Chatting with Bashy

So here's the chat I had with Bashy for the Marcus The Sadist preview. Rather than let reams of great quotes and fascinating dialogue fester on my mac, where it's of no use to anyone, I'm going to try and post transcripts for your perusal.



Not many people know you’re an actor
I did acting before music, not a lot of people know that, I went to Brit School and I studied it for two years, I love acting man. I’m in Marcus the Sadist, I’m filming two feature films, so I’ve got it all on the go. My acting journey has begun now. I’m in Noel Clarke’s new film 4-3-2-1. I’m in another film called Shank [directed music video don Mo] out next year and doing a play touring nationally, the acting journey for me is definitely in full swing.

How did this role come about?
I heard there was an audition for Markus The Sadist and it sounded really cool. I got introduced to Jonzi D, auditioned and went from there. I’m excited about that I can bring real life experience into developing the piece and workshop-ing it. My self and other cast members have had input so it’s been like a growing piece, Jonzi’s very passionate about hip-hop – one of the first original hip-hoppers in Britain and has a real sense of Britishness in his hip-hop.

It’s good to see a connection between old school homegrown hip-hop and the new school
That’s the beauty of the piece really - I haven’t seen the older and younger generation of hip-hoppers really bridge the gap and chat. I did it with my Black Boys remix, which had Ty on it. You don’t tend to see it that much – but this is an extension of it. The new generation does stuff together, the old generation does stuff together but we need to have a connected scene that works properly. Scene is thriving right now.

What’s the play about?
The play shows the progression of hip-hop and the incredible journey of a young man and him growing up and how the decisions he makes affects his life. It fully follows the journey of a man and how far someone is prepared to go in order to achieve the end result and get the goal. Delves into the world of hip-hop and grime. It definitely shows the journey of underground hip-hop country in this country and where it’s going.

And how he has to adapt to make it?
Artists over here do try and follow what happens in America. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that because we learn different things. What the America hip-hop industry does very well is it has a high quality look - it looks expensive. And in my personal opinion that was what was missing from over here, it didn’t really look good. The star quality wasn’t really seen much, or wasn’t made to look beautiful. If a track was talking about something gritty, it would look gritty. Which was to our benefit, because it was raw but now the element of polish is there. Which is why we’re doing well now and we understand the game a bit more.

If it’s a Jonzi D piece is there a dance element. Do you bust some moves?
There is dance in the piece and elements of break dancing; it covers all aspects of hip-hop, and also the fashion and business sense of it. Do I bust a move? Not really.


Is it a play, musical, or show?
It comes across as a hip-hop piece – not so much a musical, it doesn’t really come across like that. There is a mentality of road artists should stay road and real
We need to have the right balance – road and mainstream. We live in a world that’s more experimental; that’s why we’re seeing artists explore the freedom they have. You need to have a mass appeal to appeal, to take it to the next level, you can’t be so introverted because people need to understand. That’s why artists need to mixtapes so their core support base can get what they want artists should always have something a bit extra for them at all times. It’s about striking a good balance.

Are you enjoying stepping away from music for a minute?
I always need to refresh and take a time out whether that’s read, watch a DVD or go on holiday. I’ve been working non-stop for three years