Getting lost in Kings Cross station
isn't funny… because whether you say ‘take a left’ or ‘take a right’ you're benefiting
no one but your Walkometer.
I’m stood outside Costa. A man plays the
piano providing an element of tranquillity as the cleaners chase people, who
were ignorantly walking over the freshly mopped floor. A Michael Kors bag whacks my breasts as
I try to peer over the crowds of people, in search for a dreadlock pineapple.
Well, after several phone calls, we came to realise that we were BOTH lost. It was like an unintentional game of hide and seek but I eventually met 4i. I arrived with that glamorous natural hair-blowing-in-the-wind and something-in-my-eye-but-I'll-keep-smiling look, but he was really cool about it and so we proceeded to sit in a nearby Starbucks.
Hot coffee air, walls covered in coffee bean timelines, people hypnotized by their screens and then there was us engaging in a conversation deeper than Starbuck’s pockets.
Yes, he goes by “4i”. Dominic began to laugh upon reflection of his
past regretful tag-names. A North London rapper, who refuses to confine himself
in a specific genre, as his music shuffles from poetry to Soul, sometimes
dipping into Drum and Base but is also influenced by Reggae rhythms and Hip-hop.
His recent mixtape “Soul Rich” dropped in December 2014 and was launched through
his Paradime Collective, a group of equally artistic talented minds that helped
to celebrate Dominic’s body of work.
But, it’s 4i’s music videos that put the rapper’s journey into context.
From the very first video “Headhunters” when his hair was in the brushed-out
pony tail stage, the lyrics speak on the grind as he reflects on his pride,
which is visually depicted in a rush of time-lapses, showing Barnet crowds, his
gym flow and a few faces from the Paradime crew. Now, “Soul Rich” includes ear
pricking vocals and optimism but lyrics that relate, delivering his progression
as an artist and the professionalism of his team.
I’ve done a bit of
working in my life and my soul just tells me: ‘that is not where you were
supposed to be.'
Did this stem from
school do you think?
I wasn’t so anti-system it was more like ‘why?’ Like one
plus one equals two…why? Do you know what I mean? ‘Oh cos that plus sign means
you’ve got to add it together’…but WHY?
I was always that guy,
it just didn’t make sense to me, but obviously that led me to getting into
trouble d’d’d’d’duh, before you know it I was that little rebel at school.
Not even a whole minute went by and I had already dived into
the ocean of 4i’s philosophical brain waves.
How did it all start
then?
The story of how I
wrote my first verse…I was going through my dad’s CD collection…I don’t know if
you know of KRS-One? 90’s Bronx, its proper old school! I heard one track
called ‘Criminal Minded’ I must have been 13, 14 at that time… I was like ‘this
just sounds so sick.’ And then literally from there, I began chopping up a
beat, then wrote my first verse and that’s just how it started.
Your lyricism reminds
me of Akala, obviously it’s not that political, but it’s that intelligent…
I was actually at a
show with him the other day.
Whaaat, really?
Yeah, he’s a sick performer. But, no it’s funny you say that
cos I’m tryna’ find that balance to make music where people can vibe to it,
move to it, but there’s still some substance there as well. I feel Akala is
very political, he really wants to put a message across and there’s nothing
wrong with that, I really rate people who do that cos we need that.
So how did you go
from writing your first verse to becoming 4i?
I was sat at the back of the bus and I was writing down
notes on my phone and I just came across 4i, like the number four with the
letter I, it looked really cool…Something just resonated. Basically like, the
number four in numerology has real characteristics that represent me as a
person and I was like ‘that sounds like me, that genuinely sounds like me!’ And
the ‘I’ is that level of being aware of everything around you, and I’ve got
like a little phrase which basically goes ‘4 is the vibe and I is the vision.’
Not going to lie,
when I googled ‘4i’ I couldn’t find much, why is that?
It’s just part of the growth of an independent artist. You
gotta’ do everything yourself, I’ve been kind of on-the-low doing my thing, but
now we’re really pushing. Before it was the case of finding the music, finding
ourselves. But, you’ve definitely found me at a very early time.
Are you into spoken
word as well?
In certain songs … I’ll listen to and I’ll be like ‘hmmm,
you can’t put a hook here, you can’t really go hard with the bars here, what
can you put here? Ah let’s open it up to some spoken word.’ ... it makes you
realise what you are ACTUALLY saying, cos lots of people rap in front of a
beat, but you take away those beats. People get to hear what the lyrics are
about and the substance and the concept rather than just the music and someone
bopping their head to it.
I listened to “One
Song Away” and you mention using a YouTube beat….
Ah, yeah! Give me a second, I have to remember this! Errr…’You
hear this beat I didn’t even lease it, downloaded it off YouTube cos that’s
what you do when producers give you stupid quotes like ‘who are you though?’
can’t you see I’m numero uno’ yeah yeah!...
