'Have You Got Jah Vibes?'
R.D.K HIFI interview by : Bimble
R.D.K HI FI's 'Dub The Brixton - ites' is the opening track on our latest release on Free Radical Sounds 'Nu Shoots Inna Roots - Dub Versions, the partner album to our Nu Shoots Inna Roots -Vocal Style release.
Hailing from Brixton, R.D.K HIFI are one of London's most respected authentic Roots sound systems and are veterans of all manner of dances, sound clashes and festivals. Bimble from Free Radical Sounds met up with R.D.K's chief sound operator Markie Lyrics before their recent show at Brighton's Roots Garden.
B; Roots Garden tonight then Markie. You've been doing that for quite a long time now haven't you?
M; Yeah. I suppose for about four or five years now I've been doing regular shows at Roots Garden.B; How did that first come about?
M; Good question; I think it was that we were doing a few other things down here in Brighton. We met with Jon and John from Roots Garden. They invited us to play down at one of the sessions and it went from there.B; Tonight is through the house rig as opposed to your own Sound. So could you tell us a little about the actual RDK Sound system? As I believe it has a bit of history behind it. Is that right?
M; Well yeah, my system is mainly from the eighties and nineties. That's when it was built and some of the Speaker boxes go back to the late 70's. I've still got boxes that go back to the early days of the UK sound system. Box's that I've got from different sounds over the years. Including some of Manasseh's as they've been having a few problems storing and running their sound lately. It's very difficult running a sound system these days. There's never really any money in it, you don't make money out of it. You cover your costs, just about. But I'm still hanging in there with the authentic sound system rig.B; So what bits of kit do you always take with you wherever you're playing out?
M; I usually take effects, plus an old Korg Synth which is a trademark of our sound. There are a few other Sounds that use it but I must say we do use it to great effect. A lot of people tend to use the Shaka sirens and stuff but we just use the synth.B; Have you got a preference as far as in door or out door gigs go?
M; Obviously out doors is nice to do. It's a more dynamic place to play music. I do love out door shows but I love good venues as well. I love interesting buildings and we've played in all sorts over the years. From small flats in Brixton to houses, garages, and old factory's. All sorts of places out in the park and even out in the mountains and on beaches. Anywhere can be an arena and some places can be better than others.B; One out door gig of yours that springs to mind is the annual Legalize Cannabis Festival that takes place in London every year. You've been involved in that for a while haven't you?
M; For the last three years we've been involved. That's been a good event to be involved in, as obviously we support the cause and also as it's in Brixton it's a good chance for us to play to the local crowd.B; So have you got any opinions on our governments recent reclassification of Ganja?
M; It about time.
B; Do you think it makes any difference?
M; Well obviously people have slowly started seeing a bit of sense and realising that marijuana isn't harmful to you. It can be harmful to you; obviously, anything can be if you don't know what you're doing with it. But it's a good move cause it means we don't have to hide it all the time. It was a real big problem before because the trouble with Roots music is that it goes hand in hand with weed. So we've had a lot of problems with venues because of it being smoked and stuff. I'm sure there's still going to be problems with it but at least now you can walk with a spliff and not feel like you're a criminal. Which is sensible cause we all know that it's no big deal.B; So how did the RDK HIFI sound system come about?
M; The sound started in the early 80's with the original crew. We were then playing a lot of house parties and in those days it was different. Like in Brixton you'd have a party and it'd be a roots party but it wouldn't just be Roots music. When dance music established itself in the late eighties and nineties, music grew into something different and people became more specialised in what they were playing. We then specialised more and more into playing Roots. I grew up playing different sorts of music as well as Roots. The Hip-Hop thing was there also but I was always the Roots man on the sound. In 87/88 a lot of the other crew members got into playing House music and stuff. I eventually took over the sound and continued it as a Roots sound, as it was built as a Roots/Dub sound originally.B; So who's on board now and how did you come to work with them?
