Spotlight Series (Part 15)

This time around we have one of the Icons of the Sydney Hip Hop Scene Mighty Ash.

Hailing from Sydney, This guy is a well known MC that is pretty much involved in anything Hip Hop he lives and breathes his craft.

His style is a mix of the Old School/Funk and Groove and he dabbles in most musical Styles, This coupled with a positive and high energy level and not to mention a huge level of lyrical technique.

A hybrid of music and technique and the many years of experience in playing in various bands and Running/Performing at the many events in Sydney makes him one Sydney’s hardest working Mcs and the level of support he has shown to many Artists truly speaks volumes about Mighty Ash.

Since 1996 he had been a part of Bands such as Metaphorthesis, Ninja Vanish, Funkhouse, The Herb Boys, Metabolize, Graft, Venn, The Mudluck Trio and many more.

Some of the artists he has shared the stage with are Onion Man, P.Smurf, Jake Izzy, Matt Xander, GhostAttacK, Bigredcap, Losty, Lee Monro, Mitus, Acizm, EpifanE, Trigz, Swiftboi, Beat theory, Wolves, Zeadala and Sarah Maxwell.

My advice to any up and coming Sydney artists would be to check out his page and follow the events he is at. You could learn a lot from Mighty Ash and learn some respect for your scene and your craft.

His Links below make sure you check him out and show this Underground Legend some Love!!!!!

links:

https://www.mightyash.com/ https://www.facebook.com/mightyashmusic/ https://www.facebook.com/RahRecords2016/

Enough from me here is the Interview.

We gave him the Hustle 9 (Old School Edition)

Why the name Mighty Ash?

For that, we have to go back to around 1990/91 when I was in high school with a guy named Ashley. For a little while there we kind of swapped names.

This was right before I got into a bunch of rap/graffiti crews where you had to have a tag/alter ego, mine was always Ash and the name just stuck.

Around the late 90s I was developing my Emcee persona I was heavily influenced by the Free Jazz and Modal Jazz movements of the 1950s to 1960s, as well as the Old School, New School and Golden Era of Hip Hop from the 1970s to 1990s.

This introduced me to musicians such as Pharoah Sanders, Duke Ellington, Grandmaster Flash, Big Daddy Kane and so on. It seemed you either had a name of stature, royalty or what sounded like a pimp name. So for me, I felt adding the Mighty to the Ash brought all that together.

Where did you grow up?

I was blessed to be a mouse of both the country AND the city. I lived with my mum in the Inner West of Sydney and with my father in the mountains of the South Coast of NSW.

The South Coast is a very creative culture and community which taught me a lot about expression and art and freedom in being an individual, the city of Sydney taught me about being a performer, networking and the roots of Hip Hop.

What Inspired your Music?

I couldn’t even begin to name artists or albums, my record collection starts in the early 1930s and doesn’t skip a beat until the modern-day, and I’m inspired by all of it.

I have always been listening to and playing music for as long as I can remember. I can’t think of a period of my life that isn’t defined by music. I was digging into my father’s record collection from very young and got my first vinyl at the age of five.

I feel as if music is a part of being alive, a part of existence, and a way to create life, and feelings and emotion. I find people turn to music for support and to get free of negativity. Life and being alive is an inspiration, music is a language of that.

The beauty of Hip Hop to me is that I can take all those hundreds of types of music, all those personal and universal experiences and emotions, and blend it all into one thing.

Hip Hop is one of the few styles of music I know that is defined by its influence from other music.

What I try to do with that is create something to take people out of the burden of everyday life and give them a short holiday from stress and over-intellectualizing the world we live in. For this, I turn mostly to Funk, Jazz, Folk, and Rhythmic music to create a classical and familiar Hip Hop sound. I want it to be familiar, but also personal to me AND to the listener.

When I’m inspired by a type of music I am also inspired by an experience or a friendship, where I was or who I was in my life when it came to me.

