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Most of you will know Rising Son as the winner of last year’s ‘Thief’s Theme’ remix competition, but with a new video for ‘Rising’s Theme’, it comes to be known that Rising is actually a bit of an underground veteran with a clear mind about the future. Sitting in Café Nero, he claims he’s tired, but as soon as he starts talking, it’s obvious his love for music and his career overpowers any lack of energy experienced. Growing up with his musician dad and old skool hip hop as inspirations, music was always an important part of Rising’s young life. He explains, “My dad’s big with the steel bands ’cos he’s from Trinidad. I’ve been playing in steel bands since I was six, seven, and I studied other instruments at school. I’ve been listening to hip hop since Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, The Juice Crew, LL Cool J, Run DMC…”
It’s some surprise then that despite his music-infested blood, Rising originally wanted to do the “acting thing”. He says that because his “mum couldn’t afford the fees for stage school”, he pursued music and, with a rap career on his mind, chose his stage name: Rising Son. He explains, “I literally just woke up early one morning, saw the sun rising and I was like, ‘That is beautiful.’ It just looked really beautiful, bringing light and happiness to the world and I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s what I wanna do with my music.’ The spelling with an O, that’s relevant because rising means rising above the rest, and son is a male child.” Rising Son started out in a group called The Kabianz, which he formed alongside his “very, very dear friend” Keita Michael Craig: “We were all mixed race so The Kabianz was a name which meant half Caucasian, half Nubian. Keita basically taught me how to rap, showed me about flow. Rather than just spittin’ lyrics, he told me about personality, energy.” Tragically, Keita passed away in 2000, but in remembrance of his mentor, Rising has the initials, KMC, tattooed on his back. His musical career to date has led Rising to a certain degree of underground success. Back in 1999, he was part of a crew called The P.G.M. He says, “We had an EP out called ‘The Truth is Right Here’ which featured solo cuts by three of the members of the crew; one by me, one by 10 Faces, one by Phantom. That made a lot of noise, sold a few records. In 2000, we put out a release called ‘The Key’ which featured me, Phantom, 10 Faces and Reveal and now, I’ve got Rising’s Theme.” If you look at the back cover of Nas’ ‘Streets Disciple’ album, you’ll see Rising Son’s name printed – the only UK MC able to make such a claim. It was last year that he beat 5,000 hopefuls to win Sony’s competition to feature on the ‘Thief’s Theme’ remix alongside God’s Son. Smiling, he says, “I was like Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout; I was jumping all around my house.” He adds, “I got the phone call at 9 o’clock. It was weird ’cos when I went to bed the night before I was looking at my picture of Keita and it was like he was trying to tell me something – it was really strange. At 9 o’clock the next morning I was already awake waiting for something, but I didn’t know what – it was really, really strange. There was something spiritual about the whole experience.” It’s ironic then that this phone call could have so easily never arrived – Rising Son almost didn’t enter the competition: “I originally wrote a whole different verse, but I scrapped it and I just thought, ‘forget it.’” He continues, “About a week later, I was like ‘Nah nah nah, gotta give it a try,’ so I wrote another verse. When I wrote that verse, I spat it back to myself and I was like ‘Yeah, that’s alright, you know!’” Working with arguably the greatest of all time has helped Rising gain some mainstream exposure, and in return he shows nothing but love for his rap idol. “I remember the day ‘Illmatic’ came out; I went and bought it just on the strength of ‘Halftime’ and ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’. They were the only two Nas tracks I’d heard. From that, I’ve been looking through his albums and to be working with him after being a fan of his since then was… I can’t describe it… it was phenomenal.” Rising’s keeping the doors open for a possible future collabo with Nas, but he also recently teamed up with the Queensbridge star to cameo on his British tour. He laughs, “I can remember sitting in my room watching Big Brother 2004, watching Stuart and Michelle snogging under the table, writing my verse… the next thing I know, I’m performing