How did you progress
from a YouTube beat in ‘One Song Away’ to ‘Soul Rich’?
Shout out to DA, like
a really close friend of mine, he does all the production. And it works so well
with where my mind is at, where I’m trying to go with my music. That’s why I act
funny working with any other producer
because I’ve created such a chemistry…they don’t have that spark of inspiration
and creativity.
I’m working within a
team of close friends, it’s called ‘Paradime.’ So we’ve got my brother Karl who
does production, design, he’s also an actor as well, we have DA who does
producing, there’s a rapper called Patch he’s about to drop his Pirate E.P
that’s coming out, we have Xon who does all the video-graphing, Jonathan again,
cameras, editing… Shout out to the whole team. Bobby, Levi, who else is there
man?
If it was possible… Dominic would be combing through his
dreads to find every single person he’s missed off the list.
A woman’s hand, thick with dead skin, poverty and
hopelessness waved around in front of us.
“Sorry, I’m just
tryna’ get enough for a coffee,” she said as she revealed her unkempt
teeth.
“Nah I haven’t got
anything sorry.”
And she left in time to ask a business man who was busy
brushing his shoulder off. (No Jay-Z).
...Erm, why do I feel
like I’ve missed someone so important from the team? We want to be the pioneers
of our field together.
What’s the one song,
which you’ve written that really hit you?
The one that I had a
real connection with is ‘Live to Love’ which is the last one because I think it’s
so relevant for our time right now. Like just scrap the skill, scrap the
metaphors, scrap everything just listen to the message, you know what I mean.
That really came from a pure place. But yeah, they all come from an honest place!
Why are your lyrics
so clean?
I was raised as a
Jehovah’s Witness, so swearing was already forbidden in my household and as a
child if I swore that was like…the wooden spoon would come straight out you
know.
It’s incredibly
degrading. I’ve come across more women hence why I don’t really talk about
hoes. Because I’ve never really experienced that sort of element of a woman, well
I have but…
And on the n word, for
me it’s the history of where it comes from. As much as people like to sugar
coat it and say ‘we’ve changed it now’, it’s really not cool.
What’s ‘Deep Space’
about?
When you’re in a
relationship there’s this constant ‘ah what you doing?’, ‘come see me’ and
there’s times where it’s just like ah you just wanna’ be by yourself. It was
inspired by a true experience and I wasn’t even with the person, that’s what
killed it. I was just like *kmt* I’m just not on it man, ‘I’m in deep space
right now and I’ll get at you when I can.’ I think it’s something that everyone
experiences it, everyone talks about it but I’ve never heard it in a song
before.
What are some U.K
artists that inspire you?
I don’t really listen
to U.K artists.
Why?
I have no real reason.
I listen to a lot of music from the U.S and I listen to a lot of Reggae. I mean
I think who really inspires me right now is Wretch 32, I’m a big fan of Wretch
32 and have been for years.
Why does he stand out?
I feel that there’s
loads of lyricists in the UK but few of them who are making moves right now… he’s
one of the very few artists that I’d love to work with. I definitely don’t
listen to UK rap apart from Wretch 32, nah like all this trap stuff nah not for
me.
I stay away from this
‘UK scene’ I feel there’s so much pollution within it. There’s a lot of talent
but there’s a lot of monsters as well…just dead music, rappers rapping the same
words, the same flows on the same deep voices…
What about female
artists?
I don’t know how to
pronounce her name, it’s like scissor or…S, Z, A? She is dope. Her sound is
wicked! There’s another artists who I’ve been listening to her a lot, it’s
Rapsody, she’s from the states and she’s got a dope flow.
Have you ever
diverted?
From, music? Nah.
Music is in me. I can’t run away from music like I can’t run away from my
hands. There have been times, where I’ve thought ‘is the music industry, like
what comes with it, is that what I wanna do?’ Nah, I’ve never thought twice, if
I blow up or if I don’t blow up.
Who inspires you, musically?
I mean, I’m a big fan
of Kendrick Lamar cos I just think what he’s able to do with his music, the
concepts that he puts forward, it just sounds so sick. The things he talks
about, it’s just so relevant. J. Cole is another artist that I’m a big fan of.
Artists like Lauryn
Hill, The Fugees, big fan of Bob Marley, Tu-Pac, Nas, KRS-One. I think Common
is sick his album ‘The Dreamer, The Believer’ is one of the best Hip-hop
albums, no one really spoke about it but when I heard it I was like ‘Oh my days!!!’
Easily one of my best Hip-hop albums, alongside Illmatic, alongside ‘good Kid
M.A.A.D City.’
What have you been up
to?
I want to create
visuals for 80% 70% of the tape. I put a freestyle out in January. Performing
wherever I can. Just as an individual artist, you gotta’ be your own everything
you know. I got a few shows lined up coming up to summer and it’s just staying
active.
Me and DA got two projects already; they are there it’s just a matter of timing.
Do you make time to
write?
