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Following the release of his debut album, New Day, I caught up with UK man of the moment, 25-year-old, Chima Anya, for the exclusive on all things hip-hop.

GlitterBow: The album came out not so long ago, 10th May I believe, so what’s life like for you at the moment?

Chima: Life is very busy at the moment, like promoting an album, same time having a full-time job and then having life commitments. But you know, you can sleep when you’re dead man, so that’s it just enjoying life, making the most of it.

G: If we take it right back, what were some of your earliest memories of music?

C: My earliest memories of music were back in the 90s. My dad had the Salt n Pepa Very Necessary CD and back then hip-hop wasn’t as prominent as it is now. I remember as a child bouncing around to that tune and being confused by all the sexual innuendoes, and then ‘95 I moved down to Oxford, Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise that came out on the radio and I was so heavily into that and then ‘97 was when I bought my first CD which was Mase Harlem World and then from there I started rapping.

G: Describe your sound for people because as soon as I listened to it, it did remind me of the early ’90s stuff…

C: I’d say it’s soulful, like you said the foundations are there and that real hip-hop stuff, but at the same time it’s still very contemporary, relevant and progressive. There are slight electronic undertones, Eye Choose You has got a bit of an electronic bassline and New Day has quite a lot of synths. The way I’d describe my style really is just: style, substance and swagger.

G: I’ve been on the net and seen a lot of comments like, ”The doctor’s here to fix hip-hop’…

C: Yeah no doubt. Obviously hip-hop’s in a bad way I’m not gonna lie to you, there’s not much space for a rapper like me in today’s climate, they’d rather listen to Tinie Tempah or Chipmunk- it’s definitely not healthy, but you can’t say it’s dead! As long as people are doing it and they love it then who are you to say it’s dead?

G: So are there any UK artists you’re feeling at the moment then?

C: UK rapper? I guess Ty, he’s got an album out now which sounds good…I came across this new artist literally a few days ago called Jai Paul and he’s just incredible man, you can tell he’s got a heavy hip-hop influence…But there’s definitely UK artists that I’m feeling, but unfortunately the mainstream doesn’t give them that much space to shine, which is unfortunate because diversity can only enhance the scene, it’s not gonna bring it down.

G: You discuss a lot of different issues through your music, where do you get your inspiration from?

C: I just get my inspiration from life…you get exposed to a wide variety of people and their lives and their situations…and emotions as well, feelings of elation, celebration, despair, hope, frustration. All of those are definitely very inspirational feelings.

G: You wrote the whole album! Was that an important element for you to have complete control over that process?

C: Well you have to man, it’s me I’m putting out there. I can’t let anyone else represent me but me. There were definitely some creative differences during the creation of the album which were stressful and the version of the album you see is very different from the version of the album other people might’ve liked but that’s me!

G: You’ve got quite a few collaborations on the album, was there anyone in particular you liked working with?

C: I mean obviously Soweto…He’s a great mcee and obviously he’s quite an established artist, but yet he still reaches out to artists who aren’t as established as himself and doesn’t come at them with any type of ego. He’s just down for music and I respect that a lot. Having Soweto on the album was a great pleasure and honour for me and I’m thankful he got involved. He’s got an album coming out this year too, so it’s a good year for hip-hop.

New Day ft. Soweto Kinch

G: Just something that I’ve noticed, why did you choose to spell Eye Choose You the way that you did?

C: That’s a very good point and initially it wasn’t my choice to spell it like that, but it just stuck. You know what- I should have changed that!

G: I thought it was the doctor coming through…

C: Actually Astrosnare who produced most of the tracks on there, he called it that and he really liked it for some reason. But when it came down to doing the artwork it wasn’t even something I thought about, but thinking about it now I honestly would’ve preferred it to be spelt with an ‘I’ as opposed to an ‘Eye’. Maybe if I had a reason why it was an ‘I’ I’d be happier with it.

G: Maybe! So what’s the audience response like that you’re getting at the moment?                                      

C: The response has been pretty positive really and truely from the people that have listened to it. The problem is, I mean this isn’t me complaining, but getting people to listen to music nowadays is difficult…an album is a whole, you’ve got to take an hour out of your day to just digest it all and a lot of people don’t have time for that…it’s reached some places that I didn’t expect it would reach, but I don’t think enough people have listened to the album to be honest, but that’s what the next couple of months are going to be about.

G: What’s the video you’re planning on putting out next?

C: It’s a song called Hey on the album. It’s quite jovial- it’s a bit more dancefloor friendly than a lot of the songs on the album, you can have a little jig to it, it’s quite a minimalist percussion led track. So we’ll see how it goes down.

G: Finally, if people were only allowed to listen to the album once, what would you want them to absorb from it?

C: I’d want them to wake up and realise that the hip-hop they’re being fed at the moment is pretty rubbish and that there’s so much better rap music out there. Maybe you have to dig a little, but they’ll be far more rewarded by supporting these other artists as opposed to these plastic empty artists who are getting so much love at the moment.

NEW DAY is OUT NOW on iTunes!!

www.twitter.com/chimaanya

www.myspace.com/chimaanya

POSTED BY: GLITTER BOW