EDINBURGH FEATURE: Sweet E: Underground Exposure

Northern Exposure's first mixtape included many moments of unparalleled ghetto documentary – tracks like The Greed, The Grime ("The greed, the grime, the ghetto, the guns / My boy's smokin' crack with his heart-broken Mum") and Halal The Beef left listeners in no doubt as to Sweet E and Ibrahim's commitment to realism and spirituality. Rather than getting stuck in the studio, they simply toured and toured, making connections and collaborating live with Skinnyman and Blak Twang, and even US legends like Naughty By Nature and Mos Def.

Flicking through a huge stack of pictures of herself with hip-hop legends, Sweet E is confident, but humble about her experiences: "That's how hip-hop rolls," she explains. "Hip-hop's still a subculture, especially here in Scotland. There's a lot of big shows popping off, but people need to be like, 'Rah! I'm bringing this artist. Bring your voices, get on the mic, let's do this.' Instead they do it all individually, and the show isn't even a proper show. It's about collaboration. It has to be a 'we' thing."

Sweet E is ferociously intelligent, and completely devoted to her ideals. "We're not willing to compromise our message. It doesn't matter how much money you offer us. I used to work as a fashion model, and during that time people offered me the world; offered me so many zeroes, I can't even remember. All I needed to do was dance about in a short skirt, wear make up and hair extensions, and shave my ass. Take someone like Beyonce. When I was young, she was coming out with tracks like Nasty Girl: "Nasty put some clothes on." Now she's doing the opposite of that. I'm quite disappointed in my peers and the people that came before me for not creating a more wholesome environment for me. That's why when I look around at the people in my hood, when I see how impoverished they are in terms of integrity, morale – in terms of what they value in life - there's only a certain percentage of that I can say they are responsible for."

As she sees it, hip-hop is being infiltrated and run by people who have no clue about its meaning: "There are too many people who are the gatekeepers to the industry who don't want to see real music being made. The audiences get complacent. We were supporting Fatman Scoop. The crowd only really got off their arses when he came on. I mean - he's not a rapper! All he did was shout over somebody else's tracks, but so many people came to show love. I thought, 'Well, if that's the way it's gonna be...' It's selling out, because they'd rather spend money on an American artist for ten, fifteen quid than support a local artist."

We talk about Britain's class structure, and Sweet E brings it back to the origins of the slave trade: "When I walk past the back of Waverly and see the Fleshmarket... maybe the average Scottish person doesn't think: 'This is where my brothers and sisters were murdered.' But this is what I think. I'm even thinking about renouncing my own Scottish-ness, because people don't know their history. Scots were among the first slaves, even before there were black slaves. When you go to places like Jamaica, which were slave repositories – places where slaves were basically left to die – that's when you start seeing the similarities. You meet a Jamaican with ginger hair, and he's talking about his Mammie, using all these Scottish words. That's why it's so important for us to communicate."

In terms of new material and performances, the NrnExpo family have been busy of late, with Sweet E working as Assistant Director on a film, and her brother currently in Japan making moves with DJ Haruka, among others. I was played top-secret cuts of new tracks, which displayed a new reggae direction. "I'd like to classify Northern Exposure as world music," says Sweet E. "We work with a whole range of different artists – reggae beats, hip-hop beats, any kind of beats. We're trying to get people to listen to the message, as opposed to just the beats."

Sweet E is in no hurry to sign with a major label, despite gaining recognition from brands such as Evisu and Puma. "Hip-hop is a life thing," she says. "It's out there; it's in opposition to other ideologies. But it's important not to get lost in hip-hop, because at the end of the day it comes form suffering. It's important not to let that suffering grip you. Once you've touched it and felt it, use it as a vehicle to propel you, but don't get caught up in that sadness, in that pain, use it as a fuel to go forward. Use it to help you to come to knowledge."