that in Brixton Academy next to Nas with 5,000 people shouting the words back to me. You can’t describe that feeling. It’s better than drugs, it’s better than sex.” He grins, “Alright, well I dunno about better than sex, but it’s definitely better than drugs! It’s the ultimate high.” However, on the last of the British dates in Brixton, the ultimate high was followed by somewhat of a downer when gunshots were fired into the air. Rising says, “I was backstage and I looked out and saw people running for the sides of the building, running for the exits.” He continues, “You know it was just someone who had no regard for the show. That’s selfish, it’s dumb and it makes us look bad. It’s no wonder that people don’t like us and give us bad reviews. It’s because of idiots like that, which doesn’t allow us to take the game forward. I’m really against that – whoever did that is a fool!” It’s come to the point in Rising’s career, especially with a five-month-old daughter to support, where he knows he has to start reaching a mass audience in order to get that paper: “I’m tryin to work on both angles of the music, I wanna do some underground stuff but I wanna do some commercial stuff as well. I wanna see some success, I wanna see some money!” Obviously, it’s not easy breaking the barriers between underground and mainstream and at the same time ‘keepin’ it real’, so to speak. People like SAS have been criticised for rapping in American accents, and while Rising says he won’t ever be heard rapping in an accent other than his own, he adds that he doesn’t support UK MCs rapping about what he describes as the “pub life”. “You won’t hear me doing anything pro-British. It’s all good representing where you’re from but it annoys me when I hear MCs concentrating too much energy on trying to sound too British. Like when their accent’s too raw, or they start talking about stupid things like cups of tea and flippin’ beans on toast and beer and football and all this crap. It’s like you expect them to have ‘Pub Life’ tattooed on their stomachs and sh*t. I can’t relate to that English lifestyle thing. I don’t eat fish and chips, I eat roti, rice, peas and curry. I do smoke blunts and I do drink Hennessey. But you’re not gonna hear me “Yankifying” my lyrics and all that sh*t.” Rising has some even harsher words for the UK hip hop scene, but he senses a positive outlook: “We still haven’t managed to get it together, but I’m glad now that the walls are starting to come down. A couple of years ago street rap wasn’t really being accepted – you either had to be talking this out of space sh*t or British, British, British and make sure you’re representing that you’re British. I was like, ‘I’m not bothered’, so people didn’t really open their arms to me, but I don’t give a f*ck cos as far as I’m concerned, most of the rappers out there were chattin’ sh*t and not representing properly, so I thought that wasn’t a scene I wanted to be a part of. I was just doing my own thing really, trying new avenues, trying to work the commercial angle. That wasn’t really the thing then either, but now we’ve got this ‘urban scene’, people are starting to be a bit more interested ’cos urban music sells now.” Things are starting to come together for Rising Son; the video for his powerful underground hit ‘Rising’s Theme’ made a good impact on music channels across the UK. He says he’s had some interest from some independent labels: “At the moment, High Society – I’m talking to them about doing an album and a single and video.” Talking future collabos, Rising says, “I’d like to collaborate with some grime artists, like Kano, Ghetto. I’d like to collaborate with Klashnekoff, Genesis Elijah, Sway, Cakes… Cakes is someone I met the other day, you need to look out for Cakes – and Nas!” In five years time, he beams and says he’d like to be lying on an island, watching his daughter build sandcastles. On a musical level, he adds that he wants to be known and respected for what he does. As the interview comes to a close, we set about convincing Rising to strip in the middle of the café to show us his tattoos (and his toned torso – ladies, he’s HOT!). He invited us to watch him later at Deal Real and I must say that if his charismatic performance is anything to go by, Keita definitely did a good job in teaching this boy about energy. It’s not just Rising’s rhymes or knowledge of hip hop that’s appealing, but also his humour, confidence and authenticity – watch out for him, because this Esco-approved boy’s got the talent and mentality to go far.
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