KEY POINTS:
How well do you know each other?
Tiki Taane: Pretty well. As for watching DVDs at each other's houses, not really. Give it a couple of weeks.
Patrick Hawkins: We'll probably never talk to each other again.
Why are you joining the same tour? Surely you could do your own?
PH: To have a mash-up, throw it together and see what comes out.
Sam Hansen: It hasn't been done before.Six hours is a lot of music.
PH: It's more gruelling for the MCs. You guys have to do the whole night, right?
TT: We're still nutting it out. We're not going to put the heavy d'n'b stuff in at first. I'll do the crossover stuff, hip-hop and drum'n'bass, then PNC will get up and Scribe. It's open, tag-team-style.
PH: We're going to do a back-to-back thing with Concord Dawn because DJs don't get a chance to do that often.
How do you feel about trying out each other's styles?
SH: I'm open to it. I like drum'n'bass.
TT: Really?
SH: Definitely. That's why I was interested in doing this tour. I think the people that come to this show will be more open-minded. The people who come to the hip-hop shows just want to hear the songs they know.
How competitive will it be?
PH: I can see us trying to top each other. It will be good for the gig.
TT: I don't do hip-hop so I'm going to be out of my comfort zone jamming with these cats. But I've got a few tricks up my sleeve so it will be healthy competition.
Do we smell an MC battle?
TT: Never say never.
Why do hip-hop and drum'n'bass complement each other?
PH: It's always been like that. It's part of the attitude and the type of beats. Hip-hop is half-time drum'n'bass, and they're easily mashed together.
TT: The original beats came from breaks and James Brown. It all comes from the break family with an underground vibe. It's street, club music, and it's that whole reaction to the mainstream. Yet both genres have seen trends within the mainstream.
SH: I think every genre's going to have a peak at some point. Especially hip-hop, because everyone in this country kind of discovered it. People didn't know New Zealanders could do hip-hop. Everyone got into it and it became this big thing.
But hadn't we already discovered it with groups like Upper Hutt Posse?
PH: Yes but not in the mainstream. Dam Native, King Kapisi, they were big acts but they weren't like Scribe with number one songs.
Do you agree that drum'n'bass has plateaued in recent years?
PH: It did a little bit but it's pretty lively at the moment. We played recently with Tiki and that was killer.
TT: Since I started kicking around drum'n'bass in the mid-90s, the audience has grown up and graduated. Now there's a fresh breed of kids. When I jammed with you cats [State of Mind], I was scared. I was on the dancefloor getting groped by guys who were 18, 19 years old, and I hadn't seen that for years. It slows up and it plateaus, it's up and down.
PH: People got a bit sick of that synthy, clowny stuff. That's the exciting thing about it now - it can go anywhere.
Where is your sound going?
PH: We're about halfway through our next album. There's a few more vocalists this time.
SH: I'm working with some younger producers. The first album was me talking about my life up to here. This one's more about today's issues, about where I'm at right now.
TT: I'm still trying to get over this album. I need a few more life experiences before I tackle the next one. And I'm in love with the struggle so I do my best work when I'm depressed. At the moment life's pretty good for me. Maybe when I go on tour, something's going to make me grumpy. Girl troubles or something.
Why are there no girls on the tour?
TT: Well it's like, the Tour of Dirty. Ask Dirty Records why there are no girls on the label. That's what I say all the time. I come here and it's a sausage fest.
What's the turnout like at your gigs, gender-wise?
TT: The last one wasn't 50/50. There was definitely a lot of guys. With tops off. Sweating.
PH: It varies. But as soon as guys get their shirts off, that pushes out quite a lot of women.
Girls don't really get their shirts off at gigs.
PH: They do in Australia.
Aside from your fans, how much support do you get?
PH: We haven't seen much funding for anything. Drum'n'bass is still not really considered commercial enough for funding of videos because we don't have a vocalist. The annoying thing is we think we're just as relevant as some pop band that may not have any fans but they've decided to give funding because they have a vocalist.
So NZ On Air needs to get into drum'n'bass?
PH: Not so much just into drum'n'bass but perhaps just have a bit more of an open mind as far as dance music goes. It's not just pop anymore. A lot of people buy dance music to listen to at home.
How hard is it to become successful overseas?
SH: It's pretty hard. So many more people doing it over there, not just hip-hop but there's so much music. I think you need that big support in New Zealand first. You can't really just turn up in Aussie.
Who's going to cause the most mischief on tour?
TT: I would've said me five years ago. I'll probably have cups of tea and go to bed early. I gotta lead by example. Potts is a bit of a bad-ass. Twincam is pretty ill-behaved.
LOWDOWN
What: TOUR OF DIRTY
featuring Tiki Taane, PNC, State of Mind, Concord Dawn, P-Money, Scribe, Bulletproof, David Dallas and MC Twincam.
When and where: Zen Bar, Auckland, 10pm, tonight.
Win: TimeOut has a set of the following albums to give away: Tiki, Past, Present, Future; Concord Dawn, Chaos By Design; P-Money, Unreleased Joints and Remixes; State Of Mind, ake Control; Scribe, Rhymebook; Bulletproof, Shake The Foundations; Frontline, Borrowed Time; PNC, Rookie Card.
To enter, write your name, address and phone number on the back of an envelope and post to: TimeOut Tour of Dirty Giveaway, PO Box 3290, Auckland.
