Category Archives: Interviews

Mixmaster MSC Interview

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Planned as a new City in the 60s and developed through the 70s Milton Keynes was designed to be a “City in the forest” between London and Birmingham. Residents of London began migrating to Milton Keynes in the late 60s and continued through the 70s and early 80s. By the mid 80s the first wave of hip hop crews were taking to the streets of the new City and by the end of the 80s Milton Keynes like many other towns and cities had its own fledgling hip hop scene that would lead to several artists and crews taking their talent out of the bedroom and on to the streets. Break to the beat recently had the opportunity of catching up with and interviewing one of the City’s pioneering Hip Hop DJs Mixmaster MSC.


Mixmaster MSC was not only the first to hold it down for Milton Keynes on the Turntables but was also involved in the City’s first breakdance crew called “Asiatic Soul” as well as being the backbone to Milton Keynes very first Hip Hop crew called ”DDC”. Mixmaster MSC along with his crew made a name Continue reading →

Killa Joul Interview

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MC Killa Joul broke on to the local hip hop scene in 1993 as part of the Buckingham based hip hop crew the Justice Element. Since picking up the mic Killa Joul has recorded and released materiel independently as well as working with Milton Keynes based hip hop collective True Element. During his time with True Element Killa joul had the opportunity to perform on the National circuit doing live shows and appearing on radio stations before learning to play guitar and sing. Break to the beat recently caught up with MC Killa Joul to hear his story and to talk about his involvement in the hip hop scene as well as to find out about his latest hip hop project entitled The Cure.


So to kick off the interview tell the readers when you started rapping and how you got involved in the local hip hop scene?

I got into the hip hop scene when I started 6th form at Buckingham school in 1993, Kraze One was in my form at the time and I think we started speaking due to a shared love of hip hop music. He knew a lot more about it then me, was into the British scene that I didn’t even know existed really, and had a massive record collection (still has). I knew about the American stuff but he turned me on to artists like Gunshot, Hijack and The Criminal Minds. We started making demos with one turntable and using break beats from Simon Harris’s break beats and scratches records and a dodgy mic from Curry’s! Continue reading →

Overlord X Interview

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Break to the beat recently had the honer of catching up with and interviewing one of Hip Hop in the UKs godfathers Overlord X. Overlord X along with the X Possee put their home borough of Hackney, London and the entire UK on the hip hop map back in the late 80 and early 90s giving us 3 outstanding LPs that were not only an inspiration but for many an introduction to British rap music. Overlord X’s contributions to the UK music scene over the years have been nothing short of outstanding and has provided us with both thought provoking intellectual lessons in life as well as timeless hip hop classics. Any readers not familiar with Overlord X & The X Possee’s work should check the Overlord X Discography & Review article posted a few months ago on break to the beat.   


Taking things right back to the beginning before you started rapping and producing records please tell the readers how and when you discovered hip hop music?

I really started to get into hip hop music from Africa Bambaataa and the soul Sonic force, back then hip hop was in the style of Electro and they were the ones that grabbed my attention to start even thinking of making music. At that time I was a young break dancer and DJ producer just being a big fan and follower of the movement. I was looking for a rapper to spit over my beats but there were very few Mc’s around so I picked up the mic and started creating rough demos at home. Continue reading →