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With two solid albums under his belt with producer Chronic, as Chronic Redeye, Reds has already made a name for himself not only in his home town of Norwich and the East Anglia region but all over the UK with good reviews, radio play and a string of solid gigs under his belt he know unleashes some tracks on the first volume of is new mixtape series ‘Ruffneck Intellect’. Our UK enthusiast Tricksta went to get the lowdown on his new project and what 2010 holds for him.

Good stuff! So let’s talk about the new project… ‘Ruffneck Intellect’. A new mixtape series that is out now. What was the idea behind doing this project?
The idea delevoped because we wanted our contribution to the mixtape market to be an alternative to all the watered down pop rap that has somehow become acceptable (lol!), and show people that there are still plenty of banging tracks being made that are hardcore and still staying true to the artform. You won't hear any Elton John samples or people rhyming over funky house on a Ruffneck intellect mix! We also want the mixtape to give exposure to artists that we feel deserve more recognition than they're getting, while at the same time hittin people off with some exclusive joints by artists they already know and love.

How did you go about picking the artists for the mixtape?
Well first off it was a case of letting the artists we roll with know about the project and seeing who came through with something rugged to fit the bill, which worked well because we've got some heavy exclusives from the likes of DPF, Franko Fraize and Lyrical T. Then we hit up our extended fam and people we've got links with like  Deadly Hunta, Yaeo and the good people at Wolftown who all came through for us so big up lol! From then on the word started spreading like wildfire!  I was receiving emails from people all over the place on their grind and wanting to get featured on there so we picked the ones that best suited the vibe. Its gotta bump for the sound systems and its gotta have some lyrical content not just some glorified advert for sh*t they probably cant afford anyway lol. I also hit a few artists up on myspace like Mood and Dezert Eez because Im a fan of their works and I wanted to get them involved and not just stick one of their tunes on there without even asking them lol

What I liked about the mixtape was there were artists from all over the place such as LATE & Conman repping Wolverhampton, Streetz from Bristol, Manny Moscow from London, as American and Jamaican acts. Was it important to have a global sound on the mixtape?
Yeah very important to us because we're approaching this as fans of the music, and because we listen to a lot of different styles from all over the world we wanted our mix to represent that. Ruffneck Intellect is a worldwide epidemic! But still we rep the UK to the fullest and it's cool to show that we've got artists over here that can stand next to the biggest US acts and hold their own.

How long did it take to put the project together?
It's been a work in progress for nearly a year, which is a bit longer than usual cos Ive been juggling this music game with a hectic home life lol

Let’s talk about your contribution to the CD. How many tracks have you got on there?
Well I made two solo contributions -  one called 'For Ya Domepiece' which is an exclusive produced by my man Dillijence, and another which is a freestyle I recorded on the P Brothers Cold World beat. Ive also been recording with DPF under the name 'Soldjasoulz' and we put two of those tracks on there. There are 3 more collabo tracks on there that I feature on also so that makes a total of 7 out of the 20 tracks featuring big dutty Reds lol

There are a few well known names on there from both the Hip-Hop scene in the UK and in the UK, as well as reggae acts. Will this be the vibe future releases?
It's hard to say what the future holds in terms of who we may work with, but we've definitely got enough connections to make sure future releases are banging from front to back and we always manage to pull a surprise guest or two outta the bag so we'll have to wait and see!

You seem to love reggae. Does this genre inspire you the same as Hip-Hop?
In some ways reggae inspires me more! Don't get me wrong hip hop has and always will flow through my veigns, but in terms of originality, flows and mic presence the reggae artists are killing it at the moment and their energy and innovation is something a lot of hip hop artists could learn from, in my humble opinion.

What artists in the reggae scene do you listen to?
Gappy Ranx is high up on the list for me at the moment, as is Busy Signal, Mavado, Deadly Hunta, YT, Sizzla, Capleton, Anthony B...

You’ve worked with a few big named US acts now, all on that Wu Tang tip. For those that don’t know tell us how you have worked with and it all came about.
For me Wu Tang is hip hop! On our last CD Knowledge Is King we did a joint with Bronze Nazareth, who is known amongst the Wu more for his producing but I hit him up on myspace and asked if he would lace us with some bars because for me he is one of the sickest emcees, definitely one of the best producers to ever bless the mic! On this new project we've got a collabo track with Hell Razah and Timbo King, two of my favourite emcees and you can hear they are on top of their game right now. Hell Razah has started a movement with Shabbazz The Disciple called T.H.U.G Angelz so he was keen to make some international moves, keep your eyes out for more of them. Plus we managed to get Inspectah Deck's proteges Dezert Eez to hit us off with an exclusive track they recorded just for our project. It came about by hitting up the artists directly and explaining to them the concept of Ruffneck Intellect and when they saw we are on that rugged tip they were down for the cause. I guess it's like they say, real recognizes real.

With Chronic you have done two albums as Chronic Redeye. Any news on a third?
Over time DJ Chronic's involvement has become less and less, he's still down with the crew and fam for life but for personal reasons he moved back to his hometown of Oxford, which makes the creative process different than when we were living in the same area. Recently he's been producing electro under the name Spaceface for Coin OP Records but he still sends me beats so im not ruling out doing another whole album with him, though its more likely that he will just be contributing the odd track here and there along with other producers Ive been working with like Mr. Laws and Dillijence

So have you any more plans to branch out and do any solo projects?
Yeah for sure, glad you asked! Im working on a solo album that will have a minimal amount of guests on there, mainly just me holdin down the fort... but before that it's all about 'SOLDJASOULZ' me and DPF have been working on loads of killer material and we've got a shared love for dancehall reggae so that gives you a clue to the direction we're moving in. The working title for the first Soldjasoulz EP is Your Mum Loves Reggae lol.. its true!

Okay, can we get your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter addresses please?
www.myspace.com/chronicredeye thats about as much social networking as you'll get from me! peace

Interview by Tricksta
www.myspace.com/trickstawolftown