Frankie Stew has been making waves in the UK hip hop scene of recent times, raising the flag high for his Brighton-based counterparts. Whether it’s working on his own with his much-slept-on producer Harvey Gunn, or with his crew Concept Of Thought, Frankie brings a style of lyricism and production that places him somewhat on the brink of your ‘normal hip hop’, moreso into the realms of ‘informal poetry’. But this is far from a bad thing. In a time where we are swamped by lyrics about estate life, zuts and getting mashed on the weekends, it is nothing but refreshing to tone things down and relax to something a little different. We caught up with Frankie recently, and here’s what we discovered:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU9qtqVIfEs
HHIE
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Frankie StewI’m Frankie Stew, a proud member of the Gentlemen’s Club and the crew Concept Of Thought.
HHIEHow long have you been writing for? How did it all start?
Frankie StewHmm I’ve been writing about 2 years now maybe less, well I’ve always been into writing even from when I went to school I’ve enjoyed writing stories and poems.
I’ve always had like a passion for the way words can work and how you use them in different ways, but me personally writing lyrics was something I started about a year and a half ago. I was around and friends with a few people making hip hop music and writing themselves, so I got involved. And that’s how it started I would say.
How do you write your bars?
Frankie StewMost of the time I write my lyrics outside. I feel I get more inspired. That’s if I’m not in the studio writing to a beat that’s just been shown to me.
HHIEWhat inspires you?
Frankie StewI get inspiration from certain situations or circumstances I find myself in. But altogether a lot of different things inspire me (laughs) there’s too much to say really.
HHIEDoes your taste in music extend far beyond hip hop?
Frankie StewYeah of course. For example I mostly listen to experimental music or literally anything. There’s so much different genres of music I love listening to. More so than hip hop most of the time.
HHIEYou have an unmistakably ‘chilled’ style that differs from a lot of hip hop we come across. Do you intend to write bars that lead to this style, or do they seem to naturally fall into place over the beats that you choose?
Frankie StewI would say they just come out like that as I’m quite a relaxed person myself and so are the people I be with. But yeah I guess I try to get my songs as chilled or as meaningful as I can.
HHIEDo you prefer working with a group, or on your own? What was it like creating Painting on Silence?
Frankie StewIn all honesty I prefer working by myself on a project because I know exactly what I want the outcome to be and no one else has a say in it. But I love working with Harvey Gunn because he is also a very close friend and 9 times out of 10 we want to do exactly the same thing with our music, and we both feel that we got a good connection going on. Making Painting on Silence was a good experience, as there’s 3 of us in the crew so we wrote most of the EP together at Barret’s (Illiterate) yard. It was our first release and I feel our next release as a crew will be twice as good, simply because half of it was written about a year ago when I had just started to get my writing down properly. I feel we all have much more to talk about now and our writing has gotten tighter.
HHIEHow did it feel to rub shoulders with some of the big names in UK Hip Hop at the moment (i.e. Dirty Dike and Ed Scissortongue)? Can we expect more in the future?
Frankie StewYeah it was a great experience and I learnt a lot from making music alongside heads that were some of the UK’s biggest names at the time. I was 16 at the time so I felt odd meeting people whose music I had been listening to for a long while, but they came down from London to our studio and they’re blessed guys so it was cool making tracks with them. I’m personally looking to work with a few artists I love this year, not saying names though just in case it doesn’t happen haha. But Concept of Thought-wise I’m sure we’ll be working with them again and other UK heads.
HHIEOn a similar note, what/who would define your ‘ultimate collaboration’?
Frankie StewMy ‘ultimate collaboration’ would have to be Blu, Phonte, Sene, The Roots… there’s so many people I could mention (laughs).
HHIEAre you interested in any other form of art?
Frankie StewYeah sure. I don’t do it personally but I have a few friends who graff which I’m fairly interested in.
HHIEWhat was it like making the video for Zhoung Guo? Did you have a hand in editing it? Any more videos on the way?
Frankie StewReally fun. It was my boy Liam White who filmed and edited it. We just went up to China town and got licked in the day and looked for locations, then when night time came we started shooting. We had no form of speakers so I had my phone playing the beat and my phone was in my hood as i walked along tryna listen out for when I needed to come in with my verse (laughs). Yeah loads more to come in the near future, with lots of different editors and film makers. I’m looking forward to it.
HHIEWhat is a typical day like in the life of Frankie Stew?
Frankie StewAt the moment I’m just waiting to start my new job next week, but usually write some lyrics maybe. I dunno, the same things everyone else does (laughs) eat food, get high (not that much anymore).
HHIEWhat are your views on the current state of the scene?
Frankie StewThere’s good things and there’s bad things, but overall I dunno, it’s okay. There’s a lot of hate out there at the same time as there’s love for artists. There’s things I love about it and also things that I fucking hate, like you come across some weird weird people who literally do nothing but listen to UK hip hop and that’s all they know. I think that’s sad, but that’s just me. There’s also great support and really cool heads about and I’ve met a lot of people and good friends through making hip hop.
HHIEWhat is your opinion of a site like this? Do you think it is important for heads to be able to have readable lyrics?
Frankie StewI mean if people wanna see the lyrics and read through them then a site like this is perfect right? Really cool idea by the way I rate it.
HHIEPlans for the future? College, work or neither?
Frankie StewStart a new job soon, and I go to college in September which I’m looking forward to. We’ll see how that turns out.
HHIEShout outs?
Frankie StewShout outs to Tyni, GC players, Rum Committee, BC.
Thanks once again Frankie for taking the time to chat with us!