How Long have you been Rapping?

Hard to say. I guess I’m one of those cats that learned to rap by imitating the artists I listened to on record, the earliest of which would have been RUN DMC in 1986.

By the early 1990s, I was free-styling at school and by the late 1990s, I was performing in bands.

What are some current projects your working on?

I have a ridiculous back catalogue of music I am always working on.

I’m one of those people who can never finish something because I’m worried it’s not good enough. So we can say there are about four or five albums sitting in that chamber.

The next release will probably be a collaboration with the Sydney producer and beat-maker Bugsy. Then I am going to be sitting down with GhostAttacK to start putting together a project, and hopefully during this release a solo L.P I’ve been working on for a couple of years.

At this point, everything I’m doing is through Rah Records so keep an eye on them and you’ll be in the loop.

Outside of the studio I am performing constantly in Sydney and the Blue Mountains and attending cyphers and freestyling and getting out and about as much as possible.

Advice for the Upcoming Artist?

If you are just starting out in the Hip Hop thing I would advise you to choose as early as possible what path it is you wish to take. Are you planning on being a celebrity? Are you looking to make a name for yourself in the local scene and build from the ground up? Or are you planning on merging into the underground and seeing where the adventure of life takes you? All of these things take time so you should be making moves right now.

You won’t make a name for yourself by just recording some substandard ‘rap’ in your bedroom and plastering it all over social media. You need to get out to the venues, you need to turn up to other people’s shows, you need to get to know the O.Gs on a first name basis. Become recognized as someone who turns up and supports the culture.

Master your craft, reach out, ask for advice. Once you have a show or a record then you should ask for support, until that time jump into every cypher you see, be fearless and humble. Go and say hi to that artist you are in awe of. Don’t be shy.

Who is your top 5 Artists Or producers?

Beastie Boys has always been a big one for me because they are one of the most versatile, which is super important to me. Chuck D is probably the epitome of what an Emcee is to me.

Ice T is one of the greatest storytellers and can become so many different people at will.

For producers, I can’t go past Automater and DJ Premier as well as KutMasta Kurt.

But that’s enough of the classic American artists, we need to finish on a local note

.

Izzy taught me a lot about the other elements of being an Emcee, namely freestyle and hosting.

And the guys from Def Wish Cast as well as A.S.K, P.Smurf and everyone involved in SYD DEF JAM all made me feel welcome in the scene when I was coming up in Sydney and that meant the world to me, so I hold these people in the highest regard.

It’s one thing to be a fan of an artist, it’s a whole other thing to break bread with these people as equals and feel like you’re actually a part of something.

Who would be your Ultimate Feature/Colab?

Oh wow, I mean wouldn’t it be great to feature on like a Run The Jewels album, or do a track with Kool Keith and KutMasta Kurt, but in reality the ultimate would be to do something meaningful, something that is actually of great importance to the culture, beyond fame and feeling special to actually putting my name on something legit. It HAS to be Def Wish Cast. In the city I’m from they are the kings.

Message to the Youth?

Unless you want to be the next Australian Idol I suggest you pay no attention to the radio, tv, and all these fancy music videos coming out of the United States.

American media likes to sell the dream of the super-rich and famous rapper, but it never tells you the real story of the roots of Hip Hop, the elements, the O.GS, and the kings and queens.

Don’t approach Hip Hop as some drug dealer gangsta pimp cool guy thing. Avoid the cliches of sexism and homophobia and abusive slang fed to you by the media. Go out and find the real thing.

Study the elements, meet the artists, work on your craft, be sincere, be humble, contribute.

When you get somewhere remember to reach down and help out the next generation of kids coming up. Hip Hop is not a fashion or a slang or a trend, it’s a culture, and it’s in your city, go out and get down with it.

Show this Sydney Legend Some Love!!!!!!

Comment below or let me know who we should interview next!!!

Peace out

Huncho