Nafees: Bohemian Rap-Soldier

Nafees is earnest as he walks in, and ready to talk. His hand, cold from the walk, goes straight to mine. We meet in Glasgow's west end beside the university he attends, in a café so hip it has its own Myspace. From chatting about music in general on our way downstairs, we get talking about Nafees' first experiences. First infected with spine-tingling lyrics at the age of 11 when he heard Nas doing his thing on If I Ruled the World, Nafees says it was actually Freddie Mercury who made it clear to him that he had to be in the music game: "I saw some of his performances, and decided I wanna give something back to the world the way he did."

Freddie needs no introduction, clearly. I sure as hell wasn't expecting him to be the first name out of the MCs mouth as an influence, but the more Nafees shares, the more it makes perfect sense. "I love performing," he says. "If I'm performing to one person, or one hundred, or one thousand; I love performing." When you think of how some big MCs perform live, it does seem apt to channel someone as engaging as the late and great Mr. Mercury. "The element that MCing added was the fact that you do not have to compromise what you want to say," he says.

Nafees doesn't set limits on his musical direction either, working with all sorts of producers for his latest mixtape, The Art of Keeping It (Sur)real: Aroara is giein it laldy in folk rock style, Dan Monox acts as techno collaborator, and even Aeroplane Dope gets in on the action (see our LP review on P50 for more info). He spits over an eclectic mix of beats - so many that the record couldn't really be anything other than hip hop. "It's in my nature," he reckons, "I've always been different." His love of eclecticism connects with his love of multiculturalism, and he cites public attitudes as an influence on just how many styles he brings to the table.

Nafees was interviewed on London radio recently and was with confusion: "They were kinda surprised when I said Queen, Freddie Mercury, was my biggest influence. They said hip hop and grime MCs are all about this hard macho street image, and they would never admit to [liking Queen], but I think it's just that they hadn't come across someone who admits to that. Well, I don't care what the images are, where the boundaries are. I'm just going to be honest."

Honesty is working for him, and working to his advantage: "I think it's vital to appeal to people. There's self expression, and there's self expression that appeals to people and that not only expresses the artist, but the opinions of many people."

He asks of great albums gone by, "Is music going to consistently live up to this level?". He says he remains optimistic, but you get the feeling Nafees isn't just going to watch what happens. "In the great tradition of music, in the way that all those people who have inspired me, and inspire other artists, I hope I can inspire other artists too," he says. His personal drive is strong, and it makes you wonder who will be citing his name as an influence in interviews ten years down the line, and just what will they sound like? [Dalai Dahmer]