M; There's Knatty P who came into it in the early nineties. I met Knatty in Brixton, at a few of the places we were playing. At that time there was a lot people DJing (ED: read as in MCing). If you set a sound up you got a lot of different DJ's and people would literally be fighting for the mike. Sometimes we even had to stop the set to stop people fighting over the mike. It was not nice and I got very fed up with it. I grew up with the Dancehall thing in the eighties. It started off more Roots based and slowly got more Ragga and Hardcore based. So I left it alone for a while then, cause the Reggae thing got a bit funny in those times. Roots went underground as for House music it was the boom times and Roots wasn't that popular at that time. Roots then made a come back with the recession, cause music always reflects the times. Roots is a downbeat music so it kind of reflects the blues, it's a reality music. I'm talking Roots Rockers / downbeat Roots, cause there's different kinds of Roots as well. This is the UK Roots experience we're talking about. The UK experience is different from the Jamaican experience as far as Roots goes. There's more Rockers involved in the UK thing, kind of harder cause the UK is kind of like that. To myself, with Jamaica, the Caribbean and the different environment makes it more calypso influenced. Where as in England and Europe you've got more influences from harder rock, punk and all sorts of different things. The UK thing is all I know, I've never been to Jamaica.
B; Can you tell me something about Sandeeno, who's featured on your latest 12"? As I hadn't come across him before.
M; Sandeeno is an artist from Jamaica whose been over here for five years or so. He's been doing a lot of recording in lots of different studios. He works hard; he's consistent and is a solid, solid singer.B; Okay what about Judith who sang the vocals on your excellent recut of the classic 'Such Is Life'. Are we likely to see more voicing from Judith in the future?
M; Possibly yeah, Judith is actually my sister in law. I can get her to do stuff and in fact I should, but it's just one of those things of getting round to doing it.B; So many people have said to me that they prefer your version to the famous Lee Perry produced cut.
M; Really, yeah well I suppose the Lee Perry one is quite an off the wall type tune.B; I used to play Perry's version out before. Then you brought yours out and I just went with it. It's her voice that does it, I think.
M; Yeah yeah, I really thought when we did that tune that we should get a female vocalist on it. As up to then men had always sung it. Judith's old school, seventies generation and knows all about singing those sort of songs.B; And then the first time that I came across Knatty was on his 'Homeless' version on the same riddim. So had you done stuff with Knatty before that, release wise?
M; No in fact that was done the first time that I took him down to Manasseh's studio. And after hearing him do 'Homeless' Nick signed him up to do an LP. Which is quite exciting. Knatty has proved himself to be a really good DJ in the studio, as well as live. Not everyone can do that. Which can be a problem with performers. They might be good in the live situation but when it comes to the studio, they can't do it, it just doesn't come across. But with Knatty it really does come through and in fact, it probably comes across even better on record.B: So tell us about your latest 12" which features both Knatty and Sandeeno at the mike?
M; Yeah it's a twelve inch E.P recorded at Disciples Studio's with Russ D. Six cuts on the same riddim, which is a version of 'The Romans' by Black Slate, an old seventies Dub tune which is very popular with the likes of Shaka. Basically I got the vibe for it, liked the tune. I went down to Russ and said lets do this tune. We got Sandeeno down to sing on it, which produced the 'Put Down The Gun' versions. We also Got Knatty down and he did Arrival parts one and two over the riddim. Finally Russ D did a couple of true soundman bizzness dub mixes to complete the E.P
B; It was one of the Knatty P vocals that we licensed off of you for our 'Nu Shoots Inna Roots' - Vocal Style compilation and also Russ's 'Dub The Brixton - ites' mix for the 'Nu Shoots Dub Versions' album. So is the riddim a sequenced thing or is it live musicians?
M; It's partly sequenced/ computerised but it's got live guitar and also live bongo's from Jonah Dan, who is a very talented man. So there's a little live stuff in there. I always like to get a bit of live stuff in there at least.B; So when you've got a new riddim does it have a lifetime? Do you have a set amount of time that you keep it as an exclusive dub plate for the sound?
M; Not particularly no. We just see how it goes but there are certain mixes that I'm not giving out because you've got to hold some things back. We usually do enough mixes so that there's plenty enough to go around. I'm not that into exclusives. I'd rather that they go out. I like putting records out, it's good, but yeah you've got to have few exclusives here and there.B; Anything else forthcoming?
M; Yeah a few things coming up. I'm working on something with Russ D and I'm going to be doing some more work with Manasseh as well. I'm also doing some work down in Brighton with a studio down there. That's a guy called Mikey from Drum Song records. So yeah a few projects going on. A few singles planned another E.P and hopefully an album as well. So watch this space.Finally I asked Markie, What it takes to survive as a Sound system operator in these trying times?
M; It's all about the vibes. You might have the records and you might have the sound but have you got Jah vibes?
Checkout profiles of other artists featured on 'Nu Shoots inna Roots'
