TheCity

Tag: Hip Hop

Artist Showcase: Tebi Rex

For this Artist Showcase, Eric Ryan speaks with Matt Ó from Tebi Rex about their recent release, Brackets, their debut album, their plans for the future and how they’ve been creating during lockdown.

Tebi Rex duo. Photo courtesy of Tebi Rex.

For those that don’t know, Tebi Rex are a hip-hop duo from Kildare who have taken to the forefront of the Irish hip-hop scene with their signature blend of catchy hooks and genuine, laid back verses.

Composed of Max Zanga and Matt Ó, Tebi Rex are a dynamic team that feeds off each other’s energy in every song. Usually, the singing is left to Matt Ó, who’s melodic verses and hooks smoothly combine with Max Zanga’s chic, laid-back, and often introspective lyrics.

Whether it be a heartfelt, lo-fi alt rap track, a DIY pop banger or a head bopping club rap song about getting drunk and forgetting your own lyrics, it all lies comfortably in their ever-expanding wheelhouse of sounds.

Although releasing music as early as 2017, it was in 2019 when they established themselves as a real driving force in the Irish hip-hop scene when they released their debut album, The Young Will Eat the Old.

The Young Will Eat The Old, is a dynamic and cohesive project that’s sound is as intriguing as its themes and concepts. It offers insightful, introspective lyrics about life that draw inspiration and meaning from Greek Mythology, delivered over a range of instrumentals that vary from DIY pop to alternative hip-hop. All neatly wrapped up in a 3-act structure, the stellar release was a major improvement from their 2018 project, Welcome to the Darkest Year of Our Adventures.

On their debut album, Matt Ó said, “It was an amazingly fulfilling and fruitful experience but don’t get me wrong, it was heavy at times. We were creating some amazing tunes and we would have to cut some out because they just didn’t fit the story we were trying to tell.”

Photo courtesy of Tebi Rex.

For musicians and fans alike, 2020 has been a seemingly never-ending onslaught of doom and bad news, as countless amounts of live shows and projects have been cancelled or rescheduled. But Tebi Rex have managed to buck this trend, and their yearly growth has continued with their latest release, Brackets.

With Brackets, Tebi Rex took a different approach and dropped some of the key elements that made The Young Will Eat The Old stand out. While cohesion was still top priority with the EP, it’s a project that centres itself around shorter individual stories, the artists’ personalities and most importantly, having fun.

Matt Ó drew similarities between the four tracks on Brackets and a group of friends, saying there’s “a messy drunk one, a sincere & romantic one, one who is over the top and one who isn’t quite all there – a fantastic mix”.

He added: “Each song has its own identity, like how AAAAGH got a groundhog-day style video whereas I Got My Whole got a dreamy Wes Anderson treatment. White Boy Of The Month had a full animation and You Thot didn’t even properly have an ending.”

One of the standout tracks from Brackets is the drunken and hazy AAAAGH, which is strengthened by the guest feature from Awkward Z, a rapper from Ireland’s south-east whose braggadocious verse fits the track as if he were a third member.

With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that Matt would choose Awkward Z as his “creative collaborator if Max Zanga were to unfortunately pass away”. And in the case of Max’s untimely passing, it’s the producer of AAAAGH and Burner Records star, Local Boy, that Max Zanga has in line as Matt’s successor. Tebi Rex truly are prepared for anything the future will throw at them.

The track is a testament to the new, strange times we find ourselves living in, as the boys had to work remotely when collaborating with Awkward Z. Covid-19 restrictions are something that Tebi Rex have taken in their stride, constantly sharing ideas through messenger and mail, and even having mixing sessions over Zoom.

But despite 2020 being a good year for the duo, it most definitely still had its pitfalls, most namely the lack of live shows. “It has been really tough I won’t lie. It is 1000% the best part of being a musician, and it’s the best way to know if your new music is slapping or not.” said Matt.

When asked about plans for the future, Matt Ó said: “Hopefully there’ll be live shows, whether they’re socially distanced or ideally vaccinated. We have our first show of 2021 booked in for London in February, and I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to watch virtual Tebi Rex shows too.”

Matt added: “Obviously a new year will mean new music, but I have no idea what it is going to sound like, or when it would see the light of day so can give no hints as of yet – but based on what we’re writing at the moment, it is definitely some of our best ideas to date.”

