), Tame One (Artifacts), and many others. It was essentially some collaborations thanks to internet. I also recorded tracks here in Paris, with Termanology and Don K.Sen. I had beats/tracks with soulful vibes and other joints more dark, or hard. I wanted to bring diversity for this project and then I built the concept (At Nightfall), to create the transition between this soulful atmosphere and the darkness. At Nightfall just translate the change of the sound, from the light to the darkness.
There is another very important thing when you make an album... It’s not just recording tracks. You need to chose the artist/flow that will fit the best with the beat. Every time I finish a beat, I stop to do what I’m doing, I just close eyes, I play the beat, and try to imagine in my head different MCs/flows on it until I find the best option.
Eladio What about the feedback on that?
(Ugly Tony) The feedbacks were good, I didn't really have negative feedbacks. I remember DJ Premier played the track with Tame One "Ah-Some" in his show, it was dope! DJ Eclipse played this joint too on the HalfTime Show. I had some positive reviews on internet, some interviews. The CD was also available on a lot of websites or blogs (free download). It made me mad at the beginning, but finally I think it was positive.
Eladio This year was the new project with the label
(Ugly Tony) Yea this year, Sick Digger Recordz released "Overlords". It's a compilation that you can download for free on the label's bandcamp http://sickdiggerrecordz.bandcamp.com/album/sick-digger-overlords-2014 .This compilation contain one track of every album in the making with Sick Digger Recordz, one track from every members of the label. It’s just the beginning to show to people what they can wait from us.
Eladio It will be more music from Sick Digger this year right?
(Ugly Tony) Hopefully yes, I can't exactly say what project will be ready for this year, but yea, you can expect more from us this year. Personally, I have 2 albums in the making.
Eladio How so you see the hip hop this days?
(Ugly Tony) It's a little bit hard to do an observation. I notice that thanks to internet people have a larger choice about what they can listen or not. Many albums are released every month and I guess people can’t buy everything, they need to eat first or feed family, nowadays buying CDs is not a priority. In the same time, artists use their own money to release their albums. You need to pay for features sometimes (if it’s your choice to pay for it), mixing, mastering, artworks, CDs pressing, promotion, etc… you can lose money fast if people don’t support you buying this album.
Every time somebody prefers to download your album for free, people need to understand that it’s less money to inject in your next project.I hear a lot of people complaining that rap is not good as it was before. But as long as they will not support the artists, it will be more difficult for these artists to release new projects and keep rap alive. It’s a vicious cycle.
However, I see that a lot of artists work very hard for music and stay true to what they do, everywhere… I think rap is not dead, it’s not better or worst, it’s just different than in the past…
Eladio You heard some Romanian rappers today, what you think about the Romanian rap?
(Ugly Tony) Yes, you made me discover Romanian rap. I think Romania have some dope MCs it sounds like straight boom bap like back in the days. I can't say nothing about lyrics because I don't understand the language but I feel like Romanian rappers want to keep that boom bap spirit. But I should check more in a near future because I heard some interesting things.
Eladio What about the French rap?
(Ugly Tony) French Rap... I think I gave up in 2000. Before I was really feeling it, thanks to rappers like Oxmo Puccino, Rocca, X-Men... now I don't really feel French rappers, but if you ask me, we have a lot of dope beatmakers and DJs (Astronote, Ghettoblaster, DJ Duke, DJ Low Cut, Effiscienz and the Sick Digger team of course). I still listen to few underground artists like Venom (who made a track with Blaq Poet and DJ Premier), Marvel Records, Case Nègre or my comrade Don K.Sen (even if he raps in Spanish ahah). Logik Konstantine I see you!
Eladio Do you feel the US rap?
(Ugly Tony) Yea, to me english rap is where I find what I like the more. I don't talk about just the US that's why I say "english rap", because the UK and Netherlands scenes are dope too. To me the English language is perfect for emceeing because it's flows better than any other language. It's like this language was made for rap. For beatmaking or deejaying, I think Americans are in advance compared to us. They always had and they will still have this craziness on how to make beats. We don't need to lie, we are all inspired from the US scene. It's where it all started.
