Capitol 1212: Can't Stop Won't Stop

Capitol 1212 are DJ Fly-T and Professa Fresh: producers, DJs, record label managers and international jet-setters who have worked with some of the greats of old school and golden age hip-hop, from The Jungle Brothers and Grandmaster Caz of Cold Crush, to Dizzy Dustin of Ugly Duckling and UK stars like Serocee.

Their recent collaborations with reggae and dancehall greats such as Tenor Fly and Edinburgh’s Daddy Scotty have hinted at a move towards a more soundsystem-oriented method of production, and with powerhouse emcee Profisee a regular guest on their tracks, the duo are planning an assault on the live scene in Europe. In addition to this, they have been releasing records by Professa Fresh’s other band, From The Cradle To The Rave, a genre-mashing punk versus drum and bass juggernaut. We caught up with them to get the lowdown on the successes of the last twelve months, and their plans for the future.

We last caught up with you in 2008, what's been happening?
Fly-T: There are three records that we’re making at the moment... Since the last time we spoke to The Skinny, we’ve been putting out records on our own label (Capitol 1212 Records). The three we are working on now will drop towards the end of the summer.

How’s it been going, pressing your own vinyl?
Fly-T: Yeah, it’s been good actually. Surprisingly good.

You’ve worked with emcees from all over the world. Has that helped you conquer new territory?
Professa Fresh: Yeah, definitely. It helps get your beats noticed. You could be sitting making the finest beats in the world in your own bedroom, but if you don’t get anyone on them then nobody is ever gonna hear it. You have to be active, try and get it out there. The first thing to do is try and spread the audience.

Fly-T: In some ways the collaborations we have done have been to draw attention to the band, and also they’ve been with artists who we're big fans of. It’s all about what songs go on what record... There is a thought process that goes into which tunes go together, and what that also pushes is the tracks we have done with underground artists, local artists and UK artists. We feature songs by them, and then on the same record you might have say, The Jungle Brothers or Dizzy Dustin of Ugly Duckling. So hopefully people might buy the record for the Ugly Duckling connection, and then they will also be exposed to these underground artists from Scotland and the UK. It works, like!

Do you still identify really strongly as a Scottish band?
Fly-T: I suppose we do!

Professa Fresh: There are a lot of artists up here who are really talented, and we feel proud to have been a part of that while growing up here and putting on nights.

Fly-T: I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re part of the hip-hop ‘scene’ in Scotland any more, but that is not because of any concept of division or anything...

Professa Fresh: I think we would have been part of the scene say, five years ago. But people who were part of the scene then, hopefully they’ve moved on to a different circuit, and new folks have come on the scene, doing free nights at Henry’s Cellar Bar and stuff like that. Hopefully in two or three years, they’ll be getting gigs in different countries too. There are always different levels, in any scene.

What about the old school hip-hop connection – all these dudes like Grandmaster Caz, Dizzy Dustin (of Ugly Duckling) and The Jungle Brothers – how did these collaborations come about?
Fly-T: A lot of it was luck... With some of these guys it was connections I had made years ago while DJing. I just sent out mixtapes to a couple of people in the States, just showing what’s going on in Scotland, hip-hop-wise. So one or two connections came from that, and then I think the mixtapes spread around these guys, because they all know each other: that’s one thing you find. It’s quite a small world.

You’re also involved in the band From The Cradle To The Rave, who play a mutant hybrid of drum and bass, ska and punk. How do these influences fit into your approach?
Professa Fresh: I guess that comes from listening to punk bands and thinking ‘I can do that too.’ I started out playing in a live punk band, and that led on to DJing and getting more involved in putting on nights and things like that. So punk has always been part of the music that I’ve listened to. But over time, I just wanted to bring everything together and put it into one project: drum and bass, reggae, ska, punk, dubstep. If I drop a punk song in a set and someone comes up and says "Why aren’t you playing a hip-hop tune?" my response would be: this is a hip-hop tune – I’m playing it in a hip-hop set, in a hip-hop style, cutting it up. We come from that old-school mentality: Kool Herc cutting up breaks at block parties, you know? You could play anything.

To what extent are you hip-hop purists?
Fly-T: I’m not a hip-hop purist at all. I’ll put my hand up: I think I was. When we made the first record we approached it in a very traditional hip-hop way. We wanted to use breaks that had never been used before, so we spent hundreds of pounds on records we knew no-one else had ever touched. But now we’ll throw on, say, the Aerosmith Walk This Way break (laughs). A lot of the hip-hop purists really liked the single we did with Tenor Fly for instance, which is on a much more dancehall vibe, and I don’t have an answer for why that is... I think the older I get, the more I listen to.

Going back to your collaborators, let’s talk about Profisee. Are you committed to promoting and pushing him towards an international audience?
Fly-T: Absolutely. We’ve been gigging in Holland and Germany recently, and one of the clubs picked up on the mixtape we’d done for Profisee, and gave out hundreds of copies before the gig. Everywhere we played seemed very interested in us coming back with a full live show back around Europe again, and Profisee would definitely be a big part of that. The next EP has got a real ‘soundsystem’ vibe to it – it is in the tradition of the big UK soundsystems – so it will include jungle, hip-hop, dancehall, ska... This time round, we’re both in the same place. Summer’s coming! So we’re making a big soundsystem record!

It looks like the summer belongs to Capitol 1212 – hold tight Scotland!