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November 27, 2020
Meet the Róg Poets

The Róg Poets are an up and coming hip-hop group hailing from South Dublin. Their unique sounds and smooth rhymes reflect the versatility of the growing Irish hip-hop scene. The group is comprised of Mory, Johnny Welfare, Baz Greko and Smokey, who all met through the creative music production course in Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT).

What’s different about the Róg Poets? Well, aside from the band, they each have their own individual musical careers which has contributed to a high production quality in their work and a well-versed knowledge of the elements involved in music making from the beginning.

Mory began his craft by writing and producing rap music at the age of just 12. By 14, he had realised his creative flare and began recording his tracks in his old drum teacher’s basement. Since then he has been growing and developing his signature style.

Smokey started rapping at the age of 14 as a way of doing something positive with something he loved. He immersed himself with heavy influences from the classical hip-hop origins and has developed a sharp yet refreshing storytelling flow through his years of recording.

Johnny Welfare began his music journey from learning to play guitar when he was 14. He developed a keen interest in the production side of music and realised early on that the tools available on a computer meant he had a full orchestra at his disposal. With this new freedom to create, he didn’t have to rely on anybody. Through years of producing techno tracks, he naturally transitioned into making hip hop beats. His in-depth knowledge of production is evident in listening to any of the Róg Poet tracks.

Bazi Greko being half Irish and Greek, attributes his background to his refined and timeless taste in music. He, like the rest of the group, listened to hip-hop from a young age and was consumed by original hip-hop. He was recording lyrics on his phone when he was younger and showing them to his friends, who encouraged him to put himself out there.

I was lucky enough to sit down with the group and talk shop. When Mory was asked about their formation, it was clear that it was a very natural process.

“It wasn’t that we sat down one day and decided to make music together, we are all rappers and producers who were in the same course so it was an organic shift, we were always hanging out, when musical people hang out they tend to get musical. “ It became more serious when Bazi got a new gaff in Deansgrange, we just kept meeting up and making music.”

In terms of putting the Róg Poets out there to get traction and new listeners, the group is more concerned with their own development and prefer to take a more calculated approach rather than exhausting their fans with token social media updates.

“In all they have played 10 live gigs in various venues like The Grand Social, The Bernard Shaw, Wigwam, Soundhouse, and The Lighthouse“

“We rely on three things mainly to get across to people, one is social media, although we are not as active as we should be, we’re on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify. The second way which we have found seriously effective, is to get out there and perform as many gigs as possible, the old school way. Thirdly is word of mouth, we all have our individual organic reaches as each of us has various other projects we are working on, so there’s been a natural traction as we do our thing. We run some adverts too although the adverts only give the listener a small taste of our sound and if they like it they click in and listen to us. This is important to us, as the figures of our listenership aren’t fabricated or bought.”

The Róg Poets released an album called the Róg Tapes, Vol. 1 in 2018 consisting of 5 tracks each having its own vibrant attraction. In 2019, they released a single called Checkmate which, in usual fashion, saw each rapper take the track verse by verse. The rap itself is centred around attacking fake artists who are concerned with vanity and their Instagram profiles. This is important, as for the Róg Poets, they focus on integrity, respect and the love for the music. Johnny Welfare, their instrumental producer, affirmed that it’s all about the music.

“We were caught up in the numbers for a bit but I think as it’s coming along, we’re definitely more focused on the music. People trust us, in that the music we realise is different and creative – at the end of the day not everybody will like it, that’s life. If your making music to cater to other people rather than yourself then you’re already losing.”

The future seems promising for this young group of motivated artists as they continue to get out and perform as much as possible. In all they have played 10 live gigs in various venues like The Grand Social, The Bernard Shaw, Wigwam, Soundhouse, and The Lighthouse. The challenges for any up and coming group are never easy, although the Róg Poets are definitely a group to look out for in the future.

The first link below will bring you to their 2019 checkmate single on YouTube and the other links are for their Spotify, Instagram and YouTube social media pages where you can follow them.

/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYJi7TcELGckg9LudOM5wDQ

https://www.instagram.com/r_records_/

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December 2, 2019
808s and mates: an ambitious podcast with a long road ahead

To say that the people behind 808s & Mates podcast are ambitious would be an understatement.