I do make time to
write…Sometimes, I’ll sit down to write, I’ll have my pad and my pen and I’ll
be playing beats, like three hours of them and I haven’t written anything so…I
try to make it a natural process rather than too much thought behind it, I just
let it come out.
Did you watch the
Grammy awards?
No I didn’t watch them.
Have you seen any
award shows recently?
I don’t… watch TV.
Well there’s a debate
about the under representation of POC in recent award shows, what’s your view on
that?
This is very complex, it’s
quite deep. I mean …Why do you feel that you need that, in order for you to
feel like your work has been appreciated?
There’s a lot of
discrimination involved, I don’t know the ins and outs, but these events are predominantly
white events founders, chairman’s you know. So, it doesn’t surprise me at all.
You’ve got all these
people now like ‘ahhh how can Macklemore beat Kendrick?!’ I completely agree.
But ask them if they ever bought Kendrick’s album? The people who run this,
they don’t care who’s a better rapper, they care about statistics… And that’s
all they can look at because they’re so disconnected with what’s current right
now.
There’s so much,
corruption, deception and lies that people drive themselves mad to find the truth.
So how do you find
gratification in music?
I had this girl from
Botswana who messaged me saying ‘ah you’re music is so great for us, it means
so much to us!’ For me, that’s like *dusts hands* job done. Some guy from
America…was like, ‘Soul Rich,’ it made every day so much easier for him. And,
yeah man that’s SO much more important than some piece of material they’ve put
together and carved your name into, you know?
Are you a spiritual
person?
It’s very personal,
it’s just for ‘you.’ But, it’s funny cos I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness
when I was younger. My parents are still Jehovah’s Witness now and me, I’ve
kind of gone on my own little journey. Just being like, okay that’s one
molecule of the bigger picture, let me go out there and explore for myself and
see what else is out there. And that’s the journey I’m on right now.
Why did you choose to
grow dreads?
What dreads represent
to me, is honesty its truth, it stands for….I don’t wanna say ‘individuality’
but it says so much about a person in terms of patience that someone will have
in order to grow dreadlocks. When Samson’s hair was cut off he lost his strength,
it took away his manhood and dreads are associated with lions, being strong
being fierce but at the same time protecting your family. Hence why I thought ‘let
me get them,’ once you lock them up *kisses his teeth* I don’t have to touch
them.
Where do you see
yourself in the near future?
…in my mind I don’t
know where I’ll be. Where I would like to be in the future, is touring the
world with my music.
How do you escape
from music?
Gym. Back in the day I
used to run for Great Britain, a couple of times. What it was, I kind of got a
bit injured then lost motivation, desire. I wanted to do some natural body
building as well, we’ll see where that goes… when I kinda re-evaluate myself I must sound
so boring, cos I don’t watch TV, I don’t like fashion, I’m just so like…oooh
*face palms his sentences in the air* stay away from all that stuff.
So do you not listen
to the news?
Nahh.
Do you not think it’s
important?
I believe ‘news’ is
important, I don’t believe what we’re being fed is true. I do watch news, but
it’s from outside sources …There’s no “okay we have this crisis people, these
are our alternatives of what we can do, these are our solutions d-d-d-d-duh
this is the problem, and this is what the government is going to … a lot of it
is negative so it has a subconscious effect on people and they’re not realising
it.
Do you vote?
No.
Why?
Because, I don’t believe that you can change this world by
putting someone’s name in a ballet. It doesn’t make any sense to me. They never
stick to their word, and there’s a saying…they’re like
‘different sheets on the
same bum.’
But some people truly
believe that your vote does count…
If you look at
politics throughout history, there’s always been an agenda already set. Its
making people think there is a democracy but there isn’t. Well, I don’t believe
there is. It’s divide and conquer, going back to Alexander the Great, they
divide you through religion, class, whatever it may be cos it’s easier to
control. They know that when people come together they are powerless.
What was it like when
you met Justin Timberlake?
Ah you saw that! Yeah,
that was surreal man. Okay, not surreal but VERY real.
What were you talking
about?
…one of his managers
came out and we were just talking about music and I told him I’m an artist as
well. And he went ‘yo, spit some bars man’ and I rapped some bars and then he
goes ‘I need to get JT out here’ then Justin Timberlake came out… he was like
‘yo man, waddup?’ We were just talking about music and like being at that level
where, where else is there to go? He’s just one of the best musicians in our
era, in terms of dancing and music…he’s so so talented.
Do you think there’ll
be a time where you’ll be rewarded financially with your music?
I want to be able to
live off my music. Where I want to wake up, go to the studio and know I’m being
paid for it, you know and provide for people around me. I also want to open up
schools and colleges and youth clubs, I’d love that.
Two hours with 4i provided a spectacle of a spiritual and intellectual reality of the inquisitive rapper who lies behind the Paradime masquerade.
What do you fear?
If you're into lyrical orgasms too, check him out!!!
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