FuZed SkillZ United Kingdom

Welcome to our third interview. Below we interview FuZed SkillZ, the winner of the 2nd Openmic Emcee Lyrical Tournament.

Goldmic: Tell us about when, how, and why you got into battling.

FuZed SkillZ: I'm 17 years old, been into decent hiphop for 3-4 years. I first started battlin in skool about 2 years ago, me and a coupla the hiphoppers would form a lil circle n kick a cypha or diss each other over some knackered cassette.

One of my boys told me bout the net as a resource and I started off wack as f'k on some small net sites bout a year ago, year and a half maybe.

I improved a lot before joining Openmic, and over the months I've been here I think I've improved more. The professionalism of this site is what made me stay- gettin the green writing on ya profile from pitting ur brain against someone else's entertains me a lot.

Goldmic: Who are some of your influences?

FuZed SkillZ: Influences....hmmm....I guess the rappers that I listen to who resemble my writing include Wordsworth, Tonedef, Copywrite, Pack FM, Rise etc
El-fudge too...they dope...too many to mention...Apathy, Eminem, Esoteric

J5 and Ugly Duckling too, they got that cohesive freshness a lotta groups lost thru the 90's. Black Thought and Dilated as live entertainers too.

Goldmic: In your profile you have chosen 'Intelligent' as your style, and members are becoming familiar with your punch laden approach to battling. Describe your battle style to us.

FuZed SkillZ: My recipe for success:
1. Create humourous punchlines.
2. Add wordplay to make personal disses off profiles, names, past experience.
3. Intersperse with impressive multis.
4. Mix syllables until it flows consistently.

Cook (other rapper) for about 20 (lines).

Goldmic: Openmic will be focusing on audio battles in the future, as it is the real test of emcee skills. Can you battle with a mic? Will you be getting involved with audio battles?

FuZed SkillZ: I got the abilities on my computer but unfortunately I need a lot of help with using Cool Edit Pro...I don't know shit about computers so if any of you could contact me bout it that'd be cool.

I don't got experience of prerecording on the net, but it's where I'm headin to next.

Goldmic: Have you written or recorded any non battle material?

FuZed SkillZ: To be honest, not really..I write for topicals or if there's sutn big on my mind, but I don't have the time I'd like to songwrite with.
I made a coupla tracks last summer on a four track, but it was all for fun really.

Goldmic: Besides practicing, what other approaches do you take to elevate your writing skills? (e.g.: read for inspiration, study other artists, etc.)

FuZed SkillZ: You'd be surprised how much punchline inspiration you can get from listening to people talk and reading the paper. In terms of spittin, you gotta try to do it naturally- there's no room in hiphop to be a double of someone else.

Goldmic: Tell us about the hip hop culture around Bristol and in UK in general. Do you get involved in emceeing outside the net?

FuZed SkillZ: Bristol is Britains' second hiphop city after London, Brighton is too. There's a dope graffitti scene which I dabble wit, and several pro breakin crews.
Hiphop artists from all over play here- we had Rahzel, Ugly Duckling, Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch all fairly recently, as well as the more nderground British crews- Aspects, Nextmen, Numskullz, Roots Manuva, Skitz etc.

Outside the net I ain't exactly a bigshot- I rip mics at house parties, function parties etc quite regularly.....at clubs occassionally too.
In fact I'm rhymin tomorrow night at a local club....the feelin is great when you kick it in front of a crowd and they shout for more...it's easy to see why professionals love touring.

Goldmic: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a UK rapper compared to a rapper from the US?

FuZed SkillZ: This is complex...I think the UK market is a highly critical one- you have to be innovative to get success here, rather than copy a SoSo Def money making formula, and even doing that, the financial rewards are small.

But hiphop is more innocent here, more true- record labels are independent and small and put music above image. US Gangstas would get laughed at over here.
Breakin on to the scene when money isnt an object isnt too hard.


Voice is an issue as well- i can't stand local dudes who rap in American accents, but then when real Americans flip it, it sounds ill too. Hiphop is an American thing, and it influences our sound, but doesnt control it.

Goldmic: Tell us who you think are some accomplished European rappers, if any?

FuZed SkillZ: In fact, there's entire record labels with ill rosters, but they all poor as f'k lol.
Hombre records is a fresh label based here- peep Bad-Magic too, that is an ILL label.
Ezra of Vinyl Dialect is in my opinion the worlds best REAL freestyler

Saian Supa Crew tho- they are soooooooo dope- they're the Parisian equivalent of J5-- i listen to them all the time

Goldmic: How well do you feel you'll be able to maintain your high rank among our more talented members and what do you think of the competition at Openmic so far?

FuZed SkillZ: Il n'y aura pas de problemes mes amies......I'm so dope I could whup the Top 40 in a foreign language lol.
More seriously, I think this is a comprehensive ranking system and it reflects the abilities here very accurately.

Anyone can have an off day, but.....I'll put it like this....there's no challenge I'd duck because I'd be sure to lose.

Goldmic: Is emceeing just a hobby or would you like to do something with it? What other things are you interested in or involved in right now? School?

FuZed SkillZ: Yeah I'm a student right now in my Sixth Form- tho i enjoy emceein very much, its more likely that i'll keep it as a small time thing- I'm kinda smart, so its not like music is my only chance of makin any cash.

I love hiphop and rhymin, but the business side of the music industry doesn't appeal to me- I intend on being my own boss as soon as possible.

Goldmic: If you were stranded in an island and could pick only one album to listen to, what would it be and why?

FuZed SkillZ: That's a tricky one- hiphop's got a lot of different elements and sounds. But I think I'd pick the Blackstar LP (bout 1997), Mos Def & Talib Kweli.
That has everything- wide range of production, technical illness plus an ability to phrase everything so beautifully.

A truly great album.

Goldmic: What types of music do you listen to?

FuZed SkillZ: Hiphop totally dominates my music collection- perhaps too much. Like I said though, hiphop is very broad for one genre.

Aside from that, I bump a bit of Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, R. Kelly etc ...maybe a little jazz

Goldmic: Any last remarks or shout outs?

FuZed SkillZ: On the site...shouts to the Moderators...erybody who feels my shit.

In particular props to Chope, Pro, T-dogg, Urot, Re-dogg.


Thanks for reading yo.

Goldmic: Thank you and good luck battling!