Ellay Khule

Seit annähernd zwei Dekaden ist Ellay Khule nun bereits im Rap Geschäft unterwegs und machte sich durch seinen unverwechselbaren “Chop-Hop”-Style und zahlreichen Auftritten in den Mic-Spots von Los Angeles einen Namen unter Kennern der Westcoast-Underground Szene. matt2.9 traf den Freestyle Veteran kurz vor seinem Support-Auftritt für die Aceyalone Deutschland-Tour in Berlin.

 

Ellay Khule, please introduce yourself.I am Ellay Khule aka Rifleman from the Hip Hop Kclan. Westcoast Project Blowed underground music.

Ok, let us know a little bit more about your background. How long have you been rappin’ for, which were your first influences, how did it all start?

Me, personally, I’ve been rappin’ since I would say about ’86-’87 as a little kid. My whole family are all musicians, my mother’s a singer, my father is a saxophone player. So I just happen to be born in the area of Hip-Hop and I picked up on Hip-Hop so you know I been rappin’, freestylin’ since the mid 80’s, but uh, seriously since the early 90s. Since the Good Life.

So, what kind of music are you listening to? You just said before you were born into a family of musicians…

My musical taste is a real wide variation. I would go in to like Old School Hip-Hop, like Run D.M.C., Fatboys, Whodini, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Kool G Rap, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys. And also I would say, like, Malcolm MacLaren, Afrika Bambaata, Kraftwerk, which was a big influence on Hip-Hop and Westcoast Hip-Hop, which a lot of Germans don’t know, but, we was listening to a lot of Kraftwerk back in the day – “Numbers”, “Tour De France”, all of that shit, cause we was poplocking, breakdancing, to all of that music, and you know, we thought that was just Hip-Hop at the time. You know, we didn’t know there was a difference, somebody from another country, we didn’t know, we was like “that’s Hip-Hop right there” you know. So, even that and also shit like, uh, they called it in the US the British Invasion with like Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, shit like that. Before Rap really came into forefront in America we had to listen to all that music that was good. You know, before Rap really even came forward. That’s how Rap came. You take this music from a country, make something from disco, take this from, you know, the Hip-Hop or some Jamaican shit and then mix it with some Jazz. And that’s how you get the beginning of Hip-Hop right there. So, me personally, I’m influenced by a lot of music, it could be 70s music, Earth Wind & Fire, Temptations, shit like that, whatever, I just like music.

I guess a lot of people sampled that music to create their own music. Which leads me to the next question: Are you producing also, or…

Uh, I mean, I don’t call myself a producer, but I have done some tracks like, my group, Hip-Hop Kclan have a CD called Thomakazee, which I produced myself. So, I do some production but I don’t really just consider myself a producer. I’m really a lyricist, you know, that’s my no. 1 forefront. That’s my profession but, yeah, I can do beats as well.

Please, tell us something about that Rodeo-Bounce-Fast rap craze. I read something on the homepage about that.

Yeah, yeah, that’s, I mean, that’s just a style that a lot of people try to claim that they invented it. But that’s just one of the styles that we were trying early on in ’98-’90 at the Good Life. ’89-’90, ’91, you know, where we would try to make rap a little different, make it faster, make it more creative, with Jazz influences, uh, Jamaican, Patois, Dancehall styles involved in it. So, that was just a style that we came up with but at the time we didn’t have a name but later on, other MC’s started doin’ it and they started making a name for it so we had to tell people like, yeah, we created that. That Rodeo-Fast Rappin’, Chop-Hop. Whatever you wanna… bouncin’, all of that shit. That shit started in L.A. on the underground ’89 and ’90. Freestyle Fellowship, CVE, Hip-Hop Kclan, OMD, we’ve been doin’ that shit for years.

 

Ok, cool. So, “Califormula” is your first official album, is that right?

No, that’s my second official album. My first official album was “Riflemania”, which also came out, you know, on a label, in a plastic wrap and a barcode and all of that shit, you know. Yeah, so, Riflemania came out in about, uh, 1998, 1997, some shit like that. But, “Califormula” would be my first one that had a bigger push behind it, internationally, as far as you can see it in more stores, international, in different countries, different states. So, yeah, it’s been my own solo album that’s had a bigger push behind it, yeah.

Ok, so what is it all about? Like, what are you rappin’ about…?