808s & Mates is streamed every third Wednesday on YouTube, with different musical guests each episode, who all perform live in studio, as well as being interviewed by hosts Bill McHugh and Jack Dwyer.

Co-host Jack Dwyer spoke to TheCity.ie about the genesis and ethos of the show, as well as giving an insight as to what the future holds for 808s & Mates.

Jack is in his third year of studying multimedia in Dublin University College (DCU) and has been DJing for the past four to five years.

“So, 808s & Mates is a podcast that myself and a few of my friends started up,” Jack told The City.

“We figured that we all had a joint interest in music of all genres and we figured that we wanted to broaden our knowledge of the Irish music scene and one of the best ways that we could do it would be by starting up a podcast.”

The majority of podcasts are found on sites like Soundcloud, Stitcher Radio and on podcast applications on phones, so why have 808s & Mates opted for streaming their content from YouTube?

Jack from 808s and mates. Credit: 808s and mates

“The reason why it’s on YouTube is because we feel like every person under the sun, their cousin and their aunty’s dog has a podcast these days, so we figured by having the extra visual aspect that it would add to the whole experience and plus we could incorporate live performances into the show. The general route we are trying to go down is to promote Irish music culture and to hopefully make some kind of contribution to society. 808s & Mates has actually existed for three years”, Jack said.

“It was a music talk show ran by multimedia students in the year above me who I was friends with. The name comes from Kanye West’s album, 808s & Heartbreak and the ethos of the show in those days was very much hip-hop related.”

It was Jack’s friendship with the pioneers of 808s & Mates, along with his growing interest in the hip-hop genre that led to him becoming involved in the show.

“I moved in with a guy called Craig who’s big into hip-hop and living with him got me into hip-hop. I had been mixing/DJing for around [four or five] years, but I was pretty much mixing electronic music exclusively. However, after moving in with Craig and becoming interested in hip-hop, I began mixing hip-hop. My new interest in hip-hop basically sparked me into wanting to get a platform to put a mix up online, so I got in touch with the guy who was running 808s & Mates and asked him whether he would be interested in having me on the show to play a hip-hop set.”

Jack would indeed be brought on to the show as a guest, which in those days was on DCU’s college radio station, DCU FM.

“Going on to the show as a guest really gave me a taste of the whole vibe of live radio and being in a proper radio studio. After doing the mix on the show, I fell in love with the whole idea of doing something like this myself and became really involved in the show. I started organising guests to come on to the show and we would interview them. It was a really loose format, like the quality of the shows weren’t very good, but it was more for me about the experience of doing it than anything else.”

Jack then spent the summer of 2018 over in Vancouver, where he came to the realisation that since the original people behind 808s & Mates had left DCU, they had also left him an opportunity.

“The lads leaving college pretty much left me with an open book. They already had a decent enough social media following of around 400 people on the 808s & Mates Facebook page, as well as winning the best radio show in DCU. So, I said to myself that I may as well keep it going and bring it on from there. At the end of the summer when I came home from Canada, I made out this big plan of what I wanted 808s & Mates to be and we went from there. But, what the show is now is almost completely different to the plan I had made initially and it has naturally progressed to what it is now.”

So, what does the future hold for 808s & Mates? Jack is realistic, yet optimistic and the show is moving full steam ahead.

“At the minute, we’re three episodes in and I feel we’ve had a nice variance of musical acts so far. On our first show we had our most reputable guest to date, DJ and journalist Shampain (Cóilí Collins). On the following episode we had Tristan Da Cunha on the show, who’s a hip-hop and alternative rock producer and on our most recent episode we had the rap group Rogue Poets on.

808s and mates logo. Credit: 808s and mates

“Tristan and Rogue Poets would be pretty small-scale and would have a similar following to what we have, but we figured that in trying to get the show to the next level in terms of gaining more of a following and general recognition from the public … [it would be] by having really good live performances on the show. We’re going to keep pushing on and trying to get acts on that are talented musicians and we’ll promote them through our live performances.

“Hopefully that will lead to us having the power and the social status to book bigger acts. Ideally, down the line we would like to have acts on the show of the ilk of Kojaque and the Villagers even. I know that this sounds deluded, even to myself, but I feel if we stay consistent to the brand and the message that we are trying to promote that we’ll eventually be able to do that.”

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December 13, 2018