Since their formation in 2002, multi-genre UK trio Foreign Beggars’ unique trajectory has seen them evolve from underground hip hop heroes, to a trailblazing electronic crossover act. Releasing five studio albums to date, they’ve recently completed their upcoming release of their finest work to date – their sixth full length album: 2 2 KARMA.
We chat to Ebow “Metropolis” Graham ahead of their Australian tour.
Hey guys, thanks for chatting to Forte. How are you and what have you been up to?
Hi there. We’re good. Literally just stepped off the plane, so it’s good to be back in Australia!!
It’s been fifteen years since Foreign Beggar’s formation, what’s the most noticeable change you’ve seen within UK hip-hop during this period?
I think the term ‘UK Hip Hop’ has kinda evolved, seeing as we are now seeing a different kind of rap culture in the UK. When we started out there was no hip hop or rap or grime in the charts whatsoever, US or UK. Apart from when MOP randomly charted with ‘Cold As Ice’ way back in the day.
What we then knew as the UK Hip Hop scene was a very small, underground network of guys making rap from the UK. It was very close knit, and that was a special time coz everybody was so hungry and nobody really expected to blow, whereas now if you have a dream as a child to be a rapper, you can make it as far as you want to go. Thats the biggest shift I would say.
Nowadays you have all sorts of UK rap acts doing well in the mainstream, guys like Plan B and Professor Green to all the young grime acts like Wiley, Dizzee, Wretch 32 and Giggs who’s obviously huge at the moment, I mean it’s endless now. For the first time UK rap music is official and its global. It’s a really interesting time to be part of the scene.
During those fifteen years Foreign Beggar has undergone noticeable transformations and moved into the electro house genre, what are factors that have inspired those shifts?
Since the very first Foreign Beggars set, we always embraced other genres. We used to play Drum and Bass and Death Metal tracks in the set. We’ve always been open minded and looked at the show being exactly that. A show. Not just a performance of our catalogue.
We’re massively influenced by other genres of music. And we also view ourselves as ambassador’s of the UK underground scene, so we were playing dubstep on tour in France at hip hop shows in 2006, when the crowd would just stand there and look at us, not knowing what the fuck that music was or whatever. Eventually they got it. They got ‘us’.
We have always been a rap group. It just we have always been open minded and never shied away from lending our rap skills to any genre. We did become known as more of an ‘electronic’ outfit but when you look at our back catalogue, it’s always been hip hop, whether we’ve been fucking with grime beats, dubstep or drum and bass. That said, I don’t think we’ve ever made an electro house track. Maybe we should!
Foreign Beggar’s has a strong following in Australia. How is Australia’s hip-hop scene similar to the UK’s and how does it diverge?
I think it’s been historically very difficult for English speaking hip hop scenes outside of the US, just because you’re always competing with the US rap scene by default.
Unlike in France for example, which has always had its own stand alone rap scene, and has gotten a lot of support from radio as they have a law which states that 70 per cent of all music played on French radio must be from France. That’s massive. That’s support. We never had that in the UK, and I doubt you guys have that here.
It just means that the scene has to work a lot harder and support itself until the mainstream picks up on it.
I also think it took a long while for people to get used to and accept our accent. Back in the day when I would tell people in the states that I was a rapper, they found it funny. Nowadays, they’re taking us a lot more seriously.
I think like with all things it just takes time and persistence. And all you need is one sick guy to inspire another the youngsters, then the levels get upped and you can break through.
What can fans expect from your upcoming shows and from your new album 22 Karma, set for release in 2018?
This album has a message I feel. There’s an underlying tone throughout the album of us wanting to speak honestly. I think the best music comes when people share their stories, and when you come away from listening to a track feeling like you know a little bit more about the person who wrote it. Personally that’s what makes the greatest music.
I think we’ve done that on this record. We got some fun party tracks on there too, like the singles ‘ oast’ and ‘osh’, but when you listen to the album as a whole, its definitely a lot more matured and honest and that’s what I love about it.
We also collaborated with some really great artists, such as Kojey Radikal and Kate Tempest who are two amazing poets, a lot of talented guys like Black Josh, Izzie Gibbs and Dizmak, and the production credits are real strong too. Everybody from our long time collaborators Alix Perez and Dagnabbit, to Flux Pavillion, to Bangzy, a guy we found through the Brapp App who came in and really helped sculpt the sound of the record.
Also we’re working on a new live set, incorporating some new tracks from the album and looking into developing visuals and outfits similar to what we did with I Am Legion, our collaboration with Noisia.
Do you have any advice for emerging hip-hop/electronica artists on gaining recognition within the music industry?
Be original, Be yourselves, Be Honest, Be Business Minded, Be Persistent, Be Humble, Be Bold and always push yourself to be the best you can be.
Thanks so much for chatting, any last words??
Thanks so much for having us. We’re looking forward to connecting with people here again. It’s been a while since we did a run of club shows. Looking forward to seeing you all. Peace!
When & Where: Brown Alley, Melbourne – Friday 15 December
