I came across this interview with Brother Culture today. Really good
read.
How did you get involved in being a musician and what were your
early influences?
I started to MC in about 1982, and primarily it was because I loved music, I
loved sound systems from when I was in school. My older sister who was nearest
in age to me, her name was Sister Culture and she was an MC, and she used to
chat on a sound called Jah Revelation Muzik which was the sound of the Twelve
Tribes of Israel—a Rastafarian organization—it was international and this was
the like London branch. So when I left school and I started to go to a lot of
dances where my sister was MCing, people would naturally say “special request
to Sister Culture’s brother.” Now, I sort of got the name from people because
I’m Sister Culture’s brother not because I’m an MC. And then halfway into 82,
you know, I started to rehearse a lot, and get interested in moving with the
sound system. The manager of the sound at the time was a guy called Cecil
Reuben; he said to me, “can you MC like your sister? Cause you look like an
MC.” And so I was glad for this and I took it from there, that’s what I’ve been
doing ever since. I was working with Twelve Tribes initially for about ten
years, all over the world, between Jamaica, America, Canada, Trinidad, England,
I worked with all twelve Tribes sounds—worked with artists like Brigadier
Jerry, Sister Carol, etcetera. And then, about 92, after I’d been MCing for
about ten years, I cam back from America, and the whole Twelve Tribes scene had
kinda changed in London, and I wasn’t part of the Twelve Tribes sound system
anymore. That’s when I stated checking out the UK dub scene which was kind of
having an upsurge at that time in the early nineties. You had sound systems
like Aba Shanti, Iration Steppas, obviously Jah Shaka, many others, too many to
even mention. I started to MC a lot on that circuit because at the time—in the
beginning of the nineties—the actual kinda dancehall Jamaican roots which is
where I was coming from had become very kind of, uh—the raga movement had kinda
taken over. There was not many spots with spontaneous like MCs, in such dances,
but yet there was on the UK dub steppers scene, and I could sort of still go
and chat the mic, and as an MC you tend to go where you can do your stuff. So
all in all its about twenty, twenty five years, that I’ve been doing this.
Click here to read the rest of the interview on myninjaplease.com
In 2008 Liquid Sound released his debut album, called Isis, which
was produced with Manasseh. It comes recommended from me.... of course!