“Califormula” is more me, being a creative MC and doin’ creative Hip-Hop and not just rappin’ like, what you see on TV, and what you hear on the radio. You know, just bling-bling, bitches, booties, champagne, hustlin’, money. I’m just tryin’ to be as creative as possible. And that’s what “Califormula” is, and I put a lot of the old styles that we did, and some new styles, and I featured, like, MCs, Acey (Aceyalone; Anm. d. Verf.) is on my album, 2 Mex, Pterradacto, Busdriver and Abstract Rude.

Alright, you’re here in Germany right now. How do you like it so far?

It’s cool. It’s my third time in Germany and my third time in Berlin. So, it’s, I mean, it’s just like being in New York or L.A. to me. You know, it’s only a language difference of what I see, ’cause, they got more bombs, as we say, graffiti, they have more bombs in Germany that in fucking any country in the world.

Yeah, Berlin is big for graffiti.

Everywhere, we’ve been driving. Everywhere, you gonna see bombs, everywhere. While in the States, you’re not gonna see as many. You gonna see some bombs, but, I mean, every fucking city, every state out here, every freeway-crossing, any spot where they can throw some graffiti up, they puttin’ it up. And I love that shit, that’s Hip-Hop right there. No matter if you punk rocking, skateboarding, if you throwing bombs on the wall, and all that, that’s Hip-Hop. So, I love this here. Berlin is a great city.

Are you working with artists from abroad? Like, German music, do you know a lot of German rappers, German producers?

 

Yeah, I’ve worked with M.O.R., Masters Of Rap, I’ve worked with Taktloss, I’m trying to do some things with Fuat, Turkish rapper from Germany, but who moved back to Turkey. Yeah, all the local rappers from out here, DJ Nimrod, a couple of people from Erfurt, uh, Jamaba, that is my folks from out there. So there’s a lot of people. Whover doin’ dope stuff. And one of my producers on the “Califormula” album who did “Who’s Killing Hip-Hop?” is a German producer called Keyza Soze. Yeah, so that’s my boy.

Are you interested in politics somewhat? I mean, did you get to know something about Germany politics?

I didn’t really see a lot of German politics, because, you know, of course it’s in German, so I couldn’t understand what they’re talking about. The only TV we can get is CNN and the BBC. English shit and that’s worldwide problems, you know, the Ruanda problem… I haven’t seen a lot of German politics as of the present politics so I’m not even sure what’s going on out here as far as the politics.

Yeah ok, but then have you heard of the bird flu?

Bird flu, yeah yeah!

So what you think about that?

Man, I don’t know what’s up with the bird flu. I just hope it don’t get to where I’m at so. Well, I mean, I eat a lot of chicken. It might make me stop eaten birds if that shit gets to where I’m at. I might become back a strict vegetarian like I used to be.

So you used to be a vegetarian?

Yeah, for like a year or two. I was a vegetarian, you know, didn’t eat any meat.

And, for which reasons?

There was a lot of reasons. You know, for things you read in the bible, things you hear on the street. When you get older and learn about animal’s life, nature, and you know, sometimes, you look at things different, but, I mean, life changes with every day and every week. So, how I looked at shit when I was 22, I might now look at when I’m 30. You know what I mean, so, it just changes, you know. I try to eat the best that I can and do the best that I can but we all have things that we put to our bodies, that we might not, like, you know, drinking, smoking, whatever it might be. So I don’t try to make that a lot. You know, so that’s why I was a vegetarian for a while. But, with that bird flu, I might be a vegetarian again.

Yeah, that’s crazy…

That’s fucked up.

Uhm, ok, back to your music. Are you excited about the show tonight?

Oh yeah, I’m excited about every show. And I hope to blow this show up, you know, like on a lot of other shows that I do. So, I hope it’s a good show. It looked like it’s a good crowd, so, I’ll be up in like 15 minutes. You can ask me after I blow up.

Anything you’d like to tell the people who read this interview? Or any last shout-outs, thank-yous, anything like that?

I’d just say, just keep pumpin’ good Hip-Hop music, weather it’s underground, commercial, shit I don’t give a fuck what it is, just play good music. Westcoast, we tryin’ to do the best that we can with the music we put out. Projectblowed.com, ellaykhule.com, curbserver.com, you know, and one love to all the Europeans who keep pumpin’ that Hip-Hop progression. I love Europe, keep pumpin’ that music.

Alright, thank you very much.