Eladio Would you like to collaborate with some of them? Who?
(Ugly Tony) I already collaborated with some artists with who I wanted to make something happen: Termanology, Copywrite, Tame One to name a few. I also have a full album almost ready with one of my favorite MC, The AbSoulJah. it's called "The Author Illustrates". I'm also working with Phil The Agony (Strong Arm Steady), Journalist 103 (The Left), Sean Boog (The Away Team) for my second album "Time Flies". I would like to work with artists like Vakill, Phat Kat, Styles P, Kool G Rap, NORE, to name a few, but I might forget some names.
Eladio I know it's hard, but can you make a list of top 5 rapper from Europe and to 5 rappers from USA?
(Ugly Tony) Yes sir it is! Ok, for Europe I would say: - Ciph Barker (The Netherlands) - Oxmo Puccino (France) - Rocca (France) - Mr Probz - M9 (UK). For the US : - Slim Shady (from Infinite to The Marshall Mathers LP) - Busta Rhymes (from The Coming to Genesis) - Kool G Rap - Mobb Deep – Nas.
Eladio What was the last cd you brought?
Eladio Ok, what would you change to the actual rap music and hip-hop culture?
(Ugly Tony) The people who control this music and music industry ahah.
Eladio If the rapper cant seel should get a job or make commercial music?
(Ugly Tony) It depends on what they want to do, if the purpose is to make money, then they should do commercial music. If they really want to make music, they should get a job, and use this money to make some quality album. Anyway, people buy less music than before, they download it for free thanks to internet, so artists need to find this money to release and push albums. May be it explains why a lot of rappers start their career doing real music, and then become mainstream. They prefer to go where the money is while others stay true to what they do.
Eladio What to you feel about the last musical year?
(Ugly Tony) It was like the past few years, good and bad in the same time. Now with internet, you can have an access to many new albums. Sometimes you have too much things to listen to. I will just say that Marco Polo released one of the best album in 2013 "PA2". Anyway, I don't listen to rap like some years ago.
(Ugly Tony) It's weird... it's hard to say something about that, because I didn't listen to these songs. Maybe these songs are dope, but I don't feel those artists. Sometimes I listen to mainstream rap, even if I’m underground . And you can do some commercial music and still listen to Enter The Wu-Tang for example. I'm not so surprised about his choice, even if I don't know the songs.
Eladio You said you don’t listen too much rap these day. What do you like beside rap?
(Ugly Tony) I like progressive rock of the late 70s - early 80s (Supertramp for example). My second album "Time Flies" will be based on sample from this period. I also listen to a lot of old rap too.
Eladio What kind of tools do you use to produce?
(Ugly Tony) I work on Fruityloops. And it's been like that since the beginning. I tried one day to work on MPC but I didn’t really feel this machine, and I was already used to work with Fruityloops.
I chose to work on Fruityloops because when I started, at the same period, I was really impressed by 9th Wonder’s beats. At this time, he was working on
Fruityloops too. I told myself “OK, let’s try this software”. I also use some virtual instruments cause I like to add some elements to the samples. I also use a Microkorg, for some special basslines and some synths that remind me the 80s.
But to me, no matter what machine a beatmaker use as long as the beats are dope. Mixing is very important too.
Eladio There we go the last question. Do you have a message for the peoples who’s reading this?
(Ugly Tony) Try to support the artists that you like as much as possible, it's very important for everybody. Stay connected for the next releases: - "The Author Illustrates" with The AbSoulJah - "Time Flies" you can also check my first album "At Nightfall" that’s still available Download the "Overlords" compilation on Sick Digger Recordz cause it's free and dope! Thank you if you took the time to read this interview and I hope you will find interest in my/our music. Big shout out to Eladio and Hiphopdinromania.org. I hope to visit your country one day! Salute comrades!
Vezi și
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ugly-Tony/115645058532800
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sick-Digger-Recordz/291122017572299
http://sickdiggerrecordz.bandcamp.com/ (de unde poți achiziționa primul cd)