MistaJam.com’s Sam Moir spent an afternoon in Birmingham with up and coming artist Slick Don. The 1Xtra supported artist spoke about his musical influences, support from the UK scene and what he makes of artists such as Chipmunk, Dizzee Rascal and Skepta crossing over into the mainstream.

How did you get into making music?

I got into making music through someone I classed as a friend at the time, I’ve always had a passion for music deep down but one day my friend said he was going to a local studio to record a track and asked me if I wanted to ‘Jump on the track’.

I just went with my natural instinct as I’m the type of person who likes to try new stuff out and experience new things and I think it’s safe to say it was one of the best decisions I’ve made as music is all I want to do, as a profession, career, hobby and so on.

At school I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do or be, I think I said I wanted to be a doctor once but that was because I just didn’t know what I actually wanted to be so I think I just said that to shut my teacher up.

But seriously experiencing things in life and going places make you realise you can be whatever you want to be and now things are going quite well for me so my mentality is to just keep it going and do the one thing I love doing.

Who influenced you?

I get influences from a various amount of artists from all over the world, genre wise I get influenced from grime, bassline to rock music, I could never stick my influences into one box and I like the fact that I can get influenced from everywhere and everything and then incorporate it into my music, that’s important to me.

When did you first try your hand at making your own tracks?

I made my first track when I was 14 which was unplanned and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but like I said earlier I’m the type of person who likes trying different and new things.
I’m glad that I did go to studio that day because ever since then I knew being a part of the music industry was for me and I haven’t looked back since.

What’s the best piece of musical advice you’ve ever had?

You will always get haters doing music, not everyone is going to like you but just keep going because if you really love and enjoy what you’re doing then nothing and nobody can stop you.

You’ve been heavily supported by the grime forums, radio and UK producers such as Toddla T, what do you make of the support?

I’m grateful more than anything because I just appreciate all the support and love I’m getting off fellow artists in the UK and the exact same goes for Toddla.

He’s down to earth and ever since we met he’s shown me a lot of love and the fact that he’s feeling what I’m doing means a lot because I’ve been feeling his stuff for some time now.

We have a mutual respect for each other so when we get together in the studio the linkup is a madness, we have a few bits out at the moment one being his Gucci Mane remix with me featuring and we have much more music to come.

What do you make of crossover artists’ success such as Skepta, Chipmunk and Dizzee Rascal?

As a musician you can only respect them because all of them have kicked down doors not only for themselves but for other artists as well and that is a huge thing in order for the UK Scene to grow and expand which is why we are in a good place at the moment.

You can see what all three have done, Dizzee has won countless awards and been the first artist from the underground to do it which I think is a lot of the reason why Tinie is getting the success he is at the moment.

Chipmunk has achieved a lot and even though he’s from London has showed that you can succeed being young and from the underground and as for Skepta he is doing his own thing and trying to show people that you don’t have to do typical commercial music to make the charts.

You can make it grimey and get chart success and we can all see his still in the process of that but at the end of the day, he has done it and took a risk trying to do it at the same time so yeah man, respect to them cause they’re pushing UK music to the fullest which is just what we need.

Do you think they have sacrificed their music?

Chipmunk & Dizzee have sacrificed their music because they took the commercial route but I don’t really think Skepta has sacrificed his music because from what I can see, he is trying to break that barrier of slowly easing the grime music he loves into the charts, you never know

Chipmunk & Dizzee probably feel their commercial music as much as they did their grime so they might not see it as they sacrificed their music but I’m just assuming as they started out their career doing grime music and the music you start out doing is usually where your hearts at.

Do I have similar ambitions? Yes, I would love to get in the charts with the music I love doing and couldn’t ask for more than that as a musician.

What do you have to offer that’s different in the scene?

Every artist will say they’re different to everyone else but actions speak louder than words and I don’t MC like any other artist I am aware of and I also have a unique voice which is obviously not out of choice but it’s little things like that which make a big difference.

What’s next for you?

I’m just about to drop my very first single which is entitled What’s My Name excited about that as it’s my first single. I shot the video the other day and just seen the first edit recently and I was gassed when I watched it.

I’ve got my debut mix CD out in May and on top of that I’m still doing the odd couple of tracks on the side so I’m just excited for what the future holds right now.

By Sam Moir | Sam on Twitter