Pop guns of Brixton

By REBECCA BARRY

Big Brovaz are used to jokes comparing them to a similarly named reality TV show.

"We do actually live together," confirms Flawless, one of the hip-hop/R&B collective's three male MCs. "It's like the Big Brother house but without the cameras."

And like the show, which made instant celebrities of its housemates, these Big Brovaz are being watched.

Yesterday they were met by excited fans who turned up to see them play live at an in-store promotion, part of their whistle-stop promotional tour of New Zealand.

Nu Flow, their upbeat R&B single with hard-hitting rap lyrics, was a No 1 here and a top-10 hit across the globe, they've played to crowds of 15,000 and they've even made a grown woman cry. The fan was waiting outside their hotel room with her daughter when Cherise, the "Mariah Carey" of the band, told her she must be a great mum.

"Things we say and do really influence our fans and how they grow up as people," says singer Dion, innocently.

According to Flawless, Dion is the quietest, most sophisticated band member but today the 21-year-old is bounce-sitting on the hotel bed like it's a trampoline.

Tomorrow, the band will return home to South London, where they say they can't even walk down the street without being mobbed.

"When it's early in the morning, we'll get a couple of whispers, but when the kids are out of school that's when we're in big trouble," says Flawless. "We can't even go shopping in Brixton no more."

Six years ago, it was a different story. Big Brovaz was a casual, underground collective of 13 performers who lived and performed - some as solo artists, others in groups - in the same area of South London.

They worked together on a compilation album, Big Brovaz - Watching You, but what started as a low-key production ended up selling 2000 copies in its first week. British producers Skillz and Fingaz, dab hands at creating both ballads and beats, whittled the group down to six: Flawless, Dion, Cherise, Randy, Nadia and J Rock, and found them a manager.

"We're not manufactured," says Dion. "If we're all going to wear red, we'll wear red in our own style."

She's also quick to point out the group write their own songs, which, on their debut album, Nu Flow, range from perky hip-hop and ragga-influenced numbers to rock and gospel-touched pop tracks.

"We're just so different to everyone else," adds Flawless, who, at 21, has already mastered the art of nonchalance.

"Our style is so diverse we can tap into any genre and make it our own."

"We didn't want to be talking about girls and cars, same ol' same ol'," continues Dion. "So we've really put a lot of thought process into what we write about.

"We talk about things that are real to us, like being broke. Whoever can relate to that will relate to it and whoever doesn't will write about it in a different type of way. You can't talk about things you haven't really been through."

However, neither Flawless nor Dion have read 1984, the George Orwell book that inspired their band's name. And not all the group speak from personal experience on the track Little Mama, which laments the hardships of living on the dole.

"I definitely have been broke," says Flawless. "Before I could find work I had to live out of my pockets."

"I haven't," says Dion. "When it came to that track there, I had difficulty. I don't like to see poor people or homeless people so I wrote about it from that angle."

"That's how we keep it real," Flawless continues. "I'm not going to go on a track and start saying I'm going to kill people when I haven't."

It's not always easy being real, Dion cheerily admits.

"The hardest thing is being unreal to the fans when we're trying to be real to ourselves," she says, contemplatively. "No one cares if you're tired or if you're hungry. You just have to smile."

"That was a good answer," says Flawless.

"Yeah," she smiles. "I think I'm going to put it on the website."